VOASE0807_Explorations

07 August 2007

The Galapagos Islands Are Added to UNESCO's Endangered List
The islands are threatened by too many visitors and invasive species.

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the unusual creatures that live there.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

A Galapagos Giant Tortoise

The nineteen islands that make up the Galapagos lie along the equator one thousand kilometers west of Ecuador. The islands are named for the giant tortoises that live there. Galapagos has been called "a living museum and showcase of evolution." The animals on the islands influenced British nature scientist Charles Darwin's ideas about evolution by natural selection.

In nineteen seventy-eight, the islands were the first place named to the World Heritage List by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Recently, however, UNESCO added the islands to its World Heritage in Danger list. The main reason is the increase in the number of visitors to the islands.

The World Heritage Committee said increased tourism, immigration and invasive species threaten the animals of the Galapagos. Many of these animals are found nowhere else in the world. The committee noted that the number of days spent by passengers on ships in the area has increased by one hundred fifty percent in the last fifteen years. The number of visitors each year has doubled in five years and grows almost twelve percent every year. More than one hundred forty-five thousand people visited the islands last year.

The islands' increased tourism has brought thousands of workers from Ecuador to seek jobs. Some workers have brought non-native animals like dogs, cats, pigs and goats. These animals compete for food with the islands' native animals. Some also attack the native animals. Ecuadorian President Rafael Corea declared the islands at risk in April. He has promised more restrictions on tourism and population.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Mystery always has been part of the Galapagos. In fifteen thirty-five, a ship carrying the Roman Catholic Bishop of Panama came upon the Galapagos accidentally. Tomas de Berlanga named the Galapagos group the Enchanted Isles. He was surprised to see land turtles that weighed more than two hundred kilograms and were more than one meter long. He said they were so large each could carry a man on its back. Bishop Berlanga also noted the unusual soil of the islands. He suggested that one island was so rocky it seemed like stones had rained from the sky.

VOICE ONE:

Ecuador took official possession of the islands in eighteen thirty-two. The British nature scientist Charles Darwin is mainly responsible for the fame of the Galapagos Islands. He visited the islands in eighteen thirty-five. He collected plants and animals from several islands. After many years of research, he wrote the book “The Origin of Species” in eighteen fifty-nine. He developed the theory of evolution that life on Earth developed through the process of natural selection.

The book changed the way people think about how living things developed and became different over time. Darwin said the Galapagos brought people near “to that great fact -- that mystery of mysteries -- the first appearance of new beings on earth”.

One hundred years later, in nineteen fifty-nine, the Ecuadorian government declared almost all of the islands a national park. The Charles Darwin Foundation was formed the same year to study and protect the plants and animals on the islands.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

More than one hundred twenty-five landmasses make up the Galapagos. But only nineteen are large enough to be considered islands. Scientists have been wondering for years about the position of the Galapagos in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists used to think that the islands were connected to the South American mainland and floated out to sea slowly.

Today, most scientists think the islands were always where they are now. But they think the islands once were a single landmass under water. Volcanic activity broke the large island into pieces that came to the surface of the sea over time.

VOICE ONE:

But scientists wonder how animals arrived on Galapagos if the islands were always so far from the mainland. Scientists think most Galapagos plants and animals floated to the islands. When rivers flood in South America, small pieces of land flow into the ocean. These rafts can hold trees and bushes. The rafts also can hold small mammals and reptiles. The adult Galapagos tortoise clearly is too big for a trip hundreds of kilometers across the ocean. But, turtle eggs or baby turtles would be small enough to float to the islands.

VOICE TWO:

The Galapagos Islands are home to many unusual birds, reptiles and small mammals. Some of the animals live nowhere else on Earth. The tortoise is the most famous

The Marine Iguana

Galapagos reptile. But the marine iguana is also unusual. It is the only iguana in the world that goes into the ocean. The marine iguana eats seaweed. It can dive at least fifteen meters below the ocean surface. And it can stay down there for more than thirty minutes.

Several strange birds also live on the Galapagos. One of them is the only penguin that lives on the equator. Another is the frigate bird. It has loose skin on its throat that it can blow up into a huge red balloon-like structure. It does this to attract females that make observation flights over large groups of males.

VOICE ONE:

The Galapagos also are noted for a bird that likes water better than land or air. The cormorant is able to fly in all the other places it lives around the world. But the Galapagos cormorant has extremely short wings. They cannot support flight. But they work well for swimming.

The islands also have a large collection of small birds called Darwin’s finches. Charles Darwin studied the finches carefully when he visited the Galapagos in eighteen thirty-five. He separated the birds by the shapes of their beaks. He discovered that finches that lived in different places and ate different foods had different shaped beaks.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

But the most famous animals on the Galapagos Islands are the thousands of giant

Lonesome George

tortoises. And the most famous of these is the one that scientists call Lonesome George because he is the last of his kind. He has been called the rarest creature on Earth. At one time, the islands were home to about fifteen different kinds of land turtles. The largest island, Isabela, has five different kinds of tortoises. But, Lonesome George is not one of them. He comes from a smaller island called Pinta.

Scientists found George in nineteen seventy-one. Humans and non-native animals had caused much damage to the environment on his island. Some animals and plants had disappeared. Lonesome George was the only tortoise found on Pinta.

VOICE ONE:

Scientists took the tortoise to the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz Island. They wanted to help him find a female tortoise for mating to produce baby tortoises. The scientists had been successful in similar efforts for thousands of other tortoises.

The researchers placed George in the same living area as females from the nearby island of Isabela. Scientists thought George would be more closely related to the females from Isabela than to other Galapagos tortoises. However, George has not been able to mate successfully with the female tortoises. No eggs have been produced.

