VOASE0810_In the News

10 August 2007

Countdown to 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
China Faces Criticism Over Human Rights, Press Freedom and Pollution.

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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. On Wednesday, China celebrated the one-year mark until the start of the two thousand eight Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

The celebration included sporting events and ceremonies across China. The Chinese

Pollution in the air in Beijing one year before the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games.

government has spent tens of billions of dollars on transportation and buildings to prepare for the Olympic Games.

But not everyone is celebrating. China is being criticized for failing to honor promises to improve human rights and press freedom before the games. The international media rights group Reporters Without Borders is among those criticizing China. The group says China told Olympic officials six years ago that it would improve its human rights record. But the group says about one hundred reporters and dissidents who use the Internet remain in prison. The group says thousands of other dissidents are jailed and executed in public every year.

Reporters Without Borders held a protest Monday near the Olympic headquarters in Beijing. Chinese police detained about twelve foreign reporters covering the event. They were later released.

Chinese Olympic officials have answered the criticism saying the games should not be politicized. This year a new media law went into effect in China. The law gives foreign media freedom to report throughout China until the end of the Olympics, without government interference. Officials with the Organizing Committee for the Beijing Olympics say China welcomes critical voices in the media.

But China’s actions do not support that claim. Officials keep tight control on the national media. They block foreign Web sites and broadcasts critical of the government. VOA’s Web sites and broadcasts are often blocked in China.

Some American lawmakers and activist groups have proposed legislation calling for a boycott of the Olympics unless China improves its human rights situation.

China is facing criticism in other areas as well. Some Olympic sports teams have expressed concern about the effect China’s air pollution will have on their athletes’ health.

The president of the International Olympic Committee admitted that air pollution in Beijing could force delays of some outdoor events. Jacques Rogge said Wednesday that postponements were a possibility for some sports that continue for several hours, such as cycling.

Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world. But Chinese officials have said the country is doing everything it can to make sure the ten thousand athletes will be able to compete in clean air.

And there is still another issue. An activist group called Olympic Dream for Darfur is urging China to use its economic and political ties with Sudan to do more to end the violence in Darfur. China is Sudan’s largest foreign investor. It has blocked strong United Nations action against the government of Sudan.

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

Pollution Threatens Australia's Great Barrier Reef

By Phil Mercer Sydney 10 August 2007

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Conservationists say the Australian government must undertake a multi-million dollar cleanup of the Great Barrier Reef or risk its destruction. Campaigners say the World Heritage Site is threatened by millions of tons of chemicals and mud washed from farms onto the reef each year. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

This undated photo released by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, shows dying coral on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Environmentalists say the Great Barrier Reef is being threatened by waves of dangerous agricultural sludge.

Campaigners believe that more than 90 percent of the reef's pollution comes from soil, pesticides and other chemicals that have washed off farms and sugarcane plantations into rivers.

There are concerns that nutrients from farmland runoff boost the population of the crown-of-thorns starfish. It is a voracious predator that attacks coral.

The Australian government is being urged to do more to help farmers reduce this run-off.

Nick Heath from the global environmental group WWF says urgent action is needed.

"If nothing is done it's quite a grim future for the reef," he said. "Pollution will continue to stress corals, continue to feed wave after wave of crown of thorn starfish outbreaks, reducing coral cover and probably even worse reducing the resilience of the reef to be able to deal with the increased temperatures expected from climate change."

The Great Barrier Reef is home to 400 species of coral and supports over 2,000 different types of fish and 4,000 species of mollusks and countless other invertebrates.

It is the world's largest coral system and stretches for 2,300 kilometers along Australia's northeast coast, covering an area bigger than Britain.

The reef is one of Australia's most important tourist destinations, contributing an estimated $5 billion to the economy.

It attracts a million visitors a year, who come to see a vast array of sharks, turtles and brightly colored fish.

A new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina in the United States has found that the degradation of the world's coral reefs has been much worse than previously thought. A report said that over the past 20 years, coral had disappeared at five times the rate of the world's rainforests.

