破英语 PoEnglish

US Stock Indexes Soar After Reports on Treasury Secretary Pick

2008-11-22T13:07:00.001+08:00

US Stock Indexes Soar After Reports on Treasury Secretary Pick
By Barry Wood Washington 21 November 2008

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U.S. share prices, which had been down most of the day, turned around in the final hour of trading Friday and soared nearly 500 points. VOA's Barry Wood reports the stock market averages were still down on the week.

New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner (file photo)

The market made an extraordinary reversal Friday afternoon after a news report said that President-elect Barack Obama would choose New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner to be his Treasury secretary. Geithner has been a favorite of Wall Street as he has been directly involved with the financial crisis since its beginning 17 months ago. The appointment has not yet been officially announced.

The Dow Jones Industrials gained 494 points, or six percent, to 8,046. The Standard and Poors 500 was up 47 points or six percent to 800. For the week the Dow average was down over five percent while the S&P was down over eight percent.

Citigroup, formerly the largest US commercial bank, again lost ground, closing below $4 a share as investors worried about the company's future. Earlier this week Citigroup said it would eliminate over 50,000 jobs. Its stock price lost 61 percent on the week to a 15-year low and has lost 87 percent of its value this year. Citigroup was heavily exposed to securitized debt obligations and involved in sub-prime mortgage loans.

John Williams a credit card analyst at Macquarie Capital in New York says there is likely to be more distress for banks as consumers fall behind on their credit card payments. He says that three key data sets suggest trouble ahead. "Delinquencies show you what people are doing right now. It's a good indicator of what is going to happen in the future. Charge offs tell you what people are doing right now in terms of whether they are paying their bills. And then monthly payments obviously are how much people are paying towards their bills. We're seeing deterioration across the board in those metrics, particularly in payment rates," he said.

Williams told Bloomberg Television that credit card payment rates are currently near a five-year low in the United States.

The dollar closed mixed in New York while gold gained $43 to $791 an ounce.

VOASE1209_This Is America

2007-12-10T16:28:00.000+08:00

09 December 2007

A Quilt Exhibit Pieces Together a Story About American History
The exhibit "Going West! Quilts and Community" shows the creative expression and skill of generations of women.

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VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we visit a quilting exhibit at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Quilts are colorful bed coverings made by sewing together pieces of cloth into different designs. These finely crafted works of art celebrate the creativity and skill of generations of women.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Renwick exhibit is called "Going West! Quilts and Community." It includes fifty quilts made from around the eighteen thirties to the nineteen thirties in the area of what is today the Midwestern state of Nebraska.

Robyn Kennedy is the chief of the Renwick Gallery. She says the guest curator of the exhibit, Sandi Fox, wanted to look at the quilts that settlers in a certain area of the United States brought with them, then later made. Sandi Fox looked at more than two thousand quilts before she chose the ones to show.

VOICE TWO:

Starting in the eighteen forties, three major paths leading to the western territories of the United States ran alongside each other. The Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail and California Trail came together along the Great Platte River. This area by eighteen fifty-four was called the Nebraska Territory.

Settlers in their wagons pulled by horses followed these trails to find land and create a new life for themselves. Some settlers continued on to areas further west. But others decided to settle in Nebraska. The Renwick exhibit explores quilts made by settlers and later generations of quilters in this part of America known for its severe winters.

VOICE ONE:

A few of the quilts in the "Going West!" exhibit were treasures that families brought with them from Europe as reminders of the life they left behind. For example, one family from Sweden who settled in Nebraska in the eighteen sixties brought with them a whole cloth quilt made from red silk.

The quilt is remarkable for its richly detailed stitching. Looking at this quilt, you can imagine how the family enjoyed its warmth and beauty while building a new life in America.

Robyn Kennedy explains how some quilts in the exhibit tell a story about the groups of people who settled in Nebraska.

ROBYN KENNEDY: "Well, it really gives you an idea of the sense of community that these people had. Many of these were done as fund raisers for a variety of different projects. And sometimes they were auctioned several times. People would pay twenty-five cents to have their name on it, but then once the completed quilt was done, then that would be auctioned off."

VOICE TWO:

''The Omaha Commerce Quilt''
made in 1895. On loan from the Durham Western Heritage Museum.

For example, one red and white piece called the "Omaha Commerce Quilt" was made in eighteen ninety-five by a women’s aid group at a Lutheran church. Local businesses bought advertising space on the quilt. Different women in the church group stitched each cloth advertisement.

The quilt was probably set out to create publicity for the businesses that gave money to the women’s cause. It might also have been sold to raise more money.

Robyn Kennedy points to a quilt that shows a community coming together for another reason.

ROBYN KENNEDY: "This is an anniversary quilt for this couple, for their fiftieth anniversary, nineteen-oh-seven. But they first got married in eighteen fifty-seven. So this is their community celebrating."

VOICE ONE:

This shiny blue quilt with yellow stitching also represents a change in the technology of quilt making. One area of the quilt was clearly sewn by hand by different friends and family members of the married couple being honored.

But the words sewn into the center of the cloth proudly announce that they were stitched with a sewing machine made by the New Home company.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Other quilts tell a story about an individual’s life. Edith Withers Myers made a quilt called "You Are the Darling of the Earth" in about eighteen ninety-eight. This crazy quilt is like a written journal of this young woman’s social life.

Crazy quilts are a popular form of quilt design. There is no set pattern. A quilter can use her imagination to piece together cloth in whatever form or shape she wishes.

Edith Meyers stitched onto her quilt words describing parties and dances she attended. She stitched in the names of her friends as well as popular slang words at the time, including "toots" and "buzz."

VOICE ONE:

“The Milliner’s Quilt” by Azuba Read. On loan from the Nebraska Prairie Museum of the Phelps County Historical Society.

For a quilt made in about nineteen ten, a woman named Azuba Read recreated the objects found in a hat maker’s store. She was a professional hat maker herself. She covered her spirited crazy quilt with flowers and feathers like the ones she might have placed on the hats she made for women.

VOICE TWO:

By definition, a quilt is made from two layers of fabric with a soft material such as wool or cotton batting in between. The two sides of fabric are sewn together to keep the filling from moving around inside the quilt.

The stitches can be made in such a way as to form detailed patterns or designs on the quilt. A quilt made from a solid piece of fabric on top is called a whole cloth quilt.

Patchwork quilts are made from many pieces of different colored fabrics that have been sewn together, or "pieced," in a design. Often the small pieces of fabric that make up the quilt come from old pieces of clothing.

A quilter can also sew different pieces of fabric onto the top of the quilt to form designs. This method is called appliqué.

VOICE ONE:

Quilting in general is not American. Through history, cultures around the world have created quilted coverings and clothing. But quilting in the United States developed qualities that are now very much American, such as patchwork.

Quilts were more than warm protection against cold winters. Quilt making provided women with an important form of creative expression and invention. Quilting is also a social activity. Quilters come together at quilting bees to work on coverings together and to enjoy socializing.

VOICE TWO:

There are many traditional American designs that appear on quilts. These include the double wedding ring, bear’s paw and honeycomb patterns.

Some patterns like the wagon wheel, log cabin and lone star represent the experiences of settlers on the American frontier.

VOICE ONE:

Quilt exhibits are very popular in the United States. The Smithsonian has had several quilt exhibits over the years. People enjoy the expressive colors and inventiveness of the art. And quilt exhibits are especially popular among the large and active quilting communities around the country.

Every Tuesday and Friday, for the exhibit, several members of the Annapolis Quilting Guild set up their materials in the Renwick Gallery. The quilters are there to answer the questions of museum visitors and to show them how quilts are made.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

''The Civil War Quilt'' on loan from the Gage County Historical Society Museum

One quilt in the exhibit tells a story about a life other than that of the person who made it. In fact, historians do not know who made "The Civil War Quilt." In eighteen sixty-one, a young soldier in the American Civil War was ordered to visit nearby farms and ask for warm blankets for the troops.

One family gave Joseph Miller this extraordinarily detailed appliqué quilt covered in red flowers and leaves. He kept the quilt throughout the war. It became black with dirt, but somehow remained in one piece. After the war, he cleaned the quilt and kept it with him for the rest of his life.

VOICE ONE:

Looking at the beautiful condition of the quilts at the Renwick Gallery, you might find it hard to believe many are well over a hundred years old.

Robyn Kennedy explains that to help preserve the quilts, the Renwick shows them in rooms that have low lighting. The quilts are hung from the walls in such a way as to permit air to move behind them. Also, museum workers always wear white gloves when touching the quilts. The oils or dirt on a person’s hands could harm the cloth.

Miz Kennedy says the museum sometimes has a problem with visitors who want to touch the quilts to look at how they were made. So the Smithsonian offers public "white glove" events where visitors can look up close at the methods used for each quilt.

When the quilts travel, they are gently folded, wrapped in acid-free paper and placed in acid-free boxes.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

''The Holen Boys Ties Quilt'' by Ellen Holen. On loan from the Nebraska Prairie Museum of the Phelps County Historical Society.

Some quilts in the show are made from more unusual materials. For example, one is made out of the cloth from men’s suits. Another quilt, from nineteen thirty-five, is made from men's neckties. "The Holen Boys Ties Quilt" is made from almost one hundred silk ties.

They form a striking pattern and radiate outwards like the rays of the sun. Robyn Kennedy says that ninety-three relatives of the Holen family plan to visit their ancestral quilt at the Renwick.

VOICE ONE:

The Holen quilt helps show that generations later, the personal stories and experiences captured by these skillful works of art are still powerful. The quilts remain as expressive and lovely today as they were when they first were stitched.

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Steve Ember. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. We also have pictures of some of the quilts in the exhibit. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

VOASE1209_Development Report

2007-12-10T16:27:00.001+08:00

09 December 2007

More People Hear Call of Mobile Activism
MobileActive.org seeks to share knowledge of people using mobile phones to effect change.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Pro-democracy activists in 2006 listen to parliament proceedings on a mobile phone in Katmandu, Nepal

Activists fight for different things. But one thing many activists around the world hold in common is their use of mobile phones as a tool for their work.

In South Africa, for example, AIDS activists are using text messages to direct people to the nearest H.I.V. testing station.

In Argentina, activists used their phones to get city officials in Buenos Aires to support a waste reduction campaign.

Politicians are often a target of mobile activism.

(SOUND)

This is a ringtone popular among Filipinos in the last two years. It came, supposedly, from a phone call between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and an election official. Opponents said the call showed that she cheated in the two thousand four elections. The Philippine government said the call was recorded illegally and then falsified.

These and other examples of mobile activism can be found at MobileActive.org. MobileActive describes itself as a community of people who are using mobile technology in their work to make the world a better place. So far, two thousand people have become members of the site.

MobileActive.org offers free information about mobile-related tools and services. It also has resource guides on how to sign up voters, organize campaigns or raise money using mobile technology.

Nokia, the mobile phone company, gave the group money to create its resource guides. Other partners have helped build its Web site and organize small training events. MobileActive hopes to hold its next meeting in July in Johannesburg.

Katrin Verclas helped start MobileActive in two thousand five. She lives in New York but we reached her on her mobile phone in Amman. She was in Jordan for a meeting of nongovernmental organizations and civil society groups. They were discussing uses for mobile technology in observing elections.

She noted that in many countries, mobile phones are the least costly way to communicate, and far more common than the Internet.

More than three billion people worldwide use mobile phones. And Katrin Verclas says people keep finding new uses for the technology. The goal of MobileActive, she says, is to collect their stories and experiences and then spread that knowledge.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1208_People In America

2007-12-10T16:27:00.000+08:00

08 December 2007

Barbara Cooney, 1917-2000: She Created Many Popular Children's Books

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Barbara Cooney

Now, the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the life of Barbara Cooney, the creator of many popular children’s books. She died in March two thousand.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

For sixty years Barbara Cooney created children’s books. She wrote some. And she provided pictures for her own books and for books written by others. Her name appears on one hundred ten books in all.

The last book was published six months before her death. It is called "Basket Moon." It was written by Mary Lyn Ray. It tells the story of a boy who lived a century ago with his family in the mountains in New York state. His family makes baskets that are sold in town. One magazine describes Barbara Cooney's paintings in "Basket Moon" as quiet and beautiful. It says they tie together "the basket maker’s natural world and the work of his craft."

VOICE TWO:

Barbara Cooney was known for her carefully detailed work. One example is in her artwork for the book "Eleanor." It is about Eleanor Roosevelt, who became the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. Miz Cooney made sure that a dress worn by Eleanor as a baby was historically correct down to the smallest details.

Another example of her detailed work is in her retelling of "Chanticleer and the Fox." She took the story from the "Canterbury Tales" by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Barbara Cooney once said that every flower and grass in her pictures grew in Chaucer's time in fourteenth-century England.

VOICE ONE:

Barbara Cooney wondered at times if her concern about details was worth the effort. "How many children will know or care?" she said. "Maybe not a single one. Still I keep piling it on. Detail after detail. Whom am I pleasing -- besides myself? I don't know. Yet if I put enough in my pictures, there may be something for everyone. Not all will be understood, but some will be understood now and maybe more later."

Miz Cooney gave that speech as she accepted the nineteen fifty-nine Caldecott Medal for "Chanticleer and the Fox." The American Library Association gives the award each year to the artist of a picture book for children. She received a second Caldecott Medal for her folk-art paintings in the book, "Ox-Cart Man."

VOICE TWO:

Barbara Cooney’s first books appeared in the nineteen forties. At first she created pictures using a method called scratchboard.

The scratchboard is made by placing white clay on a hard surface. Thick black ink is spread over the clay. The artist uses a sharp knife or other tool to make thousands of small cuts in the top. With each cut of the black ink, the white clay shows through. To finish the piece the artist may add different colors.

Scratchboard is hard work, but this process can create fine detail. Later, Barbara Cooney began to use pen and ink, watercolor, oil paints, and other materials.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Barbara Cooney was born in New York City in nineteen seventeen. Her mother was an artist and her father sold stocks on the stock market. Barbara graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts in nineteen thirty-eight with a major in art history.

During World War Two Barbara Cooney joined the Women's Army Corps. She also got married, but her first marriage did not last long. Then she married a doctor, Charles Talbot Porter. They were married until her death. She had four children.

VOICE TWO:

Barbara Cooney said that three of her books were as close to a story of her life as she would ever write. One is "Miss Rumphius," published in nineteen eighty-two. We will tell more about "Miss Rumphius" soon.

The second book is called "Island Boy." The boy is named Matthias. He is the youngest of twelve children in a family on Tibbetts Island, Maine. Matthias grows up to sail around the world. But throughout his life he always returns to the island of his childhood. Barbara Cooney also traveled around the world, but in her later years always returned to live on the coast of Maine.

VOICE ONE:

The third book about Barbara Cooney’s life is called "Hattie and the Wild Waves." It is based on the childhood of her mother. The girl Hattie lives in a wealthy family in New York. One day she tells her family that she wants to be a painter when she grows up. The other children make fun of the idea of a girl wanting to paint houses.

But, as the book explains, “Hattie was not thinking about houses. She was thinking about the moon in the sky and the wind in the trees and the wild waves of the ocean."

Hattie tries different jobs as she grows up. At last, she follows her dream and decides to "paint her heart out."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Of all of Barbara Cooney's books, the one that seems to affect people the most is "Miss Rumphius." It won the American Book Award. It was first published in nineteen eighty-two by Viking-Penguin. "Miss Rumphius" is Alice Rumphius. A young storyteller in the book tells the story which begins with Alice as a young girl:

VOICE THREE:

"In the evening Alice sat on her grandfather's knee and listened to his stories of faraway places. When he had finished, Alice would say, 'When I grow up, I too will go to faraway places, and when I grow old, I too will live beside the sea.’

‘That is all very well, little Alice,' said her grandfather, 'but there is a third thing you must do.'

'What is that?' asked Alice.

‘You must do something to make the world more beautiful,' said her grandfather.

'All right,' said Alice. But she did not know what that could be.

In the meantime Alice got up and washed her face and ate porridge for breakfast. She went to school and came home and did her homework.

And pretty soon she was grown up."

VOICE ONE:

Alice traveled the world. She climbed tall mountains where the snow never melted. She went through jungles and across deserts. One day, however, she hurt her back getting off a camel.

VOICE THREE:

“'What a foolish thing to do,' said Miss Rumphius. 'Well, I have certainly seen faraway places. Maybe it is time to find my place by the sea.' And it was, and she did.

Miss Rumphius was almost perfectly happy. 'But there is still one more thing I have to do,' she said. 'I have to do something to make the world more beautiful.'

But what? 'The world is already pretty nice,' she thought, looking out over the ocean."

VOICE TWO:

The next spring Miss Rumphius' back was hurting again. She had to stay in bed most of the time. Through her bedroom window she could see the tall blue and purple and rose-colored lupine flowers she had planted the summer before.

VOICE THREE:

"'Lupines,' said Miss Rumphius with satisfaction. 'I have always loved lupines the best. I wish I could plant more seeds this summer so that I could have still more flowers next year.'

But she was not able to."

VOICE ONE:

A hard winter came, then spring. Miss Rumphius was feeling better. She could take walks again. One day she came to a hill where she had not been in a long time. "'I don't believe my eyes,' she cried when she got to the top. For there on the other side of the hill was a large patch of blue and purple and rose-colored lupines!”

VOICE THREE:

"'It was the wind,' she said as she knelt in delight. ‘It was the wind that brought the seeds from my garden here! And the birds must have helped.' Then Miss Rumphius had a wonderful idea!"

VOICE TWO:

That idea was to buy lupine seed -- lots of it. All summer, wherever she went, Miss Rumphius would drop handfuls of seeds: over fields, along roads, around the schoolhouse, behind the church. Her back did not hurt her any more. But now some people called her "That Crazy Old Lady."

The next spring there were lupines everywhere. Miss Rumphius had done the most difficult thing of all. The young storyteller in the book continues:

VOICE THREE:

"My Great-aunt Alice, Miss Rumphius, is very old now. Her hair is very white. Every year there are more and more lupines. Now they call her the Lupine Lady. ...

"'When I grow up,' I tell her, 'I too will go to faraway places and come home to live by the sea.'

'That is all very well, little Alice,' says my aunt, 'but there is a third thing you must do.'

'What is that?' I ask.

"'You must do something to make the world more beautiful.'"

VOICE ONE:

Many readers, young and old, would agree that Barbara Cooney did just that.

VOICE TWO:

Many of Barbara Cooney's later books took place in the small northeastern state of Maine. She spent summers there when she was a child, then moved to Maine in her later years.

She loved Maine. She gave her local library almost a million dollars. The state showed its love for her. In nineteen ninety-six, the governor of Maine declared Barbara Cooney a "State Treasure."

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER:

This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Adrienne Arditti was the storyteller. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

VOASE1207_In the News

2007-12-10T16:26:00.000+08:00

07 December 2007

US Intelligence Report Enters Into Debate on Iran Nuclear Issue
American intelligence agencies say Iran halted a weapons program in 2003. But President Bush and some other leaders say Iran is still a danger.

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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Sixteen government agencies form what is known as the intelligence community in the United States. From time to time, this community puts together reports called National Intelligence Estimates that deal with foreign activities and threats. Parts are sometimes made public.

Iran says its nuclear program is only for producing energy. A reactor building is shown at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant in 2005.

This week, officials released major judgments from a new report on Iran's nuclear activities. It says Iran operated a secret program to develop nuclear weapons but halted that program in late two thousand three.

The report suggests that Iran did so mainly because of international pressure. It says Iran may be more open to influence than was thought. But Iran continues to enrich uranium for civilian use, the report says, and this could be used to produce weapons if desired.

The report says Iran might have enough nuclear material to build a bomb in the next three to eight years, at the earliest. But it says Iran now appears less determined to produce nuclear weapons than was believed.

The findings came as a surprise. A National Intelligence Estimate two years ago said Iran was working hard to develop nuclear weapons.

President Bush said the report released Monday was the result of better intelligence. But he said nothing has changed. He said Iran is still a danger. And he urged governments to continue to pressure Iran about its nuclear activities. That the program was halted, he says, is not as important as the finding that it once existed and could be restarted.

The report comes as the Bush administration has been trying to win support for new international restrictions against Iran. In recent weeks, the president has warned that the world cannot risk a nuclear-armed Iran, saying it could lead to World War Three.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the new American intelligence report a declaration of victory. He says it shows that Iran's nuclear program is for energy, not weapons.

In Israel, Defense Minister Ehud Barak rejected the intelligence report. He said he believes it is incomplete and that Iran has restarted its nuclear weapons program. He offered no evidence, though.

On Thursday, NATO foreign ministers expressed support for a proposed third set of sanctions in the United Nations Security Council. And, in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Iran is still a danger. Britain also says it remains concerned about Iran's nuclear program.

But Russia and China have resisted further sanctions. Russian and Chinese officials say the new report will have to be considered in those discussions. Both countries, as permanent members of the Security Council, could veto any additional sanctions.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and MP3s of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1206_Economics Report

2007-12-10T16:25:00.001+08:00

06 December 2007

Sovereign Wealth Funds: When Governments Become Players
Government-owned investment funds are estimated to control over $2 trillion in assets. Most funds are tied to oil money.

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Last month, America's biggest bank, Citigroup, agreed to sell five percent of its shares to the government of Abu Dhabi. The deal, worth seven and a half billion dollars, was another example of growing investments by sovereign wealth funds.

These are owned by governments. They are separate from the holdings of central banks. Sovereign wealth funds are estimated to hold more than two trillion dollars.

Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates

The largest is the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, established in nineteen seventy-six. The emirate does not say how much its fund is worth. Estimates are between five hundred billion and nine hundred billion dollars.

Most sovereign wealth funds are tied to money from oil exports. Oil prices reached a record high near one hundred dollars a barrel in November. Oil is traded in dollars. And dollars have been flowing into Gulf economies like Abu Dhabi.

But there is a limit to how much money can be pumped into an economy without causing inflation to jump.

Brad Setser is a fellow for geoeconomics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He notes that one problem facing these oil exporters is that their currency values are linked to the dollar, and the dollar has fallen.

Oil exporters can use sovereign wealth funds to build up reserves of money to protect against a drop in oil prices. But a severe drop seems unlikely. So instead they are making foreign investments that they hope will pay good returns.

Sovereign funds are known for highly conservative investments. But now some appear willing to take more risk.

Not all funds involve oil money. A good example is the China Investment Corporation. This newly formed company is financed by selling government bonds and buying foreign exchange from the Chinese central bank.

Much of the money in the China Investment Corporation is meant to provide capital for state-owned Chinese banks. The fund will also support the international expansion of state-owned Chinese companies. The fund is expected to reach a value of about two hundred billion dollars.