VOICE TWO:

Scientists have been studying the genetic material of tortoises on the islands and around the world. They have not found one with DNA like George’s. However, earlier this year, scientists from Yale University in the United States made an important discovery. They identified a male tortoise on Isabela Island that is an offspring of a female from Isabela and a male from Pinta. That means this tortoise has half his genes in common with Lonesome George. Scientists believe there might be a female carrying Pinta genes that could be a mate for George.

However, another scientist has noted that even if such a female is found, George has shown little interest in mating with female tortoises. George is between seventy and eighty years old. But some tortoises live longer than one hundred fifty years. If Lonesome George fails to become a father, the Pinta Island tortoises will disappear when he dies.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

VOASE0806_Science In the News

06 August 2007

How Sigmund Freud Changed What People Thought About the Mind
Freud influenced the science of mental health.

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VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

Sigmund Freud

And I'm Bob Doughty. The work and theories of Sigmund Freud continue to influence many areas of modern culture.

VOICE ONE:

Today, we explore Freud's influence on the treatment of mental disorders through psychotherapy.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Sigmund Freud was born May sixth, eighteen fifty-six, in Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. He lived most of his life in Vienna, Austria. Early in his adulthood, Freud studied medicine. By the end of the nineteenth century, he was developing some exciting new ideas about the human mind. But his first scientific publications dealt with sea animals, including the sexuality of eels.

VOICE ONE:

Freud was one of the first scientists to make serious research of the mind. The mind is the collection of activities based in the brain that involve how we act, think, feel and reason.

He used long talks with patients and the study of dreams to search for the causes of mental and emotional problems. He also tried hypnosis. He wanted to see if putting patients into a sleep-like condition would help ease troubled minds. In most cases he found the effects only temporary.

Freud worked hard, although what he did might sound easy. His method involved sitting with his patients and listening to them talk. He had them talk about whatever they were thinking. All ideas, thoughts and anything that entered their mind had to be expressed. There could be no holding back because of fear or guilt.

VOICE TWO:

Seating area where Freud questioned his patients

Freud believed that all the painful memories of childhood lay buried in the unconscious self. He said his part of the mind contains wishes, desires and experiences too frightening to recognize.

He thought that if these memories could somehow be brought into the conscious mind, the patient would again feel the pain. But this time, the person would experience the memories as an adult. The patient would feel them, be able to examine them and, if successful, finally understand them.

Using this method, Freud reasoned, the pain and emotional pressure of the past would be greatly weakened. They would lose their power over the person's physical health. Soon the patient would get better.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Sigmund Freud proposed that the mind was divided into three parts: the id, the ego and the superego. Under this theory, the superego acts as a restraint. It is governed by the values we learn from our parents and society. The job of the superego is to help keep the id under control.

The id is completely unconscious. It provides the energy for feelings that demand the immediate satisfaction of needs and desires.

The ego provides the immediate reaction to the events of reality. The ego is the first line of defense between the self and the outside world. It tries to balance the two extremes of the id and the superego.

VOICE TWO:

Many of Freud's theories about how the mind works also had strong sexual connections. These ideas included what he saw as the repressed feelings of sons toward their mothers and daughters toward their fathers.

If nothing else, Freud's ideas were revolutionary. Some people rejected them. Others came to accept them. But no one disputes his great influence on the science of mental health.

Professor James Gray at American University in Washington, D.C. says three of Freud's major ideas are still part of modern thinking about the mind.

One is the idea of the unconscious mind. Another is that we do not necessarily know what drives us to do the things we do. And the third is that we are formed more than we think in the first five years, but not necessarily the way Freud thought.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Doctor Freud was trained as a neurologist. He treated disorders of the nervous system. But physical sickness can hide deeper problems. His studies on the causes and treatment of mental disorders helped form many ideas in psychiatry. Psychiatry is the area of medicine that treats mental and emotional conditions.

Freud would come to be called the father of psychoanalysis.

VOICE TWO:

Psychoanalysis is a method of therapy. It includes discussion and investigation of hidden fears and conflicts.

Sigmund Freud used free association. He would try to get his patients to free their minds and say whatever they were thinking. He also had them talk about their dreams to try to explore their unconscious fears and desires.

His version of psychoanalysis remained the one most widely used until at least the nineteen fifties.

VOICE ONE:

Psychoanalysis is rarely used in the United States anymore. One reason is that it takes a long time; the average length of treatment is about five years. Patients usually have to pay for the treatment themselves. Health insurance plans rarely pay for this form of therapy.

Psychoanalysis has its supporters as well as its critics. Success rates are difficult to measure. Psychoanalysts say this is because each individual case is different.

VOICE TWO:

More recently, a number of shortened versions of psychological therapy have been developed. Some examples are behavior therapy, cognitive therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Behavior is actions; cognition is knowing and judging.

Some patients in therapy want to learn to find satisfaction in what they do. Others want to unlearn behaviors that only add to their problems.

In these therapies, patients might talk with a therapist about the past. Or patients might be advised to think less about the past and more about the present and the future.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Other kinds of therapy involve movement, dance, art, music or play. These are used to help patients who have trouble talking about their emotions.

In many cases, therapy today costs less than it used to. But the length of treatment depends on the problem. Some therapies, for example, call for twenty or thirty visits with a therapist.

How long people continue their therapy can also depend on the cost. People find that health insurance plans are often more willing to pay for short-term therapies than for longer-term treatments.

VOICE TWO:

Mental health experts say therapy can often help patients suffering from depression, severe stress or other conditions.

For some patients, they say, a combination of talk therapy and medication works best. There are many different drugs for depression, anxiety and other mental and emotional disorders.

Critics, however, say doctors are sometimes too quick to give medicine instead of more time for talk therapy. Again, cost pressures are often blamed.

