ESL Listening

Index to American Short Stories

2012-01-19T16:44:00.001-08:00

"A Child's Bath" by American Impressionist,
Mary Cassatt, 1893

"The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe

"The Tale Tell Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allen Poe
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
"A Scary Story for Halloween" by Faith Lapidus
"Beyond The Door" by Philip K. Dick
"A Pair of Silk Stockings" by Kate Chopin
"Athenaise " by Kate Chopin
"The Last Leaf" by O. Henry
"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
"The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry
"The Cop and The Anthem" by O. Henry
"One Thousand Dollars" by O. Henry
"Bartleby" by Herman Melville
"The White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett
"Rappaccini's Daughter, Part One" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Rappaccini's Daughter, Part Two" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"The Lady or The Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton
"The Luck of Roaring Camp" by Bret Harte
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County" by Mark Twain
"The Californian's Tale" by Mark Twain
"Luck" by Mark Twain
"Feathertop" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"The Exact Science of Matrimony" by O'Henry
"The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane
"The Boarded Window" by Ambrose Bierce
"The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving
"A Piece of Red Calico" by Frank Stockton
"Singing Woman" by Ada Jack Carver
"The Tall Tale of Paul Bunyan" a folktale
"Pecos Bill" a folktale
"John Henry" a Tall Tale
"How Keesh Hunted Bear" by Jack London
"Why the Stars Stopped Singing" by Edcon Publishing

Marian Anderson: Great African American Opera Star, from VOA

2012-01-19T16:42:00.000-08:00

I'm Shirley Griffith. And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we complete the story of singer Marian Anderson.

(MUSIC: "der schmied, op. 19/4")

Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early nineteen hundreds. She began singing in church. Soon, her rich deep voice became widely known in the area.

Marian Anderson loved opera. At that time, however, black singers were not permitted in white opera companies in the United States. So she performed as a concert artist instead. Her first concert in New York City was not successful. She felt defeated and did not sing again in public for many months. Then her mother became sick. Anderson knew she would have to work to keep her family together. Singing was her work.

In the nineteen twenties Marian Anderson won two singing competitions. She sang in New York with the Philharmonic Orchestra. This concert was a huge success. She signed an agreement to perform in other cities. Most of the time, only black people attended her concerts. When she was in the southern part of the United States, she was not permitted to stay in hotels for white people. She did not let racial hatred affect her music. Yet she knew she would never be completely successful until she could sing for all people.

In nineteen thirty, Marian Anderson received money to study music in London. In those days, Europe seemed to be the only place where a black artist could gain recognition. So Marian traveled to Europe. Many years later, she described her experience there: "I was made to feel welcome, even at a hotel. People accepted me as a person. They judged me for my qualities as a human being and an artist . . . nothing else."

In the nineteen thirties, Anderson studied and performed in London and Berlin, Germany. She gave few concerts at first. Then she was invited to give a series of concerts in Sweden. The musician Kosti Vehanen played the piano at Marian's concerts. He said her voice was so powerful that it seemed to come from under the earth. He described it as a voice that overflowed with a deep, tragic feeling.

Marian Anderson had her first great success in Sweden. The Swedish people loved her voice. They especially liked the spirituals she sang. Few of them had heard this kind of American music before.

(MUSIC: "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands")

Marian Anderson traveled through the countries of Scandinavia. People praised her singing everywhere she went. In Helsinki, Finland she sang for the famous Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. He told her: "The roof of my house is too low for your voice."

Anderson sang in Scandinavia for three concert seasons. She sang for the kings of Denmark and Sweden. Finally, she decided to return to the United States. She said she wanted to test herself in her own country.

News of her success in Scandinavia did not mean much to concert hall owners in the United States. They knew black concert singers were not popular. Anderson was back where she began -- singing at churches and small gatherings. She decided to go back to Europe. Again, she was greeted warmly.

Arturo Toscanini
The famous Italian orchestra conductor Arturo Toscanini heard her sing in Austria. After the concert he said: "She has a voice that one hears only once in a hundred years." Toscanini's comment spread throughout the world of music. Finally, Marian Anderson was famous. She returned to the United States and sang all around the country. In nineteen thirty-five she appeared for the second time at Town Hall in New York. This time she was a great success.

(MUSIC: "Don Carlos")

Marian Anderson gave concerts in northern and southern cities. She firmly believed that her music was the best weapon against racial hatred.

At one concert in the southern state of Mississippi, Anderson saw that her singing could bring people together. It had been a long concert. Yet the crowd kept calling for more. Marian asked the audience to join her in singing one last song. The people stood. Black people and white people sang together, side by side. The local newspaper described what happened: "Sometimes the human spirit rises above itself, above racial prejudice. "

Another incident became famous around the world. Marian Anderson was to sing in Washington, D.C. at Constitution Hall. This concert hall was owned by an organization called the Daughters of the American Revolution, or D.A.R. The D.A.R. would not permit Anderson to perform in the concert hall because she was black.

Eleanor Roosevelt and
Marian Anderson
Many people protested, including Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the American president. With Mrs. Roosevelt's help, Anderson was able to sing for an even bigger crowd in Washington. She gave a free concert in the open air, near the Lincoln memorial. Seventy-five thousand people attended that concert on Easter Sunday, April ninth, nineteen thirty-nine. Years later, Anderson described how she felt on that day:

"There seemed to be people as far as the eye could see. I felt that a great wave of goodwill poured out from those people. When I saw them, my heart jumped wildly. I could not talk. I wondered if I would be able to sing. "

Marian Anderson did sing. And seventy-five thousand voices -- black and white -- joined with hers. They sang the national song of the United States. Then they listened as she sang another song about America.

(MUSIC: "My Country 'Tis of Thee")

75,000 people entranced
In nineteen fifty-five, Marian Anderson was asked to sing with the New York Metropolitan Opera company. It was the first time a black singer performed regularly with an American opera group. Marian Anderson's presence made it possible for other black singers to become opera singers in the United States.

Marian Anderson received many honors and awards during her life. In nineteen fifty-eight she was appointed a delegate to the United Nations, expanding her job as goodwill ambassador of the United States. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in nineteen sixty-three.

Anderson retired from singing two years later. She lived quietly with her husband, Orpheus Fisher, in the state of Connecticut. After he died, she lived with her sister's son, orchestra conductor James De Priest. Marian Anderson died in nineteen ninety-three at the age of ninety-six.

Experts say she is remembered not only for the quality of her voice, but also because of the way she carried out her right to be heard.