Back to Abu Dhabi: Ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries met there on Wednesday. They decided to leave OPEC production unchanged for now, but agreed to meet again February first. They also welcomed their thirteenth member, Ecuador, which rejoined OPEC in November.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1206_American Mosaic

2007-12-10T16:25:00.000+08:00

06 December 2007

A Museum in Pittsburgh Gives Its Dinosaurs a Timely Makeover
Also: A listener in Cambodia asks about the space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union. And music from a new album by Judy Kuhn, singing songs of Laura Nyro.

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HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We listen to some music from Judy Kuhn …

Answer a question about the Space Race …

And tell about a new display of dinosaur bones.

Dinosaurs In Their Time

HOST:

A family at the Cretaceous Seaway part of the exhibit

Dinosaurs are not what they used to be, at least not at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Katharine Cole tells us about big changes in the museum's Dinosaur Hall.

KATHARINE COLE:

The Carnegie Museum has one of the largest collections of dinosaur bones in the world. The only problem is that the way they were presented all these years was wrong.

Visitors might have come away with the idea that all dinosaurs were huge, slow moving creatures. But newer discoveries show that dinosaurs were generally smaller and faster than scientists once thought.

So directors of the Carnegie Museum decided to rebuild the ten dinosaurs in their collection. And they added new ones.

Andrew Carnegie, the wealthy businessman, built the Dinosaur Hall a century ago. He paid for a scientific trip that discovered a new kind of dinosaur. Those bones are still in the collection. But it was time to give the hall a makeover. Now, after more than two years and thirty-six million dollars, most of the work is finished.

The museum opened its new exhibit to the public on November twenty-first. The collection is now called "Dinosaurs in Their Time."

Museum officials say the aim is to show the great diversity of life that existed during the Mesozoic period. The dinosaurs are placed among examples of the hundreds of plants and animals that shared their environments.

Officials say they wanted to show the way groups of dinosaurs really lived. The rooms in the exhibit hold plants and animals that existed more than one hundred fifty million years ago. And they show how some creatures evolved into animals that exist today.

The new exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh is three times the size of the old one. It will hold nineteen dinosaurs once the second part opens in the spring.

The Space Race

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Cambodia. Rey Sopheak asks about the history of the space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union.

It began fifty years ago. In October of nineteen fifty-seven, the Soviets launched the first manmade satellite into orbit around Earth. It was called Sputnik One. Weeks later Sputnik Two was launched.

Their success was a victory for the Communists. It added to the tensions of what was known as the Cold War, which many people worried could lead to nuclear war. And it pushed Americans to teach more science and math in school -- and to work harder to reach outer space.

Three months later, the United States launched its own satellite. Then, in nineteen sixty-one, the Soviet Union sent the first person into space, Yuri Gagarin. American Alan Shepard followed less than a month later.

Neil Armstrong took this picture of Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 mission to the moon

The race continued. The finish line was the moon. And it was reached when the crew of Apollo Eleven landed in nineteen sixty-nine. Americans returned to the moon five more times. No one has been back since nineteen seventy-two. NASA, the American space agency, hopes to send astronauts to the moon again by two thousand nineteen. That will be the fiftieth anniversary of the first landing.

Today, there is cooperation between the Russian and American space programs. Astronauts and cosmonauts share duties on the International Space Station. And other countries are expanding their space programs.

In two thousand three, China became the third country ever to send a person into space using its own rocket. Then, in two thousand five, it sent a crew of two on a five-day flight. Another manned trip is planned next year. And China launched a moon orbiter in October.

Other active countries include Japan, India and South Korea. Some experts say that space exploration today should not be compared to the Cold War space race fifty years ago. Just this week, a Chinese official said his country's moon orbiter has no military purposes and that China supports the peaceful use of space.

Judy Kuhn Sings Laura Nyro

HOST:

Laura Nyro was one of the most influential singers and songwriters of the nineteen sixties and seventies. Judy Kuhn is a Broadway singer who has performed on concert stages around the world. Their talents combine on a new album. Shirley Griffith plays some of the music.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

Judy Kuhn has been nominated for several awards for singing in musicals on Broadway in New York. She has also performed in musicals in other cities, in concert, on television and in movies. Her new album is called "Serious Playground: The Songs of Laura Nyro."

Judy Kuhn says Laura Nyro's songs live in a world where loneliness and loss exist side by side with joy in the pleasures of life. Here she sings "Sweet Blindness."

(MUSIC)

Laura Nyro was born in New York in nineteen forty-seven. She began writing songs as a teenager. Her songs combined the music of gospel, pop, soul, folk, rock and jazz.

When she was nineteen, she released the first of four albums of personal and emotional songs. Judy Kuhn says this opened the door for female songwriters who at that time were not recording their own songs.

Several of Laura Nyro's songs became huge hits when they were recorded by other performers. These include Barbra Streisand, the Fifth Dimension, Blood, Sweat and Tears and Three Dog Night. Here Judy Kuhn sings "Stoney End."

(MUSIC)

Laura Nyro died of ovarian cancer in nineteen ninety-seven at the age of forty-nine. Her music influenced many female singer-songwriters working today. Judy Kuhn recorded "Serious Playground" to honor the composer of these beautiful, sad and joyful songs. We leave you with "Save the Country."

(MUSIC)

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

Our writers were Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Transcripts and MP3 files of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com.

Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. And please include your full name and where you are from. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

VOASE1205_The Making of a Nation

2007-12-10T16:24:00.000+08:00

05 December 2007

American History Series: Britain Says No to 'No Taxation Without Representation'
The Stamp Act said the colonists had to buy a British stamp for every piece of printed paper they used. They refused. Parliament finally cancelled the law -- but passed an act saying Britain could pass any law it wanted.

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VOICE ONE:

This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, A VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

(MUSIC)

Today, we tell about relations between the American colonies and Britain after the French and Indian War about two hundred fifty years ago.

VOICE ONE:

The French and Indian War was one part of a world conflict between Britain and France. It was fought to decide which of the two powerful nations would rule North America.

Detail from ''The Death of General Wolfe,'' a 1770 painting by Benjamin West. James Wolfe was a British general killed during the 1759 battle in which his troops won a victory over the French at Quebec, Canada.

The British defeated the French in North America in seventeen sixty-three. As a result, it took control of lands that had been claimed by France. Britain now was responsible for almost two million people in the thirteen American colonies and sixty thousand French-speaking people in Canada. In addition to political and economic responsibilities, Britain had to protect all these colonists from different groups of Indians.

This would cost a lot of money. Britain already had spent a lot of money sending troops and material to the colonies to fight the French and Indian War. It believed the American colonists should now help pay for that war.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The colonists in America in seventeen sixty-three were very different from those who had settled there more than one hundred years before. They had different ideas. They had come to consider their colonial legislatures as smaller -- but similar -- to the Parliament in Britain. These little parliaments had helped them rule themselves for more than one hundred years. The colonists began to feel that their legislatures should also have the powers that the British Parliament had.

VOICE ONE:

The situation had changed in England too. In seventeen-oh-seven, the nation became officially known as Great Britain. Its king no longer controlled Parliament as he had in the early sixteen hundreds. Then, the king decided all major questions, especially those concerning the colonies.

But power had moved from the king to the Parliament. It was the legislature that decided major questions by the time of the French and Indian War, especially the power to tax. The parliaments in the colonies began to believe that they should have this power of taxation, too.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The first English settlers in America considered themselves citizens of England. They had crossed a dangerous ocean to create a little England in a new place, to trade with the mother country and to spread their religion. By seventeen sixty-three, however, the colonists thought of themselves as Americans.

Many of their families had been in North America for fifty to one hundred years. They had cleared the land, built homes, fought Indians and made lives for themselves far away from Britain. They had different everyday concerns than the people in Britain. Their way of life was different, too. They did not want anyone else to tell them how to govern themselves.

VOICE ONE:

The British, however, still believed that the purpose of a colony was to serve the mother country. The government treated colonists differently from citizens at home. It demanded special taxes from them. It also ordered them to feed British troops and let them live in their houses. Britain claimed that the soldiers were in the colonies to protect the people. The people asked, "From whom?"

As long as the French were nearby in Canada, the colonists needed the protection of the British army and navy. After the French were gone -- following their defeat in the French and Indian War -- the colonists felt they no longer needed British military protection.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The British government demanded that the colonists pay higher and higher taxes. One reason was that the British government wanted to show the colonists that it was in control. Another reason was that Britain was having money problems. Foreign wars had left it with big debts. The British thought the colonists should help pay some of these debts, especially those resulting from the French and Indian War.

The American colonists might have agreed, but they wanted to have a say in the decision. They wanted the right to vote about their own taxes, like the people living in Britain. But no colonists were permitted to serve in the British Parliament. So they protested that they were being taxed without being represented.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In seventeen sixty-four, the British Parliament approved the Sugar Act. This legislation placed taxes on sugar, coffee, wines and other products imported to America in large amounts. It increased by two times the taxes on European products sent to the colonies through Britain. The British government also approved new measures aimed at enforcing all trade laws. And it decided to restrict the printing of paper money in the colonies.

The American colonists opposed all these new laws. Yet they could not agree about how to resist. Colonial assemblies approved protests against the laws, but the protest actions were all different and had no real effect. Business groups tried to organize boycotts of goods. But these were not very successful...until the British government approved another tax in seventeen sixty-five: a tax on stamps.

VOICE TWO:

Detail from a proof sheet of one-penny stamps. Under the Stamp Act, these were to be used on newspapers, pamphlets and all other papers larger than half a page.

The Stamp Act probably angered more American colonists than any earlier tax. It said the colonists had to buy a British stamp for every piece of printed paper they used. That meant they would be taxed for every piece of a newspaper, every document, even every playing card.

The colonists refused to pay. Colonial assemblies approved resolutions suggesting that the British Parliament had no right to tax the colonies at all. Some colonists were so angry that they attacked British stamp agents.

History experts say the main reason the colonists were angry was because Britain had rejected the idea of "no taxation without representation." Almost no colonist wanted to be independent of Britain at that time. Yet all of them valued their local self-rule and their rights as British citizens. They considered the Stamp Act to be the worst in a series of violations of these rights.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The American colonists refused to obey the Stamp Act. They also refused to buy British goods. Almost one thousand storeowners signed non-importation agreements. This cost British businessmen so much money that they demanded that the government end the Stamp Act. Parliament finally cancelled the law in seventeen sixty-six. The colonists immediately ended their ban against British goods.

VOICE TWO:

The same day that Parliament cancelled the Stamp Act, however, it approved the Declaratory Act. This was a statement saying the colonies existed to serve Britain, and that Britain could approve any law it wanted. Most American colonists considered this statement to be illegal.

History experts say this shows how separated the colonies had become from Britain. Colonial assemblies were able to approve their own laws, but only with the permission of the British Parliament. The colonists, however, considered the work of their assemblies as their own form of self-rule.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In this cartoon, British Treasury Secretary George Grenville is carrying a child's coffin marked 'Miss Ame-Stamp born 1765 died 1766'

Britain ended the Stamp Act but did not stop demanding taxes. In seventeen sixty-seven, Parliament approved a series of new taxes called the Townshend Acts. These were named after the government official who proposed them. The Townshend Acts placed taxes on glass, tea, lead, paints and paper imported into the colonies.

The American colonists rejected the Townshend Acts and started a new boycott of British goods. They also made efforts to increase manufacturing in the colonies. By the end of seventeen sixty-nine, they had reduced by half the amount of goods imported from Britain. The colonies also began to communicate with each other about their problems.

VOICE TWO:

In seventeen sixty-eight, the Massachusetts General Court sent a letter to the legislatures of the other colonies. It said the Townshend Acts violated the colonists' natural and constitutional rights. When news of the letter reached London, British officials ordered the colonial governor of Massachusetts to dismiss the legislature. Then they moved four thousand British troops into Boston, the biggest city in Massachusetts -- and the biggest city in the American colonies.

VOICE ONE:

The people of Boston hated the British soldiers. The soldiers were controlling their streets and living in their houses. This tension led to violence. That will be our story next week.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States.

VOASE1205_Education Report

2007-12-10T16:23:00.000+08:00

05 December 2007

Excuse Me, Professor, How Much Do You Earn?
We answer a question about the salaries of American professors.

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Today we answer a question from a listener who wants to become a Spanish professor. Orlando Carvajal asks how much professors earn in the United States.

Money from the sale of books written by professors can add to their salaries. Florida State University professor Darrin McMahon shows his book 'Happiness: A History.'

We looked in the almanac published by the Chronicle of Higher Education. It shows that the average salary for full professors last year was ninety-nine thousand dollars. For associate professors it was seventy thousand. And for assistant professors it was fifty-nine thousand dollars.

Private, independent schools pay more than public colleges and universities. But how do professors compare with other professions? For that we turn to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Assistant professors earned about the same last year as workers in business and financial operations. But they earned about ten thousand dollars less than computer programmers, for example.

The highest paying group of jobs in the United States is in management. The average wage last year was ninety-two thousand dollars. Next came lawyers and other legal workers, at eighty-five thousand.

Orlando also asks about benefits, things like health insurance and retirement plans. Benefits differ from school to school just as salaries do.

The Chronicle Almanac shows that new assistant professors in foreign language earned forty-eight thousand dollars last year. That was a little more than the national average for all education jobs. But averages do not tell the whole story.

Sally Hadden is an associate professor of history and law at Florida State University in Tallahassee. She notes that language professors generally earn less than those in subjects like engineering, for example.

But these days, professors of some languages, including Arabic, can earn much more than Spanish professors. Universities are competing for them with government and industry.

Professor Hadden also notes that colleges in different areas of the country pay different salaries. Some states have strong unions that have negotiated set increases in salaries for professors.

And different schools value different skills in their professors. Community and liberal arts colleges generally value good teaching skills more than big research universities do.

Salaries can also be tied to something else -- tenure. More about that next week.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1204_Health Report

2007-12-10T16:22:00.001+08:00

04 December 2007

Controlling Cholera May Be Easier Than Thought
A computer model shows that existing oral vaccines could cut new cases in high-risk areas. And only half the population would need vaccinating once every two years.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

There are low-cost vaccines, taken by mouth, that can protect against cholera. The vaccine is commonly provided to international travelers, but not to communities that suffer cholera epidemics. There are questions about how effective it would be as a control measure.

New findings suggest that it would be highly effective. These are based on the predictions of a computer model. Researchers say the model shows that the vaccine could reduce new cases in high-risk areas by ninety percent. And they say only half the population would have to take it once every two years.

Angolan children gathering water at a waste-filled stream. A cholera epidemic in Angola killed over one thousand people last year.

Cholera is a serious bacterial disease found mainly in developing countries. People can get it from water or food that comes in contact with human waste. The intestinal infection causes a loss of fluids.

Cholera is treated by drinking an oral rehydration solution which replaces lost fluids and salts. In the most severe cases, fluids are injected into the body. Without treatment, it usually kills people within eighteen hours to several days. Estimates are that the disease kills at least one hundred thousand people a year.

Ira Longini at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, led the new work. A team from the United States, South Korea and Bangladesh based it on a large study of oral cholera vaccine.

The study took place between nineteen eighty-four and nineteen eighty-nine. It involved two hundred thousand women and children in rural Bangladesh.

The team developed the computer model based on the results of the study. The model showed that if fifty percent of a high-risk community is vaccinated, many unvaccinated people also would be protected.

The researchers say the number of new infections could drop below one in one thousand people in the unvaccinated population. This would be the result of what is known as "herd protection."

The idea is that vaccinated people would not become infected, so they would not create conditions for spreading the disease. Unvaccinated people then would have a better chance of avoiding it.

Ira Longini says researchers are very good at predicting where cholera is likely to spread. So vaccination efforts could target those areas. The findings appear in the medical journal published by the Public Library of Science and available free of charge at plos.org.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, along with transcripts and MP3 files of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1204_Explorations

2007-12-10T16:22:00.000+08:00

04 December 2007

The Power of Crowds: Designing a Way to Harvest Electricity
Also: Astronomers discover a fifth planet orbiting a nearby star. And details of the recent shuttle flight to the International Space Station.

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VOICE ONE:

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. This week, we tell about a system of planets orbiting a star called Fifty-Five Cancri. And we hear about a plan to harvest electricity from crowds. But first, we begin with the latest trip of the space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station.

(SOUND)

VOICE ONE:

Shuttle Discovery landing at the Kennedy Space Center

That was the sound of the space shuttle Discovery landing at Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida last month. It was the one hundred twentieth shuttle flight and the twenty-third to the International Space Station.

The United States space agency had two main goals for this flight of Discovery. First, the crew was to move a structure from one side of the space station to the other. And then they were to add a new room to the space station. But the astronauts faced two unexpected problems during the mission.

VOICE TWO:

NASA calls the new addition to the space station the Harmony connecting module. Harmony was built in Torino, Italy as part of an agreement between NASA and the European Space Agency. It is the first new room added to the space station since two thousand one. Harmony is about seven meters long and about four meters wide. It will permit future shuttle missions to attach the European Space Agency's Columbus Research Laboratory.

It will also permit a Japanese experimental module to be added as well. Harmony will be a passageway between the laboratories and the rest of the space station.

VOICE ONE:

NASA officials had known there was a problem with a device linked to the solar energy system of the space station. The part, called a joint, lets one set of solar arrays point toward the sun at all times. Solar arrays are flat solar energy collectors that gather sunlight and turn it into electricity. The solar arrays provide power to the space station.

NASA engineers noted that the joint did not appear to be operating correctly. It shook as it moved and used too much power. NASA decided to use the fourth spacewalk of the mission to examine the joint. Astronaut Daniel Tani went outside the space station to make the examination. He looked inside the joint and found small pieces of metal.

NASA officials had hoped that the metal would be aluminum and not steel. This would have meant that important moving parts were not rubbing together. However, later examination of the metal showed that it was, in fact, steel.

This meant the joint was damaging itself when it moved. Supervisors for the space station decided to stop using the joint so that its parts would not rub against one another.

VOICE TWO:

A second problem developed with one of the space station's solar arrays. The shuttle astronauts had to move a structure carrying a solar array from one side of the space station to the other. To do so, they folded the large flat solar panels and moved the structure.

But a wire caught on one of the solar panels, tearing it in two places when the

Scott Parazynski repairs the damaged solar array on the International Space Station

astronauts extended it again. The crew used the space station's robotic arm to carry astronaut Scott Parazynski to the torn area on the solar array. He was able to repair the array using parts made by the crew on the shuttle.

The repair was very dangerous because the array carries more than one hundred volts of electrical current. But Scott Parazynski successfully fixed the tear in the solar panel and the space station crew was able to fully extend the array.

The space station is now being prepared for a visit from space shuttle Atlantis. This mission will attach the Columbus Research Laboratory to the International Space Station. Launch for Atlantis is planned for December sixth.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Science has made it possible to harvest energy from the wind, sun and water. All these renewable resources are used today to power an energy-hungry world. But imagine harvesting energy from crowds of people moving to and from work every day. That is one of the possibilities of piezoelectricity, the science of gaining power from motion.

Some materials create an electrical charge when they are placed under pressure or stretched. These materials are said to be piezoelectric. Some crystals, such as quartz, and some ceramic materials are piezoelectric.

VOICE TWO:

James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk are two graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. They designed a way to capture the energy of people's footsteps. They created a design for a special floor covering that moves a little when people step on it. The movement would create an electrical current that could be captured to provide electrical power.

Mister Graham and Mister Jusczyk say one footstep could create enough energy to light two sixty-watt lights for one second. That might not sound like very much energy. But consider what hundreds of thousands of footsteps might create in an underground train station in a major city. The two researchers note that it takes about twenty-eight thousand steps to power a train for one second.

VOICE ONE:

Gathering power from the movements of large groups of people is called "crowd farming." And interest in crowd farming continues to grow. Mister Graham and Mister Jusczyk took first prize at an international competition on city design earlier this year. The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction held the competition. At this point, Mister Graham and Mister Jusczyk only have designs for their large crowd farming project, not a finished product.

Seat designed by James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk makes electricity when someone sits

However, they have built a smaller example of piezoelectronics to show how it can work. They made a seat that creates electricity when someone sits on it. The action of sitting on the seat turns a wheel that creates an electrical charge. This then turns on lights attached to the seat. Mister Jusczyk has said that one of the goals of his work is to have people understand the relationship between their movements and the energy produced.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Space scientists have been searching nearby stars for planets with great success. The United States space agency says that two hundred sixty-four exoplanets have been discovered so far. But, until now, few of the planetary systems found orbiting other stars have been like our own solar system. That has all changed with the discovery of a fifth planet orbiting a star called Fifty-Five Cancri in the constellation Cancer.

Astronomers have known of at least one planet circling Fifty-Five Cancri since nineteen ninety-six. The star is forty-one light years away from Earth. It is also very similar to our own sun.

Last month, astronomers announced the discovery of a fifth planet orbiting Fifty-Five Cancri. What makes the discovery extraordinary is that the new exoplanet orbits in what astronomers call a "habitable zone." This means temperatures on the planet may be warm enough for liquid water to exist either on its surface or on one of its moons.

VOICE ONE:

An artist's picture of the fifth exoplanet discovered orbiting 55 Cancri, a star similar to our sun

The fifth exoplanet is about the size of the planet Saturn. Its mass is about forty-five times greater than that of Earth. Scientists believe it is unlikely to hold life. But they say that the exoplanet could have one or more large moons like Titan, a large moon of Saturn in our own solar system. Such a moon could hold water and the conditions for life. Astronomers add that there may be small planets similar to Earth in this complex planetary system.

Astronomers can find exoplanets by looking for very small movements in nearby stars. The movements are evidence that the gravity of a massive planet is acting on the star. By observing a star long enough, astronomers can uncover this evidence. But currently astronomers do not have the technology to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting even nearby stars.

VOICE TWO:

Scientists made the observations at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, California and the Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. More than three hundred twenty separate measurements were needed to identify each of the planets in the system. Eighteen years of observations were required. The observations started before anyone knew there were planets orbiting other stars. The United States space agency and the National Science Foundation supported the research.

Other planets in the system orbit the star at distances similar to planets in our own solar system. The closest orbits at only about five and one half million kilometers from Fifty-Five Cancri. After our own sun, Fifty-Five Cancri now has the most known planets of any star.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. You can find more space and technology news on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

VOASE1203_Agriculture Report

2007-12-10T16:21:00.001+08:00

03 December 2007

Want to Grow a Root? Beets Are Hard to Beat
Advice for growing a colorful and nutritious vegetable.

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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

A Yale student carries beets grown on an organic farm near the university in New Haven, Connecticut

Beets are a tasty root vegetable that do not require much work to grow. People might think beets are always dark red. But they can also be pink, yellow or white. Beets with circles of red and white inside are known as candy cane or candy stripe beets.

Beets are high in nutrients including folate, iron and fiber. They can be eaten fresh or frozen, canned or pickled. And not just the root but also the tops can be eaten. The leaves make good salads when the plants are young, and the greens can be cooked when the plants are older.