Mental health problems can affect work, school, marriage, and life in general. Yet they often go untreated. In many cases, people do not want others to know they have a problem.

VOICE ONE:

Mental disorders are common in all countries. The World Health Organization says hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are affected by mental, behavioral, neurological or substance use disorders.

The W.H.O. says these disorders have major economic and social costs. Yet governments face difficult choices about health care spending. The W.H.O. says most poor countries spend less than one percent of their health budgets on mental health.

There are treatments for most conditions. Still, the W.H.O. says there are two major barriers. One is lack of recognition of the seriousness of the problem. The other is lack of understanding of the services that exist.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, left Vienna soon after troops from Nazi Germany entered Austria in nineteen thirty-eight. The Nazis had a plan to kill all the Jews of Europe, but they permitted Freud to go to England. His four sisters remained in Vienna and were all killed in Nazi concentration camps.

Freud was eighty-three years old when he died of cancer in London on September twenty-third, nineteen thirty-nine. Anna Freud, the youngest of his six children, became a noted psychoanalyst herself.

Before Sigmund Freud, no modern scientist had looked so deeply into the human mind.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty. You can download transcripts and audio archives of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America.

VOASE0806_Agriculture Report

06 August 2007

Working Magic in the Garden With Beans
Advice from the University of Illinois Extension.

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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Beans are a popular choice for home gardens.

The University of Illinois Extension service says bush bean plants need the least amount of work. They stand without support.

Green bush beans used to be called string beans because of fiber material along the pods containing the seeds. Now green beans are called snap beans because plant breeding reduced the fibers.

Unlike bush bean plants, pole beans need supports to climb. But they need less space than bush beans because they twist around poles or sticks. Because the plants are tall, a person can stand while harvesting the beans.

The University of Illinois Extension says beans should not be planted until all danger of a freeze has passed in the spring. Cold weather could damage them. Planting beans every two to four weeks until early August will provide a continuous harvest.

Small weeds and grasses around beans plants need to be controlled, but be careful not to harm the plants. The root systems are not very strong or deep.

Seeds should be planted at a depth of two and one-half centimeters. Make sure the soil is not too wet or the seeds could develop poorly.

Bush beans should be planted five to ten centimeters apart. And there should be at least forty-five to sixty centimeters between the rows.

Pole beans should be planted ten to fifteen centimeters apart in rows that are about seventy-six to ninety centimeters apart. Or you could plant them in hills with four to six seeds per hill.

The hills should be seventy-six centimeters apart and with seventy-six centimeters between rows.

The University of Illinois specialists say to harvest beans when the pods are firm and have reached their full length. Do not wait until the seeds inside are fully developed. Bean plants produce more beans if pods are continually removed before the seeds are mature.

But wait until the plants are completely dry before picking beans. Picking beans from wet plants can spread bean bacterial blight, a disease that damages the plants.

The specialists at the University of Illinois Extension say beans should be moved to different areas of the garden each year. This is because diseases that affect beans can stay in the soil and infect the next bean crop.

Not only are beans a healthy food, they are also good for the soil. Other plants take nitrogen out of the soil, but beans and other legumes replace it.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. To learn more about agriculture, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE0805_This Is America

05 August 2007

Mountain and Cowboy Culture Meet in Jackson Hole
We take you to the popular valley in Wyoming where people go to experience the outdoors and the spirit of the old American West.

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Today we travel to the mountains of Wyoming for a trip to Jackson Hole.

VOICE ONE:

This beautiful valley was named after the nineteenth-century explorer and hunter David Jackson. After he spent a winter in the area, his friends started to call it “Jackson’s Hole.”

VOICE TWO:

The valley looks like a hole in the middle of the mountains that surround it. Over time, the name stuck.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Grand Teton National Park

Jackson Hole is about forty-eight kilometers long. The valley includes the town of Jackson. About eight thousand people live there. The valley also includes the Grand Teton National Park and much of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Jackson Hole is a popular holiday place. In the summer, people go there to ride horses, climb mountains, catch fish and take trips on the rivers and lakes.

Many visitors take a trip across the valley on the Snake River. The Snake Indians once lived near this river. It turns from side to side, like a snake on the move.

Some visitors bird-watch from sailboats. One of the birds they can see is America’s national symbol, the bald eagle. Other people go white-water rafting. Rubber rafts carry them along the fastest parts of the river. The water moves so fast, it becomes white with foam.

VOICE TWO:

Skiing near Jackson Hole

In the winter, people come to Jackson Hole to ski. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort provides some of the best downhill skiing and snowboarding in the world.

And there are other kinds of skiing. Some people skate ski; they speed across level snow. Others enjoy the slower speed of cross-country skiing.

Some people go dog sledding in Jackson Hole. They get on a sled and are pulled by a team of dogs through the snow. This is one of the many ways to enjoy the extraordinary mountain views.

Some wealthy people have homes near the ski resort. Other people stay in the many hotels nearby. Some of these hotels are new and very costly.

In fact, the average sale price of a single-family home in Jackson Hole is more than one million dollars.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Visitors to Jackson Hole have many shopping, dining and entertainment choices.

People can imagine they are in a town in the Old West. At the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, instead of chairs, they can sit on saddles as if riding a horse. On some nights there are dance lessons. People can learn the two-step, a kind of Western dance.

Or they can eat dinner and listen to live music at the Mangy Moose Saloon. There, a large dead moose hangs from the ceiling.

At the Silver Dollar Bar, a long table is covered with more than two thousand shiny silver dollars. If you look carefully, you see that the coins are all from the year nineteen twenty-one.

Visitors can also enjoy an evening at the Jackson Hole Playhouse. In the summer, actors perform musicals and other plays. This brightly painted old theater is one of the oldest wood buildings in town. It has been a popular entertainment place since the nineteen fifties.