Many scientists have blamed climate change for rising ocean temperatures, which can kill coral by causing what is called bleaching.

Medical Aid Groups Welcome Indian Court Ruling on Patents

By Anjana Pasricha New Delhi 10 August 2007

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Medical aid groups - fighting for access to cheap medicines for the poor - are applauding an Indian court's decision to throw out a Swiss drug company's legal challenge on patent issues. Anjana Pasricha tells us more from VOA's bureau in New Delhi.

The court in Chennai threw out Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis' challenge to India's patent law - in a case closely watched around the world.

Novartis had filed suit after its bid to patent a new version of its anti-cancer drug, Gleevec, was rejected earlier this year. Indian law denies patents for minor improvements to existing medicines.

The ruling means Indian companies can continue to manufacture and sell medicines produced before 1995 - such as Gleevec - at a fraction of the price in Western countries. The only caveat is that domestic companies must use a different manufacturing process from that of the inventor.

The patent law here has enabled the Indian pharmaceutical industry to emerge as a major supplier of affordable drugs throughout the developing world.

Tido von Schoen-Angerer, a director at the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, called the ruling a "major victory" for poor people across the world.

Indian people infected with HIV and activists hold placards and shout slogans against harmaceutical firm Novartis during a demonstration in New Delhi, 29 Jan 2007

"The ruling still allows that for medicines that are not real breakthrough, big innovations, not to be patented in India," he said. "Right now we have a desperate need for several of the new HIV medicines to be produced cheaply in India, but the same will be true for all other inventions in other disease area be it cancer or other infectious diseases. So this has very broad importance for health in developing countries."

The Indian pharmaceutical industry - which is raking in profits - is also pleased with the ruling - noting that hundreds of similar pending patent applications will not be approved, and it can continue making a host of drugs, including anti-AIDS medicines.

The secretary-general of Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, Dilip.G. Shah, says the ruling is a "major relief."

"Number of products which are in the market, they will be able to manufacture and continue to market them, and it will also save them from expensive litigation," said Shah.

Novartis, however, says the Chennai court ruling will have negative consequences for research into and development of better drugs for patients in India and overseas. It says the Indian patent law stifles innovation.

Several developed countries argue that drug patents must be protected worldwide, because pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars to create new drugs. The issue is a key sticking point in trade liberalization talks at the World Trade Organization.

Pyongyang Still Safer Bet For North Korea's Leader in Second Summit With South

By Kurt Achin Seoul 10 August 2007

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Leaders from North and South Korea plan to meet this month in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, despite hints at a summit seven years ago that the next one would take place in Seoul. As VOA Seoul correspondent Kurt Achin reports, the idea of visiting the South Korean capital is enough to make North Korea's leader, and those who protect him, lose sleep.

After the first summit between North and South Korea in Pyongyang in 2000, then-President Kim Dae Jung said he had invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to visit Seoul. And Mr. Kim replied he would do so "at an appropriate time."

However, South Korean Chief of National Intelligence Kim Man-bok, who arranged this month's summit, says it will again be in Pyongyang. When asked why not Seoul, he gave a polite response.

North Koreans bow before the statue of the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung erected on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea, 05 Aug 2007

Kim says North Korean authorities proposed Pyongyang host the summit, because it was the "more elegant" venue, where President Roh could receive the "best possible treatment."

But many experts say it is more than elegance than motivated the decision - namely, fears of a security and public relations debacle.

The first summit featured hundreds of North Koreans in matching outfits, waving bouquets of flowers in unison. That display was made possible by North Korea's totalitarian system, in which thousands are mobilized for choreographed displays of reverence for the Kim family.

Here in South Korea, there is a tradition of boisterous - and occasionally violent - public protest. Political science professor Lee Ki-tak, at Seoul's Yonsei University, says coming to South would be a rude awakening for Kim Jong Il.

He says Kim Jong Il is used to being treated as a god in the North, and North Korean propaganda portrays many South Koreans as feeling the same way. Imagine the surprise, he says, when the "god" finds his motorcade pelted with stones on a visit to the South.

