Reading Comprehension For ESL Students

"Popular Culture: 1950s" from VOA

2013-04-24T09:12:00.002-07:00

This is Phil Murray. And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

Today, we tell what life was like in American during the 1950s.

Imagine that you are visiting the United States. What would you expect to see?

In the 1950s, America was a nation that believed it was on the edge of nuclear war. It was a nation where the popular culture of television was gaining strength. It was a nation whose population was growing as never before.

After the terrible suffering of World War Two, Americans thought the world would be peaceful for awhile. By 1950, however, political tensions were high again. The United States and the Soviet Union, allies in war, had become enemies.

The communists had taken control of one east European nation after another. And Soviet leader Josef Stalin made it clear that he wanted communists to rule the world.

Joseph Stalin

The Soviet Union had strengthened its armed forces after the war. The United States had taken many steps to disarm. Yet it still possessed the atomic bomb. America thought it, alone, had this terrible weapon.

In 1949, a United States Air Force plane discovered strange conditions in the atmosphere. What was causing them? The answer came quickly: the Soviet Union had exploded an atomic bomb.

The race was on. The two nations competed to build weapons of mass destruction. Would these weapons ever be used?

The American publication, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, always showed a picture of a clock. By 1949, the time on the clock was three minutes before midnight. That meant the world was on the edge of nuclear destruction. The atomic scientists were afraid of what science had produced. They were even more afraid of what science could produce.

In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. The Korean conflict increased efforts in the United States to develop a weapon more deadly than an atomic bomb. That was the hydrogen bomb. The Soviets were developing such a weapon, too.

Many Americans were afraid. Some built what they hoped would be safe rooms in or near their homes. They planned to hide in these bomb shelters during a nuclear attack.

Other Americans, however, grew tired of being afraid. In 1952, the military hero of World War Two, Dwight Eisenhower, was elected president. The economy improved. Americans looked to the future with hope.

President Dwight Eisenhower

One sign of hope was the baby boom. This was the big increase in the number of babies born after the war. The number of young children in America jumped from twenty-four million to thirty-five million between 1950 and 1960. The bigger families needed houses. In ninetee fifty alone, one million four hundred thousand houses were built in America.

Most new houses were in the suburbs, the areas around cities. People moved to the suburbs because they thought the schools there were better. They also liked having more space for their children to play.

Many Americans remember the 1950s as the fad years. A fad is something that is extremely popular for a very short time one fad from the 1950s was the Hula Hoop. The Hula Hoop was a colorful plastic tube joined to form a big circle. To play with it, you moved your hips in a circular motion. This kept it spinning around your body. The motion was like one used by Polynesian people in their native dance, the hula.

Other fads in the 1950s involved clothes or hair. Some women, for example, cut and fixed their hair to look like the fur of a poodle dog. Actress Mary Martin made the poodle cut famous when she appeared in the Broadway play, "South Pacific."

Mary Martin in "South Pacific"

In motion pictures, Marilyn Monroe was becoming famous. Not everyone thought she was a great actress. But she had shining golden hair. And she had what was considered a perfect body. Marilyn Monroe's success did not make her happy. She killed herself in the 1960s, when she was 36 years old.

Another famous actor of those days was James Dean. To many Americans, he was the living representation of the rebellious spirit of the young. In fact, one of his films was called, "Rebel Without a Cause." James Dean died in a car accident in 1955. He was twenty-four.

The 1950s saw a rebellion in American literature. As part of society lived new lives in the suburbs, another part criticized this life. These were the writers and poets of the Beat generation, including Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg. They said life was empty in 1950s America. They described the people as dead in brain and spirit.

Jackson Pollock represented the rebellion in art. Pollock did not paint things the way they looked. Instead, he dropped paint onto his pictures in any way he pleased. He was asked again and again: "What do your paintings mean?" He answered: "Do not worry about what they mean. They are just there ... like flowers."

In music, the rebel was Elvis Presley. He was the king of rock-and-roll.

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was a twenty-one-year-old truck driver when he sang on television for the first time. He moved his body to the music in a way that many people thought was too sexual.

Parents and religious leaders criticized him. Young people screamed for more. They could not get enough rock-and-roll. They played it on records. They heard it on the radio. And they listened to it on the television program "American Bandstand."

This program became the most popular dance party in America. Every week, young men and women danced to the latest songs in front of the television cameras.

During the 1940s, there were only a few television receivers in American homes. Some called television an invention for stupid people to watch. By the end of the 1950s, however, television was here to stay. The average family watched six hours a day.

Americans especially liked games shows and funny shows with comedians such as Milton Berle and Lucille Ball. They also liked shows that offered a mix of entertainment, such as those presented by Arthur Godfrey and Ed Sullivan.

Comedian Milton Berle

People from other countries watching American television in the 1950s might have thought that all Americans were white Christians. At that time, television failed to recognize that America was a great mix of races and religions.

Few members of racial or religious minorities were represented on television. Those who appeared usually were shown working for white people.

A movement for civil rights for black Americans was beginning to gather strength in the 1950s. Many legal battles were fought to end racial separation, especially in America's schools. By the 1960s, the civil rights movement would shake the nation.

Dwight Eisenhower was president for most of the 1950s. He faced the problems of communism, the threat of nuclear war, and racial tensions. He had a calm way of speaking. And he always seemed to deal with problems in the same calm way. Some citizens felt he was like a father to the nation.

With Mr. Eisenhower in the White House, they believed that even in a dark and dangerous world, everything would be all right.

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Phil Murray. And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. The enormous growth in the number of babies born after the war became known as the "_____________________ ".
a: population blowout
b: hydrogen bomb
c: baby boom
d: stork congestion

2. The business that probably benefitted the most from the increase in population was ________________ .
a: television
b: house construction and sales
c: agriculture
d: advertising

3. One fear that didn't particularly concern Americans during the 1950s was ___________________.
a: nuclear war
b: relations with the Soviet Union
c: economic downturn
d: communist expansion

4. I wouldn't call ________________ a fad, would you? Gee, I hope not!
a: getting married
b: the hula hoop
c: the poodle haircut
d: polka dotted pant suits

5. What would happen to the hula hoop if you stopped moving your hips in a circular direction?
a: It would continue to spin
b: It would drop to the ground
c: It would begin to circle your neck
d: It would change color

6. The United States thought that it alone had the Atom Bomb until the year _________________ .
a: 1945
b: 1949
c: 1960
d: 1955

7. Poets and writers of the beat generation including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg felt that the prosperous life people were experiencing in the 1950s ____________________ .
a: wouldn't last
b: was a sharp contrast to the poverty of the 1930s
c: was in reality very empty spiritually and mentally
d: was a remarkable demonstration of American togetherness

8. During World War Two, the United States and the Soviet Union were ________________ .
a: fighting with each other
b: enemies
c: both neutral
d: allies

9. Two famous actors in the 1950s who unfortunately died young were __________________ .
a: James Dean and Marilyn Monroe
b: Marilyn Monroe and Mary Martin
c: James Dean and Elvis Presley
d: Mary Martin and Elvis Prestley

10. American Bandstand, Rock-and-Roll, and Elvis Presley were especially popular during the 1950s, only not with ___________________ .
a: most conservative religious leaders
b: young people trying to get ahead
c: music promoters in New York and Los Angeles
d: Disc Jockeys

"Native Americans Fight for Their Lands" from VOA

2013-03-01T15:19:00.004-08:00

THE MAKING OF A NATION – a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

The American nation began to expand west during the middle 1800s. People settled in the great open areas of the Dakotas, Utah, Wyoming, and California. The movement forced the nation to deal with great tribes of native American Indians. The Indians had lived in the western territories for hundreds of years.

Settlers and cattle ranchers pushed the Indians out of their homelands. The result was a series of wars between the tribes and the federal government.

I'm Sarah Long. Today, Steve Ember and I tell this story.

At first, the United States government had just one policy to deal with the Indians. It was brutal. Whenever white men wanted Indian land, the tribes were pushed farther west. If the Indians protested, or tried to defend their land, they were destroyed with crushing force.

The "Trail of Tears" was the
route eastern Indians took to
their new home in Oklahoma

By the middle 1800s, almost all the eastern Indians had been moved west of the Mississippi River. They were given land in Indian territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma. The government described these Indians as "civilized." This meant they were too weak to cause more trouble. Many agreed to follow the ways of the white men.

The Indians of the western grasslands were different. They refused to give up their way of life. These plains Indians were always on the move, because they hunted buffalo -- the American bison. They followed great groups of the animals across the grassy plains. At that time, there were millions of these animals in the American west.

The Indians of the plains depended on the buffalo for almost everything they needed. Many of them were fierce fighters. The plains Indians did not want white men crossing their hunting lands. They often tried to destroy the wagon trains carrying settlers to California and Oregon.

Fort Pierre, Dakota Territory, 1855
The United States army was given the job of keeping peace. Soldiers were sent to build roads and forts in the western plains. They tried to protect the wagon trains from Indian attacks. They tried to keep white settlers from invading Indian lands. There were many fights between the soldiers and the plains Indians. The soldiers had more powerful weapons. They usually won.

Some plains Indians tried to live peacefully with the white men. One such group was part of the Sioux tribe, called Santee Sioux. It was the largest and most powerful group in the west.

The Santee Sioux lived along the northeastern edge of the great plains in what is now the state of Minnesota. They signed treaties with the government giving up ninety percent of their land. The Santee agreed to live in a small area. In exchange, the United States agreed to make yearly payments to the tribe. This made it possible for the Indians to buy food and other things from white traders.

Trouble started, however, in the summer of 1862. The government was late giving the Indians their yearly payment. As a result, the Indians lacked the money to buy food. The white traders refused to give the Indians credit to buy food. One trader said: "If they are hungry, let them eat grass."

The Indians were hungry. Soon, their hunger turned to anger. Finally, the local Indian chief called his men together. He gave the orders for war.

Early the next morning, the tribe attacked the trading stores. Most of the traders were killed, including the man who had insulted the Indians. He was found with his mouth filled with grass.

The governor of Minnesota sent a force of state soldiers to stop the Indian revolt. The soldiers had artillery. They killed several hundred Indians in battle. They hanged several others. Soon, the revolt was over.

Santee Sioux Warriors

Trouble came next to parts of Colorado and Wyoming. This is where the Sioux Indians and the Cheyenne Indians lived. The chief of the Lakota Sioux tribe was named Red Cloud. The Indians fought bitterly to keep white men out of their hunting grounds. After two years of fighting, with many deaths on both sides, the government decided the struggle was too costly. It asked for peace.

The Sioux and the Cheyenne agreed. They were given a large area of land north of Wyoming in the Dakota territory. They also were given the right to use their old hunting lands farther north. The government agreed to close a road used by whites to cross the hunting grounds. And all soldiers were withdrawn from Sioux country.

The war ended and peace came to the Sioux and the Cheyenne. With peace came a new United States policy toward other Indians of the west. The government decided to put aside an area of land for each tribe. The land was called a "reservation." Each tribe would live on its own reservation.

Most of the reservations were in Indian territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma. Other reservations were in Dakota near the land of the Sioux.

A reservation in Oklahoma, around 1900
The government believed it would cost less money and fewer lives to keep Indians on reservations. The Indians would be away from possible trouble with white settlers. Instead of moving freely over the plains to hunt buffalo, the Indians would live in one place. They would receive food and money from the government.

Officials came from Washington to explain this new policy to the Indians. A big meeting was held. Chiefs representing many tribes attended. The chiefs spoke, one after another, to the government officials.

All of the chiefs said they, too, wished to live in peace with the white men. But many questioned the decision to move to reservations. One who did so was Chief Ten Bears of the Comanche tribe. He said:

"There are things which you have said to me that I do not like. You said you wanted to put us on a reservation. You said you would build houses for us. I do not want your houses. I was born on the plains where the wind blows free, and there is nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where everything breathed a free breath. I want to die there. . .not within walls."

So the government and the Indians reached a compromise. The tribes were given reservations in Indian territory. But they were also given permission to hunt buffalo in a wide area south of the reservations. The Indians agreed to give up all their old lands. They agreed to live in peace on the reservations.

In exchange, the United States promised to give the Indians all the food, clothing, and other things they needed. It also promised to give them schools and medical care.

The Indians were not happy with this agreement. They did not want to give up their old ways of living. However, they saw they had no choice. The government was too strong.

They waited weeks, then months, for help to move to the new reservations. They could not understand the delay in carrying out the agreement. The delay was in Washington, D.C. Congress could not agree on how much money to spend on the Indians. So the lawmakers refused to approve the agreement. They left the situation unsettled.

Again, Indians were forced to watch angrily as white settlers began moving onto lands they had agreed to give up. As the whites moved in, the buffalo and other animals left. The Indians had difficulty finding food.

A Sioux War Cry

Soldiers shared their food with the Indians. It was not enough. Western officials sent urgent messages to Washington asking for supplies for the Indians. No supplies could be sent until Congress approved the money to buy them.

As before, some of the Indians became angry and refused to wait any longer. Their anger led to new fighting. In the end, it was a fight that failed to win back their land.

That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION.

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Sarah Long and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this time for another report about the history of the United States.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. The Plains Indians refused to _____________________ .
a: hunt the buffalo
b: give up their way of life
c: attack wagon trains
d: be fierce fighters

2. The Santee Sioux agreed to give up 90 percent of their land in exchange for ________________ .
a: peace with the white settlers
b: education for their children
c: payments so they could buy food and other goods
d: better farming land in Oklahoma

3. Trouble started with the Santee Sioux in 1862 because the government ___________________.
a: began to kill Indians
b: was late giving Indians their yearly payment
c: instructed white traders to give credit to the Indians
d: stuffed the mouth of one dead Indian with grass

4. Most of the Indian reservations were located ____________________________ .
a: east of the Mississippi River
b: in the state of Oklahoma
c: in the Dakota Territoy
d: near the border of Minnesota and Canada

5. By the middle 1800s, all the eastern Indians _______________ west of the Mississippi.
a: had been moved
b: have moved
c: have been moving
d: had moved

6. After two years of fighting between U.S. Soldiers and the Lakota Sioux and the Cheyenne, peace finally came when the Indians _______________________ .
a: were given land in the Dakota Territory
b: agreed to abandon their hunting grounds
c: when troops left the Dakota Territory
d: the Indians agreed to settle in Oklahoma

7. Chief Ten Bears of the Comanche Indians didn't like the idea of the reservation mostly because he didn't want to ________________________ .
a: breathe fresh air
b: feel too much wind
c: get a sunburn
d: live inside walls

8. The government believed it would be cheaper and cost fewer lives if _____________________ .
a: all the buffalo were killed
b: fewer wagons journeyed to California or Oregon
c: the Indians lived on reservations away from white settlers
d: a peace agreement could be reached between the Cheyenne and the Lakota Sioux

9. The government soldiers were usually victorious in wars with the Indians because ________________________ .
a: the government soldiers were more fierce
b: the government soldiers had better weapons
c: the Indians were poorly organized
d: the Indians didn't have much experience in warfare

10. One difference between Plains Indians and eastern Indians was that __________________________ .
a: eastern Indians were more dependent on the buffalo
b: Plains Indians liked the idea of reservations more than eastern Indians
c: Plains Indians were more reluctant to give up their lands than eastern Indians
d: Plains Indians had a better relationship with white settlers than eastern Indians

"The Disability Rights Movement" from VOA

2013-02-07T11:40:00.002-08:00

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

New estimates show that more than one billion people have a physical or mental disability. Experts say almost one-fifth of them experience serious difficulties in their daily lives as a result of their disability. And disability rates are increasing as populations get older and more people get long-term conditions, like heart disease and diabetes.

The estimates are in a report from the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The World Report on Disability says few countries do enough to meet the needs of the disabled.

They face problems like discrimination and a lack of health care and other services. They have higher poverty rates and lower education levels than other people. This is true in both rich and poor countries.

Cindy Lewis is the director of programs for an organization called Mobility International USA. Ms. Lewis says people with disabilities helped write the new report. One of its messages is that people with disabilities should not only receive services -- they should also help design and provide them.

Ms. Lewis says that way they can become decision makers and policy makers.

CINDY LEWIS: "People with disabilities are a huge and untapped resource for governments, communities, for development programs. And that is a big problem that we are working on addressing."

Ms. Lewis says in many countries, people with disabilities are organizing to support disability rights.

CINDY LEWIS: "It’s a very incorrect assumption that people with disabilities are in their community sitting around passively waiting for something good to happen. People with disabilities around the world are getting together and mobilizing and speaking out."

Her group is working with the United States Agency for International Development. The projects bring together disability groups and development organizations in Colombia, Jordan and Ethiopia.

For example, Fundamental is an organization in Colombia for people with mental illness. This group is training its members to become leaders in explaining their problems and urging their communities to treat them fairly.

The Ethiopian National Association of the Blind helped write a training document on how to include blind people in education projects.

The United Nations has a human rights treaty called the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Almost one hundred fifty governments and regional organizations have signed it.

The World Health Organization and the World Bank say people with disabilities should be able to use the same services as everyone else. They call for more laws to give the disabled the same rights and chances to succeed as everyone else. These laws, they say, will help the public understand that people with disabilities also have abilities.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Karen Leggett. I'm Barbara Klein.

"What is the Human Brain?" from VOA

2012-12-28T08:50:00.002-08:00

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I’m Shirley Griffith.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we discuss three books that tell about ways the human brain works. One book considers the power of the brain in controlling why some people care about how someone else feels and why others do not. Another book describes how the limitations of the brain can affect our lives. The third book is about how the brain develops in a baby.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Psychology professor and researcher Simon Baron-Cohen wrote a book called “The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty.” His book asks why it is that human beings are capable of evil behavior towards each other. He says the word “evil” is less helpful in offering a scientific explanation. Instead, he chooses to use the word empathy. We spoke with Professor Baron-Cohen about his book using Skype.

Three Books That Explore the Human Brain

SIMON BARON-COHEN: “If we are trying to do science, we should move away from the concept of evil as an explanation of cruelty and instead use the framework of empathy. Because empathy is something you can measure scientifically. And you can measure it at the psychological level using questionnaires or psychological tests. You can also measure it using the new brain scanning technology, MRI. In that respect, you can also move forward and move deeper.”

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Simon Baron-Cohen defines empathy as the ability of a person to identify what someone else is thinking or feeling and to react with an appropriate emotion. He says people who do evil acts are showing a lack of empathy. This can be temporary, or part of a more permanent condition.

STEVE EMBER: Professor Baron-Cohen and his research team developed a way to measure individual differences in empathy. They found that most people have average levels of empathy, but some people have extremely low or high levels.

SIMON BARON-COHEN: “In my book I call this the empathy bell curve. And part of what I’m exploring in the book is what determines where an individual scores on this empathy bell curve. Why do some people score much lower or much higher than other people.”

STEVE EMBER: Empathy is linked to physical areas of the brain. Medical imaging technology has identified at least ten parts of the brain that are active when people empathize. And, these areas are less active in people with little or no empathy.

Why would someone lack empathy? Professor Baron-Cohen offers evidence suggesting that zero empathy can be the result of environmental, social and genetic conditions.

The question of empathy is a meaningful one in the field of psychology. Lack of empathy has an influence on borderline personality disorder, narcissism and psychopathy and the developmental disorder autism.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Professor Baron-Cohen says borderline personality disorder, narcissism and psychopathy are described as personality disorders. But he says psychiatric experts could instead define them as empathy disorders. This could open up new ways of studying and treating these disorders. Recognizing the importance of empathy could also change the way legal and psychiatric experts consider and treat people who commit acts of cruelty. But this recognition goes far beyond psychiatry. The writer says empathy is one of the most valuable resources in our world.

SIMON BARON COHEN: “One thing that I think may have been neglected in the past is just recognizing that empathy also has the power to resolve conflicts between people. So if we think about conflicts, it could be a conflict between two people, like two neighbors. It could be a conflict between two nations. For example, nations that go to war.”

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: That was Professor Baron-Cohen speaking to us with Skype. He says it is important to recognize the value of empathy in areas like politics, education and law, as well as psychiatry.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Dean Buonomano is a brain specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He works in the Departments of Neurobiology and Psychology and the Brain Research Institute at UCLA.

His book “Brain Bugs” explores how the human brain is one of the best pieces of technology ever created. But at the same time, he shows how a normal, healthy brain is also built with weaknesses and limitations. Professor Buonomano borrows the word “bug” from computer programming to describe the errors which the brain can make.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: One reason for these ‘bugs’ is evolution. Human brains developed over hundreds of thousands of years to be skilled at finding food, shelter and protection from threats. Yet evolution did not fully prepare the brain for the many demands of the modern world.

So, our brains are very good at doing some things. But our brains sometimes fail us when we attempt to remember long lists of information, or compute large numbers in our head. Our brains are also not always very good at making long-term decisions.

STEVE EMBER: Professor Buonomano discusses how and why the brain can play tricks on us in decisions involving memory, time and judging threats. Sometimes these mistakes can have serious effects, like a victim who wrongly identifies her attacker to police.

At other times, the mistakes are harmless. For example, one study found that most people choose to receive one hundred dollars immediately over receiving one hundred twenty dollars in a month. While waiting could lead to more money, most people would want the payment now. Dean Buonomano says that, for human ancestors, the immediate need for food was more important than the future need. So, our brains often want an immediate action instead of having to wait for a reward.

Professor Buonomano explains the causes of many kinds of brain bugs and gives examples of their everyday results. And, he offers ideas for how understanding our brain bugs can become a tool for improving our mental powers.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: John Medina is a developmental molecular biologist in Seattle, Washington. His book is called “Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five.” The book gives scientific information about how a brain develops from its creation to the age of five years.

John Medina

Professor Medina says parenting is all about brain development. He says what science tells us about the brain gives parents good information for raising smart, happy children.