VOICE TWO:

Some of the stores in Jackson Hole sell unusual things, like furniture made of deer antlers. Antlers are the hard and bony points that grow on the heads of male deer. These stores sell chairs, lights and other objects made from antlers. They look more like pointy sculptures than furniture.

Many stores in Jackson Hole sell winter sports equipment and clothing. Some sell cowboy clothing. C.J. James owns the Jackson Hole Hat Company. Her Web site describes the cowboy as a "symbol of American independence and strength."

She will sell you a cowboy hat made to fit the exact size of your head. There are many shapes, colors and materials to choose from.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Rodeo in Jackson Hole

Some of the ways of the Old West cowboy are kept alive in Jackson Hole. In the summer, visitors can go to a rodeo to see competitions based on traditional cowboy skills. Some people say it is the truest of American sports.

The rodeo usually begins with a parade of cowboys and their horses. Then comes the competition. In one event, riders try to stay on a wild animal for eight seconds. They ride wild horses and large bulls. The animals try to throw the cowboys to the ground. The cowboys try not to fall off.

VOICE TWO:

In another event, the cowboy throws a rope around the neck of a young cow. Then he tries to tie the rope around three of its legs. The cowboy who does this in the shortest amount of time wins.

Visitors to Jackson Hole can experience different parts of cowboy life. They can ride horses. They can eat meals cooked outdoors over a fire. In the summer, they can watch actors dressed as cowboys perform “The Shootout.” This short Western play has been performed since the nineteen fifties.

VOICE ONE:

Arts and culture are important in Jackson Hole. Each summer, musicians from around the country perform classical music at the Grand Teton Music Festival.

Musical guests also visit local schools while they are in town.

Each autumn, Jackson holds the Fall Arts Festival. This event celebrates many examples of visual and performing arts. It also provides many examples of fine local foods.

VOICE TWO:

Visitors to Jackson Hole can explore the National Museum of Wildlife. When this museum opened, it was located in the center of town. But soon the museum space was not large enough to hold the art collection.

In nineteen ninety-four the museum reopened in a new building made of stone. It looks like a fortress built centuries ago. The museum contains over two thousand artworks showing nature and animals.

There are many paintings, photographs and sculptures of antelope, deer, birds, horses and other animals. The museum says its art celebrates the powerful connection between animals and humans.

VOICE ONE:

This art shows the natural beauty of the land and its creatures. To see this beauty in real life, all you have to do is walk outside the museum.

The building sits on a hillside overlooking the National Elk Refuge. The refuge contains the largest wintering population of elk in the world. It had an estimated seven thousand elk this season.

The refuge has ten thousand hectares of land. It was started in nineteen twelve to help protect the local elk population.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Six kilometers north of Jackson, Wyoming, is the Grand Teton National Park. Congress created this park in nineteen twenty-nine. In the nineteen forties the wealthy John D. Rockefeller bought a great amount of land nearby. Then he gave it to the federal government.

Both Rockefeller and the government added to the park later. Today, the government controls about ninety-seven percent of all the land in the Jackson Hole area.

VOICE ONE:

The park is named for the Grand Teton Mountains. These mountains rise directly from the floor of the valley. They are part of the Rocky Mountains. The Grand Tetons are about four thousand meters high and sixty-five kilometers long. Many artists have captured images of these beautiful mountains.

The Native Americans who lived in the area many years ago called the mountains Teewinot, meaning “many pinnacles.”

Fur trappers from Canada had their own idea of what the three largest mountains looked like. These French-speaking hunters named them “les Trois Tetons” -- "the Three Breasts."

VOICE TWO:

The Grand Teton Mountains were formed about ten million years ago. This makes them some of the youngest mountains in North America. The Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, for example, are about two hundred million years old.

Many of the lakes around the Grand Tetons were formed millions of years ago by slow-moving sheets of ice. Some small glaciers are still active in the mountains.

VOICE ONE:

People come to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from around the world to enjoy the best of cowboy and mountain culture. If you ever go, just don’t forget your cowboy hat.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Dana Demange and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

VOASE0804_People In America

04 August 2007

Lady Bird Johnson 1912-2007: The Former First Lady Was an Environmental Activist Who Made America More Beautiful
She showed great strength during a very tense period in American history.

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Lady Bird Johnson. She is best known for being the wife of President Lyndon Baines Johnson who led the nation during the nineteen sixties. But Missus Johnson was also an influential environmental activist, tireless campaigner and successful businesswoman.

She showed great strength and heroism during a tense period in American history. Her work to make America beautiful can still be seen today in flowering fields, roads, and parks across the country.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Claudia Alta Taylor as a young child. The picture was taken around 1915.

Lady Bird Johnson was born Claudia Alta Taylor in nineteen twelve. The Taylor family lived in the small town of Karnack, Texas. Claudia’s father, Thomas Jefferson Taylor, owned two stores as well as thousands of hectares for cotton production. Her mother, Minnie Taylor, died when Claudia was only five years old. A woman who worked for the Taylor family gave Claudia her nickname. Alice Tittle said the small child was “as purty as a lady bird.”

VOICE TWO:

Claudia had two older brothers who went away to school. She spent many hours by herself exploring the natural beauty of the fields and forests near her home. She said she grew up listening to the wind in the pine trees of the East Texas woods. She said her heart found its home in the beauty, mystery, order and disorder of the flowering earth.