Beets like cool temperatures, between sixteen and eighteen degrees Celsius. They grow best in full sun and in loose soil that is not too wet.

Remove stones from the soil while preparing the ground. And test the soil before adding lime and fertilizer. Some experts say the best fertilizers for beets are low in nitrogen. Beets need the acidity level in the soil to be six to seven and a half.

Beet seeds can be planted as soon as the soil is able to be worked at the start of the growing season. Planting them every two or three weeks would provide a continuous harvest into the fall.

Iowa State University horticulture specialist Cindy Haynes suggests planting the seeds one and one-quarter centimeters deep. They should be planted in rows that are spaced thirty to forty-six centimeters apart.

A beet seed is a fruit containing several seeds. Overcrowding the plants will mean that the roots cannot spread out and grow. Thin the beets by removing the smaller ones. These can be used as greens.

Cindy Haynes says little or no fertilizer is needed in fertile soils. But once the seeds are planted, she does suggest covering the soil with a little mulch to protect it during rains and dry periods. She also suggests putting a fence around the plants to keep away rabbits and deer.

She says the only work needed once beets have been thinned is weeding and, when the weather is dry, a weekly watering.

For best results, beets should be picked when the roots are two and one-half centimeters around. Beets much larger than that can be tough and have to be cooked for a long time.

Some people like beets prepared simply in butter. Others like to cook them with cinnamon and ginger.

And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. For links to more information about growing beets, from the Iowa State University Extension and Ohio State University, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Jim Tedder.

VOASE1203_Science In the News

2007-12-10T16:21:00.000+08:00

03 December 2007

Scientists Get Skin Cells to Act Like Stem Cells, but Much Work Remains
Also: Some researchers fear a new study could lead people to believe that weighing too much is not as big a health problem as many had thought. And we answer a question about the AIDS virus.

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VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

File photo of embryonic stem cells in a laboratory dish

And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week, we will tell about efforts to make what appear to be embryonic stem cells without using embryos. We will tell how body fat may help to protect against some diseases. We also answer a question about the disease AIDS and report on its spread.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

American and Japanese scientists have reported a major discovery in the creation of human stem cells. The scientists say they have found a way to make human skin cells act like embryonic stem cells. Two groups of scientists performed similar experiments in different parts of the world. They reported their findings in the scientific publications Cell and Science.

Both teams did generally the same thing. They injected skin cells with four kinds of retroviruses. Each retrovirus carried a different gene that helps control embryo development. The scientists say the four genes "reprogrammed" the skin cells. The genes turned other genes on or off and caused the skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells.

VOICE TWO:

Scientists can make stem cells grow into any kind of cell of the body, such as nerve or heart cells. Scientists believe stem cells could be used in future treatments for many diseases.

Until now, scientists were able to get human stem cells by taking them from a human embryo several days after fertilization. The embryo was destroyed in the process. The need to destroy human embryos has made stem cell research one of the most divisive political issues in the United States.

James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin helped write the report published in Science. He said he believes more scientists will attempt to reprogram cells to get stem cells instead of taking them from embryos.

VOICE ONE:

The scientific publication Cell reported the results of researchers at Kyoto University in Japan. They said they were able to make the newly created stem cells produce many kinds of tissue cells. One of the researchers was Shinya Kamanaka. In June, his team identified four genes in the skin cells of mice that could turn other genes on or off to make skin cells act like embryonic stem cells.

The researchers say they still must confirm that the reprogrammed human skin cells really are the same as stem cells from human embryos. They say they have much to learn about the reprogrammed stem cells before they could possibly be tested in people. One concern is that the cells might lead to cancer because the retroviruses used to reprogram the skin cells can cause changes in their genes. In fact, one gene used by the Japanese researchers can cause cancer.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Is it healthy or unhealthy to be too fat? Some researchers fear a new study could lead people to believe that weighing too much is not as big a health problem as many had thought. They say that may or may not be true.

The new study included medical information about almost forty thousand Americans. The information was collected between nineteen seventy-one and two thousand four. The study also included the causes of death of more than two million people in two thousand four.

Federal government researchers wanted to learn if some earlier studies were correct. Those studies suggested reduced health dangers from being overweight. The researchers found that people who were overweight, but not extremely overweight, died at lower rates than people of normal weight. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

VOICE ONE:

The researchers found a higher death rate in extremely overweight or obese people from heart disease. But obese people did not have an increased chance of dying from cancer. And they found that being thin increased the death rate from all diseases except heart disease and cancer.

The researchers also found more than one hundred thousand fewer deaths among overweight people than was expected. They said being overweight was linked to death only from diabetes and kidney disease, not heart disease or cancer. They also found a protective effect against other causes of death such as injuries, pneumonia, tuberculosis and Alzheimer's disease.

VOICE TWO:

The researchers do not know why being overweight should protect people from some diseases. But they said it could be that extra weight may help make the body stronger to fight off sickness. They also said it is important to remember that the results are about people who weigh too much, not people who are very overweight or obese.

Other researchers have problems with the study. They say the dangers of weighing too much have already been established by research. They say many studies have linked being overweight to increased chances of developing diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In August, demonstrators in Cape Town, South Africa, urged the government to do more to fight AIDS

United Nations officials say fewer people than they thought are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The agency known as UNAIDS estimated last year that more than thirty-nine million people were living with H.I.V. -- the human immunodeficiency virus. Last month, agency officials reduced that to a little more than thirty-three million. They say the lower number represents better information and information from more countries.

The single biggest reason, however, was an intensive re-examination of the problem of AIDS in India. At the same time, the agency reduced its estimates for five African countries. Also, UNAIDS says it now believes the number of new H.I.V. cases each year reached a high in the late nineteen nineties.

VOICE TWO:

Even as the number of new infections has dropped, the number of people living with H.I.V. is increasing. Better treatments are extending lives, and more people are getting the drugs. The new report also says prevention efforts appear to be changing risky behavior in several of the countries most affected by H.I.V.

But U.N. officials say AIDS is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide and the major cause in Africa. African death rates remain high, they say, because treatment needs are not being met.

African countries south of the Sahara had almost seventy percent of the new H.I.V. cases reported this year. But UNAIDS officials say this is a notable reduction since two thousand one.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Mosquitoes do not infect people with the virus that causes AIDS

We recently received a letter from a listener in Burma. Joseph San Min wants to know if mosquitoes can carry and infect people with the virus that causes AIDS. The short answer is, luckily, no. However, scientists did worry and investigate the possibility after the disease was first recognized.

When a mosquito bites a person, it does not release any of its own blood or blood from an earlier bite into the victim. What the mosquito releases in a bite is its own saliva. This substance helps the insect feed on the human blood.

VOICE TWO:

Some viruses and parasitic organisms can live for many days in mosquitoes and are able to reproduce. The viruses and parasites also are able to enter the insect’s saliva glands. Then they could pass to a person during a bite from the host mosquito.

But, the human immunodeficiency virus, H.I.V., cannot live in mosquitoes. The mosquito’s system considers the virus as food. So the mosquito eats and breaks down the virus as part of the larger blood meal. H.I.V. never infects the insect.

VOICE ONE:

There were theories that a mosquito could pass H.I.V. if the insect moved immediately from one bite to another. If the mosquito first fed on someone infected with H.I.V., the insect might have virus particles on its mouth. Let us say the mosquito flew immediately to feed on a non-infected person. Could the remaining blood particles on its mouthparts pass to the second person?

The answer is no for two reasons. The first is just the result of simple mosquito behavior. Mosquitoes rest between meals. The second is that a mosquito cannot carry enough H.I.V. particles on its mouthparts to infect a person.

People with H.I.V. do not always have high levels of the virus in their blood. But even if a mosquito bit someone with high levels, the insect would not carry enough blood away on its mouth to make a difference.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Pat Bodnar.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

---

Correction: Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka was misidentified in this story as Shinya Kamanaka.

VOASE1202_This Is America

2007-12-10T16:20:00.000+08:00

02 December 2007

How a Chemist Gets a Reaction From a Class of English Learners
David Bennett taught science at a boys' school. Now he helps adults improve their American English. Also, advice about learning the language.

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VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we talk about learning English.

(SOUND)

VOICE ONE:

We are listening to a class of English language learners. For this exercise they have to repeat a series of words beginning with the letter T. Some laugh as they struggle with the words. They are trying to say "The tip of the tongue to the teeth."

TEACHER AND STUDENTS: "The tip of the tongue to the teeth. The tip of the tongue to the teeth."
TEACHER: "OK."
STUDENTS: "The tip of the tongue to the teeth."
TEACHER: "Uh-huh, it's also a bit of a tongue twister."

VOICE TWO:

The teacher, David Bennett, speaks slowly and clearly. He has a doctorate in chemistry. He retired from teaching science at a private boys school in Washington, D.C. Now he teaches this English class two times each week at a church in nearby Bethesda, Maryland.

Not all of the exercises are tongue twisters -- a mouthful like "she sells seashells by the seashore."

DAVID BENNETT: "Wake."
STUDENTS: "Wake. Wake."

Here, David Bennett leads the class in pronouncing words that begin with W.

DAVID BENNETT: "So I can wake in the morning, or I wake up. Wake. Wall."
STUDENTS: "Wall."
DAVID BENNETT: "Wall, yes. What’s the next one?"
STUDENTS: "Walk."
DAVID BENNETT: "Walk, yes walk."
ONE STUDENT: "Walk."
DAVID BENNETT: "Walk. There’s no L sound in it at all. It’s just walk. OK."
ONE STUDENT: "Warm."
ALL: " Warm"
DAVID BENNETT: "The room’s warm. Warm. Warm. A duck has feet that are, that have, a web. Or a spider makes a web."

VOICE ONE:

In class on this autumn day are seven women from six countries: Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, France, Japan and Slovakia. Some are in the United States because of their husband's work. Others are here to work in child care as au pairs.

The women have already studied beginning English. They are taking the class because they want to learn more American English. They want to be able to understand common expressions like "beating around the bush." That means to avoid answering a question or saying something directly.

David Bennett points out that another expression -- "beating the drum" -- has two meanings. It could simply mean playing the musical instrument, a drum. Or it could mean leading a campaign, like beating the drum for political change.

VOICE TWO:

Learning a language can be a chance to learn about a culture as well. Recently the students read a story from the Internet about the history of the American holiday of Thanksgiving.

Pencils and pens flew over copies of the story as the students marked words they did not understand, so they could ask the meaning.

As each student read a part of the story to the class, the teacher would repeat any word they did not say correctly. Then the speaker would repeat the word after him.

VOICE ONE:

The teacher also asked the women about festivals or holidays in their own countries. A young au pair from Bolivia talked about a fish festival at Lake Titicaca. As she talked her words started to come with greater ease.

Another woman described a grape festival in Slovakia. Others talked about wine and film festivals. Their teacher listened carefully and repeated words that were hard for them to say.

VOICE TWO:

Yet even words that might be easy to say can still lead to misunderstandings, at least in spoken English. David Bennett talks about the word "week." Spelled W-E-E-K it means a period of time. There are seven days in a week. But "weak," spelled W-E-A-K, has a very different meaning. It means the opposite of strong.

VOICE ONE:

The students in the class practice what they learn among themselves. The program centers not just on writing, but also speaking and understanding English.

There are different ways to teach a language. These days, English teachers are taught that the best method is the communicative approach. The goal is for students to be able to communicate in their new language. This means teaching the language used in real-life situations -- like getting a job or completing medical forms or speaking to a child's teacher.

Dominican immigrant Elena Clarisa Sepulveda was on a wait list for more than one year for ESL classes

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Language schools can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. But some programs, like the one in Bethesda, cost only the price of the workbooks. Many religious groups organize classes like this. Classes are also offered through public schools and community colleges.

English lessons are in strong demand in the United States, and people may have to wait for an opening.

VOICE ONE:

English learners and teachers can find many free resources on the Internet, including at sites like manythings.org and eslcafe.org. Two other resources that might also be of interest to teachers are TESOL and TESL-L.

TESL-L is an international discussion list for teachers of English as a second or foreign language. They represent all levels of experience and training. There is no cost to subscribe to this independent online list. The easiest way to find it is to do an Internet search for T-E-S-L-dash-L.

T-E-S-O-L is TESOL, short for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. About fourteen thousand members belong to this organization. TESOL is also connected with other education groups throughout the world. For more information, the Web site is tesol.org.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Kelly Lopez is an American citizen who was born in Honduras. Spanish was her first language. Her advice for English learners is to think in English instead of just translating. She also suggests trying to find people who were born in the United States and practice with them.

VOICE ONE:

Maria Neves of Recife, Brazil, was in the United States several years ago to attend a dance program in New York. She keeps English fresh in her mind by writing letters to American friends. She also suggests that language learners record their voice, then listen and try to correct mistakes. And, she says, "Never miss an American movie."

Reading English subtitles or closed captioning can also be helpful when watching DVDs or television shows.

Movies, TV shows and songs have helped millions of people learn languages. But there are other useful resources that adult learners might not think of -- like children's books and comic books.

VOICE TWO:

Adults can do a good job of learning languages, but children are just naturally better while their brains are still forming. Nine-year-old Ukyeon Kim from South Korea is a good example. He attends the fourth grade at a public school in Fairfax County, Virginia.

The family has decided to return to South Korea. But people who know Ukyeon say he learned English very fast. He thinks his mother had something to do with that. She read books to him in English before the family came to the United States.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

SooJee Han is in the United States through a cooperative program at the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars. She is from Seoul where she studied international relations at the Graduate School of International Studies.

She learned to read and write English in school in South Korea. But mostly she learned the grammar and structure of the language. More recently, she discovered Special English programs, like this one. She says they have helped her improve her English skills.

(SOUND)

SOOJEE HAN: "A good thing is, several years ago, I was lucky to find VOA English on the Internet. And I was so glad they have Special English. The broadcasters read news with slow speech so I can follow their accurate pronunciations."

VOICE TWO:

SooJee Han likes to download MP3 files from voaspecialenglish.com and listen to them on her iPod while walking or riding the train. In fact, she even asked for, and received, an internship in the Special English office.

Special English does not teach English the way a foreign language program would. But many people find it highly useful as a way to improve their American English.

Transcripts of programs -- including this one -- can be downloaded along with MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. And there are links to other resources for people who want to learn the world's most widely taught foreign language.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

---

Correction: Nine-year-old Ukyeon Cho was misidentified in this story as Ukyeon Kim.

VOASE1202_Development Report

2007-12-10T16:15:00.000+08:00

02 December 2007

Group Works to Build Peace Through Medicine
Physicians for Peace sends teams of volunteers to developing countries to provide medical training and care.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

How do you define diplomacy? For the group Physicians for Peace, diplomacy is all about bringing medical education and care to places where they are needed most.

A young patient in Rwanda

This nonprofit organization brings together medical volunteers from different cultures and opposing sides of conflicts. Its message is "building peace and international friendships through medicine."

Physicians for Peace is based in the American state of Virginia. Doctor Charles Horton, a plastic surgeon known for his humanitarian work, established the group in the nineteen eighties.

More then five hundred teams of doctors, dentists, nurses and others have gone to nearly sixty countries. Some programs have lasted for years. For example, Physicians for Peace has had a program to treat burn victims in Nicaragua since nineteen ninety-two. Other developing nations use this program as an example for their own burn care programs.

In Africa, the group is active in Liberia, Senegal, Mali and Malawi. And, in January, Physicians for Peace will launch a class in pediatrics and general surgery in Eritrea.

Thirteen medical students will learn about treating children and performing operations. In the future they will train others. The project involves a partnership with George Washington University Medical Center in Washington and the Eritrean Health Ministry.

In the Philippines, Physicians for Peace is helping to provide eye care to people who have never had their eyes examined before. The group is also helping to fit replacement arms and legs for people who have had limbs removed.

The group is also helping rebuild a pediatric hospital in Sri Lanka that was destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami in two thousand five. And two times a year, it sends medical volunteers to the West Bank.

Charity Navigator, a service that rates nonprofit organizations, gives Physicians for Peace its top rating. Health care providers from the United States donate their time and pay their own travel costs. The group had a budget last year of thirty-five million dollars. Most of that was the value of donated medical supplies.

Ron Sconyers, a retired Air Force brigadier general, is the chief executive officer of Physicians for Peace. He tells us that the group goes only where it is invited. He says it receives more requests for assistance than it can meet, but works hard not to turn anyone down.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember.

11月合辑制作完毕 Release

2007-12-02T19:58:00.000+08:00

11月合辑制作完毕，包括2007年11月的全部内容，Words and Their Stories的内容也收录其中。
源的地址（需安装 eMule，复制到地址栏）是：
ed2k://|file|VOASE0711.iso|298057728|CF21DAA8684C8255395F385562400170|h=PDQEPDD26ZYOTZAJNOXQAEUM3QEPFVY3|/

下载贴在以下地址，第一个是老地址，第二个是VeryCD的新页面下的地址：
http://lib.verycd.com/2007/02/07/0000138789.html
http://www.verycd.com/topics/105456/

最近我还是有些懒，很多热心网友发来的邮件和论坛消息都没能回复，请各位谅解，我是忙阿。。。主啊，宽恕我吧。。。

还有要说的就是，仍有很多人希望我做VOA Standard English。。。
真的不好意思，VOA官网上不发布资料下载，我没法做阿。
也有朋友不停问我为什么合辑里不包含American Stories。。。答案同上
只要是我能找到的VOA官网发布的正式资料，我都会转发给大家，请大家相信
有什么朋友转遛到啥好的国外网站也介绍给俺认识认识哈

VOASE1201_People In America

2007-12-02T18:56:00.000+08:00

01 December 2007

Margaret Sanger, 1883-1966: She Led the Fight for Birth Control for Women
She was an important part of what has been called one of the most life-changing political movements of the Twentieth Century.

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

Margaret Sanger

And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today, we tell about one of the leaders of the birth control movement, Margaret Sanger.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Many women today have the freedom to decide when they will have children, if they want them. Until about fifty years ago, women spent most of their adult lives having children, year after year. This changed because of efforts by activists like Margaret Sanger. She believed that a safe and sure method of preventing pregnancy was a necessary condition for women’s freedom. She also believed birth control was necessary for human progress.

Margaret Sanger was considered a rebel in the early nineteen hundreds.

VOICE TWO:

The woman who changed other women’s lives was born in eighteen eighty-three in the eastern state of New York. Her parents were Michael and Anne Higgins.

Margaret wrote several books about her life. She wrote that her father taught her to question everything. She said he taught her to be an independent thinker.

Margaret said that watching her mother suffer from having too many children made her feel strongly about birth control. Her mother died at forty-eight years of age after eighteen pregnancies. She was always tired and sick. Margaret had to care for her mother and her ten surviving brothers and sisters. This experience led her to become a nurse.

Margaret Higgins worked in the poor areas of New York City. Most people there had recently arrived in the United States from Europe. Margaret saw the suffering of hundreds of women who tried to end their pregnancies in illegal and harmful ways. She realized that this was not just a health problem. These women suffered because of their low position in society.

Margaret saw that not having control over one’s body led to problems that were passed on from mother to daughter and through the family for years. She said she became tired of cures that did not solve the real problem. Instead, she wanted to change the whole life of a mother.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen-oh-two, Margaret married William Sanger. They had three children. Margaret compared her own middle-class life to that of the poor people she worked among. This increased her desire to deal with economic and social issues. At this time, Margaret Sanger became involved in the liberal political culture of an area of New York City known as Greenwich Village. Sanger became a labor union organizer. She learned methods of protest and propaganda, which she used in her birth control activism.

Sanger traveled to Paris, France, in nineteen thirteen, to research European methods of birth control. She also met with members of Socialist political groups who influenced her birth control policies. She returned to the United States prepared to change women’s lives.

VOICE TWO:

At first, Margaret Sanger sought the support of leaders of the women’s movement, members of the Socialist party, and the medical profession. But she wrote that they told her to wait until women were permitted to vote. She decided to continue working alone.

One of Margaret Sanger’s first important political acts was to publish a monthly newspaper called The Woman Rebel. She designed it. She wrote for it. And she paid for it. The newspaper called for women to reject the traditional woman’s position. The first copy was published in March, nineteen fourteen. The Woman Rebel was an angry paper that discussed disputed and sometimes illegal subjects. These included labor problems, marriage, the sex business, and revolution.

Sanger had an immediate goal. She wanted to change laws that prevented birth control education and sending birth control devices through the mail.

VOICE ONE:

The Woman Rebel became well known in New York and elsewhere. Laws at that time banned the mailing of materials considered morally bad. This included any form of birth control information. The law was known as the Comstock Act. Officials ordered Sanger to stop sending out her newspaper.

Sanger instead wrote another birth control document called Family Limitation. The document included detailed descriptions of birth control methods. In August, nineteen fourteen, Margaret Sanger was charged with violating the Comstock Act.

Margaret faced a prison sentence of as many as forty-five years if found guilty. She fled to Europe to escape the trial. She asked friends to release thousands of copies of Family Limitation. The document quickly spread among women across the United States. It started a public debate about birth control. The charges against Sanger also increased public interest in her and in women’s issues.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Once again, Margaret Sanger used her time in Europe to research birth control methods. After about a year, she decided to return to the United States to face trial. She wanted to use the trial to speak out about the need for reproductive freedom for women.

While Sanger was preparing for her trial, her five-year-old daughter, Peggy, died of pneumonia. The death made Sanger feel very weak and guilty. However, the death greatly increased public support for Sanger and the issue of birth control. The many reports in the media caused the United States government to dismiss charges against her.

VOICE ONE:

Margaret Sanger continued to oppose the Comstock Act by opening the first birth control center in the United States. It opened in Brownsville, New York in nineteen sixteen. Sanger’s sister, Ethel Byrne, and a language expert helped her. One hundred women came to the birth control center on the first day. After about a week, police arrested the three women, but later released them. Sanger immediately re-opened the health center, and was arrested again. The women were tried the next year. Sanger was sentenced to thirty days in jail.

Margaret Sanger, center, surrounded by workers at the American Birth Control League

With some support from women’s groups, Sanger started a new magazine, the Birth Control Review. In nineteen twenty-one, she organized the first American birth control conference. The conference led to the creation of the American Birth Control League. It was established to provide education, legal reform and research for better birth control. The group opened a birth control center in the United States in nineteen twenty-three. Many centers that opened later across the country copied this one.

Sanger was president of the American Birth Control League until nineteen twenty-eight. In the nineteen thirties she helped win a judicial decision that permitted American doctors to give out information about birth control.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Historians say Margaret Sanger changed her methods of political action during and after the nineteen twenties. She stopped using direct opposition and illegal acts. She even sought support from her former opponents.

Later, Sanger joined supporters of eugenics. This is the study of human improvement by genetic control. Extremists among that group believe that disabled, weak or “undesirable” human beings should not be born. Historians say Sanger supported eugenicists only as a way to gain her birth control goals. She later said she was wrong in supporting eugenics. But she still is criticized for these statements.