STEVE EMBER: Many parents ask the professor what they can do to improve brain function before birth. A mother’s actions have a big effect on how her baby develops. He says one of the most important things is for the mother to avoid severe levels of stress.

JOHN MEDINA: “The maternal stress that is felt, that stress hormone -- one of them is called cortisol -- can actually leach into the womb. And, at certain stages of development can actually go into the brain of the baby and rewire the brain of that baby in such fashion that it now becomes stressed.”

STEVE EMBER: John Medina says it is important for a pregnant woman to gain the right amount of weight and eat healthful foods so that her baby will develop normally.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: His book also discusses the science behind a child’s intelligence after birth. He says one of the best things parents can do for their baby has to do with their own relationship. Studies show marriage conflict increases greatly after a baby is born. This can result from new pressures on the parents and lack of sleep. Professor Medina says what conflict the baby witnesses can be important.

JOHN MEDINA: “If you make up in public, by that I mean in front of your child, with the same frequency that you fight in front of your child, the child’s nervous system develops beautifully. It doesn’t matter how much fighting you guys do. In fact, I would argue that if kids could actually see real live conflict going on that is both frank but also resolvable, it teaches the child to begin to have better conflict resolution.”

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Parents can do other things to help support the mental development of their baby. These include breast feeding and talking and playing with the child. [John Medina says it is wise to avoid television at an early age and not to pressure children to learn.]

STEVE EMBER: As for happiness, Professor Medina says it is important for parents to help children develop language skills to express their emotions.

JOHN MEDINA: “What a parent does when their child’s emotions run hot profoundly influences how that child’s emotional regulation occurs decades later, no kidding.”

STEVE EMBER: He also says parents can help create a healthy emotional life for small children by being watchful and responsive to their needs. He adds that parents need to recognize and not judge the child’s emotions.

Finally, John Medina tells about research that shows the single best predictor of happiness is having friends. He says parents should help children learn to control and understand their emotions because this leads to deeper friendships.

(MUSIC)

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

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3s at voaspecialenglish.com. And you can find us at Facebook and YouTube at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

"The Tornado" from VOA

2012-11-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

This article was orignally published in
April, 2012

BARBARA KLEIN: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we explore the science of tornadoes. These violent storms strike in many parts of the world but happen most commonly in the United States.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Tornado season has begun in the United States.

Last Tuesday a series of storms tore across the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas. The tornadoes damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes. Yet no deaths were reported.

On March second, more than forty tornadoes moved through the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, and the South. Reports say the storms killed at least thirty-nine people in five states.

A tornado is a violently turning tube of air suspended from a thick cloud. It extends from a thunderstorm in the sky down to the ground. The shape is like a funnel: wide at the top, narrower at the bottom.

A funnel cloud touches down in Orchard, Iowa, on June 10, 2008

Tornadoes form when winds blowing in different directions meet in the clouds and begin to turn in circles. Warm air rising from below causes the wind tube to reach toward the ground. Because of their circular movement, these windstorms are also known as twisters.

The most severe tornadoes can reach wind speeds of three hundred twenty kilometers an hour or more. In some cases, the resulting paths of damage can stretch more than a kilometer wide and eighty kilometers long.

BOB DOUGHTY: With a tornado, bigger does not necessarily mean stronger. Large tornadoes can be weak. And some of the smallest tornadoes can be the most damaging. But no matter what the size, tornado winds are the strongest on Earth. Tornadoes have been known to carry trees, cars or homes from one place to another. They can also destroy anything in their path.

Tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica. But experts say they are most commonly seen in the United States. On average, more than one thousand are reported nationwide each year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration keeps records of tornado sightings. It says tornadoes kill seventy people and injure one thousand five hundred others nationwide in an average year.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Tornadoes are observed most often in the middle of the United States, where the land is mostly flat. The area where the most violent tornadoes usually happen is known as “Tornado Alley.” This area is considered to extend from north central Texas to North Dakota.

Tornadoes can happen any time of the year. But most happen from late winter to the middle of summer. In some areas, there is a second high season in autumn.

BOB DOUGHTY: Tornado seasons are the result of wind and weather patterns. During spring, warm air moves north and mixes with cold air remaining from winter. In autumn, the opposite happens. Cold weather moves south and combines with the last of the warm air from summer.

Twister, March 2012

Tornadoes can strike with little or no warning. Most injuries happen when flying objects hit people. Experts say the best place to be is in an underground shelter, or a small, windowless room in the lowest part of a building.

People driving during a tornado are told to find low ground and lay flat, face down, with their hands covering their head. People in the path of a tornado often just have minutes to make life-or-death decisions.

BARBARA KLEIN: The deadliest American tornado on record was the Tri-State Tornado of March eighteenth, nineteen twenty-five. It tore across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. About seven hundred people were killed.

Between March and May of last year, there were one thousand one hundred fifty-nine confirmed tornadoes across the United States. Scientists say that is the most on record for any three-month period. The most active month was last April, when seven hundred fifty-eight tornadoes were confirmed. That is the most ever for any month.

Last April, the country also broke a thirty-seven year old record for the largest tornado outbreak. A "tornado outbreak" is often defined as six or more tornadoes produced by the same weather system within a day.

Scientists say the one hundred ninety-nine tornadoes on April twenty-seventh were the most for any single day. They say the storms killed three hundred sixteen people – the most ever in modern records for a twenty-four hour period.

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BOB DOUGHTY: No two tornadoes look exactly the same. And no two tornadoes act the same way.

Even a weak tornado requires the right combination of wind, temperature, pressure and humidity. Weather experts can identify these conditions. And, when they observe them, they can advise people that tornadoes might develop. But they are not able to tell exactly where or when a tornado will hit. Tornado warnings still depend in large part on human observations.

Usually a community will receive a warning at least a few minutes before a tornado strikes. But each year there are some surprises where tornadoes develop when they are least expected.

BARBARA KLEIN: The tornado reporting system involves watches and warnings. A tornado watch means tornadoes are possible in the area. A tornado warning means that a tornado has been seen. People are told to take shelter immediately.

Yet tornadoes can be difficult to see. Sometimes only the objects they are carrying through the air can be seen. Some night-time tornadoes have been observed because of lightning strikes nearby. But tornadoes at night are usually impossible to see.

Tornadoes that form over water are called waterspouts. But tornadoes cover a much smaller area than hurricanes, which form over oceans.

Tornadoes can be measured using wind speed information from Doppler radar systems. Tornadoes usually travel in a northeasterly direction with a speed of thirty-two to sixty-four kilometers an hour. But they have been reported to move in other directions and as fast as one hundred seventeen kilometers an hour.

BOB DOUGHTY: In the United States, the force of a tornado is judged by the damage to structures. Scientists inspect the damage before they estimate the severity of a tornado. They measure tornadoes on the Enhanced Fujita scale or the EF scale.

Ted Fujita studying the
physics of the tornado

Ted Fujita was a weather expert who developed a system to rate tornados in the nineteen seventies. The EF scale is a set, or collection, of wind estimates. They are based on levels of damage to twenty-eight different kinds of structures and other objects. Tornadoes that cause only light damage are called an EF-zero. Those with the highest winds that destroy well-built homes and throw vehicles great distances are called an EF-five.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Some people make a sport out of watching and following tornadoes. They are called tornado chasers or storm chasers. Their work can be seen in the extreme weather videos that are increasingly popular on television and on the Internet.

Some chasers do it just because it is their idea of fun. Others do it to help document storms and warn the public. Still others are part of weather research teams.

Two years ago, an international team of scientists completed a tornado research project called VORTEX2. More than one hundred researchers traveled throughout America’s Great Plains in two thousand nine and two thousand ten. They used weather measurement instruments to collect scientific information about the life of a tornado. The goal of the project was to examine in detail how tornadoes are formed and the kinds of damage they cause.

Last year, a film about the VORTEX2 project was released. The film includes never before seen images of tornadoes. To safely capture up-close film footage of tornadoes, some project participants traveled in a seven-ton, armored tornado intercept vehicle directly into tornadoes as they formed.

BOB DOUGHTY: The National Weather Service says the United States gets more severe weather than any other country. For one thing, it is also bigger than most other countries. And it has many different conditions that create many different kinds of weather.

There are seacoasts and deserts, flat lands and mountains. The West Coast is along the Pacific Ocean, which is relatively calm. The East Coast is along the Atlantic Ocean, which is known for its hurricanes. These strike mainly the southeastern states.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake and George Grow. June Simms was our producer. I'm Barbara Klein.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America.

"The Valley of 10,000 Smokes" from Edcon Publishing

2012-11-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

A place you will read about: Mount Katmai a mountain in Alaska.

Something you will read about: algae a group of plants, which usually live in water, that do not have true roots, stems, or leaves.

Following its eruption, Mt. Katmai has become a national monument visited by thousands of tourists. In June 1912, explosions boomed across Alaska. Centering near Mt. Katmai on the upper Alaskan Peninsula, they frightened Eskimos from nearby villages, and not a moment too soon. A new volcano had formed on Mt. Katmai's slope and began to erupt. Tons of ash and rock poured out, spreading an enormous dark cloud across the sky and a blanket of ash over the summer landscape. A cloud of smoke overtook the steamer Dora, at sea 55 miles away, and ashes sifted down on the boat. Soon, those aboard could not see their hands before their faces. Through the gloom, lightning flickered and thunder crashed. A fierce wind began to blow and the temperature rose.

Children in Kodiak, 1912. They're
making volcanic ash pies.

People on land fared little better. At Kodiak, 100 miles southeast of Mt. Katmai, the sky was inky dark at noon. Ash fell so abundantly that its weight made roofs collapse all over town. People coughed and choked as they groped their way about; birds died trying to fly through the black ash-filled air. It was all over in three days.

But what happened in the region around Mt. Katmai? No one knew the Eskimos had fled for their lives and did not wish to return.
Not until three years after the event did someone finally undertake to investigate the result of the 1912 eruption. In July of 1915, Dr. Robert Griggs set out with a party of explorers to visit Mt. Katmai. He and his crew made the trip by boat. As they approached Katmai Bay due south of the mountain, they could see that the water was still filled with the floating wreckage of trees and bushes. Over the land, the sky was still dark, filled with ash. The darkness made the barren landscape even more desolate.

Robert Griggs' photo of Katmai
Valley, 1915

Before the eruption, Katmai Valley had been green in the summertime, a place where trees grew tall and wildlife could be found in abundance. Now it was a place of death, where neither plant nor animal life had been able to survive. Griggs and his party tramped through the valley across a layer of sticky mud past skeleton forests of dead trees. A great wind blew up, stinging the weary travelers with the glass-sharp pieces of volcanic rock. They were forced to drink water thick with bits of rock; they forded patches of treacherous quicksand, sinking to their knees, never able to touch solid bottom. They struggled up hills where, for each step they took, they slid back a little through the fine volcanic sand.

Even solid ground could not be trusted, for ash had fallen on snowfields and then been packed down. Afterward, the snow had melted out from beneath the crust of ash, leaving hollows beneath the valley floor. The explorers knew the ground could collapse beneath their feet at any moment.

As the mountain peaks loomed ahead, Griggs' party came across a fantastic, geological feature - a colossal chasm. It was nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon - 4,000 feet from rim to floor.
The explorers camped and waited for the clouds over Mt. Katmai to move off, for Griggs was determined to see what had happened to Katmai's three-pointed peak. When the sky began to clear, Griggs was astonished to see not a peak but a flattened stub. Mt. Katmai had caved in on itself, becoming shorter by some 800 feet!

Griggs returned again in 1916 for another look. During this expedition, he and his party climbed Mt. Katmai. The mountain was covered by clouds and not until the party had reached the top did the cloud cover thin out. At Mt. Katmai's summit the explorers stopped short, for they were perched on the edge of a huge chasm. In its depths they saw a lake of milky blue cradling a small horseshoe-shaped island. The mountain had a huge hole at its core where solid rock had once been. Now the hole was filling with water from melting snowbanks on its steep sides. The chasm was 4,460 feet deep and three miles long.

The party went around the lake to look down at the valley on the landward side of Mt. Katmai, where a fantastic scene met their gaze. The valley floor was covered with thousands of cracks and vents, and from each a column of steam arose. Some were no more than threads of white, but others roared hundreds of feet into the air. Griggs later wrote, "The whole valley, as far as the eye could reach. was full of hundreds, no thousands ... of smokes, curling up ... Sleep that night was impossible ... I had seen enough to know that we had accidentally discovered one of the great wonders of the world." And so Griggs decided to name the place the "Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes."

The Valley of 10,000 Smokes

This steaming valley so fascinated Griggs that he returned in 1917 to descend to the valley floor. The explorers were cautious as they reached their destination, for they knew that the ground was treacherous, underlain with cracks and hollows. They feared the boiling-hot steam and poisonous fumes that rose from the vents all around them. Nevertheless, they camped among the valley's "smokes" and even learned to use the rising steam in place of campfires for their cooking. They discovered that a stick thrust into some columns of steam would burn. The very ground they walked on was so warm that they were forced to sleep on top of their bedding. Yet around the steam vents they found a trace of life. Tiny, simple plants called algae could survive the heat and even thrive in this fantastic place.

Today, the area surrounding Mt. Katmai, including the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and the cluster of volcanic mountains nearby, has become a national monument. Katmai National Monument covers more than 4,000 square miles, the largest wilderness area in the park system. Much has changed since the Griggs expeditions.

G-23 In the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, the "smokes" have all but disappeared, but it is a desolate place still. Layers of yellowish ash have been eroded to form weird, fluted slopes, as if giant's fingers had clawed through an enormous pile of clay. Life is beginning to return to the valley. Mosses, bushes and young trees have sprung up here and there, and visitors to the monument may spot bears, moose and wolves.

The Valley today, at sunset.

Over the years, Mt. Katmai has changed, too. In 1922 a geologist who had been with Griggs on his 1919 expedition returned to Mt. Katmai. He found the chasm empty, the lake gone. All he could see was a muddy bottom with a few pools of water and a vent through which a column of mud spurted into the air. But the lake soon filled again. Since then, the lake water has bubbled and steamed, giving early warning of brief eruptions in nearby volcanoes. The lake water has been rising, and the horseshoe-shaped island has disappeared. Year by year, the lake is growing deeper.

If you ever have the opportunity, visit Katmai. You'll find it a fantastic place, where skeleton forests shelter struggling young trees, where the rivers run thick with volcanic ash and the snow slides past steaming vents into a lake at the heart of a mountain. And then, of course, there's always the chance that, as one explorer put it, "Some other mountain will blow up." Perhaps you'll be lucky enough to see it when it does!

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. The explosion on the Alaskan Peninsula was caused by
a. enormous black cloud.
b. thunder.
c. an erupting volcano.
d. a deep chasm.

2. Falling ash made roofs collapse
a. at Dora, 100 miles to the southeast.
b. at Kodiak, 100 miles to the southeast.
c. at an Eskimo village in Anchorage.
d. a mile away from Mt. Katmai.

3. In July of 1915, Dr. Robert Griggs
a. coughed and choked as he groped his
way about.
b. tried to fly through the ash-filled air.
c. set out to explore Mt. Katmai.
d. fled for his life with the Eskimos.

4. Three years after the eruption, Katmai Valley
a. became more beautiful.
b. remained unchanged.
c. received little sunlight.
d. was settled by Eskimos.

5. The chasm discovered in 1915
a. was nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon.
b. was twice as large as the Grand Canyon.
c. was barely noticeable.
d. was filled with boiling lava.

6. Dr. Griggs found that the three-pointed peak had changed
a. on his first visit.
b. on his second visit.
c. after he had discovered the columns of steam.
d. after he descended to the valley floor.

7. The story of the Mt. Katmai explosion would probably be found in a book about
a. great monuments of the Eastern
United States.
b. great wonders of the world.
c. great explorers from 1850 to 1900.
d. population changes in Alaska.

8. Dr. Griggs traveled to Mt. Katmai
a. four times.
b. once.
c. twice.
d. three times.

9. Another name for this selection could be
a. "Alaska's Explosions."
b. "Kodiak National Monument."
c. "The Life of Robert Griggs."
d. "Katmai National Monument."

10. This selection is mainly about
a. the Eskimos.
b. how a volcano erupts.
c. camping near Mt. Katmai.
d. a fantastic place in Alaska.

"We're In Trouble" The Apollo 13 Disaster, from VOA

2012-10-18T09:37:00.001-07:00

I'm Barbara Klein. And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Today we continue the history of the American space program with the flight of Apollo Thirteen, the flight that almost did not return home.

American astronauts in Apollo Eleven landed on the moon July twentieth, nineteen sixty-nine. A second landing was made four months later. Both flights were almost perfect. Everything worked as planned. Everyone expected the third moon-landing flight, Apollo Thirteen, would go as well as the first two. But it did not.

Apollo Thirteen roared into space on Thursday, April eleventh, nineteen seventy. The time was thirteen-thirteen, one-thirteen p. m. local time. Navy captain James Lovell was commander of Apollo Thirteen. He had flown on Apollo Eight, the first flight to orbit the moon. The two other crew members were civilians -- John Swigert and Fred Haise. Apollo Thirteen was their first space flight.

The Apollo Thirteen spacecraft was like the earlier Apollos. It had three major parts. One was the command module. The astronauts would ride to the moon in the command module and then ride back to Earth in it. It was the only part of the spacecraft that could survive the fiery return through the Earth's atmosphere.

The lunar module was the second part. It would carry two of the astronauts to the moon's surface. It would later launch them from the moon to rejoin the command module.

The third part of the Apollo spacecraft was the service module. It had a rocket engine that the astronauts fired to begin circling the moon. They fired it again to break out of moon orbit for the return flight to Earth. The service module carried tanks of oxygen for the flight, and the fuel cells that produced electricity and water the astronauts needed to survive.

There was what seemed to be a minor problem during the ground tests before launch. Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen. The oxygen was the fuel that provided water and electricity for the command module. One of the oxygen tanks failed to empty normally during the ground test. Engineers had to boil off the remaining oxygen by turning on a heater in the tank. Commander Lovell said later he should have demanded the oxygen tank be replaced. But it seemed to be fixed. So no change was made.

After launch, Apollo Thirteen sailed smoothly through space for two days. Controllers on the ground joked that the flight had gone so well they did not have enough to do. That changed a few hours later. The first sign of trouble was a tiny burst of light in the western sky over the United States. It looked like a far-away star had exploded.

Near the space center in Houston, Texas, some amateur star-watchers were trying to see the Apollo spacecraft through telescopes. One of the group had fixed a telescope to a television set so that objects seen by the telescope appeared on the television screen. The spacecraft was too far away to be seen. But suddenly, a bright spot appeared on the television screen. Over the next ten minutes it grew into a white circle. The observers on the ground had no reason to believe the white spot they saw was made by the spacecraft. They thought it was a problem with the television. So they went home to bed.

It was not a problem with their television. It was a serious problem with Apollo Thirteen. It happened a few minutes after the three astronauts completed a television broadcast to Earth.

The astronauts heard a loud noise. The spacecraft shook. Warning lights came on. Swigert called to mission control.

JOHN SWIGERT: "Houston, we've had a problem here."

The number two oxygen tank in the service module had exploded. The liquid oxygen escaped into space. It formed a huge gas ball that expanded rapidly. Sunlight made it glow. Within ten minutes, it was almost eighty kilometers across. Then it slowly disappeared. The cloud was the white spot the observers in Houston had seen on their television.

The loss of one oxygen tank should not have been a major problem. Apollo had two oxygen tanks. So, if one failed, the other could be used. But the astronauts soon learned that the explosion had caused the other oxygen tank to leak.

The astronauts were three hundred twenty thousand kilometers from Earth with little oxygen, electricity and water. Their situation was extremely serious. No one knew if they could get the spacecraft back to Earth, or if they could survive long enough to return.

The astronauts and the flight control center quickly decided that the lunar module could be their lifeboat. It carried oxygen, water, electricity and food for two men for two days on the moon's surface.

But there were three astronauts. And the trip back to Earth would take four days. The men greatly reduced their use of water, food and heat. And they turned off all the electrical devices they could.

Back on Earth, space scientists and engineers worked around the clock to design and test new ideas to help the astronauts survive.

Getting enough good air to breathe became the most serious problem. The carbon dioxide the astronauts breathed out was poisoning the air. The lunar module had a few devices for removing carbon dioxide. But there were not enough to remove all the carbon dioxide they created.

Engineers on the ground designed a way the astronauts could connect air-cleaning devices from the command module to the air system in the lunar module. The astronauts made the connector from a plastic bag, cardboard and tape. It worked. Carbon dioxide was no longer a problem.

Now the problem was how to get the astronauts back to Earth as quickly and safely as possible. They were more than two-thirds of the way to the moon on a flight path that would take them to a moon landing. They needed to change their flight path to take them around the moon and back toward Earth. They had to do this by firing the lunar module rocket engine for just the right amount of time. And they had to make this move without the equipment in the command module that kept the spacecraft on its flight path.

Five hours after the explosion, flight controllers advised firing the rocket for thirty-five seconds. This sent the spacecraft around the moon instead of down to it. Two hours after Apollo Thirteen went around the moon, the astronauts fired the rocket for five minutes. This speeded up the spacecraft to reach Earth nine hours sooner.

The lunar module was extremely uncomfortable. The astronauts had very little to drink and eat. But the cold was the worst part of the return trip. The temperature inside the lunar module was only a few degrees above freezing. It was too cold for them to sleep much.

They used the electrical power in the lunar module to add electricity to the batteries of the command module. They would need the electrical power for their landing.

The crew moved back to the command module a few hours before landing. They turned on the necessary equipment and broke away from the damaged service module. As the service module moved away, they saw for the first time the damage done by the exploding oxygen tank. Equipment was hanging from a huge hole in the side of the module.