Even in North Korea, Kim Jong Il's movements are kept secret. Because virtually all state power is concentrated in his hands, experts say any danger to Kim Jong Il is a threat to the entire North Korean system.

Hong Jun-pyo, a South Korean presidential candidate, says North Korean authorities are aware of the risk.

He says no matter how much effort South Korea puts into guarding Kim Jong Il, it cannot provide a 100 percent guarantee of his safety.

Simply put, he says, the North Korean leader is afraid he could be assassinated.

There is no shortage of South Koreans unhappy with Mr. Kim. About 10,000 North Korean defectors live here, most of whom made a dangerous journey to escape starvation and repression.

In addition, about 500 South Korean prisoners of the 1950s Korean War are believed to be alive in the North, along with about 500 southerners the North abducted since the war. Relatives of those individuals are among the most vocal critics of South Korean engagement with the North.

Other South Koreans are angry over its test of a nuclear device and its record of human rights abuses.

Asia Stocks Fall on Fears of Liquidity Crunch

By Heda Bayron Hong Kong 10 August 2007

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Share prices across Asia fell sharply as the fallout from the U.S. sub-prime loan crisis widens. VOA's Heda Bayron reports from Hong Kong.

A Japanese businessman looks at a stock indicator in Tokyo, 10 Aug 2007

Stock analysts say fears that the global financial system would experience a credit crunch triggered a market sell off in Asia Friday.

Analysts say investors are worried that funds for businesses are drying up as a result of the U.S. sub-prime mortgage problem. That prompted investors to flee the stock markets in favor of less risky investments.

"This (liquidity concern) adds of course to the general risk aversion in the markets," said Jan Lambregts, a treasury strategist at Rabobank International in Hong Kong. "With many of the Asian equity markets, emerging markets being at obviously high risk, it runs that people in general turn away from risky assets and that would have impact on equity and some of the Asian currencies as well."

On Friday, the Bank of Japan injected a trillion yen or $8.4 billion, into the financial system, while Australia's Reserve Bank released more than $4 billion.

These follow similar actions by the European central bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve Thursday to calm the markets.

By putting more money into the financial system, the central banks hope to make sure there is plenty of cash available for businesses that need to borrow to fund operations.

Wall Street lost nearly 3 percent Thursday as investors sold on news that the French bank BNP Paribas Thursday froze three funds exposed to U.S. sub-prime loans.

The U.S. sub-prime loan sector lent money to those who otherwise would not qualify for mortgages because of poor credit records. As interest rates rose, many of those borrowers defaulted and some lenders have gone bankrupt, creating a wider credit crisis in the United States.

Lambregts says although Asian exposure to the U.S. sub-prime loan market appears to be limited, some Asian banks are still feeling the pinch.

"One of the main problem we are dealing with is that whereas some people have made guesstimates (estimates) of the extent of the damage, the losses that may come from sub prime segment, we are not sure about the distribution of those," he explained. "The sense is that Asian banks are not in the first line of the losses. However, as we can see and this is the nasty part of contagion is that even banks that are completely not exposed to sub-prime can be affected."

Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed 2.37 percent down at 16,764 - its lowest in about five months. South Korea's Kospi Index sank 4.2 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended 3 percent lower.

VOASE0809_Economics Report

09 August 2007

Will Credit Risk Weigh Down Debt Markets?
Concern over the quality of debt investments worries investors. Could liquidity in debt markets be drying up?

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Liquidity is the ease with which an investment can be sold and turned into money. For example, when a stock is traded easily, the market for it is said to be liquid.

Liquidity can also suggest the ease with which money can be raised in debt markets.

Subprime lender New Century Financial Corporation had to seek bankruptcy protection in April.

And this is where concerns are being raised. Offering credit always carries some risk that the loan will not be repaid. Now experts are saying that investors are as concerned about debt risk as they have been since two thousand one.

One way to measure investors' concern is by their willingness to buy new debt investments. Recently, banks, led by J. P. Morgan, postponed the sale of twelve billion dollars in bonds for the carmaker Chrysler.