(MUSIC: "Ave Maria")

This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

Marian Anderson believed that the best weapon against racial hatred was ________________ .
a: music
b: demonstrations
c: boycotts
d: sermons in church

2. The musician Kosti Vehanen said that Anderson's voice was _______________ it seemed to come from under the earth.
a: as powerful as
b: more powerful than
c: so powerful that
d: as powerful than

3. Throughout the countries of _________________ , people praised her singing.
a: Finland
b: Germany
c: Scandinavia
d: South America

4. Marian Anderson ___________________ became an opera star in 1955.
a: wanted to
b: for about a month
c: finally
d: should have

5. In 1958, Marian Anderson was appointed _____________ to the United Nations.
a: professional singer
b: delegate
c: Opera Representative
d: composer

6. A goodwill ambassador is someone who __________________________ .
a: sings in Europe
b: promotes international friendship
c: tries to make other countries believe in U.S. ideals.
d: negotiates for peace between warring countries

7. Marian Anderson broke racial barriers when she _________________ .
a: studied and performed in London and Berlin
b: performed for the King of Denmark
c: sang in churches and small gatherings
d: joined the Metropolitan Opera Company

8. In 1939, Marian Anderson was to sing at Constitution Hall, a concert hall owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution, but ______________________ .
a: the D.A.R. would not permit her to sing because she was black
b: Eleanor Roosevelt decided it would be better for Marian to give a free concert near the Lincoln Memorial
c: the concert was canceled because they couldn't see enough tickets
d: the concert hall was too crowded, so they had to move it to the Lincoln Memorial

9. At one concert in the southern state of ___________________ , Marian asked the audience to join her in song. White and black people sang together.
a: Florida
b: South Carolina
c: Mississippi
d: Texas

10. When white and black people sang together at that Marian Anderson concert, one newspaper commented, " Sometimes the human spirit rises above itself, above ___________________ ".
a: greed and anger
b: racial prejudice
c: shyness and shame
d: individualism and nationalism

11. ______________________ said, "She has a voice heard once in a hundred years."
a: Eleanor Roosevelt
b: Arturo Toscanini
c: Jean Sibelius
d: The King of Sweden

This is a twenty minute documentary about Marian Anderson made in the 1950s. It has
good quality. You probably can't hear all of it today, but make time to view it. It's worthwhile. She is one of the greatest singers of the Twentieth Century.

Marion Anderson, Great African American Opera Star: Part One

INDEX TO AMERICAN SHORT STORIES

2010-09-15T22:48:00.000-07:00

"A Child's Bath" by American Impressionist,
Mary Cassatt, 1893

"The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe

Cole Porter, Part Two, from VOA

2010-08-12T21:56:00.000-07:00

This is Faith Lapidus. And this is Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we bring you the second part of our program about American songwriter Cole Porter. Porter wrote his songs from the nineteen twenties to the nineteen fifties. They continue to be popular today.

(MUSIC: "Anything Goes")

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, Heaven knows,
Anything Goes.

Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, Anything Goes.

If saying your prayers you like,
If green pears you like
If old chairs you like,
If back stairs you like,
If love affairs you like
With young bears you like,
Why nobody will oppose!

So, though I'm not a great romancer
I know that I'm bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes...
Anything goes!

That was a recording of “Anything Goes”, one of Cole Porter’s most famous songs. Caroline O’Connor sings it in the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.” Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd star in this movie about Porter’s life, released in two thousand four. The title of the movie is from one of Porter’s popular songs, “It’s De-Lovely.” In the song, Porter plays with words that start with the letter “d.” Robbie Williams sings the song.

(MUSIC)

The night is young, the skies are clear
And if you want to go walkin', dear
It's delightful, it's delicious, it's de-lovely

I understand the reason why
You're sentimental, 'cause so am I
It's delightful, it's delicious, it's de-lovely

You can tell at a glance what a swell night this is for romance
You can hear, dear Mother Nature murmuring low "Let yourself go"

So please be sweet, my chickadee
And when I kiss ya, just say to me
"It's delightful, it's delicious, it's delectable, it's delirious,
It's dilemma, it's de limit, it's deluxe, it's de-lovely"

As we said in our program last week, Cole Porter went to live in France in nineteen sixteen before he became famous. He was a wealthy young man who was smart and funny and knew how to enjoy life. He and his wife, Linda, became well known for their costly and exciting parties.

Yet Cole Porter never let other pleasures interfere with what he loved most – writing songs. He worked hard on his songs. Both the words and music had to be perfect.

Porter gained fame as a musical theater writer by the early nineteen thirties. His musical plays were produced in Broadway theaters in New York City. He had a new musical every year or so during the years of America’s great economic depression. His words and music gave people a few hours of pleasurable escape during difficult times.

Some critics still consider one of Porter’s early musical plays, “Anything Goes,” to be his best. “Anything Goes” opened on Broadway in nineteen thirty-four. It starred one of Porter’s favorite singers, Ethel Merman. She sang a song that became famous immediately. It is called “I Get a Kick Out of You.” That expression means I enjoy being with you.

(MUSIC)

I get no kick from champagne.
Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all,
So tell me why should it be true
That I get a kick out of you?

Some get a kick from cocaine.
I'm sure that if I took even one sniff
That would bore me terrifically too
Yet I get a kick out of you.

For years, Porter was Broadway’s “King Cole.” His musical plays were very successful. Later, he went to Los Angeles, California and wrote music for Hollywood movies. They were very popular, too.

Cole and Linda Porter traveled all over the world. They were happily married most of the time. But Cole Porter was homosexual. He had sex with men. Homosexuality was both accepted and forbidden in high society at that time. Love affairs between men were not exactly secret. Yet they could never be admitted publicly.

All his life, Cole Porter wrote songs about love, desire and passion. He included the names of foreign countries, famous people and comments on current events. And he filled his songs with little jokes and hidden meanings.

Porter’s words stretched the limits of what was socially acceptable. They spoke directly and indirectly about sex. They admitted that love is not always pure. It is often selfish. And it rarely lasts forever. Porter was not even sure what love really is. He wonders about it in this song, “What Is This Thing Called Love?” It is sung by Lemar.

(MUSIC)

what is this thing called love
this funny thing
called love
just who can solve its mystery
why should it make
a fool of me?

I saw you there
one wonderful day
you took my heart
and threw it away
thats why I ask the lord
in heaven above
what is this thing
called love?

Cole Porter also wrote some of the most beautiful love songs ever, full of true, deep feeling. Critics consider “Every Time We Say Goodbye” to be one of his finest songs. Natalie Cole sings the song.

(MUSIC)

Everytime we say goodbye, I die a little,
Everytime we say goodbye, I wonder why a little,
Why the Gods above me, who must be in the know.
Think so little of me, they allow you to go.
When you're near, there's such an air of spring about it,
I can hear a lark somewhere, begin to sing about it,
There's no love song finer, but how strange the change from major to
minor,
Everytime we say goodbye.

In nineteen thirty-seven, Cole Porter was injured while riding a horse. The horse slid on a muddy hill and fell on top of him. His legs were crushed. Cole Porter spent the rest of his life, twenty-seven years, disabled and in severe pain. Yet he continued writing wonderful songs, musical plays and movies.

In nineteen forty-eight, he wrote what some consider his greatest work. It was a musical play called “Kiss Me, Kate.” It was based on William Shakespeare’s play, “The Taming of the Shrew.” But it takes place in modern times, among a group of actors. The play was produced again on Broadway in nineteen ninety-nine.

One of the most famous songs in the musical is called “Too Darn Hot.” It is a funny song about how hard it is to be interested in love in really hot weather. Stanley Wayne Mathis sings it in “Kiss Me, Kate.”