One hour before landing, Lovell, Swigert and Haise said thanks and goodbye to their lifeboat, the lunar module. They separated from it and sent it flying away from them.

Now, the command module of Apollo Thirteen headed alone toward Earth. It fell through the atmosphere. Its parachutes opened, slowing its fall toward the Pacific Ocean, near Samoa. Ships and planes were waiting in the landing area.

And millions of people around the world were watching the live television broadcast of the landing. People everywhere cheered as the cameras found the spacecraft floating downward beneath its three parachutes. They watched as it dropped softly into the water.

The Apollo Thirteen astronauts were safely home.

Our program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein.

"The Turbulent 1960s" from VOA

2012-09-23T08:59:00.001-07:00

Woodstock, 1969

This is Rich Kleinfeldt. And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

Today, we tell about life in the United States during the 1960s.

The 1960s began with the election of the first president born in the twentieth century -- John Kennedy. For many Americans, the young president was the symbol of a spirit of hope for the nation. When Kennedy was murdered in 1963, many felt that their hopes died, too. This was especially true of young people, and members and supporters of minority groups.

A time of innocence and hope soon began to look like a time of anger and violence. More Americans protested to demand an end to the unfair treatment of black citizens. More protested to demand an end to the war in Vietnam. And more protested to demand full equality for women.

By the middle of the 1960s, it had become almost impossible for President Lyndon Johnson to leave the White House without facing protesters against the war in Vietnam. In March of 1968, he announced that he would not run for another term.

In addition to President John Kennedy, two other influential leaders were murdered during the 1960s. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior was shot in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968. Several weeks later, Robert Kennedy--John Kennedy's brother--was shot in Los Angeles, California. He was campaigning to win his party's nomination for president. Their deaths resulted in riots in cities across the country.

The unrest and violence affected many young Americans. The effect seemed especially bad because of the time in which they had grown up. By the middle 1950s, most of their parents had jobs that paid well. They expressed satisfaction with their lives. They taught their children what were called "middle class" values. These included a belief in God, hard work, and service to their country.

Later, many young Americans began to question these beliefs. They felt that their parents' values were not enough to help them deal with the social and racial difficulties of the 1960s. They rebelled by letting their hair grow long and by wearing strange clothes. Their dissatisfaction was strongly expressed in music.

Rock-and-roll music had become very popular in America in the 1950s. Some people, however, did not approve of it. They thought it was too sexual. These people disliked the rock-and-roll of the 1960s even more. They found the words especially unpleasant.

The musicians themselves thought the words were extremely important. As singer and song writer Bob Dylan said, "There would be no music without the words," Bob Dylan produced many songs of social protest. He wrote anti-war songs before the war in Vietnam became a violent issue. One was called Blowin' in the Wind.

In addition to songs of social protest, rock-and-roll music continued to be popular in America during the 1960s. The most popular group, however, was not American. It was British -- the Beatles -- four rock-and-roll musicians from Liverpool.

That was the Beatles' song I Want to Hold Your Hand. It went on sale in the United States at the end of 1963. Within five weeks, it was the biggest-selling record in America.

Other songs, including some by the Beatles, sounded more revolutionary. They spoke about drugs and sex, although not always openly. "Do your own thing" became a common expression. It meant to do whatever you wanted, without feeling guilty.

Five hundred thousand young Americans "did their own thing" at the Woodstock music festival in 1969. They gathered at a farm in New York State. They listened to musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez, and to groups such as The Who and Jefferson Airplane. Woodstock became a symbol of the young peoples' rebellion against traditional values. The young people themselves were called "hippies." Hippies believed there should be more love and personal freedom in America.

In 1967, poet Allen Ginsberg helped lead a gathering of hippies in San Francisco. No one knows exactly how many people considered themselves hippies. But twenty thousand attended the gathering.

Another leader of the event was Timothy Leary. He was a former university professor and researcher. Leary urged the crowd in San Francisco to "tune in and drop out". This meant they should use drugs and leave school or their job. One drug that was used in the 1960s was lysergic acid diethylamide, or L-S-D. L-S-D causes the brain to see strange, colorful images. It also can cause brain damage. Some people say the Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was about L-S-D.

As many Americans were listening to songs about drugs and sex, many others were watching television programs with traditional family values. These included The Andy Griffith Show and The Beverly Hillbillies. At the movies, some films captured the rebellious spirit of the times. These included Doctor Strangelove and The Graduate. Others offered escape through spy adventures, like the James Bond films.

Many Americans refused to tune in and drop out in the 1960s. They took no part in the social revolution. Instead, they continued leading normal lives of work, family, and home. Others, the activists of American society, were busy fighting for peace, and racial and social justice. Women's groups, for example, were seeking equality with men. They wanted the same chances as men to get a good education and a good job. They also demanded equal pay for equal work.

A widely popular book on women in modern America was called The Feminine Mystique. It was written by Betty Friedan and published in 1963. The idea known as the feminine mystique was the traditional idea that women have only one part to play in society. They are to have children and stay at home to raise them. In her book, Mizz Friedan urged women to establish professional lives of their own.

That same year, a committee was appointed to investigate the condition of women. It was led by Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a former first lady. The committee's findings helped lead to new rules and laws. The 1964 civil rights act guaranteed equal treatment for all groups. This included women. After the law went into effect, however, many activists said it was not being enforced. The National Organization for Women -- NOW -- was started in an effort to correct the problem.

The movement for women's equality was known as the women's liberation movement. Activists were called "women's libbers." They called each other "sisters." Early activists were usually rich, liberal, white women. Later activists included women of all ages, women of color, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. They acted together to win recognition for the work done by all women in America.

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. Timothy Leary, a former university professor and researcher urged a crowd in San Francisco to "_____________________ ."
a: get a good job in a university
b: tune in and drop out
c: avoid the brain damaging drug, LSD
d: write a letter to their parents to thank them for their role in bringing them into the world

2. As children grew up in the 1960s, they began to question their parents' 1950s style middle class values. These values included _______________________ .
a: a strong belief in hard work
b: a strong patriotic support of the United States
c: strong religious values
d: all of the above

3. The Feminine Mystique ___________________.
a: was a highly erotic novel
b: argued that women have no professional lives
c: argued that women should spend more time with their children
d: stated that it was completely impossible to understand women at all

4. The Beatles song that became enormously popular at the end of 1963 was "______________________" .
a: I Want to Hold Your Hand
b: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
c: Blowin' in the Wind
d: Yesterday

5. In March of 1968, Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not run for another term because ______________________ .
a: he wanted to write his memoirs instead
b: there were so many protests against the Vietnam War
c: he felt that he had successfully created the Great Society
d: his party didn't support him

6. Probably the greatest influence on the emerging value system of the 1960s was __________________ .
a: literature
b: philosophy
c: music
d: communism

7. Young people such as the group that celebrated music at the Woodstock music festival were called "hippies". They believed _______________ .
a: only violent action could stop the war
b: smoking grass was the best thing to do
c: in more love and personal freedom
d: in getting a haircut as soon as possible

8. Two assassinations took place in 1968 within weeks of each other. They were ____________________ .
a: John Kennedy and Martin Luther King
b: Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy
c: John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson
d: Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy

9. John F. Kennedy __________________________________ .
a: was the first president born in the Twentieth Century
b: was the oldest man to be elected president
c: served two terms as president
d: defeated Lyndon Johnson to become president

10. In 1963, many people were deeply pessimistic about the future and lost hope largely because of __________________________ .
a: changes in society
b: the threat of communism
c: the assassination of John F. Kennedy
d: the beginnings of the rebellion of young people against their parents' generation

"The Roaring Twenties" from Voice of America

2012-08-29T15:14:00.013-07:00

THE MAKING OF A NATION – a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

As we have seen in recent programs, the administrations of President Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge were a time of economic progress for most Americans. Many companies grew larger during the 1920s, creating many new jobs. Wages for most Americans increased. Many people began to have enough money to buy new kinds of products.

The strong economy also created the right environment for many important changes in the day-to-day social life of the American people. The 1920s are remembered now as an exciting time that historians call the "roaring twenties". The 1920s brought a feeling of freedom and independence to millions of Americans, especially young Americans. Young soldiers returned from the world war with new ideas. They had seen a different world in Europe. They had faced death and learned to enjoy the pleasures that each day offered.

Many of these young soldiers were not willing to quietly accept the old traditions of their families and villages when they returned home. Instead, they wanted to try new ways of living. Many young Americans, both men and women, began to challenge some of the traditions of their parents and grandparents. For example, some young women began to experiment with new kinds of clothes. They no longer wore dresses that hid the shape of their bodies. Instead, they wore thinner dresses that uncovered part of their legs.

Many young women began to smoke cigarettes, too. Cigarette production in the United States more than doubled in the ten years between 1918 and 1928.

Many women also began to drink alcohol with men in public for the first time. And they listened together to a popular new kind of music: jazz.

Young people danced the Fox Trot, the Charleston, and other new dances. They held one another tightly on the dance floor, instead of dancing far apart. It was a revolution in social values, at least among some Americans. People openly discussed subjects that their parents and grandparents had kept private.

There were popular books and shows about unmarried mothers and about homosexuality. The growing film industry made films about all-night parties between unmarried men and women. And people discussed the new ideas about sex formed by Sigmund Freud and other new thinkers.

An important force behind these changes was the growing independence of American women. In 1920, the nation passed the 19th Amendment to the constitution, which gave women the right to vote.

Of equal importance, many women took jobs during the war and continued working after the troops returned home. Also, new machines freed many of them from spending long hours of work in the home washing clothes, preparing food, and doing other jobs. Education was another important force behind the social changes of the 1920s. More and more Americans were getting a good education. The number of students attending high school doubled between 1920 and 1930. Many of the schools now offered new kinds of classes to prepare students for useful jobs.

The Charleston

Attendance at colleges and universities also increased greatly. And colleges offered more classes in such useful subjects as teacher training, engineering, and business administration.

Two inventions also helped cause the social changes. They were the automobile and the radio. The automobile gave millions of Americans the freedom to travel easily to new places. And the radio brought new ideas and experiences into their own homes.

Probably the most important force behind social change was the continuing economic growth of the 1920s. Many people had extra money to spend on things other than food, housing, and other basic needs. They could experiment with new products and different ways of living. Of course, not all Americans were wearing strange new "flapper" clothes or dancing until early in the morning. Millions of Americans in small towns or rural areas continued to live simple, quiet lives. Life was still hard for many people including blacks, foreigners, and other minority groups.

The many newspaper stories about independent women reporters and doctors also did not represent the real life of the average American woman. Women could vote. But three of every four women still worked at home. Most of the women working outside their homes were from minority groups or foreign countries.

Douglass Fairbanks
famous 1920s film actor

The films and radio stories about exciting parties and social events were just a dream for millions of Americans. But the dreams were strong. And many Americans -- rich and poor -- followed with great interest each new game, dance, and custom. The wide interest in this kind of popular culture was unusually strong during the 1920s. People became extremely interested in exciting court trials, disasters, film actors, and other subjects.

For example, millions of Americans followed the sad story of Floyd Collins, a young man who became trapped while exploring underground. Newsmen reported to the nation as rescue teams searched to find him. Even the "New York Times" newspaper printed a large story on its front page when rescuers finally discovered the man's dead body.

Another event that caught public attention was a murder trial in the eastern state of New Jersey in 1926.

Newsmen wrote five million words about this case of a minister found dead with a woman member of his church. Again, the case itself was of little importance from a world news point of view. But it was exciting. And Americans were tired of reading about serious political issues after the bloody world war. The 1920s also were a golden period for sports.

People across the country bought newspapers to read of the latest golf victory by champion Bobby Jones. "Big Bill" Tilden became the most famous player in tennis. And millions of Americans listened to the boxing match in 1926 between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney. In fact, five Americans reportedly became so excited while listening to the fight that they died of heart attacks.

However, the greatest single sports hero of the period was the baseball player, Babe Ruth.

Babe Ruth: 1920s Sports Hero

Ruth was a large man who could hit a baseball farther than any other human being. He became as famous for his wild enjoyment of life as for his excellent playing on the baseball field. Babe Ruth loved to drink, to be with women, and to play with children.The most famous popular event of the 1920s was neither a court trial nor a sports game. It was the brave action of pilot Charles Lindbergh when he flew an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. He was the first man in history to do this.

Lindbergh flew his plane alone from New York to France in May, 1927. His flight set off wild celebrations across the United States.

Newspapers carried story after story about Lindbergh's success. President Coolidge and a large crowd greeted the young pilot when he returned to Washington. And New York congratulated Lindbergh with one of the largest parades in its history.

Americans liked Lindbergh because he was brave, quiet, and handsome. He seemed to represent everything that was best about their country. The 1920s was also a time of much excellent work in the more serious arts. We will take a look in our next program at American art, writing, and building during the exciting "roaring twenties".

You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. One reason social change in the 1920s occurred was because __________________ .
a: many women married and had children
b: there was a struggle by women for the right to vote
c: there was continued economic growth during the 20s
d: minority groups found life very difficult economically

2. In the 1920s, young people wanted to increasingly _______________________ .
a: break with the traditions of their parents
b: conform to the values of their parents
c: listen to the kind of music their parents enjoyed
d: live quiet and solitary lives

3. Most people in the 1920s were less interested in reading or hearing stories about ___________________ .
a: Calvin Coolidge
b: Charles Lindbergh
c: Babe Ruth
d: Jack Dempsy

4. The two American presidents during the 1920s were ______________ from 1921 to 1923 and _______________ from 1923 to 1929.
a: Theodore Roosevelt ... Warren Harding
b: Woodrow Wilson ... Calvin Coolidge
c: Warren Harding ... Calvin Coolidge
d: Calvin Coolidge ... Herbert Hoover

5. "Flapper" refers to a type of ___________________________ .
a: military hardware
b: machine for making work at home easier
c: switch for turning on and off an electric heater
d: style of clothing worn by young women

6. The following fact is generally not true of the period of the 1920s: _______ .
a: Many companies grew
b: Wages for most Americans decreased
c: More women smoked than before
d: It was a good time for retailers

7. In the 1920s, the young soldiers who returned from World War One wanted more _______________________ .
a: conservatism
b: freedom of ideas and experimentation
c: peace and quiet home on the farm
d: new opportunities for war experiences

8. This era was called the "Roaring Twenties" because _________________ .
a: it was a time of excitement and prosperity
b: it was a time when people played their radios as loudly as they could
c: it was the beginning of electric guitar music
d: it was a time when more people had lions and tigers as pets

9. In the 1920s, a young woman's grandmother often felt _______________ her grand daughter's behavior.
a: fascinated by
b: interested in
c: shocked by
d: influenced by

10. Two inventions helped cause social changes in the 20s. They were the ______________ .
a: washing machine and the video game
b: telephone and the telegraph
c: automobile and the radio
d: printing press and the collection plate

The Charleston was the dance that captured the spirit of the 1920s. It was danced with wild abandon by a new generation of independent young Americans, to the new hot jazz that was flooding the country. The dance began in Charleston, South Carolina, the city from which it takes its name. In 1923, The Charleston was featured in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild, one of the biggest hits of the decade. The song from the show - James P. Johnson's tune "The Charleston" - spread the fad across the nation and onwards to the rest of the world. Josephine Baker became famous for performing the Charleston in Paris in the 1920s. The Charleston is both a solo and partnered dance, both wildly exuberant and exciting to watch.

"The Sixty-Seventh Balloon Flight" from Edcon Publishing

2012-08-02T15:08:00.012-07:00

Young Colette had come to the Tivoli Gardens of Paris to await a performance by the notable and beautiful balloonist, Madame Marie Blanchard. It was the night of July 6, 1819 and the park was filled with an assembly of thousands of people. Unlike most of those present in the crowd, Colette had actually ascended in a hot-air balloon. Her ambition was to someday become a professional balloonist like Madame Blanchard. Madame Blanchard was the first woman known to pilot her own balloon, and to Colette, she was a heroine. The girl had hoped to meet Madame Blanchard after the performance. Now she awaited the balloon flight of Madame Blanchard with great excitement. As Colette stood in the midst of the assembly she overheard a man say, "I think she's crazy. She'll kill herself." Then a woman answered, "Madame Blanchard is a professional. She knows what she's doing."

Colette agreed with the woman. Madame Blanchard had been flying a balloon as a special attraction for large and small crowds of people all over Europe for the past ten years. Madame Blanchard had even crossed the Alps in a balloon and had given a special performance before the Emperor Napoleon. Colette then heard the same woman say, "I wonder what it's like to float in the sky in a balloon." Colette turned to her and said, "I can tell you. I've been up in a balloon." The man turned and looked at her in amazement and said, "You're just as crazy as Madame Blanchard." The woman asked Colette, "What was it like to ride in a balloon? How did you get to ride in one?" "Well," Colette began, "I was very nervous at first. The man who owned the balloon was looking for someone, who weighed very little, to fly in it. So, 1 was chosen. The balloon was held to the ground by two strong ropes. 1 was the only passenger. .. ," Colette stopped speaking. She and everyone around her had noticed that it was time for Madame Blanchard's flight. As Colette gazed at the magnificent and mammoth balloon being prepared for its ascent, she recalled her own thrilling flight in a balloon barely six months before. The unusual sight of a hot-air balloon had been a special attraction for the small assembly of people who had come to see its flight. Colette had felt frightened when she climbed into the balloon's basket and awaited her own ascent. But more notable than her fear had been her fascination with the excitement of doing something which few women, or men for that matter, had ever done. Colette recalled the thrilling, trembling feeling that traveled through her body as the balloon silently and effortlessly rose into the air. It was as if the balloon were standing still and the land was moving away. The gentle rocking of the balloon felt as if she were on a raft afloat on an ocean. Colette had grasped the basket's sides tightly as she saw the crowd of people seem to shrink in size and heard their voices change to distant sounds from below. The distance to the ground seemed enormous from such a height. The only sound was that of the creaking ropes that had once anchored her to the ground. Colette had felt totally alone, a solitary figure in the balloon's car. She was 'nervous, but also joyous. It had been an unforgettable experience, one she hoped to repeat. Since that day; Colette had collected every bit of information about balloon flying that she could. She knew that she would be able to earn money as a balloonist. After all, she had read of the fortune that Madame Blanchard had made in her free-flying balloon. '

It was now time for Madame Blanchard's flight. Colette saw the solitary figure of Madame Blanchard getting into the basket. Colette wondered if Madame Blanchard ever felt frightened. She would ask her when they met. Colette felt a rush of excitement as she watched Madame Blanchard's balloon rise above the ground. Colette had read that Madame Blanchard's balloon, which was now overhead, was not filled with hot air, but with hydrogen. Why did Madame Blanchard use hydrogen rather than hot air? Colette wondered. Hydrogen was known to burst into names when exposed to fire or even a spark. She would ask Madame Blanchard that question. too, after the performance. Madame Blanchard knew how to entertain a large assembly of people. She always managed to offer a notable performance. Colette had seen posters advertising tonight's flight of Madame Blanchard as an amazing event. Her special feature for this attraction was to be an elaborate fireworks display. Colette saw the long wire attached to the balloon with a small wooden platform holding fireworks at the end. Once the balloon was off the ground, the fireworks were lighted. The balloon resembled a ship afloat on a gently rocking ocean. The brilliant colors of the fireworks dazzled and delighted Colette. The crowd cheered. Madame Blanchard was magnificent. Colette knew that Madame Blanchard must be feeling as excited as Colette had felt when she had flown in a balloon. Madame Blanchard was floating in the sky. The last firework had faded and the smoke had cleared. Colette was watching Madame Blanchard carefully. She seemed to be lighting a firework from inside the balloon's basket. Colette saw a spark of fire, but instead of growing into a lovely burst of color, it seemed to form itself into a small ball of fire.

Colette remembered reading how easily hydrogen could catch fire and was worried. Yet she felt sure in her heart that all would go well for the great Madame Blanchard. Suddenly, the ball of fire surged upwards like a torch. Colette gasped. Some people thought it was part of the performance and cheered wildly; others were trying to move out of the crowd. Colette stared wide-eyed in horror at Madame Blanchard's balloon. A sick feeling spread through her stomach and her feet turned ice-cold. Madame Blanchard's balloon was now covered with flames and drifting over nearby rooftops. Madame Blanchard was crouched low inside the basket. Colette had read of many ballooning accidents where the balloonist had escaped alive. Even Madame Blanchard had survived ballooning accidents. She had to survive this one. There was confusion in the crowd. Some people were afraid that the balloon would crash on top of them and Colette was being pushed from all sides. Then she heard someone ahead shouting, "Madame Blanchard is alive! She is safe!" Colette felt a tremendous sense of relief after hearing that news. Slowly, she pushed and weaved her way through the large crowd and headed for her home. She knew she would not be meeting Madame Blanchard that night.

Colette was anxious to learn more about the accident and read the first news report as soon as she could. She could not believe what she read and she started to cry. The report stated that Madame Blanchard had died in the accident. She had planned to light one last firework from inside the balloon's basket and send it down in a parachute as a final act of the performance. Apparently, some hydrogen had been escaping from the balloon. The spark from the last firework had set the hydrogen on fire and caused the balloon to go up in flames. Madame Blanchard could probably have survived the accident had the balloon not struck a rooftop, hurling her into the street. She had been untouched by the flames, but the crash had killed her. It had been her sixty-seventh flight in a balloon.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. People had come to Paris to see a performance by _________
a. Colette.
b. Tivoli.
c. Madame Blanchard.
d. an amazing magician.

2. Colette's first balloon flight took place _________
a. before Madame Blanchard's last flight.
b. after Madame Blanchard's last flight.
c. at the same time as Madame Blanchard's flight.
d. in England.