The bond offering was part of a deal by private equity company Cerburus Capital Management to buy Chrysler from German carmaker Daimler. Reports say the deal is not in danger. But it could mean an increase in borrowing costs.

American markets are not the only ones in which banks are having trouble selling bonds. American private equity company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts hoped to raise over ten billion dollars in bonds. This was part of a deal to buy Alliance Boots, a European company that sells medicines. But a group of banks had to postpone the sale because of a lack of buyers.

Conditions for big deals by private equity companies appear to be cooling. Private equity companies depend on liquid debt markets to lend them money. And investors are less willing to put money into debt securities.

Part of this is the flight from risk involving investments based on subprime home loans. These loans carry lower than average credit quality but also pay higher interest rates. Credit rating agencies are now recognizing that investments based on subprime home loans are riskier than investors have thought.

Too many high-risk loans were blamed for the failure of the nation's second largest subprime lender. New Century sought bankruptcy protection from its creditors in April.

Investor flight from risk means that debt market liquidity could dry up as interest rates rise. But it is too early to tell.

The Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve did not change the federal funds rate when it met on Tuesday. The important interest rate remains at five and one fourth percent.

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

VOASE0809_American Mosaic

09 August 2007

Barry Bonds Breaks Home Run Record Under a Cloud of Suspicion
Also: Music by Andrew Bird and a Day To Celebrate Left Handed People!

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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 music from singer Andrew Bird…

Answer a question about International Left-Handers' Day…

And in sports, a home run record for Barry Bonds.

Barry Bonds Home Run Record

HOST:

Major League Baseball has a new king of home runs. This week Barry Bonds of the

Barry Bonds hits his 756th career home run in San Francisco on August 7, 2007.

San Francisco Giants broke the record set by Hank Aaron. Faith Lapidus has our story.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

First of all, here is a simple description, for anyone not sure how the game of baseball is played.

A pitcher throws a ball toward a catcher. In front of the catcher is a batter. The batter tries to hit the small, speeding ball with a narrow bat and then run to first base. If the batter hits the ball, and a player from the opposing team catches it or throws it to first base before the batter gets there, the batter is out.

Sometimes the ball flies high over the walls of the field then no one can catch it…except maybe a lucky fan in the crowd. Now the batter can safely get to first base, and second, and third and back to home plate. The batter has scored a run, but not just a run, a home run -- one of the most thrilling plays in the game.

This helps explain all the attention over Barry Bonds breaking the career record set by Hank Aaron.

In nineteen seventy-four, Hank Aaron hit his seven hundred fifteenth home run to break the record held for many years by Babe Ruth. Hank Aaron went on to hit seven hundred fifty-five home runs before he retired in nineteen seventy-six.

Now Barry Bonds has done better than that. Some baseball fans are excited for him. But others have been yelling "cheater" or "steroids" when he goes to bat.

Many people suspect him of taking drugs to improve his performance. They think he lied four years ago during a federal investigation into illegal steroid sales by a San Francisco laboratory.

News reports said he told a grand jury that he did take a substance to improve his health but thought it was flaxseed oil. Barry Bonds denies ever having knowingly used steroids.

His former personal trainer is in prison for refusing to answer questions about the case. The investigation continues. And, so does the suspicion.

Major League Baseball banned steroids in two thousand two. The question now is what would happen to Barry Bonds' record if he is ever proven to have taken steroids? Pete Rose was banned from baseball in nineteen eighty-nine for gambling on games. But his record as all-time hits leader still stands

Left-Handers' Day

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week is from Iran. Mohammed Sadegh Poladtan asks about an international holiday called Left-Handers Day.

International Left-Handers Day is Monday, August thirteenth. The International Left-Handers Day Web site says the Left-Handers Club started the holiday in nineteen ninety-two. It wanted left-handers around the world to celebrate. And it wanted to bring attention to the everyday problems of people who use their left hands.

One of these problems is difficulty using equipment and tools, like scissors. In general, most tools and equipment are made for people who are right-handed. The Left-Handers Club tries to educate designers and manufacturers to consider the safety of left-handed people when producing their products.