(MUSIC: "Too Darn Hot")

It's too darn hot,
It's too darn hot.
I'd like to sup with my baby tonight,
Fulfill the cup with my baby tonight.
I'd like to sup with my baby tonight,
Fulfill the cup with my baby tonight,
But I ain't up to my baby tonight,
'Cause it's too darn hot.

Cole Porter had another hit show in nineteen fifty-three, called “Cancan.” It was his final play. That same year, Porter’s wife, Linda, died. Porter was very sad, and increasingly disabled by his old injury. He died at the age of seventy-three in nineteen sixty-four.

In nineteen ninety-one, America celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of Cole Porter’s birth. Special concerts celebrated his music. New recordings were issued. Jazz singers and symphony orchestras recorded his songs.

So did several rock-and-roll artists. They made a recording and special music video to honor him. All the money earned from the recording and video was given to research on AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is a disease that was first discovered among homosexual men.

Today, Cole Porter’s songs are still valued for their beauty, humor and intelligence. And for their unexpected jokes and word play. They shine like jewels, one critic wrote. They are shot through with love that sometimes feels like pain.

There seems little doubt that Cole Porter’s songs will continue to be sung. They will make us laugh. They will make us cry. And they will touch the deepest truths of our emotions.

(MUSIC: "Night and Day")

This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Steve Ember. And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Cole Porter, Part One

1. At Harvard University, Cole Porter first studied ______ .
a. music
b. law
c. art
d. psychology

2. Most of the songs Cole Porter wrote were about _______ .
a. politics
b. current events
c. love
d. little jokes

3. A song that considers the meaning of love is " ____________ " .
a. You're The Top
b. What is This Thing Called Love
c. Too Darn Hot
d. Kiss Me, Kate

4. Cole Porter went to live in Europe in 1916 because his first musical, "See America First" was _________ .
a. a great success
b. going to be produced in Paris
c. a big failure
d. a prize winner

5. Cole Porter used his money to live a life full of ___________ .
a. sorrow
b. activity
c. travel
d. pleasure

6. A movie made about Cole Porter is called " ___________ " .
a. Kiss me, Kate
b. Cole Porter
c. De Lovely
d. Falling in Love

7. Cole Porter got the idea for "Night and Day" while traveling in ____________ .
a. Morocco
b. Paris
c. Spain
d. Peru

8. Some people thought his songs were outside of what was ___________ .
a. normal
b. socially acceptable
c. rational
d. interesting

9. Another name for this article could be " __________ " .
a. Songs of the Twenties
b. Life Among the Rich
c. Cole Porter: Great Writer of Love Songs
d. Song Writers of the Thirties

10. This article is mainly about ________ .
a. what love really is about
b. why marriages often fail
c. the life story of a popular songwriter
d. how to find love in paradise

"First Nation Peoples" from Voice of America

2010-07-27T18:11:00.001-07:00

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 tell about early Native Americans.

Scientists believe that the native peoples of America came here thousands of years ago during the last ice age. These people settled the land from the cold northern areas to the extreme end of South America.

As the groups of people settled different parts of the land, they developed their own languages, their own cultures and their own religions. Each group's story is important in the history of the Americas. However, it is perhaps the tribes of the central part of the United States that are most recognized. They will be our story today.

(MUSIC)

In 1804, Merriwether Lewis and William Clark led a group of explorers to the Pacific Ocean. They were the first educated Americans to see some of the native tribes of the Great Plains.

And they were the first white people these Native American people had ever seen.

When the group of explorers neared the eastern side of the great Rocky Mountains, they met with a tribe of Indians called the Shoshoni. Merriwether Lewis was the first to see them.

Let us imagine we are with Merriwether Lewis near the Rocky Mountains almost two hundred years ago. Across a small hill, a group of sixty Shoshoni men are riding toward us.

(MUSIC)

The first thing we see is that these men are ready for war. Each is armed with a bow and arrows. Some carry long poles with a sharp knife on the end.

They are riding very fast. Some horses seem to be without riders. But a closer look shows that the men are hanging off the sides, or under the horse’s neck. They are using the horses' bodies as protection.

The horses are painted with many different designs that use blue, black, red or other colors. Later we learn that each design has a special meaning for the man who owns the horse. Each one tells a story.

For example, the man riding one horse is a leader during battle. Another has killed an enemy in battle. One of the designs protects the horse and rider.

As they come nearer, the Shoshoni group sees that we are not ready for war. They slow their horses but are still very careful. Merriwether Lewis holds up a open hand as a sign of peace. The leader of the Shoshoni does the same. They come closer.

The Shoshoni are dressed in clothes made from animal skin. Most of these skins are from deer or the American buffalo. The shirts they wear have many designs, and tell stories like the designs on the horses. One shows a man has fought in a battle. Another shows a man has been in many raids to capture horses. Still another shows the man saved the life of a friend.

Captain Lewis smiles at these men. He again makes a hand sign that means peace. The signs are now returned. Lewis and the Shoshoni chief cannot speak each other's language. They can communicate using hand signs.

One young Shoshoni man comes near. He drops to the ground from his horse. He is tall and looks strong. His hair is black in color and long. He wears one long bird feather in the back of his hair. Some of his hair is held in place by animal fur.

His arms have been painted with long lines. We learn that each line represents a battle. There are many lines. But we leave the Shoshoni without him adding another one.

(MUSIC)

The Shoshoni were only one of many tribes of native people who lived in the Great Plains area. The life, culture and society of these tribes developed because of the land that was their home.

The Great Plains today is still huge. Even in a car, traveling at one hundred kilometers an hour, it can take two long days of driving to cross the Great Plains. The plains reach from several hundred kilometers north in Canada across the middle of the continent to Mexico in the south.

In the East, the Great Plains begin near the Mississippi River and go west to the huge Rocky Mountains. It is the center of the United States. There are big rivers here, deserts and mountains. Other areas are so flat that a person can see for hundreds of kilometers. Millions of kilometers of this land were once covered by a thick ocean of grass.

The grass provided food for an animal that made possible the culture of the Indians of the Great Plains. The grass fed the bison, the American buffalo.

The buffalo was the center of native Indian culture in the Great Plains. The huge animal provided meat for the Indians. But it was much more than just food. It was an important part of the religion of most of the native people in the Great Plains.

The Lakota tribe is one of the people of the Great Plains. The Lakota are sometimes called the Sioux. They believed that everything necessary to life was within the buffalo. Another Plains tribe, the Blackfeet, called the animal "My home and my protection."

(MUSIC)

The back of the huge buffalo provided thick skin that was used to make homes for the Plains Indians. Other parts were made into clothing. Still other parts became warm blankets. Buffalo bones were made into tools. Nothing of the animal was wasted.

No one knows how many buffalo were in North America when Merriwether Lewis first met the Shoshoni. But experts say it was probably between sixty million to seventy-five million.

Another animal also helped make possible the Indian cultures of the Great Plains. Native Americans first called these animals mystery dogs, or big dogs. They had no word for this animal in their language. We know it as the horse.

No horses existed in North America before the Spanish arrived in the 1500s in what is now the southern part of the United States. Native peoples hunted, moved and traveled by foot. Traveling long distances was difficult, so was hunting buffalo.