3. Ballooning was an activity which Colette found _________
a. slightly interesting.
b. not at all interesting.
c. too frightening to repeat.
d. very interesting.

4. Madame Blanchard's balloon was filled with __________
a. cool air.
b. oxygen.
c. hot air.
d. hydrogen.

5. As the crowd watched, the balloon became covered with __________
a. hydrogen.
b. hot air.
c. Ice.
d. flames.

6. Madame Blanchard's story would most likely appear in a magazine article on ____________
a. the use of fireworks in ballooning.
b. famous balloonists of America.
c. famous balloonists of Europe.
d. the dangers of using hot air In balloons.

7. Madame Blanchard's sixty-seventh balloon flight took place _____________
a. less than one hundred years ago.
b. over one hundred years ago.
c. over two hundred years ago.
d. less than fifty years ago.

8. The accident had been caused by _____________
a. a high roof.
b. escaping hydrogen.
c. a parachute.
d. the many fireworks in the sky.

9. Another name for this story could be ______________
a. "Hot-Air Balloons."
b. "The Last Flight."
c. "Colette Flies Alone."
d. "The Tivoli Gardens of Paris."

10. This story is mainly about ____________
a. the life of a famous balloonist.
b. a young girl's hopes to fly.
c. a ballooning accident.
d. the use of hydrogen in balloons.

"A Princess of Mars" Part Four by Edgar Rice Burroughs, from VOA

2012-07-01T19:18:00.015-07:00

Welcome to the fourth and last part of our program, "A Princess of Mars." The story is from a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Last week, we told how John Carter observed a fierce battle between the green Martians and a race of red, human-like creatures. He also saw the beautiful Princess Dejah Thoris being captured after the battle.

A short time later, John Carter, the Princess and their friend, the green Martian woman Sola, attempt to escape rather than face death. The Princess and Sola must flee while John Carter tries to slow the green warriors who are chasing them. John Carter continues to tell what happens in Edgar Rice Burroughs' story, "A Princess of Mars."

JOHN CARTER:

The huge green warrior Tars Tarkas came slowly toward me with his thin sword. I backed away. I did not want to fight him. I did not wish his death. He had been as kind to me as a green Martian can be.

As I stood watching him, a rifle fired in the distance, then another and another. Tars Tarkas and his warriors were under attack from another tribe of green warriors.

(SOUND EFFECTS)

Within seconds, a terrible battle raged. As I watched, three of the attackers fell on Tars Tarkas. He killed one and was fighting with the other two when he slipped and fell.

I ran to his aid, swinging my sword. He was on his feet. Shoulder-to-shoulder, we fought against the attackers. They finally withdrew after an hour of fierce fighting.

TARS TARKAS:

Water Ice discovered on
Mars, 2008.

John Carter, I think I understand the meaning of the word "friend." You saved my life when I was about to take yours. From this day, you are no longer a captive among our people, but a leader and great warrior among us.

JOHN CARTER:

There was a smile on his face. Once again, he took off a metal band from his arm and gave it to me.

TARS TARKAS:

I have a question for you John Carter. I understand why you took the red woman with you. But why did Sola leave her people and go with you?

JOHN CARTER:

She did not want to see me or the Princess harmed. She does not like the great games held by your people where captives are led to die. She knows if she is caught, she too will die in the games. She told me she hates the games because her mother died there.

TARS TARKAS:

What? How could she know her mother?

JOHN CARTER:

She told me her mother was killed in the games because she had hidden the egg that produced her. Her mother hid Sola among other children before she was captured. Sola said she was a kind woman, not like others of your tribe.

Tars Tarkas grew angry as I was speaking. But I could see past his anger. I could see pain in his eyes. I immediately knew Sola's great secret.

I have a question for you, Tars Tarkas. Did you know Sola's mother?

TARS TARKAS:

Yes… and if I could have, I would have prevented her death. I know this story to be true. I have always known the woman who died in those games had a child. I never knew the child. I do now. Sola is also my child.

JOHN CARTER:

Rover image.
The rock looks like
Woola!

For three days, we followed the trail left by the Princess Dejah Thoris, Sola and poor ugly Woola. At last, we could see them in the distance. Their animal could no longer be ridden. They were talking. When we came near, Woola turned to fight us. I slowly walked to him with my hand out.

Sola was standing nearby. She was armed and prepared to fight. The princess was lying next to her feet.

Sola, what is wrong with the princess?

SOLA:

She has been crying much these past few days, John Carter. We believed you died so we could escape. The thought of your death was very heavy on this woman…my friend Dejah Thoris. Come and tell her you are among the living. Perhaps that will stop her crying.

JOHN CARTER:

I walked to where the Princess Dejah Thoris was lying on the ground. She looked at me with eyes that were red from crying.

Princess, you are no longer in danger. Tars Tarkas has come with me as a friend. He and his warriors will help to see you safely home.

And..Sola! I would have you greet your father -- Tars Tarkas -- a great leader among your people. Your secret no longer means death to anyone. He already knows you are his daughter. The two of you have nothing to fear.

Sola turned and looked at Tars Tarkas. She held out her hand. He took it. It was a new beginning for them.

DEJAH THORIS:

All these Earth men are
alike. Wait until she
finds out!

I know our world has never before seen anyone like you, John Carter. Can it be that all Earthmen are like you? I was alone, a stranger, hunted, threatened. Yet you would freely give your life to save me.

You come to me now with a tribe of green warriors who offer their friendship. You are no longer a captive but wear the metal of great rank among their people. No man has ever done this.

JOHN CARTER:

Princess, I have done many strange things in my life, many things much smarter men would not have done. And now, before my courage fails, I would ask you, to be mine in marriage.

She smiled at me for a moment and then her dark eyes flashed in the evening light.

DEJAH THORIS:

You have no need of your courage, John Carter, because you already knew the answer before you asked the question.

JOHN CARTER:

And so Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, a daughter of the Red Planet Mars, promised herself in marriage to John Carter, a gentleman of Virginia.

(MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS)

JOHN CARTER:

Several days later, we reached the city of Helium. At first, the red men of Helium thought we were an attacking army. But they soon saw their Princess. We were greeted with great joy. Tars Tarkas and his green warriors caused the greatest excitement. This huge group of green warriors entered the city as friends and allies.

I soon met Tardos Mors, the grandfather of Dejah Thoris. He tried several times to thank me for saving the life of the Princess. But tears filled his eyes and he could not speak.

JOHN CARTER:

For nine years, I served in the government and fought in the armies of Helium as a Prince of the royal family. It was a happy time. The Princess Dejah Thoris and I were expecting a child.

Then, one day, a soldier returned from a long flight. When he landed he hurried to the great meeting room.

Tardos Mors met with the soldier and reported that every creature on the planet had but three days to live. He said the great machines that produced the atmosphere on the planet had stopped producing oxygen. He said no one knew why this had happened, but there was nothing that could be done.

The air grew thin within a day. Many people could do nothing but sleep. I watched as my Princess was slowly dying. I had to try something.

Aerial drone on Mars
A photoshop image

I could still move with great difficulty. I went to our airport and chose a fast aircraft. I flew as fast as I could to the building that produced the atmosphere of the planet.

Workers were trying to enter. I tried to help. With a great effort I opened a hole.

I grew very weak. I asked one of the workers if he could start the engines. He said he would try. I fell asleep on the ground.

It was dark when I opened my eyes again. My clothing felt stiff and strange. I sat up. I could see light from an opening. I walked outside. The land looked strange to me. I looked up to the sky and saw the Red Planet Mars. I was once again on Earth in the desert of Arizona. I cried out with deep emotion.

Did the worker reach the machines to renew the atmosphere? Did the air reach the people of that planet in time to save them? Was my Princess Dejah Thoris alive or did she lie cold in death?

For ten years now, I have watched the night sky, looking for an answer. I believe she and our child are waiting there for me. Something tells me that I shall soon know.

You have been listening to the Special English program, American Stories.

Shep O'Neal was the voice of John Carter. Steve Ember was Tars Tarkas. Barbara Klein was Sola. And Gwen Outen was Princess Dejah Thoris. This story was adapted for Special English by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Paul Thompson and Mario Ritter. Listen again next week for another American Story in VOA Special English.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. Dejah Thoris was crying in the desert because _____________________ .
a: she was frustrated by John Carter's inability to communicate
b: she knew that John Carter would soon return to Earth
c: she thought John Carter had died in the battle with the green Martians
d: she realized that John Carter was in love with Sola's mother

2. John Carter was released from his captivity mostly because he ______________________ .
a: learned Martian as a Second Language
b: knew how to jump very high in the air
c: was loved and admired by Dejah Thoris
d: saved the life of Tars Tarkas

3. One detail from this story is confirmed by modern science. It is the fact that _______________________ .
a: Mars doesn't have a breathable atmosphere
b: Mars atmosphere is dependent on special machines
c: giant frogs like Woola are very ugly
d: the Martian language is more complex than English

4. Tars Tarkas makes an amazing discovery. He finds out that ______________________ .
a: Sola is actually his daughter
b: Sola's mother died in the terrible games
c: Sola escaped with John Carter and Dejah Thoris
d: Sola's mother hid the egg containing Sola

5. After John Carter and Dejah Thoris got married, ________________________ .
a: they moved to a big mansion in Virginia and were visited on holidays by green Martians
b: they spent their honeymoon on the moon
c: they lived very happily in Helium and were expecting a child
d: they flew in an airship to other planets in the solar system

6. John Carter didn't want to kill Tars Tarkas because the green warrior _______________________ .
a: was Sola's brother
b: had been kind to him
c: was from Helium
d: was James Powell's friend

7. When the machines producing oxygen failed to work, all the creatures on the planet Mars _____________________ .
a: left for Earth
b: began to fall asleep
c: put on their oxygen masks
d: began to breathe hydrogen instead

8. As soon as John Carter became aware of the emergency, he ____________________ .
a: took an aircraft to the building that produced oxygen
b: took an aircraft to the Earth
c: gave his wife artificial respiration
d: told Tardos Mors to stop making up weird stories

9. When John Carter woke up from his sleep in the Oxygen factory, he ____________________ .
a: found himself in bed with Sola
b: found himself in the desert of Arizona
c: found himself breathing again because the oxygen machines were working
d: found that his iphone was no longer in contact with Mars

10.Tardos Mors was the ___________________ of Dejah Thoris.
a: enemy
b: grandfather
c: servant
d: body guard

This is the "John Carter" premier, 100 years after "A Princess of Mars" was published. The actors and director speak about the influence this book has had on later science fiction novels and films.

"A Princess of Mars" Part One
"A Princess of Mars" Part Two
"A Princess of Mars" Part Three

VOA Explorations: "Blue Holes, Flooded Sea Caves"

2012-06-29T11:24:00.005-07:00

BARBARA KLEIN: I’m Barbara Klein.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. A blue hole is a flooded sea cave with a hole that opens up at the land’s surface. These cave systems form in carbonate rock, often on islands. Some blue holes have very special rock formations and water chemistry. Far below sea level, they contain some of the harshest environments on Earth, with no oxygen and no light. Yet these areas are filled with life forms that have adapted to the extreme conditions.

Information gathered from these blue holes is helping scientists to increase their understanding of biology, archaeology and geology. But exploring these blue hole environments brings danger as well as discovery.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Blue holes get their name from the color some have when seen from the air. The color is usually a reflection of the sky on the water. But not all of these cave systems have blue surfaces. Some contain dark or muddy water.

Blue holes are the result of erosion in which water breaks down rock. Rain falling thousands of years ago contained chemicals which slowly wore away at the limestone landmass. These holes later filled with sea water as the sea level changed. The rising and falling of sea levels and the mixture of salt and fresh water further wore away at these cave formations. Blue holes are vertical caves. But they can also have horizontal cave formations that may be hundreds of meters long.

STEVE EMBER: These flooded cave systems can be found in the ocean, or they can be found inland. Ocean caves are affected by tides, so they always have water movement. But blue holes on land are very still. They have several layers of water, chemicals, and bacteria. The top layer of fresh water comes from rainfall. This layer acts like a cap on top of the layered mixture, and keeps out oxygen from the atmosphere. The fresh water floats on a denser layer of saltwater. Underneath this is a layer of poisonous hydrogen sulfide, produced by bacteria living in the water. Underneath this layer is anoxic seawater -- water that does not contain any oxygen.

BARBARA KLEIN: Kenny Broad is an anthropologist at the University of Miami in Florida. He studies the effects of climate change and human understanding of its risks. He has spent several years exploring underwater caves in the Bahamas. Here Mr. Broad discusses his many cave explorations during a talk at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C.

KENNY BROAD: “Underwater caves are probably, I would argue, one of the least understood ecosystems on the planet. One of the reasons they are one of the least understood, they are one of the least explored. And they are one of the last places where you still physically have to go there, you can’t send in a submarine or a mode operated vehicle, some autonomous machine. You need to go there.”

STEVE EMBER: Kenny Broad helped organize the Bahamas Blue Hole Expedition. In two thousand nine, a team of scientists spent two months researching blue holes on Bahamian islands including Andros and Abaco. The trip received financial support from the National Geographic Society.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: One reason blue holes have not been fully explored is that they can be extremely dangerous. There are many safety rules that divers must follow to help ensure their survival. First, divers must have training and experience to swim in these caves.

Divers who explore a cave for the first time must establish a thin rope called a guideline. This line helps them to safely enter and exit the cave without getting lost.

Divers must also bring several light sources in case one fails. They also must bring more than one set of breathing equipment in case one device fails. And, they must pay careful attention to their air supply. The rule they follow is to use a third of their air to enter the cave, a third to exit, and a third for emergencies.

STEVE EMBER: There are many difficulties involved in diving in blue holes. In some blue holes divers must quickly swim through a layer of hydrogen sulfide to reach the horizontal caves further down. This gas causes itchy skin, dizziness, and in high enough quantities, death. Or, divers might face extremely strong currents that can suck them into an opening. If they are not careful with their movements they can disrupt an area of a cave, creating explosions of silt which makes it impossible to see clearly. Kenny Broad shows a video of a diver forcing his body through a very narrow rocky opening.

KENNY BROAD: “It’s a mental game, it is not a physical game. This isn’t macho, and it’s not thrill-seeking. It’s more about keeping your breath rate under control.”

BARBARA KLEIN: For most explorers, though, the possibility of discovery in these cave environments makes the experience worth the risk.

KENNY BROAD: “You can jump into what looks like an insignificant little hole in the ground, and come out with information that’s of value to many different disciplines, from a scientific-academic perspective.”

Scientists are interested in these caves because oxygen-free conditions there are similar to those on Earth long ago, before oxygen existed on our planet.

KENNY BROAD: “What was life like? And when I say the ancient oceans, maybe a more dramatic way to phrase this question is ‘How did life form?’ I’m talking about life three point five billion years ago.”

He says the microbes that were present then did not leave a clear fossil record for scientists to study. So studying the organisms in these oxygen-free caves gives clues about the past.

KENNY BROAD: “So what happens here is we have a modern day analogy for what the oceans were like in terms of both the chemistry and the biology.”

STEVE EMBER: Experts are not only interested in life on our planet. Astrobiologists can compare information about these organisms and their environment to other oxygen-free environments, like those in space. They study these extreme conditions to understand how and where life might exist on other planets.

Larger organisms are equally interesting to scientists. Most are colorless and cannot see. For example, the Agostocaris cave shrimp is only about two and a half centimeters long. It has no color except an area of its digestive system. Then there is the remipede. Some scientists describe it as a living fossil. It has changed very little over the past three hundred million years. Remipedes are less than five centimeters long, but they are fierce. They use their poisonous teeth-like fangs to kill shrimp and other creatures.

BARBARA KLEIN: Blue holes also permit scientists to study climate change over thousands of years. They want to understand what those changes could mean in the future.

Some of the horizontal caves have calcite formations called stalagmites and stalactites. They formed little by little tens of thousands of years ago when sea levels dropped. Scientists can study these formations and map out the climate conditions present during every year of their growth.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Because blue holes contain no oxygen, they also protect ancient objects from the destruction of time. For example, divers in Sanctuary Blue Hole on the island of Andros in the Bahamas found the ancient bones of native Lucayan tribe members. Experts are not sure whether this tribe placed bodies in caves as part of burial ceremonies or for other reasons.

Animal remains are also preserved in excellent condition. Divers in Sawmill Sink on Abaco Island found the three-thousand-year-old remains of a Cuban crocodile. This kind of crocodile has long disappeared from the Bahamas. They also found some ancient turtle skeletons. They were so well preserved they still had pieces of soft tissue.

BARBARA KLEIN: The Bahamas may have more than a thousand blue holes. But only about two hundred have been discovered. This includes the world’s deepest known blue hole, called Dean’s Blue Hole on Long Island. It measures two hundred two meters in depth.

Kenny Broad and his team spent time talking with native Bahamians to ask them if they knew where the team could find other blue holes. He says younger generations are generally not aware of such caves. But their parents know about them and once used them.

KENNY BROAD: “What’s interesting, though, is that when you talk to these folks’ parents, they were keenly aware of these holes because they used them as their source for drinking water. They used them for all sorts of medicinal reasons. And now they are ignored, and in fact in lots of places we can’t even drink the water because of what goes into these holes.”

STEVE EMBER: Many blue holes have become areas where people throw away waste. But these actions are polluting an important source of fresh water. Part of Kenny Broad’s goal is to raise awareness about these underground areas so local communities will take better care in protecting them.

He says these caves and fresh water sources are not given much attention because they are hard to see.

Another threat these cave systems face is rising sea levels. As sea levels rise, the careful balance of chemistry and nature in these caves could be destroyed.

BARBARA KLEIN: Kenny Broad says these blue holes must be protected for several reasons. They are important for environmental and scientific discoveries. These caves also give a few explorers an extraordinary chance to see life in a beautiful and strange environment that is like no other on Earth.

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

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can see pictures of blue holes at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

"The Apollo 11 Moon Landing" from VOA

2012-05-22T18:22:00.002-07:00

I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Today we continue our history of the American space program with the flight of Apollo Eleven.

A rocket launch countdown. A common sound in the nineteen sixties. But this was not just another launch. It was the beginning of a historic event. It was the countdown for Apollo Eleven -- the space flight that would carry men to the first landing on the moon.

The ground shook at Cape Kennedy, Florida, the morning of July sixteenth, nineteen sixty-nine. The huge Saturn Five rocket moved slowly up into the sky. It rose perfectly. Someone on the launch crew spoke the words: "Good luck. And Godspeed."

In the spacecraft at the top of the speeding rocket were three American astronauts whose names soon would be known around the world: Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins.

Neil Armstrong was the commander of the spacecraft. He was a test pilot. He had flown earlier on one of the two-man Gemini space flights. Armstrong was a calm person, a man who talked very little.

Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was pilot of the moon lander vehicle. The astronauts gave it the name Eagle. Aldrin had flown on the last of the Gemini flights. He also was a quiet man, except when he talked about space.

Michael Collins was the pilot of the command module vehicle, Columbia. He also had made a Gemini flight. He would wait in orbit around the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin landed and explored the surface. Collins was very popular and always ready with a smile.

Two-and-one-half minutes after the Apollo Eleven launch, the first-stage rocket separated from the spacecraft. Twelve minutes later, the spacecraft reached orbit. Its speed was twenty-nine thousand kilometers an hour. Its orbit was one hundred sixty-five kilometers above the Earth.

This was the time for the crew to test all the spacecraft systems. Everything worked perfectly. So, the NASA flight director told them they were "go" for the moon. They fired the third-stage rocket. It increased the speed of the spacecraft to forty thousand kilometers an hour. This was fast enough to escape the pull of the Earth's gravity.

Apollo Eleven was on its way to the moon. In seventy-seven hours, if all went well, Apollo Eleven would be there.

Halfway to the moon, the astronauts broadcast a color television program to Earth.

The broadcast showed how the astronauts lived on the spacecraft. It showed their instruments, food storage, and details of how they moved and worked without gravity to give them weight.

The television broadcast also showed the Earth behind Apollo Eleven. And it showed the moon growing larger in the blackness ahead. As hours passed, the pull of the moon's gravity grew stronger. Near the moon, the astronauts fired rockets to slow the spacecraft enough to put it into moon orbit.

Apollo Eleven circled the moon while the crew prepared for the landing. Finally, spacecraft commander Armstrong and NASA flight controllers agreed it was time to separate the lander module Eagle from the command module Columbia.

Armstrong and Aldrin moved through the small opening between the two spacecraft. Then they moved Eagle away from Columbia. Armstrong reported: "The Eagle has wings!" The lunar module was ready. Men were about to land on the moon.

On Earth, all activity seemed to stop. President Richard Nixon gave federal government workers the day off to watch the moon landing on television. Around the world, five hundred million people watched the television report. Countless millions more listened on their radios.

Armstrong and Aldrin fired the lander rocket engine. The firing slowed the spacecraft and sent it down toward the landing place. It was in an area known as the Sea of Tranquility.

The lunar lander, controlled by a computer, dropped toward the airless surface of the moon. One hundred forty meters from the surface, the astronauts took control of the lander from the computer. They moved Eagle forward, away from a very rocky area that might have caused a difficult landing.

The voices of Aldrin and Armstrong could be heard in short messages.

EDWIN ALDRIN: "Forward. Forward. Good. Forty feet. Down two and a half. Kicking up some dust. Thirty feet. Two and a half down. Faint shadow. Four forward. Four forward. Drifting to the right a little. OK. Down a half.

MISSION CONTROL: "Thirty seconds …"

NEIL ARMSTRONG: "Forward drift?"