VOICE ONE:

Even though Margaret Sanger changed her methods, she continued her efforts for birth control. In nineteen forty-two, she helped form the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It became a major national health organization after World War Two.

Margaret Sanger moved into areas of international activism. Her efforts led to the creation of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. It was formed in nineteen fifty-two after an international conference in Bombay, India. Sanger was one of its first presidents.

The organization was aimed at increasing the acceptance of family planning around the world. Almost every country in the world is now a member of the international group.

VOICE TWO:

Margaret Sanger lived to see the end of the Comstock Act and the invention of birth control medicine. She died in nineteen sixty-six in Tucson, Arizona. She was an important part of what has been called one of the most life-changing political movements of the Twentieth Century.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

VOASE1130_In the News

2007-12-02T18:52:00.000+08:00

30 November 2007

Israel, Palestinians Will Try Again for Two-State Solution for Peace
The two sides promised at the Annapolis conference to seek an agreement by the end of 2008. A committee to guide renewed talks will hold its first meeting December 12.

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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

President Bush walks with Ehud Olmert, left, and Mahmoud Abbas to the conference at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis

Tuesday's Middle East conference in Annapolis, Maryland, put Israelis and Palestinians back on the road map to peace. Now the question is, how far will they get?

The "road map" is the name for a plan that is supposed to lead to a permanent, two-state solution to the conflict. The Quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations launched the plan in two thousand three. The plan did not go far.

But this week Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to immediately restart negotiations. They promise to seek a peace treaty that furthers the goal of an independent Palestine.

The two sides have not held serious negotiations in seven years. A committee that will guide the talks will hold its first meeting December twelfth. The aim is to reach an agreement by the end of next year.

Many Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Syria, attended the international conference held by the United States. Iran was not invited.

President Bush said in Annapolis that the United States will be actively involved in the peace process. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named retired general James Jones as her new special diplomat for Middle East security. He will work with Israelis and Palestinians.

But the Palestinians are split politically and physically. The Islamic Hamas movement seized control of Gaza in June. Mister Abbas' Fatah party holds power in the West Bank, which has a larger population.

The main issues between Israel and the Palestinians include final borders and the right of return for refugees. But the most divisive issue may be the future of Jerusalem.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state. Prime Minister Olmert recently said he is ready to hand over some Arab neighborhoods in that part of the city. But he faces opposition from those who want to keep an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the nineteen sixty-seven Arab-Israeli war. About four hundred fifty thousand Israelis live in East Jerusalem and nearby settlements on the West Bank.

Israel was established in nineteen forty-eight under a United Nations plan to divide the area into Arab and Jewish states. Arab nations rejected the plan and invaded Israel a day after its independence.

Carnegie scholar Eric Davis is a political science professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He says the most important thing that must come out of Annapolis is a real plan where both sides begin to compromise.

He notes concerns that Mister Olmert and Mister Abbas do not hold enough political power to make compromises that would keep the talks moving. Without strong support, he says, the chance exists that their enemies could try to block the road to peace.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1129_Economics Report

2007-11-30T21:45:00.001+08:00

29 November 2007

The Worldwide Spread of Oil
Persian Gulf countries hold more than half of the world's petroleum reserves, but production has grown in other areas.

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Pumping oil in Bahrain

When we think of oil, the part of the world that comes to mind first may be the Middle East. But petroleum development takes place worldwide.

Nigeria, for example, is the largest oil producer in Africa and the eleventh largest producer in the world. Russia is the world's second largest exporter of oil and the top exporter of natural gas.

But the country that produces and exports more oil than any other is Saudi Arabia. The Saudis hold one-fourth of the world's proven oil reserves.

Last year, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries produced about twenty-eight percent of the world's oil supply. The United States Energy Department says they also held fifty-five percent of known reserves.

The other Gulf producers are Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Iran has ten percent of the world's proven oil reserves. Iraq is also estimated to have a large supply of oil, and unexplored areas may hold much more.

In nineteen sixty Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela formed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Today OPEC has twelve members. The newest is Angola which joined this year.

High oil prices have brought new attention to OPEC. Its members produce about forty percent of the world's oil. But two of the world's top three oil exporters, Russia and Norway, are not OPEC members.

Its influence may have reached a high point during the oil crisis connected to the nineteen seventy-three Arab-Israeli war. Arab oil producers boycotted the United States, western Europe and Japan because of their support for Israel.

Since then, new discoveries and increased production in areas including countries of the former Soviet Union have provided more oil.

National oil companies are estimated to control about eighty percent of the world's oil supply. In recent years, rising oil prices have led more governments to act, either directly or indirectly, to take control of their oil industries.

President Hugo Chavez has moved to nationalize oil operations in Venezuela. And in Russia, a series of actions resulted in state-owned Rosneft gaining control of reserves held by Yukos. Yukos was Russia's largest private company, until the government said it owed billions of dollars in taxes and jailed its founder, Russia's richest man.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Our report last week on the history of oil can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOASE1129_American Mosaic

2007-11-30T21:45:00.000+08:00

29 November 2007

Smith, Say Hi to Garcia: Top 10 US Names Now Have Two Hispanic Ones
Also: Music from a new album by Deborah Harry. And a question from Burundi about the Apple iPod.

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HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We listen to some music from Deborah Harry …

Answer a question about the iPod …

And tell about a recent report listing common names in America.

Census Study of Names

HOST:

The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare asked “What’s in a name?” The United States government has an answer. Faith Lapidus explains.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

The United States Census Bureau has released a report about family names. The information comes from the study of the American population in two thousand.

The report tells the most common last names of Americans and some information linked to them. It says people recognize others by their names, and that people can tell a lot about a person just from knowing his or her name.

Almost two hundred seventy million people provided information to the Census Bureau in two thousand. The researchers found six million different last names among them. One million or more people have one of seven names. The most common is Smith. More than two million people answer to that name.

The next most common names are Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Miller and Davis. More than one million people are called each of those names. Two hundred sixty-eight other family names are also fairly common. Each of those names is shared by more than one hundred thousand people.

Students in New Mexico perform a traditional Hispanic dance

The study also found that for the first time, two Hispanic names are among the top ten most common names in the country. They are Garcia and Rodriguez. Each name is shared by more than eight hundred thousand people. The report says more than ninety percent of all people with those names are Hispanic.

One newspaper report says it is probably the first time that any non-English sounding name has been listed among the most common. The presence of those names on the list shows that an increasing number of Hispanic people are living in the United States. The number grew by fifty-eight percent in the nineteen nineties to almost thirteen percent of the population.

Other Hispanic names appearing in the top twenty-five most common names are Martinez, Hernandez, Lopez and Gonzalez.

iPods

HOST:

Our listener question this week comes from Burundi. Josephine Uwangabe wants to know about the small iPod device made by the Apple computer company. The iPod is the most popular device made for storing and playing digital music. Because of its size, iPod users can enjoy listening to music while on the go.

In two thousand, Apple realized that digital music players were not selling because they were not well designed. Apple decided to change this. The company worked to develop a device that would have a fast computer connection so songs could go from a computer to the player quickly. The device also had to work well with Apple’s music program called iTunes, which permits users to easily organize thousands of songs. It had to be very easy to use. And it had to be good looking.

Have iPod, must travel ... on a New York subway

An advertising writer on Apple's team came up with the name iPod. He was influenced by the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” He saw the music device as a small “pod” that attached to a main spaceship, or, in this case, a computer. Apple released the first iPod in October, two thousand one.

Since then, Apple has developed several versions of the device. Some iPods are small enough to fit in your hand, while others can play videos, store photographs or connect to the Internet. They come in different colors, prices, and memory storage sizes. In October, Apple announced that it had sold one hundred and twenty million iPods.

Experts say these revolutionary devices are having a big effect on the music industry. Apple has sold over one billion digital songs from its iTunes program. This represents important income for many record companies that have been experiencing reduced album sales. Museums and schools are using iPods to play educational programs for visitors and students.

iPods have changed the way people listen to music. It would be hard to walk down a busy street or college campus in America without seeing several people with iPods and earphone devices. Music lovers can now hold thousands of songs in the palm of their hand.

Deborah Harry

(MUSIC)

HOST:

That was Deborah Harry singing with her band Blondie. The post-punk/new wave group had many hits in the late nineteen seventies and eighties. Shirley Griffith has more about Deborah Harry's new album, "Necessary Evil."

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

Deborah Harry's has a new solo album after fourteen years of silence. Here is “Two Times Blue” from “Necessary Evil.” The song made it into the top ten of Billboard Magazine’s Hot Dance Club Plays in the United States.

(MUSIC)

“Necessary Evil” came out last month. Harry started a series of live shows to support the album this month. She began the tour at the Fillmore Theater, in her hometown of New York City. Critics have praised Deborah Harry for staying current in her musical style. “Necessary Evil” is not a re-visiting of Blondie. Harry says she still loves the music of Blondie and many former punk bands. But she says musicians have to keep moving forward. She says being stuck in the past equals death for an artist. Here Deborah Harry sings the romantic song “If I Had You.”

(MUSIC)

Deborah Harry wrote the songs on “Necessary Evil.” She told one reporter that the album is about love and relationships like most pop songs. Harry herself has been married three times. She said she is in love with love --- sometimes. We leave you with Deborah Harry singing “Naked Eye.”

(MUSIC)

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

VOASE1128_Education Report

2007-11-30T21:44:00.000+08:00

28 November 2007

Unscientific Poll: Calculators Subtract From Thinking Skills
We asked for your opinions, and found more critics than supporters of using calculators in school.

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A high school student in Pennsylvania works on a math question

Recently we asked how you feel about calculators in school. We heard from about thirty people in twelve countries, including a large number of Chinese.

Turbo Zhang writes: "My brain is rusting. Why? Because I use calculators everywhere, on my mobile phone, on my computer, etc. New technology makes us use everything except our brain."

Joony Zhu says calculators can provide us with an answer, but we may not understand it completely. And a student at an architectural and engineering college in China, Zhao Jing-tao, calls using a calculator "a kind of laziness."

Critics of using calculators in school, at least until high school or university, outnumbered supporters two to one.

Khaled Hamza in Cairo says "calculators affect badly on the thinking ways of students." Jose Gudino from Mexico City says this is because "you don't need to make an effort to get a result."

Hemin, a math teacher in Kurdistan-Iraq, says good math skills help in life. So he believes in solving problems with a pencil until high school.

Randy Bin Lin, a Ph.D. candidate from China at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, writes: "You should work out problems with some kind of pain without computers. Then you may come to appreciate the power of these sophisticated machines."

Abbas from Iran, now living in Sweden, says it is good to use your brain because calculators are not always available. "Last week I met a university student who could not subtract six from forty and used a calculator," says Abbas.

But He Wenbo from China says calculators reduce careless mistakes. And Yang Linwei, an eleventh grader from China, says: "When I was young we couldn't use calculators. But when I entered high school we have to solve a lot of math problems. We have to use a calculator. It makes my homework easier."

From Burkina Faso, Compaore Tewende Michel writes: "I can say that the handheld calculator has been important in my studies and even in my life."

And Barnabas Nyaaba in Ghana advises that "as we enjoy the use of calculators, let's be careful so that it does not have any bad effects on us."

A Chinese abacus, or suan pan

Finally, Thomas, a student in China, says he likes using electronic calculators in school. But he wanted to tell us about what he called a special calculator which he does not know how to use. He even sent us a picture of this special -- and, in fact, ancient -- calculator. In English we call it an abacus.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1128_The Making of a Nation

2007-11-30T21:43:00.002+08:00

28 November 2007

US History: British Defeat the French in a Struggle for North America
During the 18th century, powerful European nations fought each other all over the world. The battle in North America was called the French and Indian War.

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VOICE ONE:

This is THE MAKING OF A NATION in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. This week, we tell about the conflicts among the nations in Europe during the eighteenth century and how they affected North America.

VOICE ONE:

During the eighteenth century, Spain, France and Britain controlled land in North America. Spain controlled Florida. France was powerful in the northern and central areas. Britain controlled the east. All three nations knew they could not exist together peacefully in North America. The situation could only be settled by war.

The powerful European nations already were fighting each other for land and money all over the world. These small wars continued for more than one hundred years. They were called King William's War, Queen Anne's War, King George's War and the French and Indian War.

VOICE TWO:

The French and Indian War was fought to decide if Britain or France would be the strong power in North America. France and its colonists and Indian allies fought against Britain, its colonists and Indian allies.

The war began with conflicts about land. French explorers had been the first Europeans in the areas around the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. France had sent traders and trappers to these territories and had established trading centers there.

Britain claimed the same land. When the king gave land in North America to someone, the land was considered to extend from east coast to west coast, even though no one knew where the west coast was. The land along the east coast had become crowded, and settlers were moving west. White people were destroying the Indians' hunting areas. And Indians became worried that they would lose the use of their land.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Indian tribes may have been able to resist the people moving west if they had been united. But their own conflicts kept the Indian groups apart. When Britain and France started fighting each other, some Indians helped the British. Others helped the French.

The French settlers lived mainly in what was called New France. Today it is part of Canada. Life there was different from life in the British colonies to the south. There was no religious freedom, for example. All settlers in French territories had to be French and belong to the Roman Catholic Church. So, many French people who belonged to Protestant churches settled in the British colonies.

France also did not like the fact that the British paid the Indians high prices for animal furs. France was more interested in the fur trade than in settling the land. The British hurt the French traders' business when they bought fur from the Indians.

VOICE TWO:

One of the French trading forts was built in the area where the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is today. The French called it Fort Duquesne. The British claimed it was in Virginia and that the land belonged to them. In seventeen fifty-four, the governor of Virginia sent a twenty-one-year-old colonist named George Washington to tell the French to get out. This was the same George Washington who would later become the first President of the United States.

The French refused to leave Fort Duquesne. So Washington and one hundred fifty men tried to force them out. They attacked a group of Frenchmen and killed ten of them. The French and Indian War had begun.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The defeat of General Edward Braddock in Virginia in 1755, in a detail from a work by artist John Andrew

British troops under the command of General Edward Braddock joined George Washington at Fort Duquesne. The British general expected to fight the way battles were fought in Europe. There, troops lined up on open fields and fired their weapons as they marched toward each other.

The French and Indians did not fight this way. They hid in the woods. They wore clothes that made them difficult to see. They shot at the British from behind trees. The British had more troops than the other side. But the French and Indians won the battle of Fort Duquesne. General Braddock was killed.

VOICE TWO:

Most of the French and Indian War was fought along two lakes in an area of New York state near the border with Canada. One was Lake George. The other, Lake Champlain north of Lake George. It reaches almost all the way to the city of Montreal in Canada.

These lakes provided the best way to move troops and supplies during the French and Indian war. Few roads existed in North America at that time. The military force, which controlled the lakes and rivers, controlled much of North America.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The French had military bases in the cities of Quebec and Montreal. The British had military bases along New York's Hudson River. The area between them became the great battleground.

Fighting increased after the British defeated the French near Lake George in the last months of seventeen fifty-five. The French then built a new military base to control Lake Champlain and the surrounding area.

The French military base was at the southern end of Lake Champlain. They built a strong camp, the kind called a fort. They called it Fort Carillon.

The fort would control Lake Champlain and the area needed to reach the northern part of Lake George. The fort was designed to provide a strong defense against attack. The French built two big walls of logs, several meters apart. The area between the walls was filled with dirt. Later, a strong stone front was added. Troops inside the walls were well protected. The British built a similar fort at the southern end of Lake George. They called it Fort William Henry.

VOICE TWO:

France sent one of its best military commanders to take command of its troops in America. His name was the Marquis de Montcalm. General Montcalm attacked several British forts in seventeen fifty-seven. One of these was Fort William Henry on Lake George. The British commander was forced to surrender.

General Montcalm promised that the British troops would be treated fairly if they surrendered. But the Indian allies of the French did not honor the surrender agreement. They began to kill British soldiers and settlers. No one is sure how many people died. It could have been more than one thousand.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

During the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, soldiers often marked their powder horns with maps and other images

In seventeen fifty-eight, a strong British force attacked Fort Carillon on Lake Champlain. General Montcalm was the French commander. Fort Carillon was strong enough that the smaller French force was able to defeat the bigger British force. The British withdrew, but attacked again the next year. This time the British commander was General Jeffery Amherst.

Amherst was successful. The British defeated the French. They changed the name of Fort Carillon to Fort Ticonderoga. It became an important military center in the French and Indian War. Fort Ticonderoga would also become important later, during America's war for independence.

VOICE TWO:

The Battle for Quebec was the turning point in the war. Britain and France signed a treaty to end it in Paris in seventeen sixty-three. The British had won. They took control of the lands that had been claimed by France.

Britain now claimed all the land from the east coast of North America to the Mississippi River. Everything west of that river belonged to Spain. France gave all its western lands to Spain to keep the British out. Indians still controlled most of the western lands, except for some Spanish colonies in Texas and New Mexico.

VOICE ONE:

Today, you can still visit the two forts that were so important in the French and Indian War. Little of the original buildings have survived. However, both have been re-built using the original designs. The area surrounding both forts is very beautiful, including the two lakes, Lake George and Lake Champlain.

Many people spend their holidays in this area enjoying the outdoors. The area includes one of America's national historical parks, Saratoga. It also includes the Lake George Beach State Park. Few people who visit the area stop to remember the terrible fighting that took place there two-hundred fifty years ago.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for another program about the history of the United States in Special English on the Voice of America.

VOASE1127_Health Report

2007-11-30T21:43:00.001+08:00

27 November 2007

Stored Blood Found to Lose a Life-Saving Gas
The loss of nitric oxide may explain some unexpected deaths in patients after transfusions.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Scientists have discovered that stored blood loses a life-saving gas. This discovery may explain why a great number of people get sick after receiving stored blood.

In recent years, experts have wondered why patients who should survive sometimes

Stored blood loses a life-saving gas

die after receiving a blood transfusion. The cause of death is often a heart attack or stroke.

Jonathan Stamler is a professor of medicine at Duke University in North Carolina. He and other researchers found that stored blood has very low levels of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a gas found in red blood cells. The gas helps to keep blood passages open so that oxygen in the cells can reach the heart and other organs.

Professor Stamler and his team found that nitric oxide in blood begins to break down as soon as the blood is collected. Their findings were reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Another team of Duke University scientists carried out a separate study. Professor Stamler says the second study found that the breakdown of nitric oxide begins within hours of blood collection.

He says the life-saving gas is partly lost after three hours. And about seventy percent of it is lost after just one day. As a result, he says, there is almost no time that stored blood has enough nitric oxide.

The researchers tested their findings on dogs. They found that low levels of nitric oxide reduced the flow of blood in the animals.

However, Professor Stamler says the scientists corrected the situation. They added nitric oxide to the stored blood given to the dogs. He says the extra nitric oxide repaired the ability of red blood cells to expand blood passages.

Professor Stamler says people who are in serious need of a blood transfusion should have one. But he says more studies are needed to show who would receive the most help from stored blood.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by SooJee Han. For more health news, along with transcripts and MP3 files of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a general question about health, click on the Contact Us link or write to special@voanews.com. We might answer your question in a future report, so please include your name and country. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOASE1127_Explorations

2007-11-30T21:43:00.000+08:00

27 November 2007

American Folklife Center: Preserving the Voices, Songs and Stories of Everyday People
The third part of a series of programs on keeping traditions alive.

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. We continue our series of reports about efforts to keep alive some traditional ways of doing things. Today we tell about preserving stories, experiences and beliefs of everyday people.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In the largest library in the world is a collection of voices. Voices of people telling the stories about important events in their lives. Singing songs they sang as children. Explaining the ceremonies and celebrations of their families and communities. This unusual collection is in the American Folklife Center, which is part of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

American Indian dancers Corina Drum and Mary Snowball take part in the Grand Entry at the Omaha Indian Powwow in 1983

The Folklife Center was created to collect and preserve the traditional knowledge that is passed on to others by spoken word and custom. The folklife collections include the folklore, cultural activities, traditional arts and personal histories of everyday people from the end of the nineteenth century to the present.

Peggy Bulger is the director of the American Folklife Center. She says the songs people sing, the stories they tell, the things they make are an important part of history. So the Folklife Center contains a historical record of a people told in their own voices, not described by political leaders, professors or writers.

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen seventy-six, the United States Congress passed a law that created the American Folklife Center to preserve and present the history of American folklife. The materials in the Center are available to researchers at the Library of Congress and at the library’s Web site. It also provides recordings, live performances, exhibits and publications. And it trains people to do the collecting.

More than four million objects are now in the collections of the American Folklife Center. Most of them are in the biggest and oldest part of the Center, which is the Archive of Folk Culture. It was established at the Library of Congress almost eighty years ago and was known for years as the Archive of American Folk Song.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Sociologist Lewis Wade Jones, left, of Fisk University recording a group of singers at the Fort Valley State College Folk Festival

In nineteen twenty-eight, the head of the Library of Congress decided that the library should collect American folk songs sung by people as they worked and played. Robert Gordon was chosen to lead this project. He had already decided his goal in life was to collect every American folk song. He traveled around the country, recording people in their homes or communities. The recordings were made on wax cylinders, a device that Thomas Edison invented in eighteen seventy-seven.

When John and Alan Lomax took over the job in nineteen thirty-two, they began collecting more than music and song. They recorded and documented personal histories. These included what people cooked, the crafts they made, and the jokes and stories passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth. This is the kind of information about everyday life that often disappears through the years.

VOICE TWO:

Peggy Bulger says experts in folklore, music, or culture travel around the country and the world to record folklife. They work either as private individuals or for the Library of Congress or other federal and state agencies. Many of them use equipment lent to them by the Library of Congress. In return, the collectors give their sound and video recordings, research notes, papers, and photographs to the library’s collection.

Through the years, the folklife collections have grown to include traditions and culture from every area of the United States. You can find almost anything in the collections, including Native American song and dance music, ancient English story songs and cowboy poetry. You can listen to the memories of ex-slaves, experiences of Italian-American wine makers and memories of boat makers in the state of Maine.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Peggy Bulger says the materials in the Archive of Folk Culture are from almost every place in the world. People who come from other countries to settle in the United States bring their folklore with them. So the folklore and traditions of the immigrants become part of the collections – including those from Sudan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bosnia and Latin America. Miz Bulger says the collections document the culture of the world as it exists today in the United States.

VOICE TWO:

The Archive of Folk Culture continues to grow. Individuals who have made a career of collecting folklore material want their collections to go to the Library of Congress when they retire. They want the materials to be preserved and made available to researchers in the future. For example, Miz Bulger says that next year a folklorist who documented women’s traditions in Afghanistan in the nineteen sixties is giving his collection to the Folklife Center.