The horse greatly changed the life of all the people of the Great Plains. It gave them a method of travel. It provided a way to carry food and equipment. It made it easier and safer to follow and hunt the buffalo. The horse made it possible to attack an enemy far away and return safely. The number of horses owned became the measure of a tribe's wealth.

Spanish settlers rode horses to the small town of Santa Fe in what is now the southwestern state of New Mexico. They arrived there in about the year 1609.

It is not known how native peoples in Santa Fe got the first horses in the country. Perhaps they traded for them. Perhaps they captured them in an attack. Many tribes soon were trading and capturing horses.

By the 1750s, all the tribes of the Great Plains had horses. They had become experts at raising, training and riding horses. They became experts at horse medicine.

Each Indian of the Great Plains could ride a horse by the age of five. As an adult, a young man would have a special horse for work. Another horse would be trained for hunting. And another would be trained for war. An Indian warrior's success depended upon how closely he and his horses worked together.

(MUSIC)

George Catlin was an artist who traveled a great deal in the early American west. He painted many beautiful pictures of American Indians. Mr. Catlin said the Plains Indian was the greatest horse rider the world has ever known. He said the moment an Indian rider laid a hand on his horse he became part of the animal.

The buffalo and horse were extremely important to the Plains Indian. Because the horse made hunting easier, more time could be spent on things like art. The Plains Indians began to make designs on their clothing, and on special blankets their horses wore. Even common objects were painted with designs.

The coming of white settlers to the Great Plains was the beginning of the end of the buffalo and horse culture of the American Indians. Settlers did not want buffalo destroying their crops. The buffalo were killed. By the year 1885, the Indians of the Great Plains were mostly restricted to area of land called reservations.

Lakota Medicine Wheel

Many of the Great Plains tribes that survive today work hard to keep their traditional cultures. They produce art, music, and clothing. They keep alive the memory of these people who added greatly to the history of America.

(MUSIC)

This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

For more reading and listening on this subject, see:
Crazy Horse, Leader of the Lakota Sioux
George Catlin: Painter of First Nation People, Early 1800s
George Catlin: Part Two and a Quiz

"Jackie Robinson: the First African-American Professional Baseball Player" from VOA.

2010-07-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about a man who changed professional baseball in the United States. Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was the first black man to play in modern major league baseball.

(MUSIC)

After World War Two, many Americans still believed that people of different races should not mix.

In some parts of the country, blacks and whites lived in separate areas and went to separate schools. Blacks who tried to change the system risked being beaten or killed.

Blacks were not permitted to play on professional baseball teams or in any other major league sport. No black man had played for a major league baseball team since eighteen eighty-four. In that year, American baseball organizations agreed to bar blacks. That began changing when Jackie Robinson played his first game for New York's Brooklyn Dodgers on April fifteenth, nineteen forty-seven.

(MUSIC)

Jackie Robinson grew up in a family of five children in Pasadena, California, near Los Angeles. His father had left. His mother did not earn much money, so Jackie Robinson learned to make his own way in life. It was in California that Jackie Robinson first learned the ugliness of racial hatred. White families who did not want to live near them repeatedly tried to force them to move away.

Jackie Robinson established himself early as an athlete. He was a star player while attending the University of California at Los Angeles.

Jackie won honors in baseball, basketball, football and track. He was named to the All-American football team. He was considered the best athlete on America's west coast.

Jackie Robinson left college early because of financial problems. He joined the United States Army in nineteen forty-one, during the Second World War. He became a lieutenant after boxing champion Joe Louis pushed for Robinson to be trained as an officer. However, after three years, Robinson was dismissed from the army because he objected to a racial order. He refused to move to the back of a bus.

In nineteen forty-five, there were not many jobs open to a black man, even someone who had attended college. Robinson wanted to play professional baseball. Blacks, however, were not permitted to play in the major leagues. So, he decided to play with the Negro Baseball League. The Negro League teams were started in the nineteen twenties to give black people a place to play baseball.

Many of the best baseball players in the United States played in the Negro Leagues before white professional teams began accepting black players. The skills and records of black ball players were as good as major league white players. It was a hard life for Negro League players. They took long trips by bus. They changed clothes in farmhouses and shared bath water with teammates.

Many eating places did not serve food to blacks. They had to eat outside or on the road. And they were not permitted to sleep at hotels for whites. Many players slept on the bus.

Jackie Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs. It was one of the most famous baseball teams in the Negro League. But, he was unhappy in the Negro League because of the difficult life there. In a statement from the book "The History of Baseball, Nineteen-Oh-Seven," actor Ossie Davis expresses hope for change in the sport.

OSSIE DAVIS: "Baseball should be taken seriously by the colored player -- and in this effort of his great ability will open the avenue in the near future wherein he may walk hand in hand with the opposite race in the greatest of all American games -- baseball."

(MUSIC)

In nineteen forty-five, Jackie Robinson signed an agreement with Branch Rickey to play for the Dodgers. Rickey was president of the team. He wanted to find a black player who could deal with the insults and racial pressure he would face in the league.

He wanted a black player who would show restraint at all times. Rickey thought Jackie Robinson was good enough as a player and strong enough as a person to succeed. He made Robinson promise that he would never show his anger on the baseball field. Jackie Robinson accepted that condition. He said:

JACKIE ROBINSON: "I knew that I was going to be somewhat out front and perhaps, I would have to take a lot of abuse. I knew that this was bigger than any one individual and I would have to do whatever I possibly could to control myself."

Some observers said that Jackie Robinson was not the best player in the Negro Leagues. Others said that he was chosen for his communications skills and educational level and because he was an established sports star.

David Faulkner wrote a book about Robinson's life. It is called "Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson from Baseball to Birmingham." In it, he talks about the end of racial divisions in baseball.

DAVID FAULKNER: "For many years, there had been an active campaign against segregated baseball led by Negro newspaper editors and, strangely enough, by the Communist party, which from the middle nineteen thirties on, had actively campaigned against segregated baseball. There were a number of pending bills in different legislatures challenging fair employment practices. By nineteen forty-five, there was a lot of heat in a lot of different areas -- professional baseball was certainly feeling that. Robinson in a sense was the right person at the right time."

Shortly after Jackie Robinson signed the agreement with the Dodgers, he married Rachel Isum. They had three children. It was important to Branch Rickey that Jackie Robinson be married. He thought that the public would accept Robinson more quickly if he was married. He thought that it would lessen the fears of white men that white women would find Robinson desirable.

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In nineteen forty-six, Jackie Robinson began playing for the Dodgers' minor league Canadian team, the Montreal Royals. During that time, Branch Rickey tested Robinson's ability to deal with racial pressure he would face in the major league.

In nineteen forty-seven, Jackie Robinson became the first black to play modern major league baseball. He played for the Dodger's major league team, New York's Brooklyn Dodgers. In doing so, the pressure increased. He received death threats on and off the field. During games, pitchers threw the ball at his head. Several teams threatened not to play against the Dodgers. And, some of his own team members tried to have him banned from the team.

It was not easy for Robinson on road trips, either. He was never permitted to stay at the same hotels or eat in the same places as his white team members.