EDWIN ALDRIN: "Contact light. OK. Engine stop. "

Armstrong reported:

NEIL ARMSTRONG: "Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

NASA's plan had called for the astronauts to test instruments, eat and then rest for four hours before leaving the Eagle. But Armstrong and Aldrin asked to cancel the four-hour sleep period. They wanted to go out onto the moon as soon as they could get ready. NASA controllers agreed.

It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations for leaving the lander. It was difficult -- in Eagle's small space -- to get into space suits that would protect them on the moon's surface.

Finally, Armstrong and Aldrin were ready. They opened the door. Armstrong went out first and moved slowly down the ladder. At two hours fifty-six Greenwich Mean Time on July twentieth, nineteen sixty-nine, Neil Armstrong put his foot on the moon.

NEIL ARMSTRONG: "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind."

The world could see the history-making event on television. But the man who was closest to what was happening, Michael Collins, could only listen. He was orbiting the moon in the command module Columbia. It did not have a television receiver.

Armstrong moved carefully away from the Eagle. He left the cold, black shadow of the lander and stepped into the blinding white light of the sun. On Earth, all was quiet. No sound came from televisions or radios. No one felt able to talk about what was happening.

Armstrong began to describe what he saw: "The surface appears to be very, very fine grain, like a powder. I can kick it loosely with my toes. I can see footprints of my boots in the small, fine particles. No trouble to walk around."

Aldrin appeared on the ladder. Down he came, very slowly. Soon, both men were busy placing experiments to be left behind on the moon. They collected more than thirty kilograms of rock and soil to take back to Earth. They moved easily and quickly, because the moon's gravity is six times less than Earth's.

Hours passed. Too soon, it was time to return to the Eagle. Armstrong and Aldrin re-entered the lander. They rested for a while. Then they began to prepare to launch the lander for the return flight to the orbiting command module.

Listeners on Earth heard the countdown from Tranquility Base: "Three, two, one ... first stage engine on ascent. Proceed. Beautiful. Twenty-six ... thirty-six feet per second up. Very smooth, very quiet ride." Eagle was flying. Man had been on the moon for twenty-one and one-half hours.

Eagle moved into the orbit of the command module. It connected with Columbia. Armstrong and Aldrin rejoined Collins in the command ship. They separated from Eagle and said good-bye to it. The lander had done its job well.

Eight days after it started its voyage to the moon, Apollo Eleven splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Left behind on the moon were the footprints of Armstrong and Aldrin, an American flag and scientific equipment. Also left forever on the moon is a sign with these words:

"Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon -- July, nineteen sixty-nine A. D. We came in peace for all mankind. "

Our program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Shirley Griffith. And I'm Steve Ember.

"Mercury 13: Women in Space" from VOA

2012-05-07T19:49:00.003-07:00

STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a program in the nineteen sixties to train women as astronauts. Today they are known as the Mercury 13. They never reached their goal of spaceflight. But they led the way for other American women to travel into space.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen fifty-nine the United States was involved in a space race with the former Soviet Union. The Soviets had surprised the world by launching the first satellite. Sputnik One was launched into orbit on October fourth, nineteen fifty-seven. Suddenly, the United States appeared to be behind in an important area of technology.

As a result, President Dwight Eisenhower formed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in nineteen fifty-eight.

By April seventh, nineteen fifty-nine NASA introduced the first American astronauts. They were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Shirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton. They were known as the Mercury Seven.

BARBARA KLEIN: In the fall of that year, William Randolph Lovelace was attending a meeting of the Air Force Association in Miami, Florida. Doctor Lovelace was deeply involved in the effort to put Americans into space. He served on NASA's Special Committee on Life Sciences. Astronaut candidates had been put through tests at his medical center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Doctor Lovelace and Air Force Brigadier General Donald Flickinger wondered if women could be trained as astronauts. General Flickinger had designed the space flight tests for the astronaut candidates. He also knew that the Russians had plans to launch a woman into space.

The two men met with Jerrie Cobb, a twenty-eight year-old pilot. They thought Miz Cobb would make a good female astronaut candidate. They invited her to Doctor Lovelace's medical research center in Albuquerque for tests.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Jerrie Cobb went to Doctor Lovelace's medical center in February of nineteen sixty. She spent one week receiving the same series of tests that the Mercury Seven astronauts faced.

The tests included a general physical examination and X-rays. Some tests involved electric shock. Other tests pushed the body to its physical limits. Yet another test required freezing the inner ear with ice water to test for the condition of vertigo. The doctors also measured brain waves. They performed a total of seventy-five tests on Jerrie Cobb.

BARBARA KLEIN: Jerrie Cobb had one unusual test on a machine called the Multi-Axis Space Test Inertia Facility, or MASTIF. The MASTIF was in NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. This special machine could move a person in three different directions almost at the same time. It was designed to test a pilot's ability to control a spacecraft under severe conditions. Jerrie Cobb passed the test.

STEVE EMBER: During her tests, Jerrie Cobb knew that if she failed the first level of astronaut training no other women would be tested. By August, the results of the tests were complete. Doctor Lovelace was fully satisfied that Jerrie Cobb had scored similarly to the Mercury Seven astronauts. He even noted that Miz Cobb required less oxygen than the average male astronaut. Jerrie Cobb's success meant that more female candidates were needed for more tests.

BARBARA KLEIN: Jerrie Cobb helped Doctor Lovelace and General Flickinger chose female astronaut candidates. She searched among members of the international woman's aviation group, the Ninety-Nines, based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Miz Cobb worked hard to develop a list of good candidates by August, nineteen sixty-one. Twenty-five other women pilots were chosen and tested at Doctor Lovelace's research center. Candidates had to have flown an airplane for more than one thousand hours. Generally, they were required to be in their early thirties. And they had to be in good physical health.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Not all the women invited to Albuquerque passed Doctor Lovelace's tests. After the first level of testing only thirteen remained, including Jerrie Cobb. The youngest among them was twenty-one-year-old Wally Funk who was also a competitive skier. Forty-year-old Jane Hart was the oldest. She was married to Senator Philip Hart of Michigan. She also flew helicopters.

Other members of the group were Myrtle Cagle, twin sisters Jan and Marion Dietrich, Jean Hixson and Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen. Also included were Irene Leverton, Bernice Steadman, Sara Gorelick Ratley, Jerri Sloan Truhill and Rhea Hurrle Woltman.

These women would be known as the Mercury 13. They had passed the first level of tests that the Mercury Seven astronauts faced. They now wanted to progress to the next level.

BARBARA KLEIN: Not all the Mercury 13 women took the next level of testing. For the Mercury Seven male astronauts, psychological and space flight testing took place at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. However, NASA would not permit testing to be done on the women at that base.

Only Jerrie Cobb, Wally Funk and Rhea Woltman would receive special psychiatric testing for space fitness in Oklahoma City.

At the same time, Doctor Lovelace began plans for flight training the candidates. The United States Naval School of Aviation Medicine agreed to test Jerrie Cobb for ten days in Pensacola, Florida.

Jerrie Cobb passed a series of tests meant for Navy pilots and astronauts. She would be the only one of the Mercury 13 to successfully complete all the tests that Mercury Seven astronauts took. She would also be the only one who had the chance to do so.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Doctor Lovelace had made plans to test the other women in the group at Pensacola. After a delay, September eighteenth was chosen as the day for flight-testing to begin. But it never took place. The women received telegram messages saying the tests had been cancelled four days before they were to begin.

The Navy wanted NASA to approve the training. NASA resisted the idea. Jerrie Cobb and Jane Hart immediately tried to get the testing restarted. Their efforts led to a committee hearing in Congress. But the women found little support.

Astronaut John Glenn spoke to the committee. He said: "The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order." Glenn later said that he would not oppose a female astronaut program. But he saw no requirement for one.

BARBARA KLEIN: After two days of hearings, members of Congress had heard enough. They would do nothing to change NASA's decision not to train women for spaceflight.

But the answer about women in space came less than one year after those congressional hearings. On June sixteenth, nineteen sixty-three, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. She orbited the Earth forty-eight times and spent almost three days in space.

STEVE EMBER: The Mercury 13 women were never officially part of the NASA space program. But their willingness to undergo testing to be astronauts and their performance in those tests showed that women could go into space.

It was not until nineteen eighty-three that Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. Sixteen years later, Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a space shuttle mission. She invited the surviving members of the Mercury 13 to attend the launch. Seven women were able to attend.

On May twelfth, two thousand seven, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh also honored these women. The university gave honorary doctor of science degrees to the eight surviving members of the Mercury 13. The university said it was honoring the spirit and efforts of this special group of women.

BARBARA KLEIN: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

"George Gershwin, Part Two" from Voice of America

2012-04-07T08:07:00.018-07:00

Ira and George Gershwin

VOICE ONE:

I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we continue our report about the life and music of one of America's greatest composers, George Gershwin.

(MUSIC: "Rhapsody in Blue")

VOICE ONE:

As we reported last week, George Gershwin published his first song when he was just eighteen years old. During the next twenty years, until his death, he wrote more than five hundred more songs. He also wrote an opera, and music for piano and orchestra.

Many of George Gershwin's songs were first written for musical plays performed in theaters in New York City. These comedies, with plenty of songs, were a popular form of entertainment in the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties.

Ethel Merman
One of Gershwin's musical plays, "Girl Crazy," introduced a young singer named Ethel Merman. She became one of the most celebrated performers in America. In the play, Ethel Merman sang a song George Gershwin wrote just for her. It was called "I Got Rhythm. "

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Many songs that George Gershwin wrote for musical plays and movies have remained as popular as ever. Over the years, they have been sung and played in every possible way -- from jazz to country.

One example is the song, "Someone to Watch Over Me." It was written for the nineteen twenty-six musical "Oh, Kay!" Here is a modern version of the song, sung by Willie Nelson.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In the nineteen twenties, there was a debate in the United States about jazz music. Could jazz, some people asked, be considered serious music?

In nineteen twenty-four, jazz musician and orchestra leader Paul Whiteman decided to organize a special concert to show that jazz was serious music. George Gershwin agreed to compose something for the concert before he realized how little time he had to do it. The concert was just a few weeks away. Gershwin got busy. And, in that short time, he composed a piece for piano and orchestra. He called it "Rhapsody in Blue."

VOICE TWO:

Gershwin himself played the piano part of "Rhapsody in Blue" at the concert. The audience included some of the greatest classical musicians of the time. When they heard his music, they were electrified. It seemed to capture, for the first time, the true voice of modern American culture. Today, we can still hear Gershwin playing "Rhapsody in Blue." An old mechanical piano recording has been reproduced exactly on this recording.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

"Rhapsody in Blue" made George Gershwin famous all over the world. Several hundred thousand copies of the printed music sold immediately. Gershwin was satisfied that he had shown that jazz music could be both serious and popular.

Porgy and Bess

Gershwin also wrote an opera, "Porgy and Bess. " It was based on a book by DuBose Heyward. It is a tragic love story about black Americans along the coast of South Carolina.

"Porgy And Bess" opened in Boston, Massachusetts, in nineteen thirty-five. Audiences loved it. But most critics did not know what to think of it. It was not like any other opera or musical play they had ever seen.

Gershwin was not affected by the critics' opinions. He believed some of his greatest music had gone into the opera. He said he had created a new musical form -- an opera based on popular culture. Here is the song "Summertime" from a later production of "Porgy and Bess" in nineteen fifty-two. Leontyne Price, who played Bess, sings the song.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Another well-known Gershwin piece is "An American in Paris. " It is a long tone poem for orchestra. Its first public performance was by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in nineteen twenty-eight. Here is a modern recording from "An American in Paris."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Once again, opinion was mixed. Most people loved "An American in Paris," as they loved all of Gershwin's music. Some critics liked it, too. They called it happy and full of life. Others hated it. They called it silly and long-winded. Still, it remains one of his most popular works.

VOICE TWO:

An American in Paris

George Gershwin died in nineteen thirty-seven, just days after doctors learned he had brain cancer. He was only thirty-nine years old. Newspapers all over the world reported his death on their front pages. Everyone mourned the loss of the man and all the music he might have written. George Gershwin is still considered one of America's greatest composers. His works still are performed by many singers and groups. They are probably performed more often than any other serious American composer.

VOICE ONE:

Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg was one of the people who praised George Gershwin. Schoenberg said Gershwin was a man who lived in music and expressed everything through music, because music was his native language.

(MUSIC: "Rhapsody in Blue")

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1. George Gershwin wrote approximately this number of songs during his career:
a: one hundred
b: one hundred thousand
c: five hundred
d: five thousand

2. This singer, one of George Gershwin’s favorite performers, sang, “I Got Rhythm” ____________________ .
a: Willie Nelson
b: Nelson Mandela
c: Ethel Merman
d: Ethel Waters

3. George Gershwin collaborated with a jazz orchestra leader in a famous 1924 performance in New York City. This jazzman was _______________________ .
a: Paul Whiteman
b: Nikki Black
c: Ella Fitzgerald
d: Louis Armstrong

4. The song that Gershwin contributed to the 1924 New York City performance was called, ______________________ .
a: "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
b: “Beat It”
c: “Rhapsody in Blue”
d: “Call Me”

5. At this performance, George Gershwin accompanied many famous classical musicians of the day. Gershwin played ____________________ .
a: the accordion
b: the piano
c: the violin
d: the radio

6. “Porgy and Bess” is a fine example of ______________________ .
a: a musical comedy
b: an overture
c: an opera
d: beans and rice

7. The main characters of “Porgy and Bess,” which created a great controversy, were
a: dinosaurs from the center of the earth
b: African Americans from the Carolina Coast
c: George Washington and his wife Martha
d: Benito Mussolini and members of the Italian Fascist Party

8. Classical composer Arnold Schoenberg stated that George Gershwin’s native language was ______________________ .
a: music
b: Spanish
c: Yiddish
d: Esperanto

9. George Gershwin died in 1937 at the age of only 39 _______________________ .
a: of alcoholism
b: of a drug overdose
c: in an automobile accident
d: of brain cancer

10.George Gershwin’s musical creations were noted for their ____________________ .
a: originality
b: religious themes
c: extreme length
d: failures

Judy Garland sings "I Got Rhythm"

Days can be sunny, with never a sigh
Don't need what money can buy
Birds in the trees sing their day full of song
Why shouldn't we sing along?

I'm chipper all the day, happy with my lot
How do I get that way? Look at what I've got

I got rhythm, I got music
I got my man
Who could ask for anything more?
I got daisys, in green pastures
I got my man
Who could ask for anything more?

Old man trouble
I don't mind him
You won't find him 'round my door
I got starlight
I got sweet dreams
I got my man
Who could ask for anything more ?

Willie Nelson - "Someone to Watch Over Me"

There is somebody
I'm longing to see
I hope that she
Turns out to be
Someone who'll watch over me
I'm a little lamb
Who's lost in the wood
I know I could
Always be good
To one who'll watch over me
Although she may not be the girl
Some men think of
As pretty
To my heart
She carries the key
Won't you tell her please
To put on some speed
Follow my lead
Oh, how I need
Someone to watch over me
Although she may not be the girl
Some men think of
As pretty
To my heart
She carries the key
Won't you tell her please
To put on some speed
Follow my lead
Oh how I need
Someone to watch
Over me
Someone to watch
Over me

George Gershwin, Part One

"Civil War: Lincoln Frees The Slaves" from VOA

2012-01-08T19:20:00.000-08:00

By torchlight, a union soldier reads The Emancipation
Proclamation to slaves about to be freed

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.

The Civil War began in 1861 as a struggle over the right of states to leave the Union. President Abraham Lincoln firmly believed that a state did not have that right. And he declared war on the southern states that tried to leave.

Lincoln had only one reason to fight: to save the Union. In time, however, there was another reason to fight: to free the black people held as slaves in the South.

Today, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe continue the story of how President Lincoln dealt with this issue.

Lincoln had tried to keep the issue of slavery out of the war. He feared it would weaken the northern war effort. Many men throughout the North would fight to save the Union. They would not fight to free the slaves.

Lincoln also needed the support of the four slave states that had not left the Union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri. He could not be sure of their support if he declared that the purpose of the war was to free the slaves.

Lincoln was able to follow this policy, at first. But the war to save the Union was going badly. The North had not won a decisive victory in Virginia, the heart of the Confederacy.

To guarantee continued support for the war, Lincoln was forced to recognize that the issue of slavery was, in fact, a major issue. And on September twenty-second, 1862, he announced a new policy on slavery in the rebel southern states. His announcement became known as the Emancipation Proclamation.

American newspapers printed the proclamation. This is what it said:

Lincoln writing a draft of
The Emancipation Proclamation

I, Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States and commander in chief of the Army and Navy, do hereby declare that on the first day of January, 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state then in rebellion against the United States, shall then become and be forever free.

The government of the United States, including the military and naval forces, will recognize and protect the freedom of such persons, and will interfere in no way with any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

For political reasons, the proclamation did not free slaves in the states that supported the Union. Nor did it free slaves in the areas around Norfolk, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Most anti-slavery leaders praised the Emancipation Proclamation. They had waited a long time for such a document.

But some did not like it. They said it did not go far enough. It did not free all of the slaves in the United States, only those held by the rebels.

Lincoln answered that the Emancipation Proclamation was a military measure. He said he made it under his wartime powers as commander in chief. As such, it was legal only in enemy territory.

Lincoln agreed that all slaves should be freed. It was his personal opinion. But he did not believe that the Constitution gave him the power to free all the slaves. He hoped that could be done slowly, during peacetime.

Lincoln's new policy on slavery was welcomed warmly by the people of Europe. It won special praise in Britain.

The British people were deeply concerned about the Civil War in America. The United States navy had blocked southern exports of cotton. The British textile industry -- which depended on this cotton -- was almost dead. Factories were closed. Hundreds of thousands of people were out of work.

The British government watched and worried as the war continued month after month. Finally, late in the summer of 1862, British leaders said the time had come for them to intervene. They would try to help settle the American dispute.

Britain would propose a peace agreement based on northern recognition of southern rights. If the North rejected the agreement, Britain would recognize the Confederacy.

Emancipation Proclamation Broadside

Then came the news that President Lincoln was freeing the slaves of the South. Suddenly, the Civil War was a different war.

No longer was it a struggle over southern rights. Now it was a struggle for human freedom.

The British people strongly opposed slavery. When they heard that the slaves would be freed, they gave their support immediately to President Lincoln and the North. Britain's peace proposals were never offered.

The Emancipation Proclamation had cost the South the recognition of Britain and France.

The South was furious over the proclamation. Southern newspapers attacked Lincoln. They accused him of trying to create a slave rebellion in states he could not occupy with troops. They also said the proclamation was an invitation for Negroes to murder whites.

The Confederate Congress debated several resolutions to fight Lincoln's proclamation.

One resolution would make slaves of all Negro soldiers captured from the Union army. Another called for the execution of white officers who led black troops. Some southern lawmakers even proposed the death sentence for anyone who spoke against slavery.

In the North, most people cheered the new policy on slaves. Some, however, opposed it. They said the policy would cause the slave states of the Union to secede. Those states would join the Confederacy. Or, they said, it would cause freed slaves to move north and take away jobs from whites.

There also was another reason. Eighteen sixty-two was a congressional election year. The Democratic Party was the opposition party at that time. Party leaders believed their candidates would have a better chance of winning if they opposed the policy.

Democrats said the policy was proof that anti-slavery extremists were in control of the government.

First reading of The
Emancipation Proclamation

As we said, Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation on September twenty-second, 1862. But Lincoln said he would not sign the proclamation until the first day of 1863.

That gave the southern states one hundred days to end their rebellion, or face the destruction of slavery.

Some people thought Lincoln would withdraw the proclamation at the last minute. They did not believe he would sign a measure that was so extreme. They said the new policy would only make the South fight harder. And, as a result, the Civil War would last longer.

Others charged that the proclamation was illegal. They said the Constitution did not give the president the power to violate the property rights of citizens.

Lincoln answered the charges. He said:

I think the Constitution gives the commander in chief special powers under the laws of war. The most that can be said -- if so much -- is that slaves are property. Is there any question that, by the laws of war, property -- both of enemies and friends -- may be taken when needed.

Just before the first of the year, a congressman asked the president if he still planned to sign the Emancipation Proclamation.

"My mind is made up," Lincoln answered. "It must be done. I am driven to it. There is no other way out of our troubles. But although my duty is clear, it is in some way painful. I hope that the people will understand that I act not in anger, but in expectation of a greater good."

The morning of New Year's Day was a busy time for Lincoln. It was a tradition to open the White House on that day so the president could wish visitors a happy new year.

After the last visitor had gone, Lincoln went to his office. He started to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Then he stopped. He said:

"I never, in all my life, felt more sure that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper. But I have been shaking hands all day, until my arm is tired. When people examine this document, they will say, 'He was not sure about that.' But anyway, it is going to be done."