VOICE ONE:

Peggy Bulger is excited about helping native groups record and save their own traditions and folklore. Two members of the Masai tribe of Kenya will spend a week getting training at the Folklife Center. Miz Bulger says the Masai do not want outsiders coming in to document their sacred ceremonies and songs. The Masai want to learn how to record and film themselves so they can be sure their traditions survive for future generations. And they want to have control over the use of the recordings, keeping ceremonial traditions secret, but making other information available to outsiders.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Bob Patrick is head of the Veterans History Project. The idea for the project began when United States Representative Ron Kind of Wisconsin was at a family gathering. His father and his uncle started talking about their experiences in war. Representative Kind decided to make a video recording of them telling their stories to save for his children when they were older. He decided then that the memories of all men and women who served in wars are important to record and preserve.

In the year two thousand, Representative Kind introduced a bill in Congress to establish the Veterans History Project. The bill passed with no opposition and was signed into law. The main purpose of the project is to collect and preserve the remembrances of people who served in all wars.

Bob Patrick says the project now has more than fifty thousand individual stories, including recordings or videos of veterans telling their stories about war. The collections also include photographs, letters, and other personal materials. All the materials are kept in the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress. Some of them are available through the Web site.

VOICE ONE:

Mister Patrick says many organizations and individuals volunteer to make the recordings. Retirement communities, veterans’ organizations, historical societies, libraries, and high school and college students are part of the project. The most important volunteers are family members and friends who talk to the veterans about their lives and record their memories. Mister Patrick says that today’s technology makes that easy to do. The Veterans History project Web site has suggestions to help people who do the recordings.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Most new recordings in the American Folklife Center are in digital form, especially those made for the Veterans History Project and StoryCorps. People being recorded now are asked to give permission for their information to be shared with others through the World Wide Web at www.loc.gov/folklife. Peggy Bulger hopes that in the future more older materials will be available to researchers around the world.

Miz Bulger says efforts by the Library of Congress to record and preserve dances, songs and stories help support traditional cultures. These efforts help young people realize the knowledge of older people is valuable. Every year, she says, more people recognize that folklife is an important part of the historical record.

VOICE ONE:

Peggy Bulger says the recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture prove that voices are very powerful. Listening to someone talk about his or her life gives you so much more information, she says, than just reading about it. The growing collections of voices that are part of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress are a lasting record of social and cultural life. They are a record that is truly of, by and for the people.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Steve Ember. You can find out more about the American Folklife Center at our web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next month to EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English for another program about keeping traditions alive.

VOASE1126_Agriculture Report

2007-11-30T21:42:00.000+08:00

26 November 2007

Not All Carrots Are Orange
Advice about growing one of the world's most popular vegetables.

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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

An American carrot farmer harvests his crop earlier this year

Carrots are grown on farms and in family gardens throughout the world. Carrots are easy to raise and easy to harvest. They taste good. And they contain a lot of carotene, which the body makes into vitamin A.

When people think of carrots, they usually picture in their mind a vegetable that is long, thin and orange in color. But carrots come in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange.

For example, Paris Market carrots are about five centimeters around. Imperator carrots are thin and about twenty-five centimeters long. And Belgian White carrots are, as their name suggests, white.

For the best results, carrots should be grown in sandy soil that does not hold water for a long time. The soil also should have no rocks.

To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the soil, loosen it and turn it over. Then, mix in some plant material or animal fertilizer.

Weather, soil conditions and age will affect the way carrots taste. Experts say warm days, cool nights and a medium soil temperature are the best conditions for growing carrots that taste great.

Carrots need time to develop their full sugar content. This gives them their taste. If they are harvested too early, they will not have enough sugar. But carrots loose their sweetness if you wait too long to pull them from the ground.

The best way to judge if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color, the better the taste.

Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow and harvest carrots the same way as during the summer months.

If the ground does freeze in your part of the world, simply cover your carrot garden with a thick layer of leaves or straw. This will prevent the ground from freezing. You can remove the ground cover and harvest the carrots as they are needed.

Carrots are prepared and eaten many different ways. They are cut in thin pieces and added to other vegetables. They are cooked by themselves or added to stews. Or, once they are washed, they are eaten just as they come out of the ground.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. For more agricultural advice, along with transcripts and archives of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1126_Science In the News

2007-11-30T21:41:00.001+08:00

26 November 2007

Six Medical Researchers Who Gave All to Their Work; in Some Cases, Even Their Lives
The stories of Jesse Lazear, Clara Maass, Joseph Goldberger, Matthew Lukwiya, Carlo Urbani and Anita Roberts.

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VOICE ONE :

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

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, the stories of some medical heroes.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

At the start of the twentieth century, the United States Army had a Yellow Fever Commission. The Army wanted medical experts to study yellow fever and find a way to stop the disease. One team went to Cuba to test the idea that mosquitoes spread yellow fever. The team was led by Walter Reed, the Army doctor and scientist noted for his work on infectious diseases.

In August of nineteen hundred, the researchers began to raise mosquitoes and infect them with the virus. Nine of the Americans let the infected insects bite them. Nothing happened. Then two more let the mosquitoes bite them. Both men developed yellow fever.

VOICE TWO:

Jesse Lazear

A doctor named Jesse William Lazear recognized that the mosquitoes that bit the last two men had been older than the others. Doctor Lazear proved that mosquitoes did carry yellow fever.

Doctor Lazear himself was also bitten. No one is sure how it happened. He said it happened accidentally as he treated others. But some people said he placed the mosquito on his arm as part of the experiment. Medical historians say he may have reported the bite as an accident so his family would not be denied money from his life insurance policy.

VOICE ONE:

Jesse Lazear died of yellow fever. His death shocked the others on the team in Cuba. But they continued their work.

More people let themselves be bitten by mosquitoes. Others were injected with blood from victims of yellow fever. Some people in this test group developed the disease, but all recovered to full health.

Members of the team praised the work by Jesse Lazear. They called it a sacrifice to research that led the way to one of the greatest medical discoveries of the century.

VOICE TWO:

The research answered the question of how yellow fever was spread. Now the question was how to protect people. The researchers had a theory. They thought that people who were bitten by infected mosquitoes, but recovered, were protected in the future.

To test this idea, the team in Cuba offered one hundred dollars to anyone who would agree to be bitten by infected mosquitoes. Nineteen people agreed. The only American was Clara Maass. She was a nurse who worked with yellow fever patients in Cuba.

Clara Maass was bitten by infected mosquitoes seven times between March and August of nineteen-oh-one. Only one of the nineteen people developed the disease -- until that August. Then seven people got yellow fever. Clara Maass died six days after she was bitten for the seventh time.

VOICE ONE:

The experiment showed that the bite of an infected mosquito was not a safe way to protect people from yellow fever. Medical historians say the death of Clara Maass also created a public protest over the use of humans in yellow fever research. Such experiments ended.

Cuba and the United States both honored Clara Maass on postage stamps. And today a hospital in her home state of New Jersey is known as Clara Maass Medical Center.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Joseph Goldberger

Joseph Goldberger was a doctor for the United States Public Health Service. In nineteen twelve, he began to study a skin disease that was killing thousands of people in the South. The disease was pellagra.

Doctor Goldberger traveled to the state of Mississippi where many people suffered from pellagra. He studied the victims and their families. Most of the people were poor. The doctor came to believe that the disease was not infectious, but instead related to diet.

He received permission from the state governor to test this idea at a prison. Prisoners were offered pardons if they took part. One group of prisoners received their usual foods, mostly corn products. A second group ate meat, fresh vegetables and milk.

Members of the first group developed pellagra. The second group did not.

VOICE ONE:

But some medical researchers refused to accept that a poor diet caused pellagra. For the South, pellagra was more than simply a medical problem. There were other issues involved, including Southern pride.

So Doctor Goldberger had himself injected with blood from a person with pellagra. He also took liquid from the nose and throat of a pellagra patient and put them into his own nose and throat. He even swallowed pills that contained skin from pellagra patients.

An assistant also took part in the experiments. So did Doctor Goldberger's wife. None of them got sick.

Later, the doctor discovered that a small amount of dried brewer's yeast each day could prevent pellagra.

Joseph Goldberger died of cancer in nineteen twenty-nine. He was fifty-five years old. Several years later, researchers discovered the exact cause of pellagra: a lack of the B vitamin known as niacin.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Matthew Lukwiya

was the medical administrator of Saint Mary’s Hospital in the Gulu District of northern Uganda. In two thousand, the hospital was the center of treatment for an outbreak of Ebola. The virus causes severe bleeding. No cure is known. Doctors can only hope that victims are strong enough to survive.

Doctor Lukwiya acted quickly to control the spread of infection. He kept the people with Ebola separate from the other patients. He ordered hospital workers to wear protective clothing and follow other safety measures.

One day he had to deal with a patient who was dying of Ebola. The man had been acting out of control. The doctor knew him well. The patient was a nurse who worked at the hospital. The man was coughing and bleeding. Doctor Lukwiya violated one of his own rules. He wore no protection over his eyes.

Matthew Lukwiya died from the virus in December of two thousand. He was forty-two years old. Ugandans mourned his death. He was an important influence in the community. Experts say his work during the outbreak helped stop the Ebola virus from spreading out of control.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Carlo Urbani

On February twenty-eighth, two thousand three, the Vietnam-France Hospital in Hanoi asked Carlo Urbani for help. The Italian doctor was an expert on communicable diseases. He was based in Vietnam for the World Health Organization.

The hospital asked Doctor Urbani to help identify an unusual infection. He recognized it as a new threat. He made sure other hospitals increased their infection-control measures.

On March eleventh, Doctor Urbani developed signs of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Four days later, the World Health Organization declared it a worldwide health threat.

Carlo Urbani was the first doctor to warn the world of the disease that became known as SARS. He died of it on March twenty-ninth, two thousand three. He was forty-six years old.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Anita Roberts

Our final medical hero is molecular biologist Anita Roberts. She was widely recognized by other researchers for her work with a protein called transforming growth factor-beta. TGF-beta can both heal wounds and make healthy cells cancerous.

In nineteen seventy-six, Anita Roberts joined the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States. She worked for many years with another researcher, Michael Sporn.

They found that TGF-beta helps to heal wounds and is important in the body’s defense system against disease. At the same time, though, the two scientists found that the protein can also support the growth of cancer in some cells.

VOICE ONE:

Between nineteen eighty-three and two thousand two, Anita Roberts published more than three hundred forty research papers. Many other scientists gave credit to her published work. In fact, the publication Science Watch listed her as the forty-ninth most-cited researcher in the world during that twenty-year period. She was the third most-cited female scientist.

But in two thousand four, after years of studying cancer, Anita Roberts learned that she herself had the disease. She died of gastric cancer in May of two thousand six. She was sixty-four years old.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Bob Doughty. Internet users can download transcripts and audio archives of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

VOASE1125_This Is America

2007-11-30T21:41:00.000+08:00

25 November 2007

Every Year the Kennedy Center Honors Five Artists for a Lifetime of Excellence
Brian Wilson, Steve Martin, Leon Fleisher, Martin Scorsese and Diana Ross received the Kennedy Center Honors this year.

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to This Is America in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. is one of the official cultural centers of America. For the past thirty years, the center has presented awards honoring five artists for their lifetime of work.

These artists were chosen this year for the Kennedy Center Honors: The singers Diana Ross and Brian Wilson. The actor and writer Steve Martin. The pianist Leon Fleisher. And the film director Martin Scorsese. They will be honored this Sunday, December second.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Brian Wilson

"Good Vibrations" and the other songs Brian Wilson wrote for The Beach Boys remain as fresh and energizing today as they were forty years ago. Wilson started the band with his two brothers, a cousin and a friend in the early nineteen sixties. The Beach Boys made a new kind of American rock music popular. Their songs express the fun of being young, enjoying girls, driving cars and surfing the ocean in California.

VOICE TWO:

Brian Wilson not only wrote The Beach Boys' songs. He also sang, played the bass guitar and keyboard, and produced the band’s records. Some experts believe that their album “Pet Sounds” was one of the most inventive and important records in rock music history.

The Beach Boys were also one of the most popular bands in America during a time when the British band The Beatles were capturing the attention of the world.

VOICE ONE:

(MUSIC)

Steve Martin

Steve Martin is a popular writer, actor and comedian. He is also a skilled banjo player. Martin first started his career writing for funny television shows like “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” In the nineteen seventies he began performing his funny jokes and acts on the weekly television program “Saturday Night Live.”

(SOUND)

Steve Martin: “You know, a lot of people ask me if Steve Martin is my real name. Have I changed it for show business or anything like that. And, now I am not ashamed to admit it. Because I did have a funny name when I was a kid, and I decided to change it for show business. But I think enough time has gone by and audiences are more sophisticated now that they won’t laugh at my real name. My real name is bybybuhbuh … So my parents had a sense of humor. My sister’s name is hurhurhurhr . And my mother would go out to call us for dinner and she’d go bybybuhbuh! Hrrhrhr bbrbrb! So, we had to move around a lot. But other than that I had a very normal childhood.”

He also won Grammy awards for the records of his live comedy performances, one of which you just heard.

VOICE TWO:

Steve Martin has also made over thirty-five movies, many of which he helped write. These include “The Jerk”, “All of Me”, “Parenthood”, and, more recently, “Shopgirl.”

Martin has written articles, books and successful plays such as “Picasso at the Lapin Agile." He wrote a book about his years of performing as a comedian, “Born Standing Up,” that was released last week. His next movie will be “Pink Panther Deux.”

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Leon Fleisher

That was a recording of the pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher playing part of Schubert’s Sonata in B Flat Major. Fleisher began studying the piano at the age of four. By the time he was sixteen, he was playing with the New York Philharmonic. Leon Fleisher traveled far and wide playing in the finest concert halls in the world and also recording music. In nineteen sixty-five, a neurological disorder called dystonia forced Fleisher to rethink his career. He lost the use of his right hand, but he did not let this stop him.

VOICE TWO:

Leon Fleisher poured his energy into teaching and also conducting groups of musicians. He also began to specialize in performing piano music written for the left hand. In the nineteen nineties, doctors began to treat Fleisher’s damaged hand with Botox injections.

Over time, Leon Fleisher recovered and started playing piano works for both hands once again. He has said that if he could relive his life, he would not change what happened to his hand. He says his experience helped him become a much better musician and teacher.

(SOUND)

VOICE ONE:

Martin Scorsese

That was a scene from the movie “Goodfellas”, directed by Martin Scorsese. Many people consider him one of the greatest living American film directors. Scorsese is best known for his movies about characters linked to crime and violence. Many of his movies are about Italian-American characters. Still, over the years, he has made movies about many subjects. “Kundun” tells the story of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. “The Aviator” is about the American businessman Howard Hughes. Scorsese also brought to life periods from the American past in movies like “Gangs of New York” and “The Age of Innocence.”

His latest movie, “The Departed,” is about opposing groups of criminals and police officers. It won four Academy Awards last year, including best director and best movie. Martin Scorsese has also made documentary movies about musicians, including Bob Dylan. He will soon release a movie about the Rolling Stones.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Diana Ross

That was the clear, sweet voice of Diana Ross singing “You Can’t Hurry Love” with her back-up singers. The Supremes were from Detroit, Michigan. They became one of the most popular female singing groups of the nineteen sixties. The Supremes mixed the sounds of popular music with the soulful music born in Detroit called Motown. By nineteen seventy, Diana Ross had left the band to sing on her own. She made many best-selling records including “Diana Ross”, “Surrender” and “diana."

VOICE ONE:

Diana Ross also acted in television shows and movies. Her performance as Billie Holiday in the movie “Lady Sings the Blues” earned her an Academy Award nomination.

Over the years, Ross has won many American Music Awards. Billboard magazine named her the “Entertainer of the Century.” The Guinness Book of World Records called Diana Ross the Most Successful Recording Artist of All Time. Her most recent album “I Love You” came out earlier this year.

VOICE TWO:

Brian Wilson, Steve Martin, Leon Fleisher, Martin Scorsese and Diana Ross are remarkable performers. On Sunday, the Kennedy Center will honor them for sharing their artistic gifts with people all over the world.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

VOASE1125_Development Report

2007-11-30T21:40:00.001+08:00

25 November 2007

A Cool Way to Keep Food From Spoiling
Mohammed Bah Abba's pot-in-pot cooling system.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

A few degrees can make a big difference when it comes to food storage. Foods can go bad if they get too warm. But for many of the world's poor, finding a good way to keep food cool is difficult. Refrigerators are costly and they need electricity.

Yet spoiled food not only creates health risks but also economic losses. Farmers lose money when they have to throw away products that they cannot sell quickly.

Mohammed Bah Abba's pot-in-pot cooling system

But in nineteen ninety-five a teacher in northern Nigeria named Mohammed Bah Abba found a solution. He developed the "Pot-in-Pot Preservation/Cooling System." It uses two round containers made of clay. A smaller pot is placed inside a larger one.

The space between the two pots is filled with wet sand. The inner pot can be filled with fruit, vegetables or drinks. A wet cloth covers the whole cooling system.

Food stored in the smaller pot is kept from spoiling through a simple evaporation process. Water in the sand between the two pots evaporates through the surface of the larger pot, where drier outside air is moving.

The evaporation process creates a drop in temperature of several degrees. This cools the inner pot and helps keep food safe from harmful bacteria. Some foods can be kept fresh this way for several weeks.

People throughout Nigeria began using the invention. And it became popular with farmers in other African countries. Mohammed Bah Abba personally financed the first five thousand pot-in-pot systems for his own community and five villages nearby.

In two thousand, the Rolex Watch Company of Switzerland honored him with the Rolex Award for Enterprise. This award recognizes people trying to develop projects aimed at improving human knowledge and well-being.

A committee considers projects in science and medicine, technology, exploration and discovery, the environment and cultural history. Winners receive financial assistance to help develop and extend their projects.

The award is given every two years. The next one will be given in two thousand eight.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about the Rolex Awards at rolexawards.com. And you can learn more about technology and the developing world at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1124_People In America

2007-11-30T21:40:00.000+08:00

24 November 2007

Ray Kroc, 1902-1984: The Man Who Made McDonald's Popular Around the World
He helped develop the fast food industry.

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE TWO:

Ray Kroc

And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Ray Kroc, the man who helped make the fast food industry famous. He expanded a small business into an international operation called McDonald’s.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

You probably know what fast food is. It is cooked food that is ready almost as soon as you enter a public eating place. It does not cost much. It is popular with most Americans and with many people around the world. Some experts say that at least twenty-five percent of American adults eat fast food every day. Most fast food restaurants offer ground beef sandwiches called hamburgers and potatoes cooked in hot oil called French fries. Other fast food places serve fried chicken, pizza or tacos.

VOICE TWO:

You see fast food restaurants almost everywhere in the United States. The names and the designs of the buildings are easily recognized – Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and of course, McDonald’s. Most are chain restaurants. That means each one is part of a huge company.

Each restaurant in the chain has the same large, colorful sign that can be recognized from far away. Each offers its own carefully limited choice of foods. Each kind of hamburger or piece of chicken tastes the same at every restaurant in the chain.

VOICE ONE:

The fast food industry began with two brothers in San Bernardino, California in the nineteen forties. Mac and Dick McDonald owned a small, but very successful restaurant. They sold only a few kinds of simple food, especially hamburgers.

People stood outside the restaurant at a window. They told the workers inside what they wanted to eat. They received and paid for their food very quickly. The food came in containers that could be thrown away. The system was so successful that the McDonald brothers discovered they could sell a lot of food and lower their prices.

VOICE TWO:

Ray Kroc sold restaurant supplies. He recognized the importance of the McDonald brothers’ idea. He saw that food sales could be organized for mass production -- almost like a factory. Mister Kroc paid the McDonald brothers for permission to open several restaurants similar to theirs. He opened the first McDonald’s restaurant near Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen fifty-five. Soon, more McDonald’s were opening all across the United States. Other people copied the idea and more fast food restaurants followed.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Raymond Albert Kroc was a very wealthy businessman when he died in nineteen eighty-four. But he had not always been successful. Ray was born in Illinois in nineteen-oh-two. His parents were not rich. He attended school in Oak Park, near Chicago. Ray never completed high school, however. He left school to become a driver for the Red Cross in World War One. He lied about his age to be accepted. He was only fifteen. The war ended before he could be sent to Europe.

VOICE TWO:

After the war, Ray became a jazz piano player. He played with famous music groups. He got married when he was twenty. Then he began working for the Lily Tulip Cup Company, selling paper cups. He kept trying new things, however. He attempted to sell land in the southern state of Florida. That business failed. Ray Kroc remembered driving to Chicago from Florida after his business failed. He said: “I will never forget that drive as long as I live. The streets were covered with ice, and I did not have winter clothing. When I arrived home I was very cold and had no money.”

VOICE ONE:

Ray Kroc went back to being a salesman for the Lily Tulip Cup Company. He was responsible for product sales in the central United States. His life improved when he started a small business that sold restaurant supplies. He sold a machine that could mix five milkshakes at one time.

In nineteen fifty-four, he discovered a small restaurant that was using eight of his machines. He went there and found that the owners of the restaurant had a good business selling only hamburgers, French fries and drinks.

At first, Mister Kroc saw only the possibility for increasing the sales of his mixers to more restaurants. Then he proposed an agreement with the McDonald brothers to start a number of restaurants. Under the agreement, the McDonald brothers would get a percentage of all sales.

VOICE TWO:

Ray Kroc's first McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955

The first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, in nineteen fifty-five. Ray Kroc was fifty-two years old -- an age when many people start thinking about retirement. He opened two restaurants. Soon he began to understand that the real profits were made in selling hamburgers, not the mixers. He quickly sold the mixer company and invested the money in the growing chain of McDonald’s restaurants.

In nineteen-sixty, Mister Kroc bought the legal rights to the restaurants from the McDonald brothers. By then, the chain had more than two hundred restaurants.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Fast food restaurants spread quickly in the United States because of franchising. Franchising means selling the legal right to operate a store in a company’s chain to an independent business person. If the company approves, the business person may buy or lease the store for a period of years.

Many people want to own a McDonald’s restaurant, but only a few are approved. Each restaurant buys its supplies at a low cost from the parent company. Each restaurant also gives the company about ten percent of the money it earns in sales. Today, about seventy percent of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent businessmen and women.

VOICE TWO:

Ray Kroc was good at identifying what the public wanted. He knew that many American families wanted to eat in a restaurant sometimes. He gave people a simple eating place with popular food, low prices, friendly service and no waiting. And all McDonald’s restaurants sold the same food in every restaurant across the country.

Ray Kroc established rules for how McDonald’s restaurants were to operate. He demanded that every restaurant offer “quality, service and cleanliness.” People lucky enough to get a franchise must complete a program at a training center called Hamburger University. They learn how to cook and serve the food, and how to keep the building clean. More than sixty-five thousand people have completed this training.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

McDonald’s began to expand around the world in nineteen sixty-seven. Ray Kroc’s business ability made McDonald’s the largest restaurant company in the world. There are now more than thirty thousand McDonald’s restaurants on six continents.