Jackie Robinson had difficulty on and off the baseball field, but he did not let that interfere with his game. He was a great player and leader, winning the National League's Most Valuable Player award in nineteen forty-nine. He also led the Brooklyn Dodgers to six league championships and to baseball's World Series Championship in nineteen fifty-five.

Jackie Robinson helped show that blacks and whites could live, work and play together. He became a national hero to both black and white Americans because of his skill, bravery and restraint. Robinson's success opened the door for other black athletes to play on all-white professional teams. Soon, other blacks began to appear on major-league teams. By the end of the nineteen fifties, every major league team had black and Hispanic players.

Jackie Robinson retired from baseball in nineteen fifty-six at the age of thirty-seven. He became a businessman, a political activist and a strong supporter of civil rights. In nineteen sixty-two, Jackie Robinson was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame, an honor given only to baseball's best players. He died in nineteen seventy-two. He was fifty-three years old.

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This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. The announcers were Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt.

I'm Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

"Sharks!!! Look Out!!!"

2010-07-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

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

This week, we will tell about sharks -- a fish with a public relations problem.

A picture in the newspaper shows a person standing next to a huge shark. The body of the shark is hanging with its head down. A scale is measuring its weight.

The lines below the picture say the shark was a very big one. Or perhaps it was one of the biggest ever caught in the area. The person who brought in the fish looks extremely pleased. That person won a battle with what has been called one of nature's fiercest creatures.

Some people, however, do not approve of catching sharks. They do not think all sharks are terrifying enemies. They know that studies show lightning and snakebites threaten people more than shark attacks.

Activists for sharks note that the fish are valuable in the ocean. Sharks eat injured and diseased fish. Their hunting means that other fish do not become too great in number. This protects other creatures and plants in the ocean.

Environmental activists worry that some kinds of fish are in danger of dying out. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that fishing operations kill more than one hundred million sharks every year. Sharks are harvested for meat and cartilage, liver oil and, especially, for their fins. Many of the animals die when people harvesting other kinds of fish pull in sharks by accident.

George Burgess leads the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History of the University of Florida. He says shark attacks increased during the past century for a good reason. Hundreds of millions of people now use the world's oceans, more than in the past.

Professor Burgess says the first ten years of the twenty-first century are expected to register the most attacks of any ten-year period.

Yet the International Shark Attack File reports that the number of shark attacks has, in fact, decreased in recent years. During this period, there was an average of sixty-three attacks worldwide each year. That compares with a high of seventy-nine in two thousand.

The file gives some likely reasons for the decrease. One reason is that overfishing of sharks and related fish has reduced the size of some shark populations.

Another is that more people are careful to stay away from waters where sharks swim. And the file says workers responsible for boating and beach safety may be doing a better job of warning people when sharks are seen.

The International Shark Attack File describes shark attacks as either provoked or unprovoked. An unprovoked attack means the person is alive when bitten. It also means the person must not have interfered with the shark.

Some divers interfere with sharks on purpose. They want to get the attention of sharks, perhaps to take pictures of them. The diver may put food in the water to get the animal to come close. Sharks do not normally want to be with people. But their excellent sense of smell leads them to food.

Some experienced divers say they may not face danger when near a shark. But they say the next person who comes near the shark may be in trouble. The animal's experience with being fed may make it connect food with people.

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Some divers, filmmakers and nature photographers enter a shark's territory while inside containers made of steel. Others wear heavy metal equipment for protection. And others get near sharks wearing only normal diving equipment.

Close contact with sharks has its critics. Some people say it represents invasion of the animals' territory for no good reason. But exciting films may increase public interest and sympathy for the animals.

Many people wanting to save sharks have formed activist groups. For example, a group called Shark Safe helped prevent the killing of sharks at a fishing competition in Florida earlier this month. Event organizers had said the goal would be to catch and release sharks.

But the Shark Safe Project said the stated goal of "bringing in the big one" would lead to killing of the biggest sharks. The big ones are the most likely to reproduce.

The Shark Safe Project planned a demonstration against the competition. The demonstration never took place, however. Instead, the event organizers changed their plans. Participants were to catch the sharks as expected. But all sharks were to be released.

The Shark-Free Marinas Initiative is a campaign aimed at helping sharks worldwide. Under the Initiative, people could not bring a killed shark to a participating marina. People transporting captured sharks to the boat landing for weighing and killing would also be rejected.

The initiative cooperates with several other programs, including the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas islands. The Institute is an educational center that also operates a shark research program.

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In late two thousand seven, a United Nations conference reported that one kind of shark, the basking shark, is in danger of dying out. The numbers of basking sharks have been decreasing for the past half-century. The animals are the second largest shark, after whale sharks. They swim with their mouths open, cleaning the water as they move. They take up and eat objects like fish eggs and tiny sea organisms.

Scientists want to know how and where basking sharks travel.

Recently, experts on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean were interested in a huge basking shark discovered in eastern Canada. The remains of the eight-meter long animal were found on a rocky beach in Saint John, New Brunswick. Experts said the cause of death is unknown.

Donald McAlpine heads the zoology collection at the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John. He said scientists removed the head and some backbones from the shark for examination. Mr. McAlpine said pictures of the animal were sent to scientists in Britain. The British scientists had requested the pictures to learn if the shark was the same fish they had observed on their side of the Atlantic.

Sharks can be identified by their individual markings and sometimes by healed wounds.

For years, the travels of basking sharks have been a mystery to scientists. Basking sharks from the northeastern United States are not seen in the winter. They seem to disappear from cool waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Yet studies published in the journal Current Biology are providing clues about the mystery.

The studies found that the sharks went to warmer waters of the Atlantic during the winter. The animals did a good job of staying hidden from sight. They swam in waters from two hundred to one thousand meters deep.

Like Americans living in cold climates, some of the sharks traveled to Florida for the winter. Others went even further south. One spent a month in waters near Brazil.

One of the investigators was Gregory Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. He says the fish probably get to eat more plankton in the warmer waters.

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Today, a major threat to sharks comes from shark fin soup. The popularity of the soup has increased greatly over the years. Fisheries can earn a lot of money for even one kilogram of shark fins.

Finning, as it is called, is big business. It means cutting the fins off a live shark. Fishermen cut off the shark's fins and throw the animal back into the water. The shark then bleeds to death on the bottom of the ocean.

Many animal-protection groups and people worldwide have denounced finning as cruel. Some areas have banned this activity. But it is hard to enforce the ban in many places.

Ann Luskey is an activist for the world's sea environment. She lives on a boat and often dives to watch underwater life. Her three children took part in an unusual recording project. The family hopes the music will attract attention to the need for taking good care of the earth and its seas.

One of the recordings is a hip-hop song called "Shark Fin Soup." It urges people not to eat the soup because it threatens sharks.

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This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. And I'm Bob Doughty. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

"Celebrating The Louvre in Paris" from VOA

2010-06-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we travel to Paris, France, to visit one of the most famous and most visited art collections in the world. From the twelfth to the eighteenth century, the Louvre was the home of the ruling families of France. In seventeen ninety-three the Louvre became a national museum to house the country’s treasures. The thirty-five thousand works of art in the museum represent thousands of years of human culture and come from all over the world.