With those words, he wrote his name at the bottom of the paper. He had issued one of the greatest documents in American history. We will continue our story of the Civil War next week.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. The Civil War began in 1861 because southern states wanted _____________________________ .
a: to keep slavery legal
b: to separate from the rest of the United States
c: to impose slavery on northern states
d: to stop opposition to slavery in northern states

2. The Emancipation Proclamation stated that ___________________ .
a: all slaves were to be freed
b: all slaves living in the north were to be freed
c: all slaves living in rebel territory were to be freed
d: all slaves living in states that supported the Union were to be freed

3. In the sentence, "The South was furious over the proclamation", "furious" means__________________ .
a: angry
b: accepting
c: sad
d: anxious

4. The Confederacy refers to ________________________ .
a: the association of southern states in rebellion against the Union
b: the army engaged in the battle with the North
c: all of the slave holding states in the country
d: the economic contract between the southern states and Great Britain

5. Britain didn't like the Civil War because _____________________ .
a: It was a peaceful country
b: It needed the cotton grown in the south for its textile industry
c: The Civil War meant few American tourists
d: too many British soldiers volunteered to fight for the North

6. The Emancipation Proclamation was not _____________________ .
a: opposed by any northerners
b: welcome news in Great Britain
c: a very important document
d: easy for President Lincoln to sign

7. President Lincoln tried to keep the slavery issue out of the war because ____________________ .
a: he didn't believe slavery was wrong
b: he feared many Union soldiers wouldn't fight to free slaves
c: he didn't want to destroy the economy of the south
d: he didn't want to complicate the real purpose of the war

8. The country learned of the Emancipation Proclamation from ________________
a: the telegraph
b: the telephone
c: newspapers
d: messengers on horseback

9. It was President Lincoln's personal opinion that ____________________ .
a: only some slaves should be freed
b: only the slaves that were held as property should be freed
c: all slaves should be freed
d: all slaves should be freed except African American slaves

10. Britain gave total support to President Lincoln after ___________________ .
a: he declared war on the south
b: he won his first battle
c: he signed the Emancipation Proclamation
d: he agreed to recognize southern rights

National Geographic Retelling of the Emancipation Drama.(A short ad at the beginning)

"Phillis Wheatley, First Black Poet" from VOA.

2011-12-17T21:14:00.000-08:00

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I'm Shirley Griffith.

RAY FREEMAN: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States.
This week we tell about Phillis Wheatley, the first black female poet in the United States.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The girl who became known as Phillis Wheatley was born about seventeen fifty-three in Senegal, Africa. She was kidnapped and brought to the New England colonies in North America on a ship that carried slaves. The ship's name was Phillis.

The girl was between seven and eight years old. She was weak and sickly. So her price was not very high. She was sold in a slave market in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, in August seventeen sixty-one. John Wheatley, an international businessman, bought her to serve his wife, Susannah.

RAY FREEMAN: Phillis came from a culture that was very different from that of the Wheatleys. She found the food, customs and beliefs to be new and strange. The other slaves in the house taught her many things about America.

Phillis quickly learned the rules of slavery. She learned that slaves could not beat drums because slave owners feared that secret messages were being passed to slaves on other farms. She learned that in Southern states it was a crime to teach a slave to read and write.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In Northern states in the seventeen hundreds, black slaves were treated better than they were in the Southern states. Restrictions against the education of slaves were not as severe as they were in the South. Many of the slaves in New England were even urged to learn to read, especially the Bible, the major book of the Christian religion. Many people thought that slaves should read the Bible so they could become better believers ofthe Christian religion.

Phillis Wheatley had fewer restrictions than most slaves Phillis Wheatley had fewer restrictions than most slaves

In New England, blacks were free to meet with each other in groups. Many times male slaves were accepted as members of the community for special projects. These included gatherings to clean corn or to build a farm house. Female slaves cooked for the groups.

RAY FREEMAN: From her earliest days as a slave, Phillis was a happy, busy person. She liked to keep busy. She especially liked to do things with her hands. She quickly learned how to clean around the Wheatley house and how to do the dishes. But her mind seemed to move even faster than her hands. She wanted to do everything.

Phillis's new family had unusual beliefs for the times. John Wheatley and his wife were educated people. Susannah Wheatley believed that all human beings, including African slaves, could learn if given the chance. She believed that all people, of any skin color, should love and respect each other. She treated Phillis more as a daughter than as a slave. Mr. Wheatley said, "You're my black child. You're my Phillis."

Susannah Wheatley soon recognized Phillis's intelligence and desire to learn. Mr. Wheatley observed how Phillis loved books and the care she took with them. At times, Phillis would smell the pages of the books and hold them close to her.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: One day, one of the slaves in the Wheatley home found Phillis writing on the wall of Mr. Wheatley's room with a piece of coal. Phillis had been cleaning the dust from a book. She decided to copy the letters from the cover of the book. The slave brought Mr. Wheatley to inspect the marks on the wall. But Susannah Wheatley did not get angry. Instead, she smiled.

Mr. Wheatley gave Phillis a pencil and paper and a little table on which to write. She showed the writing on the wall to her daughter Mary. Mary was as surprised as her mother at how well Phillis had copied the letters. Mary told Phillis she would teach her to write -- on paper, not on walls.

RAY FREEMAN: Mary Wheatley began to teach Phillis to read and write English. She also taught Phillis the Christian religion. Phillis learned quickly. She learned the English alphabet in a few weeks. In a year and one-half after she arrived in America, Phillis could read English. And she could read and understand difficult parts of the Bible.

Phillis loved to learn new words. She enjoyed the new feelings that went with the sounds. She especially liked writing and creating new ways of saying things.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Mary taught Phillis about writings from other countries. America was a young nation. It had not yet produced writers and poets like older nations.

So Phillis studied the writings of European writers. She read the work of the Greek poet Homer, the English poets Keats and Pope, and the plays and poetry of Shakespeare. She read and re-read the Bible.

Phillis was about twelve years old when she began to write poetry. One of her earliest poems was about her religious faith. It questioned how a person could not believe in God:

"Thou who dost daily feel his hand, and rod

Darest thou deny the essence of a God!

If ther's no heav'n, ah! Whither wilt thou go. ... "

RAY FREEMAN: Phillis Wheatley's first major work was "An Elegiac Poem on the Death of the Celebrated Divine." It was published in seventeen seventy. Phillis wrote the long poem to honor a famous clergyman who had died.

Wheatley's "Memoirs and Poems" was published in 1834Wheatley's "Memoirs and Poems" was published in 1834

Phillis wrote mostly about religion and morals. Many of her poems were created at the request of someone to honor a family member who had died. Her poems are representative of the times. They expressed common reactions to personal events such as deaths or marriages. Or they honored public events such as battles.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Phillis had an unusual life for a slave. Mr. Wheatley had stopped having Phillis do house cleaning jobs. She made sure Phillis had time to study and to visit the family friends. But Phillis was not permitted to make friends with other uneducated slaves. So she remained separate from both white and black worlds. While she was considered above the other black slaves, she was never considered an equal of white slave owners.

One time she was invited to dinner in the home of one of Mr. Wheatley's relations. The servants said that it was the first time they ever carried food to a woman with skin their color. But Phillis usually sat at a table separate from the white people at a dinner party.

RAY FREEMAN: Phillis Wheatley became famous in Europe as well as in America. She travelled to London in seventeen seventy-three and gave poetry readings there. She was twenty years old. The writings of the young slave from Africa surprised everyone.

During her visit in London, she was to have been presented to King George the third. But she received urgent news from America. Mr. Wheatley was very sick and had asked that Phillis return to Boston. Phillis returned home quickly.

That meant she missed the publication in London of her book poems on various subjects, religious and moral. It contained thirty-eight of her poems. It was the first published book written by a black person in America. And it was only the second book written by an American woman.

Newspapers in London highly praised her poems. Her book sold very well there and later in America.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Phillis Wheatley had one more brief period of being famous. In seventeen seventy-five, she wrote a poem about George Washington. He had become commander of the Colonial forces in the American revolution. The poem was called "His Excellency General Washington." It called Washington "first in peace and honors." She sent her poem to him.

Some time later, she was invited to visit George Washington in his headquarters. It was an unusual visit between a black woman poet and a military commander.

RAY FREEMAN: Phillis took care of Susannah during her long final sickness. When Mr. Wheatley died in March seventeen seventy-four, Phillis wrote that she had lost a friend and parent.

After Susannah's death, Phillis was freed by the Wheatley family. But her life became more difficult.

She married John Peters, a free black man. He failed in many business attempts. Their three children died at a very young age.

Phillis tried to publish another book of her poems. But now that she was free, she had lost her appeal as a slave poet. Phillis Wheatley died poor and alone in seventeen eighty-four. She was thirty-one years old.

(MUSIC)

RAY FREEMAN: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

"The Second Continental Congress" from VOA.

2011-11-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

This is Rich Kleinfeldt. And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late 1700s.

Battles had been fought between Massachusetts soldiers and British military forces in the towns of Lexington and Concord. Yet, war had not been declared. Even so, citizen soldiers in each of the thirteen American colonies were ready to fight.

George Washington

This was the first question faced by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Who was going to organize these men into an army? Delegates to the Congress decided that the man for the job was George Washington. He had experience fighting in the French and Indian War. He was thought to know more than any other colonist about being a military commander. Washington accepted the position. But he said he would not take any money for leading the new Continental Army. Washington left Philadelphia for Boston to take command of the soldiers there.

Delegates to the Second Continental Congress made one more attempt to prevent war with Britain. They sent another message to King George. They asked him to consider their problems and try to find a solution. The king would not even read the message.

You may wonder: Why would the delegates try to prevent war if the people were ready to fight? The answer is that most members of the Congress -- and most of the colonists -- were not yet ready to break away from Britain. They continued to believe they could have greater self-government and still be part of the British Empire. But that was not to be.

Two days after the Congress appointed George Washington as army commander, colonists and British troops fought the first major battle of the American Revolution. It was called the Battle of Bunker Hill, although it really involved two hills: Bunker and Breed's. Both are just across the Charles River from the city of Boston.

Massachusetts soldiers dug positions on Breed's Hill one night in June, 1775. By morning, the hill was filled with troops. The British started to attack from across the river. The Americans had very little gunpowder. They were forced to wait until the British had crossed the river and were almost on top of them before they fired their guns. Their commander reportedly told them: Do not fire until you see the whites of the British soldiers' eyes.

The British climbed the hill. The Americans fired. A second group climbed the hill. The Americans fired again. The third time, the British reached the top, but the Americans were gone. They had left because they had no more gunpowder. The British captured Breed's Hill. More than one thousand had been killed or wounded in the attempt. The Americans lost about four hundred.

That battle greatly reduced whatever hope was left for a negotiated settlement. King George declared the colonies to be in open rebellion. And the Continental Congress approved a declaration condemning everything the British had done since 1763.

The American colonists fought several battles against British troops during 1775. Yet the colonies were still not ready to declare war. Then, the following year, the British decided to use Hessian soldiers to fight against the colonists. Hessians were mostly German mercenaries who fought for anyone who paid them. The colonists feared these soldiers and hated Britain for using them.

Thomas Paine

At about the same time, Thomas Paine published a little document that had a great effect on the citizens of America. He named it, "Common Sense." It attacked King George, as well as the idea of government by kings. It called for independence.

About one hundred fifty thousand copies of "Common Sense" were sold in America. Everyone talked about it. As a result, the Continental Congress began to act. It opened American ports to foreign shipping. It urged colonists to establish state governments and to write constitutions. On June seventh, delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a resolution for independence.

The resolution was not approved immediately. Declaring independence was an extremely serious step. Signing such a document would make delegates to the Continental Congress traitors to Britain. They would be killed if captured by the British.

Thomas Jefferson

The delegates wanted the world to understand what they were doing, and why. So they appointed a committee to write a document giving the reasons for their actions. One member of the committee was the Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. He had already written a report criticizing the British form of government. So the other committee members asked him to prepare the new document. They said he was the best writer in the group. They were right. It took him seventeen days to complete the document that the delegates approved on July fourth, 1776. It was America's Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson's document was divided into two parts. The first part explained the right of any people to revolt. It also described the ideas the Americans used to create a new, republican form of government. The Declaration of Independence begins this way:

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Jefferson continued by saying that all people are equal in the eyes of God. Therefore, governments can exist only by permission of the people they govern. He wrote:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

The next part states why the American colonies decided to separate from Britain:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it.

This is why the Americans were rebelling against England. The British believed the Americans were violating their law. Jefferson rejected this idea. He claimed that the British treatment of the American colonies violated the natural laws of God. He and others believed a natural law exists that is more powerful than a king.

The idea of a natural law had been developed by British and French philosophers more than one hundred years earlier. Jefferson had studied these philosophers in school. In later years, however, he said he did not re-read these ideas while he was writing the Declaration. He said the words came straight from his heart.

The second part of the Declaration lists twenty-seven complaints by the American colonies against the British government. The major ones concerned British taxes on Americans and the presence of British troops in the colonies. After the list of complaints, Jefferson wrote this strong statement of independence:

King George III

That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States they have the full Power to levy War, conduct Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

The last statement of the Declaration of Independence was meant to influence the delegates into giving strong support for that most serious step -- revolution:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Shep O’Neal read the Declaration of Independence. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

I must add to this history the fact that, in large part, the Declaration of Independence was necessary for the colonies to get the support of the French. The French would not have supported the revolution without that document. Without French support, the revolution would have failed.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. Delegates at the Second Continental Congress wanted to avoid war with England because _____________________.
a: they were afraid the colonists would lose a war with England
b: many of them were not ready to break ties with England
c: the colonists were not prepared to fight
d: the delegates were not able to choose a military leader for the colonial soldiers

2. The battles of Lexington and Concord were fought ________________ .
a: before war was declared with England
b: after war was declared with England
c: between Massachusetts and New York
d: while the delegates of the Second Continental Congress were meeting

3. The first battle of the Revolutionary War was _________________ .
a: the battle of Lexington
b: the battle of Concord
c: the Boston Massacre
d: the battle of Bunker Hill

4. In the battle of Bunker Hill, the main problem for the colonists was _____________ .
a: their lack of ammunition
b: their lack of training, preparedness, skill
c: their inferior position on the battlefield
d: the weather was against them

5. The first thing George Washington did when he was appointed commander of the colonial army was _________________________ .
a: negotiate his salary
b: return to his home to plan strategy
c: go to Boston to command the colonial troops about to fight the British
d: meet with other generals in New York

6. The Second Continental Congress chose Thomas Jefferson to write The Declaration of Independence because _____________________ .
a: he wanted to write more than the other delegates
b: he was an excellent writer
c: he understood the theory of natural law
d: he was a candidate for president

7. Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" _____________________ .
a: wasn't very popular
b: was a book about how to live better and be happier
c: had no effect on the decisions of The Continental Congress
d: attacked the idea of governments ruled by kings

8. The meaning of "unalienable rights" is _____________________ .
a: the right to start and conduct a revolution
b: rights that are intrinsic and cannot be taken away by governments or anyone else
c: rights that are limited to certain number specified in law
d: rights that are good as long as a person reside in his/her colony

9. Another name for this article could be ___________________ .
a: "The Declaration of Independence"
b: "The American Colonies Prepare for Revolution"
c: "Decisions and Discussions in the Second Continental Congress and The First Battle"
d: "The Battle of Bunker Hill"

10. This article is mainly about ____________________ .
a: the Second Continental Congress's response to the events at Concord and Lexington and its results
b: how George Washington became commander of the colonial army
c: the effect of Thomas Paine's book on the decisions of the Second Continental Congress
d: how French and British philosophy influenced Thomas Jefferson

The Battles of Bunker and Breed Hills from Youtube:

Diego Rivera, The People's Artist

2011-09-23T19:25:00.006-07:00

Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato, Mexico in 1886. He began to be interested in art at age ten. He studied art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City. In 1907, he moved to Europe. First, he studied in Spain for two years. There, he studied with Eduardo Chicharro in Madrid. He spent most of the next fourteen years in Paris where he encountered the works of such great masters as Cézanne, Gauguin, Renoir, and Matisse.
Around 1917, inspired by Paul Cézanne's paintings, Rivera shifted toward Post-Impressionism with simple forms and large patches of vivid colors. His paintings began to attract attention, and he was able to display them at several exhibitions. However, he felt that his own paintings of that period were only enjoyed by the well-educated who could afford to buy them for their homes. Rivera believed that art should be enjoyed by everyone, especially the poor and working class people. So, Rivera searched for a new form of painting, one that could express the complexities of his day and still reach a wide audience. It was not until he began to study the Renaissance frescoes of Italy that he found his medium. These frescoes were often painted on the walls of churches so that everyone in the towns could enjoy and appreciate them. It was with a vision of the future of the fresco and with a strong belief in public art that Rivera returned to Mexico. "Mujeres Tehuanas", 1923 From "The Political Vision of the Mexican People"
Frescoes are mural paintings done on fresh plaster. Using the fresco form in universities and other public buildings, Rivera was able to introduce his work into the everyday lives of the people. Rivera concerned himself primarily with the physical process of human development and the effects of technological progress. For him, the frescoes’ size and public accessibility was the perfect canvas on which to illustrate the grand themes of the history and future of humanity. In the autumn of 1922, Rivera participated in the founding of the Revolutionary Union of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors, and later that year he joined the Mexican Communist Party. His murals, subsequently painted in fresco only, dealt with Mexican society and reflected the country's 1910 Revolution. A life long Marxist, Rivera saw in this medium something more relevant and lasting than the elite walls of galleries and museums. Throughout the twenties his fame grew with a number of large murals depicting scenes from Mexican history. His work appealed to the people’s interest in the history of technology and progress. The desire to understand progress was visible in the growing industrial societies of the 1930s, and Rivera saw the workers’ struggle as a courageous stand against exploitation by factory owners whose focus was more on profit than the welfare of workers. "The Sugar Mill" (El Trapiche)
Diego Rivera once said, “An artist is above all a human being, profoundly human to the core. If the artist can’t feel everything that humanity feels, if the artist isn’t capable of loving until he forgets himself and sacrifices himself if necessary, if he won’t put down his magic brush and head the fight against the oppressor, then he isn’t a great artist.” Diego Rivera is considered the greatest Mexican painter of the twentieth century. He had a profound effect on the international art world. Among his many contributions, Rivera is credited with the reintroduction of fresco painting into modern art and architecture. His radical political views deeply influenced his art, and made a strong impact. "Me and My Parrots" by Frida Kahlo
His tempestuous romance with the painter Frida Kahlo was an interesting story that people followed. Frida Kahlo wanted to be Diego Rivera’s lover for a long time. However, she had a serious accident, and couldn’t follow her desire to meet him. Finally, when she recovered, she approached him. Diego Rivera met Frieda Kahlo in 1928. She showed him a painting. She wanted to know if she had a future as an artist. They became very close and fell in love. But after they married in 1929, he continued to see other women, and she continued to see other men. They divorced in 1940, but remarried the same year. In a series of visits to America, from 1930 to 1940, Rivera brought his unique vision to public spaces and galleries, enlightening and inspiring not only artists, but everyone who saw his work. In 1930, Rivera made the first of a series of trips that would alter the course of American painting. In November of that year, Rivera began work on his first two major American commissions: for the American Stock Exchange Luncheon Club and for the California School of Fine Arts. These two pieces incorporated Rivera’s radical politics, while also recording history simply and graphically. During his first two commissions in San Francisco in 1930-1931, Rivera and his wife, artist Frida Kahlo, were extremely well-received. Rivera was quite pleased, therefore, to return to San Francisco in 1940 to execute the Pan American Unity mural for the Golden Gate International Exposition. This work represented a culmination of hundreds of murals painted for the public, and also demonstrated his affectionate relationship with San Francisco. "Indian Metallurgy" from the Pan American Unity Mural
The Pan American Unity Mural is now located at the Diego Rivera Theater at the City College of San Francisco, Ocean Campus. In this mural, Diego Rivera unites figures from Mexican mythology and the culture of industrialism. He wanted to bring the North and South together in this art, both Mexican and North American. He wanted to show both the North American talent for making and using machinery and the southern art, which he called “the art of the emotions.”  One of Rivera’s greatest gifts was his ability to condense a complex historical subject (such as the history of California’s natural resources) down to its most essential parts. For Rivera, the foundation of history could be seen in the working class, whose lives were spent by war and industry in the name of progress. In these first two commissions and all of the American murals to follow, Rivera would investigate the struggles of the working class. Rivera believed that art should play a role in empowering working people to understand their own histories. "Detroit Industry Mural", 1932
In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, Rivera arrived in Detroit, where, at the invitation of Henry Ford, he began a tribute to the American worker on the walls of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Completed in 1933, the piece depicted industrial life in the United States, concentrating on the car plant workers of Detroit. Rivera’s radical politics and independent nature had begun to draw criticism during his early years in America. Though the fresco was the focus of much controversy, Edsel Ford, Henry’s son, defended the work and it remains today Rivera’s most significant painting in America. Rivera, however, was not very popular with the wealthy Rockefellers in New York City. "Man at the Crossroads"
In 1933 the Rockefellers commissioned Rivera to paint a mural for the lobby of the RCA building in Rockefeller Center. “Man at the Crossroads” was to depict the social, political, industrial, and scientific possibilities of the twentieth century. In the painting, Rivera included a scene of a giant May Day demonstration of workers marching with red banners. It was not the subject matter of the panel that made the Rockerfellers angry, but the clear portrait of Vladamir Lenin, the Russian revolutionary leader of the Soviet Union, leading the demonstration. When Rivera refused to remove the portrait, he was ordered to stop and the painting was destroyed. That same year, Rivera used the money from the Rockefellers to create a mural for the Independent Labor Institute that had Vladamir Lenin as its central figure. Coit Tower Mural Detail
Rivera remained a central force in the development of a national art in Mexico throughout his life. In 1957, at the age of seventy, Rivera died in Mexico City. Perhaps one his greatest legacies, however, was his impact on America’s conception of public art. In depicting scenes of American life on public buildings, Rivera provided the first inspiration for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s WPA program. Of the hundreds of American artists who would find work through the WPA, many continued on to address political concerns that had first been publicly presented by Rivera. In addition to being a celebrated and controversial artist, Diego Rivera was also a provocative political activist who incited debate not only in Mexico, but also in the USA and Soviet Union. Since his death, his hundreds of public artworks, his many oils and watercolors, and his political daring continue to contribute greatly to the development of public art across the Americas.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. The wealthy Rockerfellers of New York City didn't like "Man at the Crossroads" because _________________ .
a: it didn't use the fresco style
b: it depicted a Communist Revolutionary
c: it wasn't Rivera's best work
d: it contained an offensive demonstration against capitalism

2. Diego Rivera's relationship with Frido Kahlo has been described as ______________ .
a: loyal and devoted
b: balanced and peaceful
c: tempestuous and uneven
d: cold and distant

3. In the "Detroit Industrial Mural", Diego Rivera celebrates ________________ .
a: Midwest agriculture
b: workers in the auto industry
c: progress and technology of Detroit engineers
d: native Americans in the working class

4. In his public art, Diego Rivera drew most of his inspiration from ______________ .
a: Renaissance Frescoes
b: Paul Cezanne
c: Post Impressionism
d: Mexican History

5. In the Diego Rivera Theater at City College of San Francisco, you can view Rivera's famous mural: " __________________________ ".
a: Man at the Crossroads
b: Me and My Parrots
c: Pan American Unity
d: Indian Metallurgy

6. Diego Rivera believed that one could not be a great artist if he or she ______________ .
a: didn't spend 12 hours a day working on one's craft
b: only exhibited works in elite galleries
c: didn't engage in tempestuous relationships with the opposite sex
d: didn't fight to overcome oppression of working people and the poor

7. People who intensely disliked Diego Rivera's work were mostly ________________ .
a: the upper class, the wealthy, and the privileged
b: aspiring artists
c: laborers in fields and factories
d: experimental painters and impressionists

8. Diego Rivera firmly believed that art _____________________ .
a: should be only for the privileged and well-educated
b: should be only large murals and frescoes
c: should be made available for everyone
d: should be so popular that the artist could name his price

9. Another name for this article could be, " _________________ ".
a: Diego Rivera's Career and Legacy
b: Diego Rivera's Influence in Russian and Mexico
c: Diego Rivera's Romance with Frida Kahlo
d: What Diego Rivera Learned from French Artists

10. This article is mainly about ______________________ .
a: how Diego Rivera discovered his artistic methods
b: the ways in which Diego Rivera's radical politics affected his art work
c: the amazing range of styles Diego Rivera explored in his lifetime
d: a great and compassionate Mexican muralist and his continuing influence today

Youtube videos showing the work of Diego Rivera:

Jesse Owens. He Was Fast On His Feet. (You better believe it.)