The company operates in about one hundred twenty countries. Every day, McDonald’s restaurants around the world serve about fifty million people.

VOICE TWO:

In later years, Ray Kroc established the Kroc Foundation, a private organization that gives money to help others. He also established a number of centers that offer support to families of children who have cancer. They are called Ronald McDonald houses.

Many people praised Ray Kroc for his company’s success and good works. But other people sharply criticized him for the way McDonald’s treated young employees. Many of the workers were paid the lowest wage permitted by American law. Health experts still criticize McDonald’s food for containing too much fat and salt.

In the nineteen seventies, Ray Kroc turned his energy from hamburgers to sports. He bought a professional baseball team in California, the San Diego Padres. He died in nineteen eighty-four. He was eighty-one years old.

VOICE ONE:

That first McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, was torn down. It was replaced by a store and visitors center that attempts to copy what was in the original building. Another museum in nearby Oak Park describes the life of Ray Kroc. Ray Kroc’s story remains an important part of McDonald’s history. And his way of doing business continues to influence fast food restaurants that feed people around the world.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was the producer. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English.

VOASE1123_In the News

2007-11-30T21:35:00.000+08:00

23 November 2007

Super Duper Tuesday' Will Mark a Short but Intense Primary Season
We answer a question about the importance of the event known as Super Tuesday in the American presidential campaign.

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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

From time to time we are answering questions about the American election process. Today, from Jigawa, Nigeria, Mustapha Aminu Gumel asks why Super Tuesday is so special in the presidential campaign.

Super Tuesday is a day when a large number of states hold primary elections or caucus meetings. Primaries and caucuses are part of the nominating process.

In the two thousand four campaign, ten states held their events on Tuesday, March second. Next year Super Tuesday will come almost a month earlier -- on February fifth. And it has earned the name "Super Duper Tuesday" or "Tsunami Tuesday."

This time more than twenty states will hold primaries or caucuses. These include big states with a lot of delegates like California, Illinois and New York.

During the nominating season, people vote for a candidate. But what they are really doing is choosing delegates to the national political conventions later in the year. These are where the Democrats and Republicans nominate their candidates for the general election in November.

The two thousand eight presidential campaign began much earlier than Americans are used to. The national conventions are not until late summer. But the likely nominees should become clear by February fifth -- Super Tuesday -- if not sooner.

Traditionally, Iowa holds the first caucuses in the nation and New Hampshire holds the first primary. The results of the voting get a lot of attention. The idea behind these early tests is to give candidates with less money a chance to compete against those with bigger campaigns. Critics, however, say this tradition gives these small states an unfair amount of influence in the presidential campaign.

New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner announces January 8 as the date for its primary

The Iowa caucuses will take place on January third. And New Hampshire will hold its primary on January eighth. The date was set after the Michigan Supreme Court this week cleared the way for Michigan to hold its primary on January fifteenth. New Hampshire is required by state law to hold its primary at least a week before any similar election.

Florida, South Carolina and Nevada, along with Republicans in Wyoming, will also hold their primaries or caucuses in January.

Opinion is divided about the idea of so many states holding their votes so early in the election year. Supporters say earlier primaries could give voters a greater choice of candidates. Yet states that moved their voting ahead to February fifth, hoping to get more attention from candidates, may still find their influence limited.

Some experts say the nominating season is so heavy at the start, so front-loaded, that doing well in Iowa and New Hampshire will be more important than ever.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. You can learn more about American politics at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us a question, click on Contact Us and please include your name and where you are. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1122_Economics Report

2007-11-24T04:14:00.000+08:00

22 November 2007

Petroleum: A Short History of Black Gold
By the early 1900s, the Standard Oil Company of John D. Rockefeller came to control almost all of the American oil industry.

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

With oil around one hundred dollars a barrel, this may be a good time for a short history of petroleum.

Petroleum has been important since ancient times. The Greek historian Herodotus told of its use in the form of pitch for building and road making in the ancient city of Babylon in present-day Iraq.

In Latin, the name means "rock oil." Petroleum is a fossil fuel. The liquid comes from the remains of plants and animals that died millions of years ago. These remains were buried deep below levels of rock over time and under great pressure.

This geological process created complex molecules of hydrogen and carbon. Oil can also contain other elements. Crude oil, or unprocessed petroleum, is called sour when it contains a lot of sulfur, an impurity. Sour crude requires more refining than sweet crude, which is low in sulfur and, as a result, often more valuable.

The modern history of oil started in the middle of the eighteen hundreds. At that time, a method was found to make kerosene fuel from petroleum. This kind of fuel became popular for heating and lighting.

Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in the United States in eighteen fifty-nine near Titusville, Pennsylvania.

John D. Rockefeller

In the early eighteen sixties, John D. Rockefeller entered the oil business. Rockefeller and his partners understood the power of controlling all levels of production. By eighteen seventy, Rockefeller and his partners formed the Standard Oil Company.

Standard Oil and other companies that it owned performed every level of production -- from drilling to refining to transporting and selling. But in its efforts to grow, Standard Oil was strongly criticized for crushing smaller competitors.

Finally, in nineteen eleven, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil was misusing its powerful market position. The ruling divided Standard Oil into thirty-four independent companies.

Today, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron are some of the companies whose roots go back to the breakup of Standard Oil. They are among the largest publicly traded companies in the world.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Our history of petroleum continues next week. That includes a look at the history of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, better known as OPEC. Transcripts and MP3 archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1122_American Mosaic

2007-11-24T04:13:00.000+08:00

22 November 2007

How Green Day Has Redefined Punk Rock for a Wider Audience
Also: The VSA arts competition for people with disabilities chooses this year's winners. And learn why the Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday is called ''Black Friday.''

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HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(THEME)

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We listen to some music from the group Green Day …

Report about an art show by some very special young artists …

And explain why the day after Thanksgiving has a special name.

VSA arts

HOST:

VSA arts is an organization that works to give people with disabilities a chance to learn about and enjoy the arts. For six years, the group has partnered with the automobile company Volkswagen of America to create a competition to support artists with disabilities. The artists are between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five. This year, over two hundred artists entered the contest. A group of art experts chose fifteen winners. The artists received a total of sixty thousand dollars in prize money. Steve Ember has more.

STEVE EMBER:

Every year, the VSA arts competition chooses a subject for its art competition. This year, the theme and name of the exhibition is “Driven.” The artists were asked to make works that show what forces and ideas move them to create.

Twenty-one year old Jacolby Satterwhite from Baltimore, Maryland,

Jacolby Satterwhite's ''Remission and Resilience'' received first prize in the VSA arts competition

won the twenty thousand dollar first prize for his painting “Remission and Resilience.” This large and colorful painting shows six people doing different activities. Behind them is an expressive blue and orange sky.

Jacolby started making art at the age of three. But by age eleven, he developed bone cancer and had to have parts of his right arm removed. This disability did not stop him from creating his art. He says continuing to make art with these limits is a way of winning over a dark period in his life.

Laurel Ebenal from the state of Washington won second prize for her “Faun” photograph of a person wearing a theatrical face covering. Laurel is influenced by an imaginary world of dreams and stories. Although she has lost half of her hearing, she says her art permits her to express herself in ways that words cannot.

E. Brooke Lanier from Chicago, Illinois won third prize for her painting called “Staring.” Her art expresses what it is like for an artist to go blind. The painting has a white background with bold black letters. It looks like the picture an eye doctor uses to test a person’s eyesight. The letters start big, then get smaller towards the bottom. The letters say: “I cannot see you but I know you are staring at me.”

Green Day

HOST:

Our listener question this week comes from Russia. Viacheslav wants to know about the rock group Green Day. This band is considered to have brought punk rock style music to a wider audience of listeners.

From left, Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt

Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt from Berkeley, California, formed the band in nineteen eighty-seven when they were fifteen years old. The two friends gave their first performance at the restaurant where Billie Joe’s mother worked.

Billie Joe and Mike later asked Tré Cool to replace Green Day’s first drummer who left the group to attend college. The band’s first two full-length albums were called “1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours” and “Kerplunk.” Their first album with a large record company came out in nineteen ninety-four. “Dookie" sold over ten million copies around the world. It also earned the group a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Group. Here is the hit song “Basket Case” from that album.

(MUSIC)

In nineteen ninety-five, Green Day released the album “Insomniac” which had a darker and more intense sound. Two years later, the group released “Nimrod.” The album “Warning” earned Green Day eight California Music awards, though it was not one of their best selling albums. Here is the song “Minority” from that album.

(MUSIC)

Green Day later began making a new album, but the recordings of the songs were stolen from the band’s music studio. Green Day decided not to recreate the same album. They decided to do something different. In two thousand four they released “American Idiot” which became an international best seller. The songs criticize American policy over the war in Iraq. Billie Joe Armstrong said that he knew the album could be a risky choice for the band. But he felt it was worth the risk to be able to honestly voice the band’s political beliefs.

This year Green Day recorded a song for an album made by Amnesty International. The aim of the recording is to increase attention about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan. We leave you with Green Day’s version of “Working Class Hero” written by John Lennon.

(MUSIC)

Black Friday

HOST:

Yesterday, November twenty-second, was Thanksgiving in the United States. It was a day for family members to get together, share a meal and express thanks for the good things in the past year. The day after Thanksgiving also has its own tradition. Barbara Klein explains.

BARBARA KLEIN:

Today, the day after Thanksgiving, is considered the first day of the holiday shopping season in the United States. It even has a name -- “Black Friday.” The name comes from the idea that this is the day when store owners begin to show a profit for the year.

Shoppers on ''Black Friday'' in 2006

In the past, before calculators and computers, workers recorded the profits and losses of American businesses in special books. They used red ink to record losses. They used black ink to record profits. They used the term “in the red” to mean losing money. "In the black” meant making a profit. So “Black Friday” was the day when the store owners moved from being “in the red” to “in the black.”

Many people consider “Black Friday” to be the busiest shopping day of the year. But that is probably false. Researchers say it may be the day when the largest number of people go to stores. But it is not necessarily the day when shoppers spend the largest amount of money. Some experts say Americans just want to get out of the house the day after Thanksgiving. And many stores reduce some of their prices on “Black Friday.”

However, experts say that many people wait until much closer to Christmas, December twenty-fifth, hoping to find even lower prices. They say the busiest day of the year in terms of the amount of shoppers and sales is usually the Saturday before Christmas.

A marketing services company carried out a public opinion study about shopping last month. It asked almost one thousand Americans about their gift buying plans. One-third said they plan to go to stores to shop on the day after Thanksgiving.

The study found that these shoppers are mainly young people, probably because older people do not want to deal with huge crowds. In fact, business leaders say many older Americans are doing their shopping at home -- on the computer. They say the day most people shop online is the Monday after “Black Friday.” They even have a name for it -- "Cyber Monday.”

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

VOASE1121_The Making of a Nation

2007-11-22T23:12:00.001+08:00

21 November 2007

American History Series: By 1750, Almost One in Four People in the Colonies Were Slaves
Many Americans thought slavery was evil but necessary. Benjamin Franklin owned slaves for 30 years. But his beliefs changed.

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VOICE ONE:

This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

Today, we tell about slavery, and how it affected the history of the United States.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Slavery is one person controlling or owning another. Some history experts say it began following the development of farming about ten thousand years ago. People forced prisoners of war to work for them. Other slaves were criminals or people who could not re-pay money they owed.

Experts say the first known slaves existed in the Sumerian society of what is now Iraq more than five thousand years ago. Slavery also existed among people in China, India, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. It expanded as trade and industry increased.

This increase created a demand for a labor force to produce goods for export. Slaves did most of the work. Most ancient people thought of slavery as a natural condition that could happen to anyone at any time. Few saw it as evil or unfair. In most cities, slaves could be freed by their owners and become citizens.

In later times, slaves provided the labor needed to produce products that were in demand. Sugar was one of these products. Italians established large sugar farms beginning around the twelfth century. They used slaves from Russia and other parts of Europe to do the work. By the year thirteen hundred, African blacks had begun to replace the Russian slaves. They were bought or captured from North African Arabs, who used them as slaves for years.

By the fifteen hundreds, Spain and Portugal had American colonies. The Europeans made native Indians work in large farms and mines in the colonies. Most of the Indians died from European diseases and poor treatment. So the Spanish and Portuguese began to bring in people from West Africa as slaves. France, Britain and the Netherlands did the same in their American colonies.

VOICE TWO:

In 1660, Charles II gave the Royal African Company the right to secure a trade monopoly in West Africa. From there, the company began supplying slaves to England's American colonies.

England's southern colonies in North America developed a farm economy that could not survive without slave labor.

Many slaves lived on large farms called plantations. These large farms produced important crops traded by the colony, crops such as cotton and tobacco. Each plantation was like a small village owned by one family. That family lived in a large house, usually facing a river. Many separate buildings were needed on a plantation. For example, a building was needed for cooking. And buildings were needed for workers to produce goods such as furniture that were used on the plantation.

The plantation business was farming. So there also were barns for animals and buildings for holding and drying crops. There was a house to smoke meat so could be kept safely. And there was a place on the river from which goods were sent to England on ships.

VOICE ONE:

The plantation owner controlled the farm and saw that it earned money. He supervised, fed and clothed the people living on it, including the slaves.

Big plantations might have two hundred slaves. They worked in the fields on crops that would be sold or eaten by the people who lived on the plantation. They also raised animals for meat and milk.

Field slaves worked very long and hard. They worked each day from the time the sun rose until it set. Many of these slaves lived in extremely poor conditions in small houses with no heat or furniture. Sometimes, five or ten people lived together in one room.

House slaves usually lived in the owner's house. They did the cooking and cleaning in the house. House slaves worked fewer hours than field slaves, but were more closely supervised by the owner and his family.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Slaves preparing dried tobacco to be shipped to England from Jamestown

Laws approved in the southern colonies made it illegal for slaves to marry, own property or earn their freedom. These laws also did not permit slaves to be educated, or even to learn to read. But some owners permitted their slaves to earn their freedom, or gave them money for good work.

Other owners punished slaves to get them to work. These punishments included beatings, withholding food and threatening to sell members of a slave's family. Some plantation owners executed slaves suspected of serious crimes by hanging them or burning them alive.

History experts say that people who were rich enough to own many slaves became leaders in their local areas. They were members of the local governments. They attended meetings of the legislatures in the capitals of their colonies usually two times a year. Slave owners had the time and the education to greatly influence political life in the southern colonies, because the hard work on their farms was done by slaves.

VOICE ONE:

Today, most people in the world condemn slavery. That was not true in the early years of the American nation. Many Americans thought slavery was evil, but necessary. Yet owning slaves was common among the richer people in the early seventeen hundreds. Many of the leaders in the colonies who fought for American independence owned slaves. This was true in the northern colonies as well as the southern ones.

Benjamin Franklin

One example is the famous American diplomat, inventor and businessman Benjamin Franklin. He owned slaves for thirty years and sold them at his general store. But his ideas about slavery changed during his long life. Benjamin Franklin started the first schools to teach blacks and later argued for their freedom.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Slavery did not become a force in the northern colonies mainly because of economic reasons. Cold weather and poor soil could not support such a farm economy as was found in the South. As a result, the North came to depend on manufacturing and trade.

Trade was the way colonists got the English goods they needed. It was also the way to earn money by selling products found in the New World. New England became a center for such trade across the seas. The people who lived there became shipbuilders so they could send the products to England. They used local wood to build the ships. They also sold wood and wood products. They became businessmen carrying goods around the world.

The New England shipbuilding towns near the Atlantic Ocean grew quickly as a result. The largest of these towns was Boston, Massachusetts. By seventeen twenty, it had more than ten thousand people. Only two towns in England were larger: London and Bristol.

More than twenty-five percent of the men in Boston had invested in shipping or worked in it. Ship captains and businessmen held most of the public offices.

VOICE ONE:

A document from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, signed by the group's president, Benjamin Franklin.

The American colonies traded goods such as whale oil, ginger, iron, wood, and rum, an alcoholic drink made from sugarcane. Ships carried these goods from the New England colonies to Africa. There, they were traded for African people.

The Africans had been captured by enemy tribesmen and sold to African slave traders. The New England boat captains would buy as many as they could put on their ships. The conditions on these ships were very cruel. The Africans were put in so tightly they could hardly move. Some were chained. Many killed themselves rather than live under such conditions.

Others died of sicknesses they developed on the ship. Yet many did survive the trip, and became slaves in the southern colonies, or in the Caribbean islands. Black slaves were needed to work on Caribbean sugar plantations. The southern American colonies needed them to work on the tobacco and rice plantations.

By seventeen fifty, almost twenty-five percent of the total number of people in the American colonies were black slaves. From the fifteen hundreds to the eighteen hundreds, Europeans sent about twelve million black slaves from Africa to America. Almost two million of them died on the way.

VOICE TWO:

History experts say English ships carried the greatest number of Africans into slavery. One slave ship captain came to hate what he was doing, and turned to religion. His name was John Newton. He stopped taking part in slave trade and became a leader in the Anglican Church. He is famous for having written this song, "Amazing Grace".

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States.

VOASE1121_Education Report

2007-11-22T23:12:00.000+08:00

21 November 2007

Pilgrims Face Competition in Thanksgiving Lessons
Who really did hold the first celebration in America? For some teachers, including those of American Indian children, that is beside the point.

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

The fourth Thursday in November is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Tradition says early English settlers known as the Pilgrims held the first celebration in sixteen twenty-one in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They invited local Indians to a feast to thank them for help in surviving their first year in America.

Yet the Berkeley Plantation along the James River in Virginia calls itself the site of the first official Thanksgiving in America. In sixteen nineteen an English ship arrived with directions for the crew to observe their arrival date as a yearly day of thanksgiving to God.

But now comes a book called "America's REAL First Thanksgiving." A Florida schoolteacher, Robyn Gioia, tells the story of Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez who founded Saint Augustine, Florida. He celebrated with a thanksgiving feast with the native Timucua Indians. That was in fifteen sixty-five.

Students at an elementary school in Long Beach, California, prepare for a Thanksgiving performance

So what are schoolchildren learning these days about Thanksgiving?

Sharon Biros is a first-grade teacher in Clairton, Pennsylvania. Her students learn about the holiday as they discuss being good citizens. They read stories about the Indians and the Pilgrims. And the children tell what they are each thankful for.

Many of the families are poor. The school organizes a project in which students bring food and money to share with those in need.

Brook Levin heads a preschool in Broomall, Pennsylvania. She says the kids learn about native culture and the Pilgrims and how people at that time grew their own food. Thanksgiving, she says, is a good time to teach about the importance of sharing. The children make bread and other foods and invite their parents to school to enjoy them.

Cheryl Burrell is curriculum director for the public schools on the reservation of the Winnebago Indian tribe in Nebraska. She is not American Indian, and she says there is only one native teacher. But she says all the teachers are trained in native culture and history.

Students learn about the Pilgrims, she says, but not at Thanksgiving time. They learn about them when they study American history. Thanksgiving is used as a time to strengthen a sense of community.

She says most of the families in the tribe celebrate Thanksgiving just like other Americans do. But in addition the students take part in a traditional Indian harvest festival in October.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1120_Explorations

2007-11-22T23:11:00.001+08:00

20 November 2007

Voyager: The First Airplane to Fly Around the World Nonstop
Some people thought the project was both impossible and foolish. Everyone knew it would be dangerous.

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EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

It was called the last great goal in flying. It would be a flight around the world without stopping or adding more fuel. Today, Frank Oliver and Doug Johnson tell about a special plane called Voyager and the effort to set a difficult world record.

VOICE ONE:

Voyager began as a quick drawing on a small piece of paper. Six years later, the drawing was a plane that made history.

Many people gave their time, energy and money to help make the flight happen. But three people had lead parts in the event: Dick Rutan, Burt Rutan and Jeana Yeager.

Dick Rutan was an experienced flier. He had been a pilot in the United States military during the war in Vietnam. After the war, he worked as a test pilot. He flew planes designed by his younger brother Burt.

Burt Rutan was well-known as a designer of experimental planes.

And Jeana Yeager held nine world flight records as a pilot.

VOICE TWO:

One day in early nineteen eighty-one, Dick, Burt and Jeana were eating in a restaurant in Mojave, California. Burt turned to his brother and asked a wild question: "How would you like to be the first person to fly around the world without stopping to re-fuel?"

The three considered the idea. A non-stop flight around the world without re-fueling was the last flight record to be set.

The flight always had been considered impossible. No plane could carry enough fuel to fly that far: forty thousand kilometers.

But now there were new materials for planes. Burt thought he could build a plane that could make the voyage. Dick and Jeana thought they could fly it. No one could think of a good reason not to try.

Burt picked up a small piece of paper. He drew an airplane that looked like a giant wing, and not much more. That was the beginning.

VOICE ONE:

Not since the days of Orville and Wilbur Wright had the people making a record flight designed and built their own aircraft. Dick, Burt and Jeana did. Some people thought their Voyager project was both impossible and foolish. Everyone knew it would be dangerous.

The Voyager crew worked on the plane in a small building at an airport in California's Mojave Desert. Dick, Burt and Jeana received no government money. Instead, they got small amounts of money from lots of different people.

As news of the project spread, more and more people offered to help. There were aviation engineers and workers from the space agency's experimental plane project. Several airplane companies offered equipment to be used in the plane. When Voyager was finished, it had two million dollars' worth of parts in it.

VOICE TWO:

Burt Rutan had built light-weight planes before. He knew a normal plane made of aluminum metal could not make a trip around the world without adding fuel. So his solution was to build Voyager almost completely out of new materials. The materials were very light, but very strong. This meant Voyager could lift and carry many times its weight in fuel.

The finished plane weighed just nine hundred kilograms, about the weight of a small car. The full load of fuel weighed three times that much, about three thousand kilograms. Voyager was not built to be a fast plane. It flew about one hundred seventy-five kilometers an hour.

VOICE ONE:

The main wing of the finished plane was more than thirty-three meters across. That is wider than the main wing on today's big passenger planes. The center part of the plane held the crew. And on either side of this body were two long fuel tanks.

In fact, almost all of the Voyager was a fuel tank. Seventeen separate containers were squeezed into every possible space. During the flight, the pilots had to move fuel from container to container to keep the plane balanced. One engine at each end of the body of the plane provided power.

The area for the two pilots was unbelievably small. It was just one meter wide by two-and-one-quarter meters long. The person flying the plane sat in the pilot's seat. The other person had to lie down at all times.

VOICE TWO:

After many test flights, the Voyager was finally ready in December, nineteen eighty-six. The best weather for flying around the world is from June to August. That time was far past. But the pilots were tired of delays. They made the decision to take off, knowing the weather might be bad.

On December fourteenth, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager walked around the plane one more time. It looked like a giant white flying insect. They were going to be trusting their lives to this strange plane for the next nine days.