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STEVE EMBER: One of the most striking ways to begin a visit to the Louvre Museum is to start in its central courtyard. This is an area where past and present building traditions meet. On three sides, you are surrounded by the museum’s carved stone walls.

In the center of the courtyard, there is a huge glass and steel pyramid surrounded by water fountains and smaller pyramids. This modern addition was designed by the Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei. You can enter the glass building and walk downstairs to an underground visitors center.

(SOUND)

BARBARA KLEIN: The next decision is which area of the huge museum to explore first. It would take days to fully explore the museum. So we will have to settle for a few favorite works. We will explore works from the three parts of the Louvre -- the Denon, Richelieu, and Sully wings.

First, we stop to see one of the most famous sculptures in the world. It is called the Winged Victory of Samothrace. This sculpture takes the form of a woman with wings. But this is not just any woman. This is the Greek goddess of victory. She is standing on the front of a ship facing the strong island winds. The artist carved her flowing clothing with such detail it is hard to believe she is made of stone. Experts believe this statue was made by the people of Rhodes about two thousand two hundred years ago as a religious offering to honor a naval victory.

STEVE EMBER: Nearby, there is another famous Greek statue of a woman. The Venus de Milo was made about a hundred years after Winged Victory. This marble statue is widely believed to be the goddess of love and beauty. The work was named after the island of Melos where the statue was discovered in eighteen twenty. This Venus wears nothing but a cloth draped over her curving waist and legs. She is easy to identify because she is missing both arms. The statue is somewhat mysterious. Experts still do not know what identifying objects those arms might have once held.

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BARBARA KLEIN: Visitors to the Louvre can watch the evolution of Renaissance art by looking at several hundreds of years of Italian paintings. The Italian artist Giotto painted “St. Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata” in thirteen hundred. Giotto painted St. Francis in a way that shows his very human emotions as he goes through an intense religious experience. Giotto explored how to represent three dimensional space using light and shade. His methods influenced later generations of artists.

STEVE EMBER: The artist Fra Angelico painted “The Coronation of the Virgin” about one hundred and thirty years later. It was made for the central area of a religious center. The painting shows Jesus crowning his mother, Mary. To help express the wonder of this moment, Fra Angelico filled the work with light and gold.

Other paintings show important political leaders and events. For example, Paolo Uccello’s fifteenth century work, “The Battle of San Romano,” shows the intensity of war.

BARBARA KLEIN: It is hard to miss the crowds of people always gathering in one room on this floor. They have come to see what is arguably the most famous painting in the world. It is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” Created around fifteen oh three, this is a painting of an Italian woman named Lisa Gherardini. She was the wife of a businessman from Florence named Francesco del Giocondo. It is from him that the painting takes its other name, “La Gioconda.” The woman is sitting in a chair, looking directly at the painter. Behind her is a dreamy landscape. Experts still do not know much about this woman and her famous smile. They do not know why da Vinci painted it, or how it ended up in the collection of French ruler Francis the First. But the painting’s realism and mystery have captured the attention of viewers for centuries.

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STEVE EMBER: For a lesson in French history, we turn to the seventeenth century Flemish painter, Peter Paul Rubens. The queen of France, Marie de Medici, hired him to create a series of twenty-four paintings. These huge and colorful paintings make a political statement about her rise to power.

“The Lacemaker” by Johannes Vermeer provides a more peaceful and personal example of Dutch art. Painted around sixteen sixty-nine, this small work shows a woman quietly at work making lace. The artist’s method of capturing the effects of light is masterful.

BARBARA KLEIN: We cannot visit a French museum without exploring examples of French art. First, we catch someone lying. Georges de la Tour painted the emotionally expressive “The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds” in sixteen thirty-five. It shows four people playing cards, and one person is not playing fairly.

We move on to several paintings from the nineteenth century period known as Romanticism. “Liberty Leading the People” is an important work by Eugene Delacroix.

This huge painting shows the artist’s representation of a political uprising in Paris in eighteen thirty. Liberty takes the form of a strong woman holding the French flag. She is guiding the French people to fight. There are dead bodies, smoke, and the buildings of Paris in the distance.

STEVE EMBER: “The Raft of the Medusa,” painted in eighteen nineteen, is an emotional work by Theodore Gericault. The subject is based on real events. The painting shows a group of sailors struggling to survive on a floating raft after the sinking of their ship, the Medusa.

They are wildly motioning to a ship in the distance. But they seem to know that death will soon mark their future. This work was disputed at the time. Many people believed art should only show beautiful subjects. But others praised the work for its political message and modernity.

BARBARA KLEIN: Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres’ painting “La Grande Odalisque” shows a beautiful woman wearing no clothes. She has turned her long curving back to the viewer. She looks over her shoulder in a sensual way.

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STEVE EMBER: We continue our visit to the Louvre with the huge collection of art from ancient Egypt, Persia and the Middle East.

“The Great Sphinx of Tanis” from ancient Egypt dates back over four thousand six hundred years. This stone statue has the body of a lion and the head of an Egyptian ruler. It expresses a sense of permanence and solidity.

Another famous ancient piece is the “Law Code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon.” It is almost four thousand years old. This piece of basalt rock has been cut with words in the Akkadian language. It is one of the oldest collections of laws in human history.

BARBARA KLEIN: Two four-meter-tall sculptures stand guard on either side of a door. They are winged bulls with human heads. The sculptures are over two thousand years old. They came from a home built by the Assyrian ruler Sargon the Second in modern day Iraq.

The Louvre’s rich collection of Islamic art will soon have a new home. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia donated twenty million dollars to build a new exhibit area within the Louvre. It is expected to open in two thousand twelve.

STEVE EMBER: For the most part, the Louvre museum’s collection does not extend past works made in the mid-nineteenth century. But the Louvre recently made a special exception.

The American artist Cy Twombly is one of only three modern artists who have been asked to make a permanent piece of art for the Louvre. His work covers over three hundred fifty square meters of ceiling in a room that contains treasures from ancient Greece. The painting is like a bright blue sky with floating circular shapes on its edges.

Mr. Twombly wrote the name of ancient Greek artists in Greek letters. His aim was to honor the skillful work of ancient Greek sculptors. His painting and the Louvre Museum show the importance of celebrating art’s past and its present.

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

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. You can see pictures of some of these works of art at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

"The Herbal Pharmacy" from Voice of America.

2010-06-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

The Tumeric Plant

BOB DOUGHTY: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a program in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, we will tell about herbs and spices, and some of their many uses.

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BOB DOUGHTY: People have been using herbs and spices for thousands of years. Generally, herbs come from the green leaves of plants or vegetables. Spices come from other parts of plants and trees. For example, cinnamon comes from the hard outer cover of cinnamon plants. The spice ginger comes from the part of the ginger plant that grows underground.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Some herbs and spices are valued for their taste. They help to sharpen the taste of many foods. Others are chosen for their smell. Still others were used traditionally for health reasons.

Some herbs and spices may be gaining importance in modern medicine. For example, natural chemicals from black pepper and the Indian spice turmeric might help to prevent breast cancer. Researchers at the University of Michigan say a substance developed from the spices could reduce the possibility of breast tumors.