Claudia attended public schools and worked hard at her studies. But she was very shy and did not like attention. When she graduated from high school, she had the third highest grades in the class. She reportedly made sure she finished third to avoid giving the graduation speech required by the top two students in the class.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen thirty-four Lady Bird graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with

Lady Bird Taylor at her graduation in 1934.

degrees in history and journalism. She planned to teach or work as a theater critic. But then she met an energetic congressional assistant named Lyndon Baines Johnson. The young politician from Texas asked her to marry him on their first date. After weeks of pressure from Mister Johnson, Lady Bird accepted his marriage proposal. Here is Missus Johnson talking about her first meeting with her future husband:

LADY BIRD JOHNSON:

“We had a breakfast date, but we wound up by spending the whole day together, riding and talking. Well, he really let me know before the day was over that he wanted to marry me. And I thought this impossible. But on the other hand, there was one thing I knew I just couldn’t bear to have happen and that was to say goodbye, goodbye period.”

VOICE TWO:

Lyndon Johnson was busy planning his political career. Within three years, he ran for a seat in the United States Congress and won. Lady Bird Johnson had given him ten thousand dollars to get his campaign started.

When Japanese planes attacked American ships at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in nineteen forty-one, Mister Johnson joined the navy to fight in World War Two. Missus Johnson stayed in Washington, D.C. and supervised his congressional office during the eight months he was away. Her excellent organizational skills and smart political sense made her perfect for the job.

VOICE ONE:

After Mister Johnson returned, Lady Bird Johnson soon found a new project. She used about seventeen thousand dollars of family money to buy a small radio station in Austin, Texas. The radio station was in debt and had a small broadcast range. Missus Johnson used her husband’s connections with the Federal Communications Commission to increase the radio station’s power and range.

Soon, the station started making money and the company expanded into television as well. Missus Johnson was president of the family company, LBJ Company. She traveled from Washington to Austin every week to take care of business.

Lynda Bird Johnson, Luci Baines Johnson, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson in a photograph taken in 1963.

During this time the Johnson family started to grow. Lady Bird had a daughter, Lynda Bird, in nineteen forty-four. A second daughter, Luci Baines, was born three years later. Lyndon Johnson’s power in politics also continued to grow. In nineteen forty-eight he was elected to the United States Senate.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen sixty, John F. Kennedy ran for president of the United States with Lyndon Johnson as vice president. Missus Kennedy was unable to travel and campaign for the candidates because of her pregnancy. Missus Johnson bravely accepted the job. She visited eleven states to help express the goals of the candidates. They won the election.

Missus Johnson was also at her husband’s side when he visited Texas with President and Missus Kennedy on November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three.

After the tragic shooting of President Kennedy in Dallas, security officials led the Johnsons to the presidential plane to fly back to Washington. During the flight, Missus Johnson and Missus Kennedy watched as Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President of the United States.

VOICE ONE:

In the weeks after this national tragedy Lyndon Johnson worked hard to show Americans that he could be a strong president. With his strong support, he got Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-four. This law banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin” in public places and federal programs. But the law was not popular with many white voters in the southern part of the country.

Once again, Lady Bird Johnson came to the rescue. As part of Lyndon Johnson’s nineteen sixty-four campaign for president she became a spokesman for the law. Lady Bird Johnson visited important southern states although Democratic governors feared for her safety. She traveled through poor areas talking to angry crowds who were against her husband’s civil rights policies. Lady Bird Johnson knew how to give a powerful and expressive speech.

She won over the loud crowds with her gentle manner and calming southern accent. She told them that it was time to end the South’s racist past and move into the modern world. The media later wrote that she stood as a fearless moral representative of her husband. And, her work paid off. Lyndon Johnson won the election.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The historian Lewis Gould has said Missus Johnson and her press secretary Liz Carpenter were the first to establish the job of the modern first lady. Missus Johnson realized that the wife of the president needed to have her own team of workers. She made sure she had a director of employees as well as a social director. Lady Bird Johnson’s business experience and sense of organization helped create a very effective system for future first ladies and their causes.

VOICE ONE:

Lady Bird Johnson in 1968 in a classroom at Kemper School for Project Headstart.

As first lady, Missus Johnson became an energetic activist for educational and environmental issues. She helped support Head Start, a public program aimed at giving educational and health services to young children from poor families.

She started the Society for a More Beautiful National Capitol. Its aim was to improve the beauty of Washington by planting trees and flowers in public areas and parks. Missus Johnson understood that these improvements were also linked to important issues such as pollution, public transportation, mental health, and crime rates.

VOICE TWO:

But she is most well known for helping to create The Beautification Act of nineteen sixty-five. It aimed to protect America’s natural beauty by limiting advertising signs and cleaning up waste areas on the country’s roads and highways. The law also supported the planting of local flowers and trees. Here is Missus Johnson talking about her environmental efforts:

LADY BIRD JOHNSON:

“Clean water, clean up the rivers, wilderness areas, more national parks, all of that was a part of our aim and thrust and what we tried to do. I’ve had a life long love affair with nature, a particular accent on wildflowers, native plants for the whole broad face of America. I hope everybody could enjoy their little piece of America as much as I have enjoyed mine.”

VOICE ONE:

Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson had a difficult four-year term. The president faced strong opposition about the United States involvement in the war in Vietnam. In nineteen sixty-eight, President Johnson surprised the nation by announcing that he would not seek reelection as president. The Johnsons left politics and returned home to Texas. Mister Johnson died of a heart attack in nineteen seventy-three.

VOICE TWO:

Lady Bird Johnson continued her tireless work to improve the country’s natural

Lady Bird Johnson in 1990

environment. She created the National Wildflower Research Center in nineteen eighty-two. The center helps to educate people about the environmental importance and value of native plants. Missus Johnson died in two thousand seven at the age of ninety-four. Her memory lives in the many fields of wildflowers that color the roads of America.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. You can download scripts and audio of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.