Dick climbed into the only seat. Jeana lay on the floor. They were ready to go. Flight controllers at Edwards Air Force Base in California cleared them for a trip no one had ever attempted before.

VOICE ONE:

The long, thin wings of the plane were so loaded with fuel that they almost touched the ground. Voyager began to move down the runway, slowly. But something was wrong. The ends of the wings were not lifting.

Burt Rutan sent a radio message to his brother to lift the plane's nose. "Pull back on the stick!" he screamed. "Pull back!" But Dick did not hear the warning. And he did not see the wings. He was looking straight ahead.

Voyager was getting dangerously close to the end of the runway. It appeared about to crash. Finally, just in time, the long wings swept up. The plane leaped into the air.

Planes following Voyager could see that the ends of the wings were badly damaged. Dick turned the plane so the force of air currents would break off the broken ends. Then he aimed Voyager out over the Pacific Ocean.

VOICE TWO:

Weight was the main consideration in designing the experimental plane. Not safety. Not comfort. Voyager did not have most of the normal safety equipment of modern planes. There were no special materials to block the noise of the engines. And space for the pilots was so tight they had great difficulty changing places.

Voyager's long wings moved up and down as the winds changed. It seemed to sail on waves of air, just like a sailboat on ocean waves. This motion meant the flight was extremely rough.

VOICE ONE:

It was not an enjoyable trip. Dick and Jeana were always tense. At the end of the second day, the weather expert for the flight warned of trouble. Voyager was heading for an ocean storm. Dick was able to fly close to the storm and ride its winds.

On the third day, Voyager was in trouble again. It had to fly between huge thunderhead clouds on one side and Vietnam's airspace on the other. Dick was able to keep the plane safely in the middle.

Over Africa, the two pilots struggled with continuous stormy weather. Dick had flown almost all of the first sixty hours of the flight. Then he changed places with Jeana for short periods. Both were extremely tired.

Suddenly, a red warning light turned on. It was a signal that there was not enough oil in one engine. Dick and Jeana had been so busy trying to fly around bad weather and mountains that they had forgotten to watch the oil level. But luck stayed with them. They added the necessary oil. The engine was not damaged.

VOICE TWO:

Once past the violent weather over Africa, Dick and Jeana began planning the way home. A computer confirmed that they had enough fuel left to make it. But as they flew up the coast of Mexico, the engine on the back of the plane failed. Fuel had stopped flowing to it.

The more powerful front engine already had been shut down earlier to save fuel. With neither engine working, Voyager quickly began to lose speed and height. The plane fell for five minutes. Dick finally got the front engine started again. Then fuel started flowing to the back engine, and it began to work again, too.

VOICE ONE:

Nine days after take-off, Voyager landed smoothly at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It had completed a forty thousand kilometer flight around the world. It had not stopped. And it had not re-fueled.

Dick said after landing: "This was the last major event of atmospheric flight." Jeana added: "It was a lot more difficult than we ever imagined."

Burt Rutan's revolutionary plane design had worked. And, with it, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager had joined the list of the world's greatest fliers.

(MUSIC)

This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Doug Johnson. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.

VOASE1120_Health Report

2007-11-22T23:11:00.000+08:00

20 November 2007

UN Lowers Estimate of HIV Cases
A new report says 33 million people are living with the AIDS virus, not 39.5 million as estimated last year.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

United Nations officials now say fewer people than they thought are infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

Last year, the agency known as UNAIDS estimated that thirty-nine and one-half million people were living with H.I.V. On Tuesday it reduced that by sixteen percent to a little more than thirty-three million.

Agency officials say the lower number represents better information and information from more countries. The single biggest reason, however, was an intensive re-examination of India's epidemic. At the same time, the agency reduced its estimates for five African countries: Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Also, UNAIDS says it now believes the number of new H.I.V. cases per year reached a high in the late nineteen nineties at more than three million. This year, it estimates that two and one-half million people became infected, and that two million people died of AIDS.

Yet even as the number of new infections has dropped, the number of people living with H.I.V. is increasing. Better treatments are extending lives, and more people are getting the drugs.

Also, the new report says prevention efforts appear to be changing risky behavior in several of the countries most affected by H.I.V.

But U.N. officials say AIDS is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide and the major cause in Africa. African death rates remain high, they say, because treatment needs are not being met.

Sub-Saharan Africa had almost seventy percent of the new cases of H.I.V. reported this year. But UNAIDS officials say this is a notable reduction since two thousand one.

Many scientists who study epidemics have long argued that the agency has been overestimating the extent of H.I.V. worldwide. They say national estimates have been based mostly on findings from high-risk groups in large cities.

The lower estimate just released came from more studies of wider society, including rural areas. Even so, experts say there is a need to further improve the research methods.

Billions of dollars are being spent to prevent and treat H.I.V. Activists worry that the new estimate may lead to a drop in financial support. But UNAIDS officials say it does not change the need for immediate action and more money. They warn that in some countries, infection rates were falling but are now rising again.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can learn more about AIDS at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1119_Agriculture Report

2007-11-22T23:10:00.001+08:00

19 November 2007

Turkey Production Costs Are Up; Not Good News at Thanksgiving
High corn prices mean farmers are paying more for feed.

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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, the most popular holiday for Americans to eat turkey. But people may have to pay a little more for their holiday bird this year. How much more will depend on competition between stores.

Production costs are up. Turkeys are fed mainly corn and soybean meal. Corn was an average of two dollars a bushel last year. This year it was three dollars, and prices topped four dollars at times. Not only that, soybean production is down from last year's record high.

Many farmers are growing corn to make fuel. The Department of Agriculture says one-fourth of the record corn crop expected this year could become ethanol. Also, higher oil prices mean higher transportation costs -- another reason for costlier corn.

Rising food prices might be one thing on the minds of Thanksgiving Day meal planners this year. But some things never change.

A turkey can be a little tricky to cook. The breast meat cooks faster than the leg meat, so it can get dried out. Countless turkey suggestions are on the Internet. We found a recipe called "The World's Best Turkey." It calls for butter, two apples, a tablespoon of garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste.

Oh, and it also calls for two-thirds of a seven hundred fifty milliliter bottle of Champagne. For the turkey. The Champagne is poured over the inside and outside of the bird in a roasting bag.

However the turkey is cooked, someone has to cut it. Advice about carving turkeys like a professional is also available online. The University of Illinois Extension service, for example, suggests practicing on a chicken during the off-season.

For people who do not eat meat, there are products like Tofurky made of tofu, which comes from soybeans.

Turkey producers in the United States are expected to raise two hundred seventy-two million birds this year. That estimate is four percent higher than last year. Two-thirds of the turkeys are expected to come from Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia, Missouri and California.

The Census Bureau says the United States imported ten million dollars worth of live turkeys during the first half of the year. Almost all came from Canada. During that period the United States had a five million dollar trade deficit in live turkeys. But it had a nine million dollar surplus in cranberries. And it had a fifteen million dollar surplus in sweet potatoes, another popular food at Thanksgiving.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1119_Science In the News

2007-11-22T23:10:00.000+08:00

19 November 2007

Remembering a Chimp Known for Her Use of American Sign Language
Also: Experts suggest early autism testing for all babies. And scientists are developing plants to eat chemical waste.

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VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. On our program this week, we will tell about an animal known for her ability to communicate with people. We will tell about a call for autism testing in all babies. And, we report on plants specially designed to eat chemical wastes.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Washoe's trainers say she grew to understand about 250 words

An animal that influenced scientific thought has died. A chimpanzee named Washoe died of natural causes late last month at a research center in the American state of Washington. Washoe lived forty-two years. She was said to be the first non-human to learn a human language.

Washoe had become known in the scientific community and around the world for her ability to use American Sign Language. Her skills also led to debate about primates and their ability to understand language. Primates are the animals most closely related to human beings.

VOICE TWO:

Washoe was born in Africa. Research scientists Allen and Beatrix Gardner began teaching her sign language in nineteen sixty-six. Sign language is a way of communicating using hand movements instead of words. It is a method many deaf people use to communicate.

In Nineteen Sixty-Nine, the Gardners described Washoe’s progress in a scientific report. Once the news about Washoe spread, many language scientists began studies of their own into this new and exciting area of research. The whole direction of primate research changed.

VOICE ONE:

The people who took care of Washoe say she grew to understand about two hundred fifty words. For example, Washoe made signs to communicate when it was time to eat. She could request foods like apples and bananas. She also asked questions like, "Who is coming to play?"

However, critics argue Washoe only learned to repeat sign language movements from watching her teachers. They say she never developed true language skills. Some researchers have suggested that primates learn sign language only by memory, and perform the signs only for prizes

VOICE TWO:

Yet her keepers disagree. Roger Fouts is a former student of the Gardners. He took Washoe to a research center in Ellensburg, Washington. There, she taught sign language to three younger chimpanzees, which are still alive.

Scientists like private researcher Jane Goodall believe Washoe provided new information about the mental workings of chimpanzees. Today, there are not as many scientists studying language skills with chimps. Part of the reason is because this kind of research takes a very long time.

Debate continues about chimps’ understanding of human communication. Yet, one thing is sure -- Washoe changed popular ideas about the possibilities of animal intelligence.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The American Academy of Pediatrics says all children should be tested for autism by the age of two. Autism is a general term for a group of brain disorders that limit the development of social and communication skills. Medical experts call them autism spectrum disorders.

Experts say autism is permanent and cannot be cured. But there are ways to treat it that they say can reduce the severity. The academy says the earlier treatment begins, the better the results.

Recently, the group released two reports to help doctors identify autism. One report came from Chris Johnson of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She says doctors should look for signs of autism when they examine babies at eighteen months and twenty-four months.

VOICE TWO:

Doctors normally consider the possibility of autism only if a child shows delayed speech or unusually repetitive behaviors. These may be clear signs of it, but they usually do not appear until a child is two or three years old.

Doctor Johnson says experts have learned a lot about earlier signs of autism. She says the identification process can begin in the waiting room at a doctor’s office.
Parents could answer a list of written questions about their baby. Then the doctor could perform tests as simple as observing the baby's ability to follow a moving object with its eyes. Experts say failing to watch a moving object may be a sign of autism.

VOICE ONE:

Doctors and parents can also look for behaviors that are normal in babies under one year of age. Young children usually have a favorite soft object like a blanket. But children with autism may like hard objects instead, and want to hold them at all times. They may not turn when a parent says their name or when the parent points at something and says "Look at that."

Doctor Johnson says the goal of the new advice is early intervention instead of the traditional "wait and see" method to identify autism.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The American Academy of Pediatrics says young autistic children should enter some kind of learning program. The Academy says such children should be actively involved in the program at least twenty-five hours a week all year long.
The group also says it is best if there is a small number of students for each teacher. It says autistic children do better with more direct attention from and contact with their teachers.

The group also is calling for contacts between autistic children and non-autistic children of the same age when possible. However, it notes that children with severe cases of autism spectrum disorder may have serious behavior problems. These could make interactions with other children difficult or even harmful.

VOICE ONE:

Experts advise parents to receive training for dealing with autism. But the Academy warns parents and doctors against several kinds of treatment programs. These include those that claim a high level of success or a cure for the disorder. The group suggests using treatments that are based on results of controlled studies supported by established scientific organizations. The Academy says autistic children should have the same general health care as other children. It says some autistic children have behavior, social or medical problems that may require treatment with drugs.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Finally, scientists have developed plants to remove harmful chemical wastes from soil near military or industrial centers. The process is called phyto-remediation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published two reports about the process on its web site.

Scientists describe how they used a special kind of plant to take up a chemical that results from military and manufacturing operations. The plants were products of genetic engineering. Their genetic information has been changed.

VOICE ONE:

One report describes a study of a chemical called RDX. The lead writer of the report was Liz Rylott of the University of York in Britain. She says RDX is often found in places where there was an explosion or where weapons have been stored.
Professor Rylott says RDX is important for explosives. She says it does not break down naturally. The chemical instead leaks into the soil and threatens water supplies.

Professor Rylott and her team collected soil from military training areas. They found bacteria that were able to break down RDX themselves and use it as their food supply. Her team identified the gene in the bacteria that breaks down RDX. They changed the genetic information so that enough of the gene can be produced to attack the harmful wastes.

VOICE TWO:

Professor Rylott says the next step is to use this technology to create grasses that can grow in military training areas. A likely test area for the bacteria is the Massachusetts Military Reservation in the northeastern United States. The use of RDX has been restricted there because of its threat to drinking water supplies.

But some scientists say there could be serious problems. Terry Hazen is the head of the Center for Environmental Technology at the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Berkley, California. He says something has to be done with the plants after they take up chemical wastes from the soil. He warns that the plants could be carried away or spread by insects and animals.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Brianna Blake, Soo Jee Han and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

---

Correction: Terry Hazen works at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, not the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as reported. Also, the story misspelled Berkeley.

VOASE1118_This Is America

2007-11-22T23:09:00.000+08:00

18 November 2007

American Civics: Law, History and Political Science Combined
The answers to five questions about civics and government in the United States.

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty with Faith Lapidus. Our subject this week is American civics.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Civics is a subject that deals with the rights and duties of citizens. It brings together law, history and political science.

In the nineteen sixties, a nonprofit group called the Center for Civic Education got started. Its job is to help people in the United States and other countries learn about the ideas of democracy. Its work includes an international civic education exchange program, Civitas.

In nineteen ninety-four, the Center for Civic Education developed five questions for teaching about civics and government. We will use these questions to guide our program. The answers will combine our own reporting with information from the center.

Question one: "What are civic life, politics and government?"

VOICE TWO:

The simple answer is that people have their personal life, but they also have a civic life. This involves issues that affect their community and their nation.

Politics is a process. It is a way for people with opposing interests and beliefs about issues to reach decisions.

Government is the organization in society with the power to put these decisions into effect. It also has the power to enforce them.

U.S. Constitution

In the United States, the Constitution limits the power of government. The founders of the nation wanted to protect individual rights. At the same time, however, they also wanted to work for the common good.

Under the Constitution, government officials must follow the rule of law. This means they must follow the same rules as everyone else. The Constitution is the highest law in the land.

VOICE ONE:

Constitutions are also vehicles for change. One example involves the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment took effect in eighteen sixty-eight, after the Civil War.

It guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law. It meant that former slaves had the same rights as other Americans. Black Americans used this amendment to seek better treatment during the civil rights movement of the nineteen fifties and sixties.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The second question presented by the Center for Civic Education asks: "What are the foundations of the American political system?"

The system is built on the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life, liberty and property. The Constitution also establishes a system of checks and balances on government power.

Congress passes bills for the president to sign into law. If the president refuses, Congress has the power to reject the veto. The Supreme Court has the power to strike down laws if it finds they violate the Constitution.

VOICE ONE:

The Constitution also recognizes the powers of the states. In fact, the American political system is built on the idea that states have any powers not given to the federal government. The system was also built on the idea that the different groups in society would all share a common identity as Americans.

And several intellectual traditions have influenced the American political system. One is classic liberalism. Classic liberalism represents the idea that governments are created by the people, for the people.

This theory had its roots in Europe, through writers like John Locke. The American Declaration of Independence is an example of a document that supports the main ideas of classic liberalism. It guaranteed the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

VOICE TWO:

Another theory that influenced early America is classic republicanism. A republic is a state governed by elected representatives instead of directly by the people. The United States is known as a constitutional representative democracy.

Classic republicanism links the idea of civic virtue to the common good. Civic virtue means that people put the interests of society before their own.

But a belief in the public good may conflict with a desire for the protection of individual rights. So classic republicanism and classic liberalism can sometimes clash.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Here is question number three from the Center for Civic Education: "How does the government established by the Constitution embody the purposes, values and principles of American democracy?"

There are many ideas behind American democracy, but one of the most important is federalism.

Early leaders wanted to create a government system that would prevent the misuse of power. So they created several levels of government. Power and responsibilities are divided among the national, state and local governments.

VOICE TWO:

The federal government is organized into the legislative, executive and judicial branches. The legislative branch is Congress, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The judicial branch is the Supreme Court and the federal court system.

The executive branch is the president and the fifteen cabinet-level agencies. The federal government also has about sixty independent agencies.

VOICE ONE:

State governments are established by state constitutions. Each of the fifty states has its own legislative, executive and judicial branch. State and local governments provide police and fire protection, education, public works and other services. To pay for services, taxes are collected at all levels of government.

The American political system also provides citizens with the ability to influence how laws are made. Some people become involved in political or public interest groups. Others are civically active through groups such as unions or religious organizations.

The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and of the press. So the media also play a part in civic life and shaping public opinion.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

"What is the relationship of the United States to other nations and to world affairs?" This is the fourth question asked by the Center for Civic Education.

At times, the United States has closed itself off from the world. At other times, it has been an active leader. National politics and the guiding ideas of the Constitution have shaped and reshaped relations. Disagreements over foreign policy have led to difficult periods in American history.

The United States declared its independence from Britain on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. Today, it is often called the last remaining superpower, after the fall of the Soviet Union. But military strength is only one measure of power. Economic power also influences relations between countries. And the United States has the largest economy in the world.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The final question asks: "What are the roles of citizens in American democracy?"

In the words of the Center for Civic Education, "democratic citizens are active." They must know what their personal, political and economic rights are. And they must know what responsibilities come with those rights.

The center says those responsibilities include voting in elections and giving time to community organizations. It says another responsibility is serving as a helpful critic of public organizations, officials and policies. But, above all, it says people must see how democracy depends on knowledgeable citizens who care about other citizens and their country.

This is what Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president, said in eighteen fifty-four: "If there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions." In other words, to keep democracy alive, citizens must do it themselves.

VOICE TWO:

The Center for Civic Education organized its teachings around questions because, in its words, "democracy is a discussion." Citizens exchange ideas. They search for new and better ways. The use of questions is meant to show that the process is never-ending.

The center provides materials to schools. It also trains teachers and organizes community programs. For more information, you can write to the Center for Civic Education at five-one-four-five Douglas Fir Road, Calabasas, California, nine-one-three-zero two, U-S-A.

Internet users can go to civiced dot o-r-g. Civiced is spelled c-i-v-i-c-e-d. And the e-mail address is c-c-e at civiced dot o-r-g.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Jill Moss and can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty with Faith Lapidus, inviting you back again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

VOASE1118_Development Report

2007-11-22T23:08:00.000+08:00

18 November 2007

A WiLD Idea: Wireless Long-Distance Internet for Rural Poor
Researchers in California have developed a way to extend the reach of Wi-Fi technology. WiLDNets have been set up in several countries.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Eric Brewer at the Intel Research Berkeley Lab

Eric Brewer is a busy man. He is a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also director of the Intel Research Berkeley Lab. There, he leads a team of students and Intel company researchers on projects with new technologies.

One of their creations is a WiFi-based long distance network, or WiLDNet. Wi-Fi is short for wireless fidelity. Wi-Fi connections, or hot spots, can be found in airports, hotels, coffee shops and many other places.

But Wi-Fi is designed for short distances. Eric Brewer predicts that most WiLDNets will only need to cover several kilometers of territory. Yet, in Venezuela, a network using WiLDNet technology and special software reaches over three hundred eighty kilometers.

Each endpoint in a WiLDNet uses a router that takes only about seven watts of power. It can be powered by car batteries, energy from the sun or electricity from a local provider.

The routers cost about four hundred dollars. But Eric Brewer tells us the price should be less once the technology is finalized for mass production. The networks use antennas aided by relays in places where they cannot be stationed in direct line of sight of one another.

WiLDNets can be used for humanitarian or business purposes or both. The hope is that companies will expand connectivity in rural markets.

Rural schools in Ghana and the Philippines are using WiLDNets to connect to the Internet. And in Guinea-Bissau, networks are being used to link community radio stations.

In southern India, a WiLDNet connects eye-care centers in poor villages to an eye hospital in the city of Theni. Villagers receive care from doctors at the hospital through videoconferencing. So far, thirty thousand patients have been examined this way. Eric Brewer says three thousand patients with especially serious vision problems now are able to see much better as a result of their care.

One more thing about Professor Brewer: he is a former billionaire. He and a Berkeley graduate student formed the Internet search company Inktomi in nineteen ninety-six. It became profitable. But the dot-com crash and rising competition from Google shook the company and it was sold to Yahoo in two thousand three.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss.

VOASE1117_People In America

2007-11-22T23:07:00.001+08:00

17 November 2007

Dian Fossey, 1932-1985: She Worked to Protect the Mountain Gorillas of Central Africa
Her book, "Gorillas in the Mist," brought attention to these endangered animals.

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

Dian Fossey with a mountain gorilla

And I’m Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Dian Fossey. She studied the wild mountain gorillas of central Africa. Her work resulted in efforts to save these rare and endangered animals.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Dian Fossey was born in nineteen thirty-two in San Francisco, California. Her parents ended their marriage when she was young. She stayed with her mother, who married another man a short time later. Dian said she had a difficult relationship with both her mother and stepfather.

Dian was interested in animals all her life. She started making plans to be a veterinarian, a doctor who treats animals. After high school, she attended San Jose State College in California. There, she was successful in some subjects, but not others.

She changed her program of study to occupational therapy. Occupational therapists help injured and sick people learn to do their day-to-day activities independently. She completed her studies at San Jose State in nineteen fifty-four.

VOICE TWO:

Dian Fossey left California and moved to the state of Kentucky. She accepted a position at the Kosair Crippled Children’s Hospital in the city of Louisville. People there said she had a special gift of communicating with children with special needs. Yet she also had a desire to see more of the world.

Through friends, she became interested in Africa. She read a book about the wild mountain gorillas of central Africa written by American zoologist George Schaller. The mountain gorilla is the largest of the world’s apes.

VOICE ONE:

Fossey borrowed money and made a six-week trip to Africa in nineteen sixty-three. She visited a camp operated by the famous research scientists Louis and Mary Leakey. The Leakeys were best known for their studies of the development of human ancestors.

Fossey met with Louis Leakey and discussed the importance of scientific research on the great apes. She decided to study mountain gorillas, which were in danger of disappearing. Later on her trip, she traveled to the mountains of Rwanda. This is where she first saw mountain gorillas.

VOICE TWO:

Fossey returned to the United States with a desire to work in Africa. She met with Professor Leakey a second time when he visited the United States to give a series of talks. This time, he asked her to begin a long-term study of the gorillas. He said information she collected might help to show how human ancestors developed.

A group called the Wilkie Foundation agreed to support her research. The Wilkie Foundation already supported another researcher, Jane Goodall, in her study of wild chimpanzees. Fossey also received help from a major scientific and educational organization -- the National Geographic Society.

VOICE ONE:

Fossey returned to central Africa in nineteen sixty-six. She spent a short time observing Jane Goodall. Then she began setting up her own research camp in what was then the country of Zaire. Fossey sought help from the local native people who knew how to follow mountain gorillas in the wild.