BOB DOUGHTY: Turmeric is a plant. It also is used to make the spicy food seasoning curry. In the study, researchers tested curcumin, a chemical compound taken from turmeric. They also used peperine, which comes from black peppers.

The researchers combined the two compounds, and placed the mixture on breast cancer cells in a laboratory. The mixture caused the number of stem cells to decrease. Normal breast tissue, however, was not affected.

Results of the study were reported in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. Madhuri Kakarala was lead writer of the report. Doctor Kakarala teaches at the University of Michigan’s Medical School. She also works as a research investigator for the Veterans Administration Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Doctor Kakarala says the cancer-fighting treatments known as chemotherapy do not control tumors containing cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells are found inside tumors. They help the tumor continue growing without restriction. This means the disease can spread and return. The disappearance of cancer stem cells, then, is important for cancer control.

The doctor also says researchers could be able to limit the number of cells that can form tumors if they limit the number of normal stem cells. That would reduce the possibility of the disease appearing.

BOB DOUGHTY: Research involving turmeric is not new. Scientists have been studying its medical possibilities for many years. For example, researchers in Singapore completed one such study several years ago. The study was based on earlier evidence that turmeric has strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities. These qualities can help protect against damage to the body’s tissues and other injuries.

The researchers said turmeric has been shown to reduce evidence of damage in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. But, they said evidence was lacking about cases of Alzheimer’s in people who ate curry compared with people who did not use curry.

For this reason, the researchers designed a study that examined results from a mental-performance test of older Asian adults. The adults were sixty to ninety-three years old. None had severe memory losses. Those who sometimes ate curry, or ate it often or very often, did better on the tests than individuals who rarely or never ate curry.

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FAITH LAPIDUS: The work of the Mayo Clinic and its medical experts is world-famous. The Clinic operates medical centers in three American states. Its “Health Letter” publication of November, two thousand seven provided more evidence that herbs and spices can aid health. Mayo Clinic experts said people could reduce salt use by using herbs and spices instead. Too much salt is a problem for people with health conditions like high blood pressure.

The experts said some plant chemicals are high in antioxidants. In addition to turmeric, these include cloves, cinnamon, ginger, oregano, sage and thyme.

BOB DOUGHTY: The experts also said antioxidants like garlic, rosemary and saffron have qualities that could fight cancer. They said limited evidence shows that cinnamon, fenugreek and turmeric may affect blood sugar levels in people with diabetes.

Not all studies agree that spices could help diabetes patients. But some research suggests that they could because of a suspected link between inflammation and diabetes. Inflammation is the body’s way of reacting to infection.

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FAITH LAPIDUS: Researchers from the University of Georgia reported two years ago that cinnamon could help reduce blood sugar. The researchers tested twenty-four common herbs and spices. The tests showed that many of the substances contained high levels of antioxidant chemicals known as polyphenols.

The researchers found that ground cloves had the most polyphenols. Cloves were the most effective at calming inflammation of any spice or herb they tested. Cinnamon was second. Other research has shown that cinnamon gets more use in cooking than ground cloves. This means it could affect the health of more people. Still, the Mayo Clinic warns that cinnamon CANNOT replace proven medicines for diabetes.

BOB DOUGHTY: Another American study found that adding spices to meat before cooking at high temperatures may reduce harmful chemicals. Researchers at Kansas State University reported on their experiments with steaks in two thousand eight. They found a major decrease in unwanted chemicals by preparing the meat with spice and herb marinades. The study showed that this may decrease formation of heterocyclic amines, also known as HCAs. The researchers say these chemicals may cause cancer in some people.

America’s National Cancer Institute says cooking meat at very high temperatures produces the most HCAs. The chemicals form when amino acids react with creatine, a chemical found in muscles. But meats from organs and non-meat protein sources have little or no HCA.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Research on HCAs has made some people afraid to prepare meat on a grill – the place where meat is cooked on hot coals or an open fire. Cooking meat this way is a traditional favorite of many Americans during warm weather.

The Kansas State University study, however, may show a way that reduces risk for people who grill on high heat. The researchers placed some steaks in already prepared spice mixes, or marinades. The meat then was grilled for five minutes on each side at a temperature of more than two hundred degrees Celsius. The researchers also cooked steaks marinated without spices, and steaks that were not marinated. They were prepared at the same temperature as meat with the marinade mixes.

The researchers compared levels of the HCAs in all the steaks. They found the HCAs in the meat marinated in spices had decreased up to eighty-eight percent.

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BOB DOUGHTY: Herbs and spices are often used because they can make food taste better. Some spices also destroy bacteria. Spices have long been used to keep food safe to eat. In the past, spices also helped to prevent the wasting away of dead bodies.

Herb and spice plants grow in many countries. For example, the Molucca Islands in Indonesia are famous for producing spices like cloves, nutmeg or mace. Vanilla comes from orchid plants growing in South America and other places with warm, moist weather.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Spices have influenced world history. For example, the Goth people of Europe defeated Roman forces in battle more than sixteen centuries ago. After the fighting ended, the leader of the Goths is said to have demanded five-thousand pounds of gold and three thousand pounds of pepper.

More recently, Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus discovered new lands while seeking to expand trade with spice-growing areas in Asia. The Italian cities of Genoa and Venice became powerful because they were at the center of the spice trade. The trade was so important to national economies that rulers launched wars in their struggle to control spices.

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BOB DOUGHTY: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I’m Bob Doughty.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

"Lena Horne, A Star Who Broke Racial Barriers", from VOA.

2010-05-27T18:09:00.000-07:00

BARBARA KLEIN: I’m Barbara Klein.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we remember the singer and actress Lena Horne. She helped break racial barriers by changing the way black women were represented in film. During her sixty-year career performing, Lena Horne electrified audiences with her beauty and rich, emotional voice. She used her fame to fight social injustices toward African-Americans.

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BARBARA KLEIN: That was Lena Horne singing her most famous song, “Stormy Weather.” She sang this song in a nineteen forty-three musical movie of the same name. In the nineteen forties, Lena Horne was the first African-American in Hollywood to sign a long-term contract with a major movie studio. Her deal with MGM stated that she would never play the role of a servant.

During this period, African-American actors were mostly limited to playing servants or African natives. Lena Horne refused to play roles that represented African-Americans disrespectfully.

STEVE EMBER: But this refusal also limited her movie career. Horne was generally only offered the role of a nightclub singer. Her characters did not interact with white characters in these movies. This way, her part could be cut from the version of the movie that played in the American South. During this time, racial separation laws were in effect in the South.

Lena Horne later wrote that the movie producers did not make her into a servant, but they did not make her into anything else either. She said she became a butterfly pinned down and singing away in Movieland.

BARBARA KLEIN: Lena Horne once said that World War Two helped make her a star. She was popular with both black and white servicemen. She sang on army radio programs and traveled to perform for the troops. During one event, she noted that German prisoners of war were permitted to sit closer to the stage than black soldiers. She criticized the way black soldiers were treated by the army. These experiences led to Lena Horne’s work in the civil rights movement.

LENA HORNE: “When I went to the South and met the kind of people who were fighting in such an unglamorous fashion, I mean, fighting to just get someplace to sit and get a sandwich. I felt close to that kind of thing because I had denied it and had been left away from it so long. And I began to feel such pain again.”