Another problem is that many societies have considered it bad to be left-handed. Some teachers and parents have tried to force children who used their left hand to use their right one instead.

Scientists do not really know why some people are left-handed. They have believed the reason is genetic. Researchers in Britain recently identified a gene that helps confirm this. Scientists at the University of Oxford reported their discovery in the publication Molecular Psychiatry.

They say the gene increases the chance of being left- handed. It appears to play an important part in deciding which part of the brain controls different activities. In right-handed people, the left side of the brain usually controls speech and language. The right side controls feelings. However, the opposite is often true in left-handed people. Scientists believe the gene is responsible for this. The gene showed a link with left-handedness in nine to twelve percent of the population. About ten percent of people around the world are left-handed.

Here is an interesting fact from the Left-Handers Club Web site: five out of the last six American presidents have been left-handed. They are Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

The Left-Handers Club wants everyone to know that left-handed people may be a little different from those who use their right hand. But they want left-handers to celebrate these differences on International Left-Handers Day August thirteenth.

Andrew Bird

HOST:

Andrew Bird is a skillful singer and songwriter who also plays the guitar, violin and glockenspiel instruments. This singer from the state of Illinois is even known for his extraordinary whistling abilities. He has explored just about every kind of musical tradition with his nine albums. Barbara Klein has more.

BARBARA KLEIN:

The music of Andrew Bird is hard to define. He combines many kinds of musical styles

Andrew Bird

into richly poetic songs. Bird started studying classical music as a small child. He also studied violin performance in college. His first records were heavily influenced by early jazz and swing music. Here is the song “Simple X” from his latest album “Armchair Apocrypha.”

(MUSIC)

Andrew Bird gives an excellent live performance. The sounds are so rich, it is hard to believe there are not several musicians on stage. To do this, Bird records himself playing musical instruments one at a time. He plays these recordings over and over and layers them together to make a complex arrangement. Every performance is a little bit different with this method. Here is the energetic song “Darkmatter.” Listen for Andrew Bird’s expert whistling noises.

(MUSIC)

We leave you with the song “Scythian Empires.” Andrew Bird says he was influenced by maps of the ancient world showing how people and civilizations change and move. The song tells about the beginnings and endings of ruling groups throughout history.

(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.

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

VOASE0808_Education Report

08 August 2007

Few US Schools Now Named for People, Especially Presidents
Study warns of loss for civic education in trend toward choosing names of things like animals or trees.

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Public schools in New York, America's biggest city, commonly have numbers for names. But this is unusual. In the United States, the process of naming a school often involves parents and the community as well as elected school leaders.

Researchers say school names can show civic values and also shape them. For example, naming a school after a historic person becomes a way to teach students about that person's importance in history.

A new study examines the naming of American public schools. The study is from the Manhattan Institute, an organization that does public policy research.

The study shows that fewer and fewer schools are being named after people. Instead, more schools are being named after the local area or natural features like hills, trees or animals. The researchers say these changes raise questions about the civic duty of public education.

They looked at seven states with twenty percent of all public school students in the country. They found similar results in every state: new schools are less likely to be named after people.

This is true especially with presidents. For example, in Arizona, public schools in the past twenty years were almost fifty times more likely to be named after such things as landforms or plants.

In Florida, out of almost three thousand public schools, the report says five honor George Washington, the nation's first president. Eleven honor the manatee, an endangered sea animal found in that state.

In fact, the study says that today, a majority of all public school districts nationwide do not have a single school named after a president.

School officials say they try to choose names that will not offend anyone. For example, a few years ago, the city of New Orleans banned the naming of any school after a person who owned slaves. Other school systems have rules against naming new schools after any person, living or dead.

The researchers say naming a school after a person can lead to important debates about democratic values. They call for more research to identify the causes and effects of the changes in school names.

The causes may include changes in American culture as well as in the political control of school systems. One area worth exploring, they say, is the link between trends in school names and weak results for public schools on measures of civic education.

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

VOASE0808_The Making of a Nation

08 August 2007

American History Series: Bill Clinton Wins Re-election in 1996
Bill Clinton starts his second term as the first Democratic president to be re-elected since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.