VOASE0805_Development Report

05 August 2007

Should HIV-Infected Mothers Breastfeed?
The World Health Organization recommends HIV-infected mothers substitute breastfeeding with replacement feedings if several conditions can be met.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The HIV virus can be transmitted through breastfeeding

The World Health Organization says that breastfeeding is the best way to provide babies with the nutrients and protection against infection they need to be healthy. However, a woman with HIV can spread the virus that causes AIDS to her child during pregnancy, delivery or through breastfeeding. The WHO estimates up to twenty percent of babies born to HIV-infected mothers become infected through breastfeeding.

However, stopping breastfeeding puts children at risk of other problems. These include poor nutrition and increased risk of other life-threatening infections. These risks were shown in Botswana last year. Water supplies made dirty by flooding led to high rates of diarrhea and poor nutrition among babies fed liquid baby food called formula. More than five hundred children died. The number of deaths from diarrhea increased twenty times from earlier years.

Investigators from the United States Centers for Disease Control discovered the link between formula feeding and infant deaths from diarrhea. They also found that babies who were not breastfed were fifty times more likely to have diarrhea.

Peggy Henderson is a child health and development expert with the World Health Organization. She spoke to us from Geneva, Switzerland. Miz Henderson says the choice of feeding depends on the individual situation of each woman with HIV.

The WHO recommends replacement feeding instead of breastfeeding if several conditions can be met. The replacement feeding must be acceptable, financially and physically possible, continued over a period of time and safe for both the mother and baby. If these conditions cannot be met, the WHO recommends that HIV-infected mothers give their babies only breast milk for the first months of life.

Miz Henderson says there are several promising studies on use of anti-retroviral medicines by HIV-infected mothers and their children. But she says the safety of the process is not clear. She says she hopes the WHO will examine ongoing research of the medicines in two thousand nine. New public health recommendations could be announced then. But for now, Miz Henderson says the WHO does not recommend that HIV-infected mothers use anti-retroviral drugs only to reduce transmission of the virus through breastfeeding.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal.

First Lady Visits Minneapolis Bridge Disaster Site

By Greg Flakus Houston 03 August 2007

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In Minneapolis, recovery work continues in the rubble of the 35 West bridge, which collapsed during the afternoon rush hour Wednesday. Officials have now confirmed five deaths from the disaster, with eight people still listed as missing. Among visitors to the site Friday was First Lady Laura Bush. We learn more in this report by VOA's Greg Flakus in Houston.

First Lady Laura Bush talks to first responders as she visits the site of the I-35W bridge collapse over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, 3 Aug. 2007

The First Lady came to the site on the banks of the Mississippi River to see the destruction with her own eyes and to offer whatever comfort and support she could to rescue workers who went into the turbulent waters over and over again looking for survivors. Speaking later, Mrs. Bush said she was impressed by the spirit of the people in the so-called Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

"Over the last 43 hours, the whole country has seen the strength of the Minneapolis-St. Paul community, and because we have seen that strength, we all are confident that the bridge will be rebuilt and that your city will heal," she said.

President Bush is to visit the disaster site on Saturday.

The 160-meter-long bridge was located near the University of Minnesota campus and rose 20 meters over the Mississippi River. As many as 200,000 people crossed the bridge each day, traveling between the two cities. That traffic has now been routed around the disaster site.

Authorities have lowered the water level at the site by using dams and dikes installed higher up on the river, but recovery workers still face a daunting task. The broken concrete slabs and metal support beams that lie twisted and scattered under the water's surface present hazards for divers trying to locate bodies underwater. In addition, there are currents, which are actually swifter and more treacherous as a result of the water level having been lowered.

The collapse of the bridge has also wakened officials all over the country to the threat posed by bridges and other vital infrastructure that might be cracked or showing signs of fatigue as well as to the need for new inspections. Experts say there are nearly 600,000 bridges in the United States, and they have an average age of 42 years. More than 75,000 of them have ratings of "structurally deficient," as did the bridge in Minneapolis.

Authorities say that rating does not mean the bridges are in danger of imminent collapse, but that measures should be taken to either address the problems or replace them.

People in Minnesota are now asking why more was not done to repair the Minneapolis bridge, which was revealed to have problems in a 2005 inspection and yet was not listed as needing to be replaced until 2020.

The effort to determine what exactly caused the collapse is expected to take many weeks. Federal and state engineers are working together to recover material from the bridge and to study videotapes from nearby security cameras that may provide clues as to what went wrong.

VOASE0803_In the News

03 August 2007

Good Sports, Bad Sports
Sports professionals are being praised, condemned and investigated.

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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

For the last several weeks, professional athletes have been on the first page of newspapers as much as in the sports pages. Some news stories are about extraordinary careers. Others are about athletes behaving badly.

Professional baseball players Cal Ripken and Tony Gywnn are among the heroes.

Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. after they entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

They were admitted into the Baseball Hall of Fame Sunday at a ceremony in Cooperstown, New York. About seventy-five thousand fans gathered there to celebrate. Both men spoke about the importance of the public image of athletes. Gwynn said professional baseball was about more than just playing. He said players need to do the right thing for all the fans who love the sport. Ripken said players are behavior models whether they like it or not. He said the only question is whether they will be good ones or bad ones.

Barry Bonds, right, and Doug Mirabelli watch Bonds's 748th career home run.

The speeches followed weeks of legal charges, accusations and investigations involving sports professionals. In baseball, Barry Bonds is two homeruns away from breaking the record set by Hank Aaron in nineteen seventy-six. Bonds' success has renewed accusations that he used banned performance-improving drugs. However, Bonds has never failed a drug test nor has he been charged with any crime.

Similar accusations of banned drug use also took place at the Tour de France bicycle race last month. Several riders tested positive for a performance-improving drug. And, in the final week of the race, the leading cyclist Michael Rasmussen of Denmark was expelled on suspicion of taking banned drugs.