A short time later, political unrest forced her to move to nearby Rwanda. She settled in a protected area between two mountains, Karisimbi and Visoke. There, she established the Karisoke Research Center. This would be her home for most of the next eighteen years. Much of that time, she worked alone.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Mountain gorillas

Dian Fossey spent thousands of hours observing mountain gorillas. She worked hard to gain acceptance among the animals. To do this, she copied their actions and sounds. She studied the gorillas daily and developed an understanding of each individual.

Many people had believed that mountain gorillas are fierce. Fossey found just the opposite. She learned that gorillas are both gentle and intelligent. They use their strength mainly when defending other members of their family or group.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen seventy, the National Geographic Society wanted to publish a story about Fossey and her research. It sent a photographer named Bob Campbell to Karisoke to take pictures. He took a picture of an adult male gorilla named Peanuts touching Fossey’s hand. This became the first friendly gorilla-to-human action ever recorded. The picture appeared on the front cover of National Geographic magazine. It helped to make Fossey and her work famous.

The American researcher was able to sit among the gorillas and play with them and their young. She made notes of everything she saw. She took a count, or census, of the gorilla population. She noted what the animals ate and their environment.

Fossey learned a lot about the gorillas. But it became difficult for her to remain an independent observer. She believed that the animals would disappear forever unless something was done to protect them and their environment.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Dian Fossey needed money to continue her research project. She believed that she could get more financial assistance for her work by getting an advanced degree. She left Africa in nineteen seventy and attended the University of Cambridge in England. She received a doctorate in zoology a few years later.

Fossey returned to Rwanda to find that hunters were killing some of what she called “her gorillas.” The hunters earned money by selling the heads, hands and feet of the animals. Among the gorillas killed was one called Digit. Fossey had observed Digit for many years and treated him almost like a friend. His remains were placed with those of other dead gorillas in a special burial area near her camp.

VOICE ONE:

After Digit was killed, Fossey established a program to increase international support for efforts to protect mountain gorillas. It was called the Digit Fund. Fossey also began an active campaign to stop the killing of the gorillas. She opposed efforts by Rwandan officials to increase the number of visitors to the animals’ native environment.

She formed a small force to help guard mountain gorillas against humans. She destroyed traps used to catch the animals. She threatened the hunters and the people who helped them. National Geographic magazine published a report about her efforts. Many people who read the story sent money to support the campaign.

However, not everyone supported what Fossey was doing. Some people condemned her treatment of the hunters. Rwandan officials opposed her efforts to control an area that she did not own. And, some animal experts criticized her strong emotional links with the gorillas. They also questioned her work as a scientist.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Dian Fossey suffered from a number of health problems. As she grew older, she spent less time in the field and more time at her camp doing paperwork. This was partly because she had college students assisting in her research efforts.

In nineteen eighty, Fossey left Karisoke and accepted a position at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. There, she began to write a book about her years with the mountain gorillas. Her book was published in nineteen eighty-three. It is called “Gorillas in the Mist.” By then, there were only about two hundred mountain gorillas in the world.

Dian Fossey made a large number of public appearances to publicize her book and the efforts to save the mountain gorillas. Then she returned to Rwanda. On December twenty-sixth, nineteen eighty-five, she was found murdered at her camp. A few days later, her body was buried near the remains of some of her gorillas.

VOICE ONE:

Even now, her death remains unsolved. Some people believe that she was killed by someone who opposed her strong attempts to protect the gorillas. Three years after her death, a major American motion picture based on her book was released. It is also called “Gorillas in the Mist.” It helped tell her story to millions of people around the world.

Dian Fossey kept a written record of her daily activities. She wrote: When you understand the value of all life, you think less about what is past and think instead about the protection of the future.

Dian Fossey loved her work and used her research to help save the gorillas and their environment. Today, the mountain gorilla population is increasing. Some people have said that without her efforts the animals would no longer exist. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International continues her work.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

VOASE1116_In the News

2007-11-22T23:07:00.000+08:00

16 November 2007

Michael Mukasey, New US Attorney General, Steps Into a Shaken Agency
The retired federal judge won Senate approval by what critics noted was the narrowest vote in years for a Justice Department head.

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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Michael Mukasey became America's top law enforcement official last Friday. But this

Michael Mukasey

week, a ceremonial swearing-in attended by President Bush took place at the Justice Department.

Wednesday's event was the first chance for the new attorney general to speak publicly with his employees. He talked about their duty to the law and the Constitution, saying "the result of faithful performance of our duty is justice."

The retired federal judge from New York takes over a struggling department that critics say has become too political. Several top officials have resigned, and delays in replacing them have only added to the criticisms.

On Thursday, President Bush announced five nominees for leadership positions at the Justice Department. Among them is Mark Filip, a federal judge in Chicago. The president nominated him for Senate confirmation as deputy attorney general. Several other positions also need to be filled.

Michael Mukasey is the third attorney general under the Bush administration, which has fourteen months left in office. John Ashcroft left in two thousand four. Alberto Gonzales resigned in September.

Already, Mister Mukasey has re-opened an investigation into the part that Justice Department lawyers played in the Terrorist Surveillance Program. The Bush administration began the program after the September eleventh, two thousand one, attacks. The president gave the National Security Agency permission to listen to calls and read e-mail of people in the United States without a warrant.

The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility opened the investigation early last year. But it was suspended after the National Security Agency denied security clearances to the investigators. Those clearances have now been received. And, at the beginning of this year, the administration said it had ended the use of surveillance without court approval.

The Senate confirmed Michael Mukasey last week by a vote of fifty-three to forty. The American Civil Liberties Union noted it was the narrowest vote to confirm an attorney general in half a century.

His confirmation was slowed by the way he dealt with questions about the interrogation method known as waterboarding. During hearings last month, he said answering questions about it might risk the careers or freedom of those who might be using it.

The United States military has banned the practice which creates a sense of drowning. But human rights groups say the Central Intelligence Agency has used it on terrorism suspects in recent years.

Mister Mukasey deplored waterboarding and said torture violates the Constitution. But he told lawmakers that he could not say whether waterboarding is torture. He said he did not have enough information because he was still a private citizen.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1115_American Mosaic

2007-11-22T23:06:00.000+08:00

15 November 2007

Looking High and Low for Meaning of 'Pop Culture'
Also: Cal Ripken's visit to China as a sports ambassador. And music from ''90 Millas,'' the latest album by Gloria Estefan.

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Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We listen to some music from singer Gloria Estefan …

Answer a question about "pop culture" …

And report about an American sports hero's trip to China.

Sports Ambassador

HOST:

Cal Ripken at No.1 Dahushan Road Elementary School in Shanghai

America's newest sports ambassador has returned home from his first government supported trip outside the United States. Former Baltimore Orioles baseball player Cal Ripken was named to the position in August. His first trip was to China. Bob Doughty has more.

BOB DOUGHTY:

Cal Ripken was in China for ten days, visiting with sports officials and young people in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. He talked about baseball and showed Chinese young people how to play the game. His hometown newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, provided sound from his trip on its Web site. Here, he works with students at Xidan Elementary School in Beijing.

(SOUND)

Cal Ripken is not the first American sports ambassador. Last year, figure skater Michele Kwan visited China and Russia. She said that meeting with young people of other nations gives them a better understanding of the United States. She also said such meetings help change any false ideas that people have about this country.

Baseball is not very well understood or very popular in China. The Chinese people enjoy basketball and soccer much more. But things are changing. American major league baseball just signed four Chinese players and Major League Baseball International has begun a program in China.

Cal Ripken says he went to China to open communication with another culture through sports. He told reporters that sports bring people together in a friendly way, and he is sharing with others the sport that he loves. One thing he says he has learned is that children are children no matter where they live. They love to play and want to have fun.

Cal Ripken says being a sports ambassador means teaching baseball as a way of making friends in other nations. And he says that the rules of baseball include values that provide people with an idea of American life.

Pop Culture

HOST:

Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. H. Nguyen wants to know what the expression "pop culture" means.

This is a good question that requires a more complex answer than we can give in a few minutes. In very general terms, pop culture, or popular culture, includes the movies, television shows, sports, music, cooking, clothing styles and other examples of mass culture that a society produces.

Examples of American pop culture that have become, well, popular around the world include the movies of Sylvester Stallone, hip-hop music, fast food, and blue jeans.

Many professors who study culture argue about what is, what is not, and what once was but is no longer, popular culture. The fact that popular culture is always changing makes it even more difficult to define exactly.

Most people would probably agree that popular culture is influenced in some way by the cultural products that sell well and make money. Some experts note the differences between a popular or "low" culture and a "high" culture valued by wealthier and more educated people in a society.

For example, such experts might say that a song by Britney Spears is an example of pop culture, but music by classical composers like Mozart or Bach is not. Within this group, some might say that commercial and market forces corrupt culture.

Then again, other experts believe that there is no longer a "low" and "high" culture because the two have mixed together. The American economist Tyler Cowen does not believe in organizing culture into high and low. Instead, he says that a strong economy makes all kinds of culture possible.

And no discussion of popular culture could be complete without talking about Andy Warhol, the father of Pop Art. During the nineteen sixties, Warhol created a movement that celebrated turning everyday images of famous people and food advertisements into fine art.

Pop artists praised popular culture in all of its forms and made it the subject of their art. Andy Warhol said that once you understood Pop you could never see a sign the same way again. And he said that once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way again.

Gloria Estefan

HOST:

Gloria Estefan has been making records for over twenty years. Her latest album "90 Millas" honors the musical traditions of Cuba, the country where she was born. The songs express a longing for the home she left as a young child. Estefan helped write most of the songs on the album, which are in Spanish. She gathered famous musicians from around Latin America to perform with her. Barbara Klein has more.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN:

That was the song "No Llores" or "Don't Cry." The well-known Mexican-American musician Carlos Santana plays guitar on this song.

Gloria Estefan made this album with her husband, record producer and musician Emilio Estefan. The couple live in Miami, Florida, which has a large population of Cuban-Americans.

The name of this album means "90 miles." This is the distance between Cuba and the United States. It is a small distance, but to many Cuban-Americans with families still in Cuba it feels much larger.

Gloria Estefan invited several performers in the world of Latin music to join her in this album. These include the flute player Johnny Pacheco and Israel Cachao Lopez, who is known as the inventor of mambo music.

Gloria Estefan has said that her only wish was that the Cuban-born salsa singer Celia Cruz had been alive to perform on this album. Cruz died in two thousand three. Here is "A Bailar" with the Puerto Rican musician Pappo Luca playing the piano.

(MUSIC)

Gloria Estefan has made a career out of combining the sounds of Latin America with popular dance music. In "90 Millas" she gives a modern version of traditional Cuban songs.

But her first songs mixed the dance sounds of disco and salsa music. In ninety eighty-five, she and her band, the Miami Sound Machine, released "Conga." We leave you with that song which helped launch Gloria Estefan's career.

(MUSIC)

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.

VOASE1115_Economics Report

2007-11-22T23:00:00.000+08:00

15 November 2007

Allowance Helps Children Learn About Money
Parents can use small amounts to teach their children about giving, spending and saving.

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Many children first learn the value of money by receiving an allowance. The purpose is to let children learn from experience at an age when financial mistakes are not very costly.

The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend as they wish differs from family to family. Timing is another consideration. Some children get a weekly allowance. Others get a monthly allowance.

In any case, parents should make clear what, if anything, the child is expected to pay for with the money.

At first, young children may spend all of their allowance soon after they receive it. If they do this, they will learn the hard way that spending must be done within a budget. Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until the next allowance.

The object is to show young people that a budget demands choices between spending and saving. Older children may be responsible enough to save money for larger costs, like clothing or electronics.

Many people who have written on the subject of allowances say it is not a good idea to pay your child for work around the home. These jobs are a normal part of family life.

Paying children to do extra work around the house, however, can be useful. It can even provide an understanding of how a business works.

Allowances give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with money. They can share it in the form of gifts or giving to a good cause. They can spend it by buying things they want. Or they can save it.

Saving helps children understand that costly goals require sacrifice: you have to cut costs and plan for the future.

Requiring children to save part of their allowance can also open the door to future saving and investing. Many banks offer services to help children and teenagers learn about personal finance.

A savings account is an excellent way to learn about the power of compound interest.

Compounding works by paying interest on interest. So, for example, one dollar invested at two percent interest for two years will earn two cents in the first year. The second year, the money will earn two percent of one dollar and two cents, and so on.

That may not seem like a lot. But over time it adds up.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. You can learn more about economics, and download MP3 files and transcripts of our weekly reports, at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOASE1114_Education Report

2007-11-15T20:33:00.002+08:00

14 November 2007

Number of Foreign Students Rises in US
A new report shows a 3 percent increase last year, the first notable gain since 2001.

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A new report says the number of foreign students at colleges and universities in the United States increased three percent last year. This was the first notable increase since two thousand one. And it included a ten percent jump in new international students.

The "Open Doors" report is from the Institute of International Education in New York, with support from the State Department.

American schools last fall had five hundred eighty-three thousand foreign students. The record is five hundred eighty-six thousand. That was set in two thousand two after many years of gains. But after that the numbers fell.

The September eleventh, two thousand one, terrorist attacks led to more restrictive visa requirements. Now, stronger efforts are being made to get more foreign students to study in the United States.

For the sixth year, India sent the most international students last fall, almost eighty-four thousand. That was up ten percent from the year before. China remained in second place, and South Korea was third.

Japan was fourth among the twenty leading senders of foreign students. But the number of Japanese fell sharply -- nine percent.

There were three percent drops from Indonesia and Kenya, the only African country in the top twenty last year. But there were notable increases from Saudi Arabia, Nepal and Vietnam. The number of Saudi students more than doubled, to nearly eight thousand.

For a sixth year, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles had the most foreign students -- more than seven thousand. Columbia University in New York was second.

Other schools in the top five were New York University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University.

The leading area of study was business and management. That was the choice for eighteen percent of foreign students last year. Second was engineering.

The new report also says more than two hundred twenty thousand Americans studied in other countries. That was during the two thousand five-two thousand six school year. It was a record number, and an increase of eight and a half percent from the year before. But only five and a half percent of them stayed for a full year.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. For a link to the "Open Doors" report, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1114_The Making of a Nation

2007-11-15T20:33:00.001+08:00

14 November 2007

American History Series: Slavery Arrives as Colonial Expansion Heads South
In 1619, a Dutch ship brought a group of Africans to the British colony at Jamestown. African traders had kidnapped and sold them to the ship's captain, who sold them to the Virginia colonists.

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VOICE ONE:

This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

Today, we finish the story about the first thirteen American colonies. We tell about how the southern colonies developed.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The most northern of the southern colonies was Maryland. The king of England, Charles the First, gave the land between Virginia and Pennsylvania to George Calvert in sixteen thirty-two. George Calvert was also called Lord Baltimore. He was a Roman Catholic.

George Calvert wanted to start a colony because of religious problems in England. Catholics could not openly observe their religion. They also had to pay money to the government because they did not belong to the Anglican Church, which was the Church of England.

George Calvert never saw the colony that was called Maryland. He died soon after he received the documents. His son Cecil Calvert became the next Lord Baltimore, and received all the land. He had the power to collect taxes, fight wars, make laws and create courts in Maryland. Cecil Calvert named his brother Leonard as the colony's first governor.

Cecil Calvert, center, the second Lord of Baltimore, in a work by artist James Barry

Cecil Calvert believed that English Catholics could live in peace in Maryland with people who believed in Protestant religions. So he urged Catholics to leave England. To get more settlers, he permitted them to own their farms and gave them some power in local politics. Some Catholics did go to Maryland, but not as many as expected. Protestants were in the majority. In sixteen forty-nine, Lord Baltimore accepted a Toleration Act passed by the local government. It guaranteed freedom of religion, but only for Christians.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

King Charles the Second of England gave away more land in America in sixteen sixty-three. This time, he gave to eight English lords the land known as Carolina. It extended south from Virginia into an area known as Florida. Spain controlled Florida. Spain also claimed the southern part of Carolina.

Spanish, French and English settlers had tried to live in that area earlier. But they were not successful. But the eight new owners promised forty hectares of land to anyone who would go to Carolina to live. They also promised religious freedom. The first successful Carolina settlers left England in sixteen seventy. They built a town in an area where two rivers met. They called it Charles Town, for King Charles. Spanish ships attacked the port city many times, but the settlers kept them away.

The settlers planted all kinds of crops to see what would grow best. They found rice was just right for the hot, wet land. Their pigs and cattle did so well that settlers in Carolina started selling meat to the West Indies. Many of Charles Town's settlers came from Barbados, a port used in the West Indies slave trade. The settlers began buying black slaves to help grow the rice. By seventeen-oh-eight, more blacks than whites lived in southern Carolina. The work of slaves made possible a successful economy.

VOICE ONE:

Northern Carolina grew much more slowly than the southern part of the colony. Many settlers to this area were from nearby Virginia. People who did not agree with the Anglican Church were not welcome in Virginia. Some of them moved south to the northern part of Carolina. History experts say that the area that became North Carolina may have been the most democratic of all the colonies. The people generally did not get involved in each other’s lives. They permitted each other to live in peace. They faced danger together from pirates who made the North Carolina coast their headquarters.

Experts say the people in northern Carolina were independent thinkers. In sixteen seventy-seven, some of them rebelled against England. They did not like England's Navigation Acts. These laws forced people in Carolina to pay taxes to England on goods sold to other colonies. Some northern Carolina settlers refused to pay this tax. They even set up their own government and tried to break free of England. But the English soldiers in the colonies stopped the rebellion by arresting its leader.

The differences between the people of northern Carolina and southern Carolina became too great. The owners of the colony divided Carolina into two parts in seventeen twelve.

VOICE TWO:

James Oglethorpe was a rich member of Parliament who used his own money to settle the new colony of Georgia

The last English colony founded in the New World was Georgia. It was established in seventeen thirty-two, under King George the Second. Georgia was the idea of a man named James Oglethorpe. He wanted to solve the debtor problem in England. Debtors are people who cannot re-pay money they owe. At that time, debtors were placed in prison. This made it impossible for them to earn the money needed to pay their debts.

Oglethorpe wanted to create a colony where debtors could go instead of going to prison. He wanted it to be a place where people could have good lives. But not many debtors wanted to go to Georgia. The people who settled there were much like the people in the other colonies. They did not agree with all of Oglethorpe's ideas. They wanted to do things he did not believe were right, like drinking alcohol and owning slaves. The settlers won in the end. They did not accept Oglethorpe's ideas about how they should live.

Life was not easy in Georgia. Spaniards and pirates captured ships of all nations along the coast. Spain controlled Florida and also claimed Georgia and the Carolinas. Border fights were common. Oglethorpe lost all his money trying to establish Georgia. King George took control of the colony in seventeen fifty-two.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

As all these new colonies were being established nearby, the colony of Virginia was growing. A way of life was developing there that was very different from that found in the north. Most people in Virginia at this time were members of the Church of England. Religion was not as important a part of their lives as it was to the people in the north. In the New England colonies, the clergy were considered the most important people in town. In the southern colonies, rich land owners were more important.

People in Virginia did not live in towns, as people did in Massachusetts. They lived along rivers on small farms or on large farms called plantations. Living on a river made it easy to send goods to other nations by ship. Virginians were sending large amounts of tobacco to England on those ships. It was the crop that earned them the most money.

VOICE TWO:

Growing tobacco destroys the elements in the soil that support plant life. After a few years, nothing grows well on land that has been planted with tobacco. A farmer has to stop planting anything on the land every few years. That means he needs a lot of land. He also needs many workers. So tobacco farmers in Virginia began to buy land and workers.

At first, they bought the services of poor people who had no money or jobs. These people were called indentured servants. They made an agreement to work for a farmer for a period of four to seven years. Then they were freed to work for themselves.

Slaves preparing dried tobacco to be shipped to England from Jamestown

In sixteen nineteen, a Dutch ship brought some Africans to Jamestown. They had been kidnapped from their homes by African traders and sold to the ship's captain. He sold them to the Virginia settlers. Those first blacks may have been treated like indentured servants. Later, however, colonists decided to keep them as slaves so they would not have to continue paying for workers. Indians did not make good slaves because they could run away. Blacks could not. They had no place to go. Slowly, laws were approved in Virginia that made it legal to keep black people as slaves. By seventeen fifty, there were more Africans in Virginia than any other group.

VOICE ONE:

History experts continue to debate if slavery caused prejudice in America or prejudice caused slavery. No one knows the answer. Most Europeans of the seventeenth century felt they were better than African people. The reasons for this included the Africans' different customs, religion and the black color of their skin. Europeans believed the color black represented danger and death.

Slavery in the American south affected the history of the United States for many years. It divided the people and led to a great civil war. But slavery did not start in America. That will be our story next week.

VOICE TWO:

This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

VOASE1113_Health Report

2007-11-15T20:33:00.000+08:00

13 November 2007

Diabetes Called a Growing Worldwide Epidemic
This year's World Diabetes Day observance, the first recognized by the U.N., centers on children.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Today is World Diabetes Day, part of a campaign to urge governments to do more to fight the disease. Organizers warn of a diabetes epidemic affecting two hundred forty-six million people worldwide.

Last December the United Nations passed a resolution to observe World Diabetes Day every November fourteenth. The International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization began the event in nineteen ninety-one. The federation is an alliance of diabetes groups. It also has partnerships with drug companies.

People with diabetes have too much glucose, or sugar, in their blood. The body changes food into glucose for energy with the help of insulin, a hormone. In diabetics, the body produces little or no insulin or has trouble using the insulin that is produced.

As a result, too much glucose remains in the blood instead of entering cells. Over time, the disease can cause blindness, kidney disease and nerve damage. It also can lead to strokes and heart disease.

People with type one diabetes need insulin injections. Many with type two do not. Instead, it can be controlled through diet, exercise and treatment. And people may be able to prevent it.

This year's World Diabetes Day campaign is about children and adolescents.

Dr. Francine Kaufman

One of the organizers is Doctor Francine Kaufman. She traveled around the world for a film called "Diabetes: A Global Epidemic." The Discovery Health Channel will show it on Sunday.

Type two diabetes used to appear mostly in adults, but now more and more children have it. Doctor Kaufman says it is spreading as more people rise out of poverty in developing countries -- for example, India.

FRANCINE KAUFMAN: "They’re in cars all day long, and they’ve got satellite dishes outside their houses. They are eating more food, and more westernized food and getting overweight and developing diabetes."

She says another place where diabetes is spreading is South Africa.

FRANCINE KAUFMAN: "We were in the townships and people were overweight. There is more food available than has been in the past. And people are getting on buses and going to offices and not necessarily being as physically active as they have been in the past.”

Doctor Kaufman says solutions must be developed country by country and patient by patient. In Brazil, for example, a health clinic holds dances to get diabetes patients more active. Doctor Kaufman says the message of World Diabetes Day is that the disease is manageable and, in the case of type two diabetes, preventable.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Barbara Klein.