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VOICE ONE:

This is Mary Tillotson.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Shirley Griffith with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the second administration of Bill Clinton, America's forty-second president. He was elected in nineteen ninety-two and re-elected four years later.

(MUSIC)

President Clinton with PLO leader Yasser Arafat (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right)

VOICE ONE:

The first term in office for President Bill Clinton was coming to an end in the summer of nineteen ninety-six. His record was like that of many other American presidents in the past. He had gained some successes with Congress and in foreign policy. He also had suffered some failures.

This president, however, had a personal concern that other presidents had not had. Investigations were continuing into possible wrongdoing by Mister and Missus Clinton. The main accusations were connected to their financial activities in Arkansas during the nineteen eighties.

VOICE TWO:

Americans, however, seemed far more interested in the nation’s economy. It had improved during Mister Clinton’s first term in office. Americans were getting jobs. They were spending money. Investing in the stock market traditionally had been an activity mainly for rich people. Now many other people were buying stocks, too. Opinion studies showed that Bill Clinton was a popular president.

VOICE ONE:

The Democratic Party met in Chicago, Illinois for its nominating convention in August of nineteen ninety-six. Mister Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were nominated as the party’s candidates without opposition.

The Republican Party held its nominating convention in San Diego, California that summer. It chose former Senator Robert Dole of Kansas to compete for president. Senator Dole had resigned from the Senate to compete for the nomination. Former Congressman and Cabinet official Jack Kemp of New York received the nomination for vice president.

VOICE TWO:

Senator Dole was a hero during World War Two. Later he served four terms in the House of Representatives from Kansas. He was elected to the Senate in nineteen sixty-eight and re-elected four more times.

Businessman Ross Perot had competed in the presidential election four years earlier as an independent. He again declared himself a candidate of the Reform Party.

During the campaign, President Clinton pointed to his successes during his first term. They included an improved economy, increased wages for low-paid workers and gun control measures. Mister Dole criticized President Clinton for spending too much federal money. President Clinton answered that he had stopped Congress from cutting too much money from programs like Medicare. That is the government program that helps pay the medical expenses of older people.

VOICE ONE:

President Clinton and Vice President Gore won the election. They received almost forty-seven-and-one-half-million votes. Senator Dole and Mister Kemp received about thirty-nine million votes. Ross Perot received about eight million votes. President Clinton was the first Democratic president to be re-elected to a second term since Franklin Roosevelt in nineteen thirty-six.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton began his second term as president of the United States on January twentieth, nineteen ninety-seven. On that day, President Clinton gave the last inaugural speech of an American president in the twentieth century. He said, “We must keep our old democracy forever young.”

Mister Clinton also spoke of racial separation in the nation. He said it had been a continued terrible problem in American history. He urged that America become one unified nation.

CLINTON: “The divide of race has been America’s constant curse. And each new wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices. Prejudice and contempt, cloaked in the pretense of religious or political conviction are no different.”

VOICE ONE:

Mister Clinton continued to appoint women and minority members to important jobs. In nineteen ninety-six he nominated the first woman ever to serve as secretary of state. Madeleine Albright had served as the United States permanent representative to the United Nations during Mister Clinton’s first administration.

Later, Mister Clinton named Bill Richardson as the permanent representative to the United Nations. Mister Richardson is Hispanic. Norman Mineta became the first Asian-American appointed to the Cabinet. The president named Mister Mineta secretary of commerce.

VOICE TWO:

The Republican Party had kept control of both houses of Congress as a result of the ninety ninety-six elections. This Republican Congress and the Democratic president had different ideas about the budget. In nineteen ninety-seven they reached a compromise. They agreed to a plan to end the deficit by two thousand-two.

But the nation did not have to wait until then. The economy in nineteen ninety-eight was so strong that the government had seventy thousand-million dollars more than its budget. This was the first federal budget surplus since nineteen sixty-nine.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Foreign relations took much of President’s Clinton time during his second term. He visited China in nineteen ninety-eight. He urged Chinese leaders to permit more democracy in their country.