The International Cycling Union said there were more cases of doping in the Tour de France this year because there was more testing.

An American professional football player is also in the news. Last week, Michael Vick told a court in Richmond, Virginia, he was not guilty of charges connected to an illegal dog-fighting business. The charges include extreme cruelty to animals.

Federal investigators say they found fight dogs and other evidence on Michael Vick's property in Virginia earlier this year. A defendant who pled guilty in the case has agreed to speak against Vick in court in return for a lesser sentence. Several sporting goods companies that had paid Vick for the use of his name have ended their business relationship with him. And an animal rights group, the Humane Society, is urging the National Football League to suspend Vick from play.

Finally, some bad news in professional basketball. United States federal officials are investigating former National Basketball Association referee Tim Donaghy. The referee enforces the rules and keeps order in the game. He can stop play if he calls a violation by a player and turn the ball over to the opposing team. Donaghy is being investigated for betting money on basketball games, including some in which he was a referee.He resigned last month.

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

France Confirms Agreement to Sell Arms to Libya

By Anita Elash Paris 03 August 2007

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France and Libya have agreed to their first arms deal since the European Union lifted an arms embargo on Libya in 2004. The deal comes after the release last week of six medical workers who Libya accused of intentionally infecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus. As Anita Elash reports for VOA from Paris, French opposition parties say they want proof that the arms sale was not part of a release package.

The Bulgarian nurses and medic pose in front of the French presidential plane after their arrival at the Sofia airport, 24 July 2007

Libya has long been isolated from the international community, so for leader Moammar Gadhafi, the deal with France is proof that he is being welcomed back onto the world stage. It comes after the six medical workers were released last week and flown to Bulgaria and a subsequent visit to Libya by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. During that visit, Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Gadhafi signed an agreement for Paris to provide a nuclear reactor to Libya that would turn seawater into drinking water.

Details of the arms deal began to emerge this week, when Mr. Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, told a French newspaper it was part of the agreement to free the medical workers.

French Defense Minister Herve Morin confirmed the deal on Friday morning. He said Libya has agreed to contracts worth $405 million including the purchase of communications equipment and medium-range anti-tank missiles from subsidiaries of the European Aerospace and Defense firm EADS. The minister denied that the deal has anything to do with the medical workers. He said an interministerial committee approved it in February.

He says the deal was not speeded up and that the discussion had been going on for years.

French opposition parties are demanding a parliamentary inquiry into the deal. Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande said he wants proof that the arms deal is unrelated to the release of the medical workers, who say they were tortured into making confessions in Libya.

He says he wants a parliamentary commission that can clarify whether the deal was the result of a normal business negotiation, or whether it was part of a negotiation with a country that held the medical workers for eight years and tried to use them as pawns.

The French government has not responded to Hollande's demand. Parliament has closed for the summer, and Mr. Sarkozy is in the United States on holiday.

Darfur Peace Talks Falter Before They Begin

By Nick Wadhams Nairobi 03 August 2007

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Negotiations aimed at resolving Sudan's brutal Darfur conflict faltered before they began on Friday after a leading rebel groups refused to participate. As Nick Wadhams reports from our East Africa bureau in Nairobi, the boycott raises new doubts about prospects for peace in Darfur.

The talks in Arusha, Tanzania are meant to unite Darfur's various rebel factions and were initially seen as a positive and crucial step. They come just days after the U.N. Security Council passed a landmark resolution authorizing the deployment of 26,000 peacekeepers to Darfur.

But the start of the talks was delayed Friday because some rebel groups had not arrived. And already, hopes that the rebels would take advantage of the momentum provided by the resolution seem lost.

About a dozen rebel factions are taking part in the talks, but one important group is absent - the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Abdelwahid al-Nur. His group argues that it is pointless to talk politics while violence continues.

SLM spokesman Yahia Bolad says al-Nur will not make the same mistake he made in 2006, when he agreed to a peace proposal after months of talks in Abuja, Nigeria, that amounted to nothing.

"The result is that weak Abuja agreement and the government continues killing our people. The humanitarian issue became more worse than ever. For that reason we need to suspend the conflict," he said. "So the matter is not issuing resolutions, the matter is how to implement these resolutions and that's what we're waiting for. When we see U.N. troops on the ground we will start the political process steps."

Al-Nur is one of the Darfur rebellion's founding fathers and a member of Sudan's largest tribe, the Fur. He is popular among many of the 2.5 million people who have been displaced by the Darfur fighting. Some 200,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in 2003.

Without his participation it seems unlikely that the three days of talks in Arusha will result in serious progress. The negotiations are being sponsored by the African Union and the United Nations.

The Sudanese government is not participating in the talks. But foreign ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq Ali says he believes a successful conclusion of the talks in Arusha could lead immediately to new negotiations with the government.

"I don't think it will be a failure," he said. "If they are agreed on a common position I think the next step will be to name the place and the time of the first talks so that the process will start from there on."

The various rebel factions are also calling for the release of the humanitarian coordinator of the Sudan Liberation Army, Suleiman Jammous. The factions believe that Jammous could help jump-start the limited relief work in Darfur and could also help unite the various rebels.

Jammous has been in a U.N. hospital near Darfur for more than a year and the Khartoum government says he will be arrested if he tries to leave.

Thailand Seeks Closer Ties with Muslim Nations

By Ron Corben Bangkok 03 August 2007

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The Thai Government is seeking closer links with Muslim countries, part of a two-pronged strategy to end separatist violence in three of its southern provinces. Even as the government was announcing the plan, at least 13 more people died in the area this week in bombing and shooting attacks. Ron Corben reports from Bangkok.

A security report released by the Thai Cabinet this week says the government will pursue closer ties with Muslim countries, especially Malaysia and Indonesia.