2011-08-28T18:40:00.000-07:00

GWEN OUTEN: This is Gwen Outen.

STEVE EMBER: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today we tell the story of athlete Jesse Owens. He once was the fastest runner in the world.

(MUSIC)

GWEN OUTEN: In the summer of nineteen thirty-six, people all over the world heard the name of Jesse Owens. That summer, Owens joined the best athletes from fifty nations to compete in the Olympic games. They met in Berlin, Germany. There was special interest in the Olympic games that year.

Gottfried von Cramm,
German tennis star

Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany. Hitler and his Nazi party believed that white people -- especially German people – were the best race of people on Earth. They believed that other races of people -- especially those with dark skin -- were almost less than human.

In the summer of nineteen thirty-six, Hitler wanted to prove his beliefs to the world. He wanted to show that German athletes could win every important competition. After all, only a few weeks before the Olympics, German boxer Max Schmeling had defeated the great American heavyweight Joe Louis, a black man.

STEVE EMBER: Jesse Owens was black, too. Until nineteen thirty-six, very few black athletes had competed in the Olympics for the United States. Owens was proud to be on the team. He was very sure of his ability.

JESSE OWENS: “I think that this week is very sufficient for the boys on the United States Olympic team for the simple reason because we have been through a series of preliminary events in our country. And the training here that we are getting here is just a little tune-up for the Olympic games. Our hard training is really over. And the rain here is something that is going to help our team quite a bit because some of the boys has a tendency to work a little bit too hard. And I think that the rain is doing a good to slack up the training a bit.”

(1936 interview with Jesse Owens for German radio, from archive.org)

STEVE EMBER: Owens spent one week competing in four different Olympic track and field events in Berlin. During that time, he did not think much about the color of his skin, or about Adolf Hitler.

Owens said later: "I was looking only at the finish line. I thought of all the years of practice and competition, and of all who believed in me."

GWEN OUTEN: We do not know what Hitler thought of Jesse Owens. No one recorded what he said about this black man who ran faster and jumped farther than any man of any color at the Olympic games. But we can still see Jesse Owens as Hitler saw him. For at Hitler's request, motion pictures were made of the Berlin Olympic games.

The films show Jesse Owens as a thin, but powerfully-built young man with smooth brown skin and short hair. When he ran, he seemed to move without effort. When he jumped, as one observer said, he seemed to jump clear out of Germany.

Jesse Owens won the highest award -- the Gold Medal -- in all four of the Olympic competitions he entered. In the one-hundred meter run, he equaled the fastest time ever run in that Olympic event. In the long jump and the two-hundred meter run, he set new Olympic records. And as part of a four-man team, he helped set a new world record for the four-hundred meter relay race. He was the first American in the history of Olympic track and field events to win four Gold Medals in a single Olympics.

STEVE EMBER: Owens' Olympic victories made him a hero. He returned home to parades in New York City and Columbus, Ohio, where he attended the state university. Businessmen paid him for the right to use his name on their stores. No one, however, offered him a permanent job.

For many years after the nineteen thirty-six Olympic games, Jesse Owens survived as best he could. He worked at small jobs. He even used his athletic abilities, but in a sad way. He earned money by running races against people, motorcycles and horses. He and his wife and three daughters saw both good times and bad times.

(MUSIC)

GWEN OUTEN: Poverty was not new to James Cleveland Owens. He was born in nineteen thirteen on a farm in the southern state of Alabama. He was the youngest of thirteen children. His parents did not own the farm, and earned little money. Jesse remembered that there was rarely enough food to eat. And there was not enough fuel to heat the house in winter.

Some of Jesse’s brothers and sisters died while still young. Jesse was a sickly child. Partly because of this, and partly because of the racial hatred they saw around them, Jesse’s parents decided to leave the South. They moved north, to Cleveland, Ohio, when Jesse was eight years old. The large family lived in a few small rooms in a part of the city that was neither friendly nor pleasant to look at.

Jesse’s father was no longer young or strong. He was unable to find a good job. Most of the time, no one would give him any work at all. But Jesse’s older brothers were able to get jobs in factories. So life was a little better than it had been in the South.

STEVE EMBER: Jesse, especially, was lucky. He entered a school where one white teacher, Charles Riley, took a special interest in him. Jesse looked thin and unhealthy, and Riley wanted to make him stronger. Through the years that Jesse was in school, Riley brought him food in the morning. Riley often invited the boy to eat with his family in the evening. And every day before school, he taught Owens how to run like an athlete.

At first, the idea was only to make the boy stronger. But soon Riley saw that Jesse was a champion. By the time Jesse had completed high school, his name was known across the nation. Ohio State University wanted him to attend college there. While at Ohio State, he set new world records in several track and field events. And he was accepted as a member of the United States Olympic team.

(MUSIC)

GWEN OUTEN: Owens always remembered the white man who helped change his life. Charles Riley did not seem to care what color a person's skin was. Owens learned to think the same way.

Later in life, Owens put all his energy into working with young people. He wanted to tell them some of the things he had learned about life, work and success: That it is important to choose a goal and always work toward it. That there are good people in the world who will help you to reach your goal. That if you try again and again, you will succeed.

People who heard Owens's speeches said he spoke almost as well as he ran. Owens received awards for his work with boys and girls. The United States government sent him around the world as a kind of sports ambassador. The International Olympic Committee asked for his advice.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: In about nineteen seventy, Jesse Owens wrote a book in which he told about his life. It was called “Blackthink.” In the book, Owens denounced young black militants who blamed society for their troubles. He said young black people had the same chance to succeed in the United States as white people. Many black civil rights activists reacted angrily to these statements. They said what Owens had written was not true for everyone.

Owens later admitted that he had been wrong. He saw that not all blacks were given the same chances and help that he had been given. In a second book, Owens tried to explain what he had meant in his first book. He called it “I Have Changed.” Owens said that, in his earlier book, he did not write about life as it was for everyone, but about life as it was for him.

He said he truly wanted to believe that if you think you can succeed--- and you really try -- then you have a chance. If you do not think you have a chance, then you probably will fail. He said these beliefs had worked for him. And he wanted all young people to believe them, too.

GWEN OUTEN: These were the same beliefs he tried to express when he spoke around the world about being an Olympic athlete. "The road to the Olympics," he said, "leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads -- in the end -- to the best within us.”

In nineteen seventy-six, President Gerald Ford awarded Jesse Owens the Medal of Freedom. This is the highest honor an American civilian can receive. Jesse Owens died of cancer in nineteen eighty. His family members operate the Jesse Owens Foundation. It provides financial aid and support for young people to help them reach their goals in life.

(THEME)

STEVE EMBER: This program was written by Barbara Dash. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Steve Ember.

GWEN OUTEN: And this is Gwen Outen. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. Before the Olympics, Jesse Owens mostly thought about ________________ .
a: The color of his skin
b: Adolph Hitler and the Nazis
c: The finish line
d: his competition

2. The 1936 Olympic Games were held in _________________ .
a: Berlin
b: Paris
c: The United States
d: Amsterdam

3. The German boxer Max Schmeling defeated black champion boxer Joe Louis in __________ .
a: 1935
b: 1936
c: 1940
d: 1944

4. In his book "Blackthink", Jesse Owens said that ________________ .
a: not all black people had the same opportunities that he had
b: black people were outcasts in American society
c: black people had the same chance to succeed as white people
d: black people were victims of white dominated corporate life

5. Jesse Owens won four Gold Medals at the 1936 Olympics. Adolph Hitler _________ .
a: ordered motion pictures made of the Olympics Games
b: complained that Jesse Owens was on drugs
c: executed the athletes Jesse Owens had defeated
d: wept bitterly and went on a three day drinking binge

6. Jesse Owens didn't win a Gold Medal at the 1936 Olympics for the ________________ .
a: one hundred meter run
b: one hundred meter swim
c: two hundred meter run
d: long jump

7. After his victories in the Olympics of 1936, businesses _______________ .
a: offered him high paying jobs and used his name
b: only used his name and didn't hire him
c: didn't use his name to sell products
d: only hired him for a short time

8. Charley Riley helped Jesse Owens to become an athlete. But first, it was necessary to _______________ .
a: teach Jesse Owens the rules of sports
b: improve the young man's health with wholesome food
c: build the young man's muscles through weight lifting exercises
d: build the young man's endurance by training him with a stationary bike

9. Another name for this article could be, " ___________ ."
a: Training Methods for Olympics Athletes
b: Black Athletes of the 1930s
c: The Life and Career of Jesse Owens
d: The Rise of Nazi Germany

10. This article is mainly about _____________ .
a: the Olympic Games of 1936
b: the difficulties experienced by black athletes
c: the rigorous training of Olympic athletes
d: the great Jesse Owens, his struggles and accomplishments

The following is a video of Jesse Owens winning the 100 meter run.

Check out the Jesse Owens Website for more information about this amazing athlete.

"Moby Maybe" from Edcon Publishing

2011-08-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

Sam is aiming his harpoon gun at a killer whale.

A place you will read about: Vancouver, a city near the Pacific Ocean. Things you will read about: harpoon gun: a gun that shoots spears. Statue: a piece of art that is made to look like a person or animal and that is usually made of stone, wood, clay, or metal.

Sam leaned over the side of the boat, when he saw a huge black fin heading towards him. That fin told him it was a killer whale. Sam raised his harpoon gun, took aim, and fired. The knife at the end of the rope hit its mark. The whale leaped out of the water squeaking loudly. It was not dead, just wounded. Sam needed a dead whale as a model for the statue he was to make for the city of Vancouver.

The whale was swimming quietly on its line and would be easy to hit. Sam picked up his gun again, aimed, then stopped. An idea struck him! No killer whale had ever been caught and kept alive for doctors to study. This could be the first one. Sam had to work fast if he were to save the whale's life. He sent a radio call to Vancouver. He wanted doctors waiting at the dock with a salt water tank for the whale.

During the long trip back, Sam decided his whale ought to have a name. He remembered the famous whale story, Moby Dick, and thought that Moby Dick would be a good name. But what if it were a girl whale? Then Moby Doll might be better. Since Sam wasn't sure, he decided on Moby Maybe.

News about Sam and Moby Maybe spread through the city quickly, and thousands of people were waiting at the dock to greet them. Doctors carefully took out the knife and gave the whale something to help its wound get better. Sam spent many days sitting on a float in Moby Maybe's tank, keeping the whale company while it got better. A killer whale could easily break up a float with its tail if it wanted to, but Moby didn't. The whale seemed to know that Sam was its friend.

One thing did worry Sam. Moby wasn't eating. No matter what kind of meat or fish Sam offered, Moby refused everything. This went on for eight weeks. Then, one day, the whale started flapping its tail as if to get Sam's attention. Sam threw Moby a fish, and the whale ate it. Then Sam threw two more, and Moby ate them, too. Crowds around Moby's tank cheered. Stories about Moby' s first meal appeared on the front page of every Vancouver newspaper. Moby had become the city's pet, and news that the whale had eaten, made the whole city happy.

Soon, Moby was eating one hundred pounds of fish every day. The whale, who had been quiet and shy before, now leaped and played in the water. One day, Sam announced lunch by slapping the water with the fish that Moby liked best - cod. Moby swam up to Sam, took the fish from him, and ate it. Then Sam held the next fish high in the air to get the whale to leap for it. Moby took one look at where Sam was holding the fish and quickly dived under the water.

The whale came up on the other side of the tank flapping its tail in anger. When Sam lowered the fish closer to the water, Moby came back and took it. Next, Sam splashed the water with a rockfish. Moby took one look at the sharp fins on the fish's body and swam away. The whale showed its anger again by flapping its tail. But when Sam had cut off the sharp fins, Moby returned and ate the fish. Sam was discovering just how smart Moby was. The whale had a mind of its own! Moby was training Sam, instead of Sam training Moby.

The doctors were eager to test Moby's hearing, for they knew that whales have a very sharp sense of hearing. They played recordings of calls of other killer whales for Moby. When the whale heard them, it answered them with excited squeaks. But when doctors played a recording of Moby's own voice, the whale paid no attention to it at all.

After a few months, Moby's shiny black skin started turning gray. The doctors began to worry. They found that the trouble was with the water in the tank. It wasn't as salty as the ocean water. Plans were made to move Moby's tank to another dock where the water was better. But before the tank could be moved, Moby took one last dive. The mighty killer whale never came up again. Divers went into the tank and discovered the whale dead at the bottom. They also discovered that Moby Maybe was really Moby Doll!

Sam finally made his statue for the city of Vancouver. But to him, it was not just a statue of a killer whale. It was a way to honor Moby Doll. For she had taught the world just how clever killer whales really are.

1. When Sam shot the whale, _______
a. it dived under the water quickly.
b. it leaped out of the water squeaking.
c. it attacked his boat with its tail.
d. it broke the line and swam away.

2. Sam was out hunting a whale _________
a. to keep as a family pet.
b. to study how whales behave.
c. to use as a model for a statue.
d. to teach it to do tricks.

3. Sam decided not to kill the whale because ___________
a. he wanted to let doctors study it.
b. his gun wasn't working too well.
c. the people of Vancouver didn't want him to.
d. he was afraid other whales would attack him.

4. Sam named the whale Moby Maybe because ____________
a. Moby was Sam's last name.
b. it was the name of a famous whale story.
c. the doctors thought it was a good name.
d. he wasn't sure if it was a boy or girl whale.

5. Vancouver newspapers had stories of Moby on the front page because ________
a. there was no other news to print.
b. people were very interested in the whale.
c. Sam asked them to put it there.
d. that was where they always put animal stories.

6. After the whale started eating, ____________
a. it leaped and played in the water.
b. it became quiet and shy.
c. it attacked Sam and the doctors.
d. it flapped its tail in anger.

7. Moby got angry when Sam ____________
a. slapped the water with a fish.
b. held the fish high in the air.
c. sat on a float in the tank.
d. cut off the sharp fins on the fish.

8.When doctors played recordings of other whales' voices, ________
a. Moby paid no attention to them.
b. Moby swam away in anger.
c. Moby leaped out of the water.
d. Moby answered with excited squeaks.

9. Another name for this story could be __________
a. "Sam, The Whale Hunter."
b. "How to Feed Killer Whales."
c. "The Clever Killer Whale."
d. "Animal Doctors at Work."

10. This story is mainly about _____________
a. the different kinds of fish killer whales eat.
b. catching whales off the coast of Vancouver.
c. things doctors learned by studying a killer whale.
d. a killer whale's sharp sense of hearing.

Moby Doll in Wikipedia. Here you will read that the official name for "Killer Whale" is "Orca".

Orca and Dog conversation from Youtube. Don't miss this. It's amazing.

"Weight Loss Research" from VOA

2011-07-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Shirley Griffith.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. Today, we will talk about diet and weight loss. Exercise is important if you want to get in good shape. But experts say exercise alone is not enough if your goal is to lose weight.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: It is that time of year again. Warm weather has returned to earth’s northern hemisphere. Summer is a time when people of all ages feel like getting their swimwear and going to the nearest swimming pool or seashore.

But first, there is that troublesome little thing called winter weight gain. Many of us gain weight because of inactivity during the winter.

Some people go to extremes to lose that extra weight before going to the beach. In the weight loss industry, there is never a lack of ideas about how to lose weight. Consider the "Sleeping Beauty diet," where you sleep your way to weight loss. You cannot eat if you are sleeping, or so the theory goes.

Then there is the tapeworm diet. The tapeworm is said to help people lose weight by eating the food that is stored in their stomach. But first you have to be willing to swallow the little creature. This may be more trouble than many people want.

Strange, new diets, treatments and exercise programs arrive on the market every day. Each one promises to help people lose weight and get a beach beautiful body. The weight loss industry takes in billions of dollars each year, and it is growing.

BOB DOUGHTY: One research company says the weight loss business will be worth more than five hundred eighty billion dollars worldwide by the year twenty fourteen. MarketsandMarkets also says the food and drink market represents the largest part of that growth. It is expected to reach more than three hundred fifty five billion dollars by twenty fourteen.

There is a seemingly endless supply of ideas about how to lose weight. There are low-carbohydrate diets and low-fat diets, diets that limit calories and ones that let you eat as much as you want. And, there are thousands of different kinds of diet pills and programs. So where does one begin? Which one is best?

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Experts say there is no single diet plan that works best for everyone. Many experts agree on one thing: that to lose weight, you must use or burn off more calories than you take in. When you eat more calories than your body needs, it stores that extra energy as fat.

Calories are a measure of energy in food. A pound of fat is equal to about four hundred fifty three grams or three thousand five hundred calories. To lose that fat in a week, you have to burn off at least that amount in calories or eat that much less. The best thing to do is to combine both ideas. Eat fewer calories and increase physical activity so that you burn off more.

America’s National Institutes of Health has suggested that women limit calories to no less than one thousand two hundred calories a day without medical supervision. It also says men should have no less than one thousand five hundred calories. Debate continues about the best way to fill those calorie requirements.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: For years, eating a diet low in fat was said to be the best way to lose weight. A low-fat diet is one in which less than thirty percent of a person’s daily calorie intake comes from fat.

Dean Ornish developed one of the most popular low fat diets after years of research on ways to control heart disease. His dietary ideas were first published in the medical journal The Lancet in nineteen ninety. The Ornish diet plan became more popular in nineteen ninety-three with the release of his book “Eat More, Weigh Less.”

Dr. Ornish studied the effects of carbohydrates – one of the most important sources of energy for the body. He found that carbohydrates were not to blame for making people fat. Instead, he said, fat makes people fat. He noted that a baked potato is not high in fat, but it becomes fatty when people add sour cream and butter to it.

Dr. Ornish’s diet plan limits daily calories from fat to less than ten percent, with little to no saturated fat or cholesterol. He also suggested that people get seventy to seventy-five percent of their calories from complex carbohydrates, and fifteen to twenty percent from proteins.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Like other low-fat diets, the Ornish plan suggests that people eat diets high in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans and other legumes. The plan advises people to avoid all meat and meat products, and to stay away from oils, nuts and seeds. It does not limit the number of calories people eat. But, eating the foods suggested by the diet plan would reduce the number of calories.

The Ornish diet has proved to be effective for many people. However, critics say it lets dieters eat too many carbohydrates while setting restrictions on calories from fat. They also say the changes required in eating habits may be too extreme for many people to follow.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Unlike the Ornish diet, low carbohydrate diets limit foods that are high in carbohydrates. These diets advise people to avoid things like white flour, pasta, rice, potatoes and foods high in sugar. Instead they suggest that people eat foods that are high in proteins and fats. These include foods like meat, fish, chicken, eggs, cheese and nuts.

The Atkins diet is one of the most popular of these diets. It suggests that people eat fewer than twenty grams of carbohydrates a day. This amount is slowly increased to between forty and one hundred grams of carbohydrates a day to keep the weight off.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Both weight loss plans have been carefully studied over the years. But no one plan has come out as a clear winner. Three years ago, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine found low-carb diets to be the best at providing the most weight loss. The study was led by researchers at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Ben Gurion University in Israel.

The researchers studied more than three hundred obese patients who followed one of three diet plans. These included a low-fat diet, a low-carb diet and a Mediterranean diet, which is made up of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, olive oil and nuts.

BOB DOUGHTY: A similar study published a year later looked at more than eight hundred dieters. The study found that low fat diets and high fat diets were equally successful at providing and maintaining weight loss over a two year period.

The researchers concluded that the most important thing for any diet is that people stick with it. And you must burn more calories than you take in no matter what you eat.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Some people are unable to lose weight through diet and exercise, no matter how hard they try. Others are just not willing to put in the effort. Many of these people choose to have surgical operations to reach their weight loss goals.

One kind of weight loss surgery reduces the size of the stomach. This is done by separating the stomach into two parts, including a very small section at the top. People who have had this operation are forced to eat smaller amounts of food because their top stomach fills up much faster.