In August of that year, bombs placed by terrorists destroyed the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Hundreds of people were killed. American intelligence experts blamed the attacks on Osama bin Laden, a Saudi businessman and suspected terrorist. President Clinton ordered missile strikes against camps in Afghanistan suspected of being under Mister bin Laden’s command.

American missiles also destroyed a factory in Sudan. The factory had been suspected of producing nerve gas for terrorists. However, the factory owner said his company produced medicines. The United States later freed property and money of the factory owner that it had seized.

VOICE TWO:

Later in nineteen ninety-eight, President Clinton ordered American forces to launch missile strikes against military and industrial centers in Iraq. United Nations officials feared the centers contained or could produce nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. The U-N had ordered Iraq to cooperate with inspectors searching for weapons. But Iraq refused to cooperate.

The next year, Mister Clinton deployed American aircraft and missiles as part of a NATO military campaign against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. NATO was trying to stop attacks against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia. Yugoslav military leaders agreed to withdraw their troops. NATO stopped the bombing and sent an international peacekeeping force to Kosovo. The United States sent seven thousand troops to the force.

VOICE ONE:

In October of nineteen ninety-eight, Israeli and Palestinian leaders signed a document of understanding at the White House. The Wye Memorandum developed from nine days of negotiations at the Wye River Plantation in eastern Maryland. It called for Israeli forces to withdraw from some West Bank areas.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and special diplomat Dennis Ross traveled often to the Middle East. They tried to help Israel and the Palestinians continue their peace efforts.

In two thousand-one, Mister Clinton tried to get Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to sign a peace agreement. Mister Clinton met with the two men for many hours in the Washington area. Reports said they came close to a settlement. But the negotiations ended without an agreement. Violence increased soon afterward. Palestinians declared a new uprising against Israel.

VOICE TWO:

One of President Clinton’s major actions during his second term was helping establish permanent normal trade relations with China. Congress passed a bill enacting this in two thousand. The president said the measure would help democracy grow in China. He also said it would help create jobs in the United States.

Mister Clinton supported expansion of NATO as well as more free trade. He also worked for a worldwide campaign against the trade of illegal drugs. Historians say President Bill Clinton will be remembered for reaching out to the international community. But he will also be remembered for being charged and tried for wrongdoing by Congress. We will tell about that next week.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Mary Tillotson.

VOICE TWO:

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

VOASE0807_Health Report

07 August 2007

Researchers Develop New Test to Predict Alzheimer’s Disease
Trouble with the sense of smell can be one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people around the world. American researchers say the disease will affect more than one hundred million people worldwide by the year twenty fifty. That would be four times the current number.

Researchers and doctors have been studying Alzheimer's patients for a century. Yet the cause and cure for the mental sickness are still unknown. However, some researchers have made important steps towards understanding it.

Several early signs of the disease involve memory and thought processes. At first, patients have trouble remembering little things. Later, they have trouble remembering more important things, such as the names of their children.

There are also some physical tests that might show who is at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. The tests look for proteins in brain and spinal cord fluid. The proteins appear to be found only in people with the disease. The protein tests correctly identify the presence of the disease in about ninety percent of patients.

Now, a much simpler physical test to predict Alzheimer’s risk has been developed. Researchers found that trouble with the sense of smell can be one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s. Using this information, they developed a test in which people were asked to identify twelve familiar smells. These smells included cinnamon, black pepper, chocolate, paint thinner, and smoke.

The study continued for five years. During this period, the same people were asked to take several tests measuring their memory and thought abilities. Fifty percent of those who could not identify at least four of the smells in the first test had trouble with their memory and thinking in the next five years.

Another study has shown a possible way to reduce a person’s chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease in old age. Researchers in Chicago, Illinois found that people who use their brains more often are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Those who read a newspaper, or play chess or word games are about three times less likely to develop the condition.

Researchers say they still do not know what causes Alzheimer’s disease. But they say these findings might help prevent the disease in the future.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Erin Braswell. You can download scripts and audio from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty.

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.