The statement, part of a draft foreign policy paper on security, said closer contacts would also be developed with international Muslim organizations and foundations.

Thai soldiers and police officers stand as pay their respects to a colleague who was shot dead by militants during a funeral ceremony at the airport in Narathiwat province, 03 Aug 2007

Also this week, the Thai military reported it had rounded up more than 1,900 suspected militants during recent sweeps across the provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, and Pattani. The military calls 300 of those in custody "leading insurgents," who supervised and staged attacks.

Analysts are viewing these moves as a two-pronged strategy by the government to end the three-year-old Muslim insurgency in the three provinces, which sit on Thailand's southern border with predominately-Muslim Malaysia. The violence has claimed almost 2,500 lives since 2004.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, says the strategy aims to give the government a better picture of how and where the separatists are receiving their support.

"The network in the South has been known to be connected to overseas foundations," he said. "Another strategy is to engage those countries - those foundations and those individuals - to understand what's going on and to get some cooperation and assistance as to how to contain or disconnect some of these linkages."

Nitti Hassan, president of the Council of Muslim Organizations of Thailand, says the government is casting a wide net in hopes of attracting Muslim help.

"The government expects that the Muslim country or the Muslim leader will help to solve the problem from the deep South. They think the insurgents may receive the influence from the Muslim country," said Hassan. "So the government has invited the [religious] leader from Egypt, from Saudi Arabia, also Indonesia, and from Malaysia also."

Thailand has already sought help from Malaysia in opening a dialogue with separatist leaders. Thai intelligence sources say further such efforts are expected this month.

For now, knowledge of the militants is limited. One organization, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, is linked with the RKK Commando Force. The two are seeking a separate Muslim entity in the region, which was an autonomous Malayan sultanate until annexed by Thailand 100 years ago. Intelligence sources say the RKK has fewer than two thousand militants, with ties to private Islamic schools.

No separatist group has issued a manifesto, however, and for the most part, the violence has consisted of random shootings and bombings. Both Muslims and Buddhists have been targeted.

While the government seeks answers, the violence continues. At least 13 people have been killed in the region this week and another 30 wounded. In one incident, two Muslim villagers, a 61-year-old man and his 26-year-old son, were gunned down near their home in Narathiwat.

20 Million Affected by Floods in South Asia

By Anjana Pasricha New Delhi 03 August 2007

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Relief workers are struggling to help at least 20 million people affected by floods in South Asia. More than 200 people have died so far in this year's annual monsoon rains. Anjana Pasricha in VOA's New Delhi bureau has more on the situation.

A woman wades through a flooded street to collect food in Sirajgonj, about 104 kilometers (65 miles) north of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, 03 Aug 2007

As heavy monsoon rains continue to sweep India, Bangladesh and Nepal, government and relief agencies are battling to help the victims.

Devendra Tak, with the regional Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, paints a grim picture.

"There have been lives lost across the region due to drowning, due to snake bite, due to house collapses, casualties are rising and…there is always a danger of diseases that always follow floods," said Tak.

In India, the states of Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have been the worst hit by weeks of constant rainfall. Rivers have burst banks. Flood waters have inundated vast tracts of valuable crops and washed out roads, bridges and railways. The Army has been deployed to evacuate hundreds of cut-off villages.

Neighboring Bangladesh is criss-crossed by rivers and half the country is under water. And in mountainous Nepal, landslides and floods triggered by the rains have displaced tens of thousands of people.

Government and aid agencies have established hundreds of relief camps but say the top priority is to provide clean drinking water and food to the victims wherever they are.

Tak says the massive relief operation is making progress but not enough.

"Relief has been slow in coming I would say overall…. and they would need to do a lot of quick work to provide relief to victims who really require it urgently," Tak added.

The floods will leave a long-term impact on the region as they wash away standing crops, and prevent farmers from planting seeds for the next season. And many poor laborers will be left without work - deepening poverty among already impoverished flood victims.

Floods are an annual occurrence in South Asia during the July to September monsoon season. But authorities say the flooding this year has been more severe than usual.

India Releases Text of Civilian Nuclear Accord With US

By Steve Herman New Delhi 03 August 2007

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The text of a historic civilian nuclear agreement between India and the United States has been released, a week after the deal was announced. As VOA's Steve Herman reports from the Indian capital, the document skirts the delicate issue of what would happen if India conducted another nuclear weapons test.

As expected, the 22-page agreement spells out how the two countries will share nuclear fuel and technology, but avoids any mention of what would happen if India were to carry out another atomic weapons test.

The United States originally sought a specific ban on further Indian tests, but the Indians rejected that as an infringement on their sovereignty.

The text does, however, provide for termination of the agreement with one year's notice. It says "consultations" would have to be held first to discuss the reasons for the termination, which could include what it calls a "changed security environment."

This appears to be a reference to the possibility that Indian might resume testing if it feels threatened by a neighbor.

The text says the United States would help India obtain fuel from other nations if the U.S. supply of nuclear fuel to India is cut off - something that would presumably happen if New Delhi did conduct another nuclear test.

Research analyst Reshmi Kazi at New Delhi's Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies doubts the Indian government will violate the terms of the agreement. She points out that India has agreed to oversight by the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, to allay concerns about diversion of U.S. materials to India's military nuclear program.

"India's definitely going to be a reliable partner, with the fact that we have agreed to put forth 65 percent of our nuclear facilities under safeguards," she said. "In addition to that, we have also agreed to put a reprocessing facility under IAEA safeguards. It's definitely going to make a major breakthrough within the non-proliferation world."

The text shows that after two years of intense technical negotiations, India won the right to stockpile and reprocess fuel, which could be used to make nuclear weapons.

The agreement still requires approval by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, along with ratification by the U.S. Congress.