Research suggests that most people lose about half of their overweight pounds in the first year after surgery. However, a large number of people regain the weight in three to five years.

BOB DOUGHTY: A new report suggests similar results for another popular weight loss surgery. Liposuction has been widely used since the nineteen seventies to improve the body’s appearance. It improves body shape by removing fat from certain parts of the body. The most common areas are the stomach, waist, hips, thighs, neck and arms. The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery says liposuction is the most popular form of cosmetic surgery worldwide.

Recently, researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine found that the effects of the surgery may not be long-lasting. They said people who have liposuction usually experience weight gain within one year after the surgery. And the fat that comes back reappears in a new area of the body, most noticeably the shoulders, arms and upper abdomen. The researchers say this is one more reason to try to prevent obesity before it happens.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by June Simms. I’m Shirley Griffith.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

"The Story of Woody Guthrie, Part Two" - VOA

2011-06-19T07:38:00.002-07:00

I'm Mary Tillotson. And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we complete our story about songwriter and singer Woody Guthrie.

(MUSIC)

Woody Guthrie grew up in Oklahoma and Texas during the nineteen twenties. A short time later, many farms in these states failed. Extreme dry weather ruined the soil. This area became known as the Dust Bowl.

Like many people, Woody left for California to find work. However, many people could only find work on farms gathering fruit or other crops. These workers often lived in camps with poor conditions.

Woody visited these farm worker camps. He played his guitar and sang songs he wrote that described the conditions at the camp he was visiting.

Labor union organizers in California found Woody Guthrie useful to their cause. They urged him to go to New York City to make recordings of his songs.

Woody liked the idea and left California for New York City in nineteen forty. There he met Alan Lomax, an expert on America's traditional music. Lomax worked for the United States Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He collected and recorded traditional American folk music. When he heard Woody sing, Lomax knew he had found a true singer of American folk music.

Alan Lomax recorded many of Woody's songs for the Library of Congress. He also helped Woody find work in New York. One company agreed to record some of Woody's songs. The record he made was called "Dust Bowl Ballads." The songs told stories of people who had lost their land. Many music critics praised Woody and the songs he wrote.

Lomax also helped Woody get a job with CBS Radio. He sang and played folk music on a radio program that was broadcast across the United States.

Woody and several other musicians joined together to write political protest songs. One of these was Pete Seeger. Woody wrote performed with a group called the Almanac Singers. Later, some members of the group formed the folk singing group called the Weavers.

It was during this time in New York that Woody wrote what became his most famous song, "This Land is Your Land." He described the beauty and richness of America that he had seen during his travels. He believed America should be a place that belongs to rich and poor people alike. The first version of his song expressed opposition to private property.

(MUSIC)

In nineteen forty-one, the Interior Department asked Woody Guthrie to write songs supporting the building of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River in Washington state. He wrote twenty-six songs in a month. The best known of these is "Roll On Columbia."

(MUSIC)

Woody Guthrie wrote a book about his early life in Oklahoma and Texas. It was published in nineteen forty-three. He called it "Bound for Glory." He described his childhood, and the pain of watching his mother slowly becoming insane. He also wrote about his travels and the needy people he saw in many parts of America. One book critic wrote: "Someday, people are going to wake up and realize that Woody Guthrie and his songs are a national treasure, like the Yellowstone or Yosemite parks."

During World War Two, Woody joined America's Merchant Marine. The Merchant Marine transported soldiers and supplies across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Later, Woody served in the Army. He returned to New York when the war ended.

Woody's wife had left him a few years earlier. In nineteen forty-five, he married Marjorie Mazia. She was a dancer with the Martha Graham dance group. Woody and Marjorie had a daughter named Cathy Ann. In nineteen fifty, Woody began writing songs for children. These became very popular. Here is one called "Riding in My Car." It shows his sense of fun and humor.

(MUSIC)

One day, while Woody and Marjorie were away, a fire started in their house. Their daughter Cathy Ann was severely burned. She died the next day. Woody was crushed by her death. He remembered how his sister had died the same way. He was never the same after Cathy Ann died. He had trouble earning money. He began drinking alcohol. Woody and Marjorie had several more children after Cathy Ann's death. But their marriage ended.

Woody Guthrie began noting something strange about himself. He found that the words he wrote often did not make sense. And he had sudden attacks of uncontrollable shaking. In nineteen fifty-two, doctors confirmed his worst fears. He had Huntington's chorea, the same disease of the brain and nervous system that had killed his mother. Woody Guthrie was forty years old.

There was no treatment for the disease. His condition got worse. In nineteen fifty-four, Woody Guthrie traveled one more time across America. He wanted to see the places where he had lived and the workers' camps where he had sung. Old friends had trouble recognizing him. Instead of a young man full of life, they saw an old man who could not speak clearly or control his shaking.

Finally, he entered a hospital because he could no longer care for himself. But while he seemed to be forgotten, his music was not. By the late nineteen fifties, folk music became popular again in the United States. More Americans began listening and playing the songs of Woody Guthrie.

Young folk singers, like Bob Dylan, came to New York to visit Woody in the hospital. Dylan and others copied the way Woody sang and played the guitar. And like Woody, they wrote protest songs that called for social and political justice.

Woody Guthrie remained in the hospital until he died in nineteen sixty-seven. His family and friends visited him each week. In the last years of his life, Woody could hardly speak. But his family and friends knew he still believed in the causes he had sung and written about all his life. They knew this because when they sang his songs, Woody's eyes would become brighter and his defiant spirit would shine through.

(MUSIC: "Hard Travelin'")

This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Mary Tillotson. And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

"I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose, bound to lose, no good to nobody, no good for nothing, because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that, songs the run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling.

I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, not matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work, and the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.

I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs and to sing the kind that knock you down still farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think you've not got any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your song books are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow. "

- Woody Guthrie

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. Woody Guthrie wrote and sang the song "____________________ ". It became his most famous one. In it, he expressed his opposition to private property.
a: Dust Bowl Ballad
b: This Land is Your Land
c: Roll On Columbia
d: Bound for Glory

2. In the late 1950s, Woody Guthrie's music __________________________ .
a: became largely forgotten
b: became very popular again
c: was criticized for being too radical
d: was censored because of its communist ideas

One singer, _______________________ , popular in the 1960s was heavily influenced by Woody Guthrie's music of social protest.
a: Pete Seeger
b: Bob Dylan
c: Alan Lomax
d: Steve Ember

4. Woody Guthrie was dedicated to writing songs that ________________________ .
a: encouraged people to be better
b: encouraged people to do battle against their enemies
c: encouraged people to take pride in themselves
d: encouraged people to laugh at themselves

5. Woody Guthrie was encouraged to record his songs in New York by ______________________ .
a: labor union organizers
b: record companies in California
c: experts in America's traditional music
d: his friends and relatives

6. In 1945, after World War II, Woody Guthrie _______________________ .
a: married a dancer, Marjorie Mazia
b: joined the Merchant Marine
c: enter the hospital with an incurable disease
d: toured the country to visit places he had written songs about

7. One popular children's song Woody Guthrie wrote for his daughter is called "__________________".
a: Bound for Glory
b: This Land is Your Land
c: Roll on Columbia
d: Riding in My Car

8. Woody Guthrie believed very much in ___________________________ .
a: the value of hard work
b: the dignity of the ordinary person
c: the need for better folk music
d: removing restrictions and regulations for businesses and banks

9. While in New York, Woody Guthrie join a singing group known as the Almanac Singers. This group later became ______________________ .
a: The Beatles
b: The Cowboys
c: The Weavers
d: The Travelers

10. "Roll on Columbia" was written and sung to support _______________________ .
a: the war effort
b: the farm workers
c: the building of the Bonneville Dam
d: relief for the Dust Bowl refugees

"Hard Travelin'" by Woody Gutherie, from Youtube

I've been havin' some hard travelin', I thought you knowed
I've been havin' some hard travelin', way down the road
I've been havin' some hard travelin', hard ramblin', hard gamblin' Been havin' some hard travelin', Lord

I've been ridin' them fast rattlers, I thought you knowed
I've been ridin' them flat wheelers, way down the road
I've been ridin' them blind passengers, dead-enders, kickin' up cinders
I've been havin' some hard travelin', Lord

I've been hittin' some hard-rock minin', I thought you knowed I've been leanin' on a pressure drill, way down the road Hammer flyin', air hole suckin', six foot of mud and I shore been a muckin' And
I've been hittin' some hard travelin', Lord

I've been hittin' some hard harvestin', I thought you knowed North Dakota to Kansas City, way down the road Cuttin' that wheat, stackin' that hay and I'm tryin' make 'bout a dollar a day
And I've been havin' some hard travelin', Lord

I've been working that Pittsburgh steel, I thought you knowed I've been dumpin' that red-hot slag, way down the road
I've been blasting, I've been a firin',
I've been pourin' red-hot iron And I've been hittin' some hard travelin', Lord
I've been layin' in a hard-rock jail, I thought you knowed I've been laying out 90 days, way down the road Damned old judge, he said to me, "It's 90 days for vagrancy"
I've been hittin' some hard travelin', Lord

Read more: WOODY GUTHRIE - HARD TRAVELIN' LYRICS

Woody Guthrie, Part One
Also, see "The Evolution of American Folk Music"

"The Environmental Film Festival" from VOA.

2011-05-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

I'm Faith Lapidus. And I'm Bob Doughty with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. The Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C., has been bringing movies to America's capital for seventeen years. This year, the twelve-day festival showed more than one hundred and thirty movies from thirty-four countries.

The movies were shown in fifty-two museums, embassies, and other places around the city this month. Many movies were about the state of the world's oceans and sea life. The aim of the festival is to educate people about environmental issues affecting our planet.

(MUSIC)

MOVIE: "After feeding the world for hundreds of years, we showed our gratitude by nearly wiping cod off the face of the earth. Today, the species is on the verge of extinction. And for the fisherman of Aveiro, the consequences have been devastating."

That was from the movie "The State of the Planet's Oceans" made by Hal and Marilyn Weiner. Its first public showing took place during the film festival at the National Museum of Natural History. The movie tells about the effects of overfishing on local economies and on the health of the oceans. The movie also shows how climate change is threatening this ecosystem. In a striking closing scene, the ocean expert Sylvia Earle talks about the importance of protecting the beautiful world that lives under the sea.

We asked audience member James Edwards how watching a movie about the environment can affect people.

JAMES EDWARDS: "I think a film like this can make a difference by raising people's awareness of not only the problems that are out there, because a lot of films are gloom and doom, but solutions that are out there. What are other people doing, what can you do?"

Mr. Edwards is an independent filmmaker in Washington, so he is very interested in the work that other people are doing. And, he says the subject of oceans interests him especially because he has been scuba diving since he was a child.

The Museum of Natural History showed many other movies about the ocean. These included "Fisheye Fantasea" which explores how fish see in the ocean. "Cracking the Ocean Code" is about the work of scientist J. Craig Venter. In the movie he travels around the world documenting the genetic information of small sea creatures.

At the Library of Congress, festival visitors could watch "The Silent World" directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle. When this movie came out in nineteen fifty-six, it was the first to show scuba diving exploration to the world. The movie takes place during a trip across the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

(MUSIC)

The Environmental Film Festival in Washington was started by Flo Stone. We asked her what gave her the idea to begin this event.

FLO STONE: "I founded the festival in nineteen ninety-three. I'd worked on other film festivals, one on cultural diversity at the Natural History Museum in New York City. But in Washington, I thought it would be wonderful to do a festival on the environment very broadly, cooperating with many museums, universities, libraries, environmental organizations and even embassies from around the world."

Ms. Stone says the National Museum of Natural History asked if this year's festival could pay special attention to the subject of oceans.

FLO STONE: "What is happening in the ocean films, of course, is the technology is so phenomenal. You can film the deepest parts of the ocean. You can track a shark that swims from Australia all the way to southern Africa and back. So, the ocean theme has been extremely popular and exciting."

Not all movies at the festival were about oceans. One movie shown at the National Building Museum is called "Designing a Great Neighborhood: Behind the Scenes at Holiday." It tells about building a community housing project in Boulder, Colorado. The future owners of the houses work together with different building designers to create environmentally safe houses that do not pollute.

MOVIE: "When solar panels supply both hot water and space heating, the goal of zero emissions begins to look achievable."

The neighbors consider choices including solar energy, clean water and plantings.

The movie gives an interesting lesson in how city communities can come together to build healthy and safe housing that is not costly.

Several movies at the festival examined trash in different parts of the world. "Cartoneros" was shown at the Embassy of Argentina.

Its director, Ernesto Livon-Grosman, was there to introduce his film. The movie is about trash pickers who collect paper in the streets of Buenos Aires. Then they sell the paper to sorting centers who prepare trash for recycling.

The movie shows many people criticizing the work of the cartoneros. But in a country that was suffering a major recession, this kind of work was a good way for unemployed people to make money. And, the cartoneros provide a service to the city that is environmentally helpful.

The documentary "Recycled Life" tells about people living in the garbage collection area in Guatemala City. The movie tells about the many families who live and work there.

In "Marina of the Zabbaleen" director Engi Wassef explores a group of Christian garbage collectors in Cairo called the Zabbaleen. The film is presented through the eyes of a seven year old girl named Marina. The movie is about garbage and recycling but also about family, culture, and spirituality.

The Canadian movie "Addicted to Plastic" is about plastic pollution. It was filmed over three years in twelve countries. The film explores ways to reduce the harmful effects of plastic waste. And it looks at new developments such as plastic made from plants.

(MUSIC)

Several of the festival's events honored the German filmmaker Werner Herzog. The natural environment plays an important role in his documentaries and other movies. For example, you could see his documentary "Encounters at the End of the World" which came out in two thousand seven.

(MUSIC)

WERNER HERZOG: "These images taken under the ice of the Ross Sea in Antarctica were the reason I wanted to go to this continent. The pictures were taken by a friend of mine, one of these expert divers."

In this movie, Herzog meets the many workers and researchers who live at McMurdo station in Antarctica. He learns about different projects that the scientists are working on.

Werner Herzog's movie "Grizzly Man" tells about the bear expert Timothy Treadwell who lived with and studied bears in the state of Alaska.

"Fitzcarraldo" is a Herzog film that was released in nineteen eighty-two. It tells the story of Carlos Fitzcarraldo, a rubber producer in Peru.

This character fights against the forces of nature to try to realize his dream of building a performance center in Iquitos, Peru.

(MUSIC)

Several of the movies at the Environmental Film Festival dealt with food and agriculture. The Swedish film "Cows Are Nice" looks at cow farmers trying to make a living in the milk industry.

In the Brazilian movie "Mr. Bene Goes to Italy", a manioc flour producer travels from Brazil to Italy. There, he meets small farmers from around the world who are interested in the "slow food" movement.

"Return of the Honeybee" was shown at the Carnegie Institute for Science. It explores the political and economic effects caused by the disappearance of honeybees. The film shows the important role these bees play in the world's food chain.

The movie "Nora!" examines the career of restaurant owner and cook Nora Pouillon. Her restaurant in Washington, D.C. had the first officially organic kitchen in the United States. She has become an important leader in the organic and local food movements.

(MUSIC)

Flo Stone says that this year's festival was so popular they had to turn crowds away because there was no room for all the people who wanted to see the movies. Here she explains part of why these films are so popular.

FLO STONE: "I feel that film takes you to places. It introduces you to people all over the world. You get to hear their voices. It inspires you. And the variety of the films is what is so exciting."

The Environmental Film Festival in Washington plays an important role in helping increase understanding about a subject that is important for people all over the world.

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Bob Doughty. And I'm Faith Lapidus. You can download podcasts from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

"Mosquito Bite?? Don't Scratch it!!"

2011-05-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith. And I'm Steve Ember. Today, we tell about diseases spread by mosquitoes -- the most widely hated insects in the world.

(MUSIC)

There are more than two thousand different kinds of mosquitoes. Female mosquitoes bite people to drink their blood. Male mosquitoes do not drink blood. They drink fluids from plants. The female mosquito uses its thin sucking tube to break the skin, find blood and inject the victim with a substance that keeps blood flowing.

The female mosquito drinks the blood and uses it to produce as many as two hundred fifty eggs. The insect leaves the eggs in any standing water.

The eggs produce worm-like creatures called larvae in two days to a few months. However, some eggs can stay in water for years until conditions are right for development. The larvae feed on organisms in the water. After four to ten days, they change again, into creatures called pupas. The pupas rise to the surface of the water. Adult mosquitoes pull themselves out of the pupas and fly away.

(MUSIC)

The World Health Organization says mosquitoes carry organisms that cause disease and death for millions of people throughout the world. The most important disease spread by mosquitoes is malaria. The W.H.O. says two hundred forty-seven million people became infected with malaria in two thousand six. Malaria caused almost one million deaths, mostly among children in Africa. The disease is found in more than one hundred countries in Africa, Asia, the western Pacific Ocean, the Middle East and Central and South America.

Malaria parasites enter a person's blood through a mosquito bite. These organisms travel to the liver. They grow and divide there. After a week or two, the parasites invade red blood cells and reproduce thousands of times. They cause the person's body temperature to rise. They also may destroy major organs. People with malaria may suffer kidney failure or loss of red blood cells.

Some medicines are generally effective in preventing and treating malaria. They are designed to prevent the parasites from developing in the body. People die from malaria because they are not treated for the disease or the treatment is delayed.

The World Health Organization says mosquito control efforts are improving in many areas. But it warns that mosquitoes are becoming increasingly resistant to pesticides, the products used to kill insects.

This month, the W.H.O. joined with other groups to announce a new effort against malaria. The goal is to reduce use of the pesticide known as DDT. The United States banned most uses of DDT in nineteen seventy-two.

The W.H.O. announced ten projects to test non-chemical methods for fighting mosquitoes. These include trees that repel mosquitoes and fish that eat the larvae. However, officials say any reduction in the use of pesticides must make sure that disease control efforts are not weakened.

(MUSIC)

Mosquitoes also carry dengue fever. The insects can survive in new and different environments. They can spread diseases to new areas. For example, experts say only nine countries had dengue fever before nineteen seventy. Since then, the disease has spread to more than one hundred countries.

The World Health Organization says about fifty million people suffer from dengue fever each year. There is no cure. Children may develop a kind of the disease that is not serious. They may have a high body temperature and some areas of skin may turn red.

Older adults suffer from dengue fever much more. They may develop reddish skin and lose their sense of taste. They also may have pain in the head or behind their eyes. And they may experience pain in joints such as the elbow or knee. This kind of joint pain is the reason why dengue fever is sometimes known as breakbone fever.

The most severe kind of the disease is called dengue hemorrhagic fever. People who have this disease bleed from the nose or other openings in the body. Dengue hemorrhagic fever kills about five percent of all people it infects. The only treatment involves controlling the bleeding and replacing lost body fluids.

Yellow fever is another disease carried by mosquitoes. There are no effective drugs against yellow fever. Doctors can only hope that a person's defense system is strong enough to fight the disease. Yellow fever is found mainly in Africa, the northern part of South America and the islands of the Caribbean Sea. The World Health Organization says there are an estimated two hundred thousand cases of the disease and thirty thousand deaths each year.

A virus causes yellow fever. A few days after a mosquito bite, the victim experiences high body temperature and pain in the head or muscles. Victims also may expel food they ate. Most patients improve after three to four days.

However, fifteen percent of patients develop a more serious condition. High body temperatures return and the body turns yellow in color. The victim bleeds from the nose, mouth, eyes or stomach. Half the people with this condition die within ten to fourteen days.

A vaccine can prevent yellow fever. Experts say the vaccine is safe and very effective. The protection continues for at least ten years and possibly for life.

(MUSIC)

Mosquitoes also carry lymphatic filariasis, also known as elephantiasis. The disease has affected more than one hundred twenty million people. One-third of those infected live in India. Another third are in Africa. The others live in South Asia or islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Mosquito bites spread the worms that cause elephantiasis. People usually begin to develop the disease as children. Many children never experience signs of the disease. But it may cause hidden damage to the body's lymphatic system and kidneys.

The worst signs of elephantiasis appear in adults. The signs are more common in men than in women. These include damage to the arms, legs and reproductive organs. Two drugs are effective in treating the disease.

Another disease carried by mosquitoes is encephalitis. It causes an infection or swelling of the brain. Many different viruses cause different kinds of the disease. One virus lives naturally in birds and horses. Mosquitoes spread it to people. Mosquitoes in several Asian countries spread a kind of encephalitis known as Japanese encephalitis. A vaccine can prevent this sickness.

Other kinds of encephalitis include West Nile, Saint Louis and Eastern Equine. Most healthy people infected with the virus show no signs. Or they become sick for only a day or two. But those with weak natural defenses may develop a severe infection. They may suffer from high body temperature, head pain, shaking and even death.

(MUSIC)

Experts have learned many things about mosquitoes. For example, the insects can smell carbon dioxide in the breath of a person or animal from as far away as sixty meters. Mosquitoes often like the blood of animals better than the blood of people.

The insects also like dark colors. They do not bite women who are bleeding during their fertility period. But they do bite pregnant women. Many kinds of mosquitoes are most active in the early morning and early evening. They eat mostly at night.

Experts say the best way to prevent the diseases carried by mosquitoes is not to be bitten by one. There are several ways to prevent mosquito bites. Do not keep standing water anywhere near your home.

Remove all containers that could provide a place for mosquitoes to live. Stay in an enclosed area when mosquitoes are most active. Wear clothes that cover most of the body.

Other ways to prevent mosquito bites are to put anti-insect products on the skin, clothing and sleeping areas. Also, place nets treated with insect poison on windows and over the bed at night.

(MUSIC)

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.