(MUSIC: “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”)

STEVE EMBER: Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was born in Brooklyn, New York in nineteen seventeen. Her mother, an actress, was away for much of Lena’s childhood. Lena’s grandmother helped raise her. Her grandmother was a social worker and women’s rights activist.

At the age of sixteen, Lena found work as a dancer at the famous Cotton Club in New York City. After taking voice lessons, she soon began performing there as a singer.

BARBARA KLEIN: At the age of nineteen, Lena Horne moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and married Louis Jones. Her marriage did not last long. But she had two children, Gail and Edwin.

In nineteen forty, Lena Horne became the first African-American to travel and perform with an all-white jazz band. She also made records and performed at New York City’s Café Society jazz club. This was the first nightclub in the United States without racial separation. Many jazz clubs during this period had black performers. But few allowed black people to watch the shows in the audience.

STEVE EMBER: Lena Horne became very popular. After performing at a club in Hollywood, California, she caught the attention of filmmakers. She soon began making movies. Lena Horne said that she was able to make movies because she was the kind of black person that white people could accept. But she said this was the worst kind of acceptance. It was for the way she looked, not for how good she was or how hard she worked.

BARBARA KLEIN: In nineteen forty-seven, Lena Horne married Lennie Hayton. He was a music writer for the MGM movie studio and was white. The couple married secretly in Paris, France. They did so because it was illegal at the time for people of different races to marry in the United States. They did not announce their marriage for three years. Lena Horne later said that she first became involved with Lennie Hayton because she thought he could be useful to her career. He could help get her into places that a black manager could not. But she says she began to love him because he was a nice man.

(MUSIC: “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man of Mine”)

STEVE EMBER: Lena Horne’s movie career slowed down in the nineteen fifties. But she continued recording and performing live and on television. Her nineteen fifty-seven album, “Lena Horne at the Waldorf Astoria,” became a best-seller.

She also became increasingly involved in civil rights activities. She protested racial separation at the hotels where she performed. She took action so that she and her musicians would be permitted to stay in those hotels. Black musicians at the time generally stayed in black neighborhoods.

Lena Horne also sang at civil rights gatherings. She took part in the March on Washington protest in nineteen sixty-three. It was during this event that Martin Luther King Junior gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.

BARBARA KLEIN: Lena Horne performed in a strong and expressive way. One expert said she was not warm and friendly like white, male singers at the time. Instead, she was a fierce, black woman.

Lena Horne once said she felt a need to act distant on stage to protect herself. She said when white audiences saw her, they were busy seeing their own idea of a black woman. She chose to show them a woman whom they could not reach. She said: “They get the singer, but they are not going to get the woman.”

(MUSIC: “I Want to Be Happy”)

STEVE EMBER: Lena Horne continued making records throughout the nineteen sixties, seventies and eighties. In nineteen eighty-one she returned to Broadway in New York with the show “Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music.”

The show ran for over a year, before traveling around the United States and Europe. It earned her a Tony Award and two Grammy Awards.

BARBARA KLEIN: Lena Horne died in two thousand ten at the age of ninety-two. At the age of eighty, she said this about her career: “My identity is very clear to me now. I am a black woman. I’m free.” She said she no longer had to be a “first” to anybody.

She said she did not have to act like a white woman that Hollywood hoped she would become. She said: “I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.”

(MUSIC: “The Lady is a Tramp”)

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

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Lena Horne sings "Stormy Weather" with lyrics.

"Japanese-American Art During World War Two" from VOA.

2010-05-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Visitors to Washington, D.C. this summer can see a powerful exhibit that tells about a dark period in American history. The exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery is called “The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946.” It shows more than one hundred objects made by Japanese-Americans.

They were forced into internment camps by the United States government during World War Two. The objects made by these detainees helped to brighten their lives during a difficult period. And, they show the strength of the human spirit in surviving terrible conditions.
(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: To understand the meaning of this exhibit, we start with a little history. In the spring of nineteen forty-two, the United States government began carrying out an executive order to imprison Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast. About one hundred twenty thousand people of Japanese ancestry were forced to leave their homes and businesses. They were moved to ten rural detention centers, mainly in western states. Two-thirds of these people were American-born citizens. The government described the action as a military necessity to protect against spying or sabotage while the United States was at war with Japan.

BARBARA KLEIN: The internment program was a reaction to the Japanese bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This event in December, nineteen forty-one resulted in the United States’ entry into World War Two.
But experts say the idea to create internment camps was also rooted in a general prejudice towards Japanese immigrants that started long before the war.

The government did not give Japanese-Americans much time to go to resettlement centers. They were forced to leave behind most of what they owned. For the first months, detainees were forced to live in temporary housing at “assembly centers.” During this time, the United States military built more permanent detention centers. Japanese-Americans would be forced to live there until nineteen forty-five when the war ended.
(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: One of the first objects in the “Art of Gaman” exhibit is a painting of a severe mountain landscape. At the base of these mountains is a detailed drawing of an internment camp. It is filled with small houses and surrounded by metal fences and guard towers.

The unidentified artist lived in this camp, the Tule Lake detention center in northern California. He did not have art supplies to make drawings. So he taped together two military command notices and drew on the back. This work is a good example of the inventive and creative ways that detainees found materials to make their art.

BARBARA KLEIN: Delphine Hirasuna organized the “Art of Gaman” exhibit. It is based on her book of the same name. She describes how she got the idea.

DELPHINE HIRASUNA: "After my mom died, I was going through a box in the garage and when I looked inside, I saw this little bird pin.”BARBARA KLEIN: Delphine Hirasuna says she never heard her parents discuss their life in detention. In two thousand, she found the bird pin carved out of wood. She started to wonder what other artistic objects had been made in the camps. She wanted to know more about the objects that had been put aside and forgotten because of their painful memories.

STEVE EMBER: Delphine Hirasuna says she began to understand that the objects made in the camps were representations of “gaman.” This Japanese word expresses the idea of accepting a difficult situation with bravery and honor. The detainees made the objects to express themselves artistically and do something worthwhile with their time. Many of the objects in the exhibit were made to be useful as well as beautiful.

DELPHINE HIRASUNA: “Because the only thing that was in their barrack was a metal cot and mattress ticking which they filled with straw. The first things they made were chairs, tables, someplace to put their clothes away. And then because they were there for three and a half years, as time wore on, they made things to beautify their surroundings.”

"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473232244313811010" />BARBARA KLEIN: One example is a table made of pieces of found wood. The artist used pieces of palm tree branches to give the table nice details. Other objects made from found materials include a board for washing clothes and a set of scissors and knives. There were few tools in the camps, so some men melted pieces of metal to make tools.

The detainees were extremely inventive about finding materials. In some camps, they were permitted to explore the land to find natural materials.

DELPHINE HIRASUNA: “Two of the camps were over ancient sea beds. And they discovered that there were millions of shells on the ground. You could just scratch the earth and they said you could pick up buckets. There was a slate quarry at one of the camps. People picked up slate and carved the teapots and things.”

The pins are made of beans, seeds, shells, wood and paper

STEVE EMBER: A glass case in the exhibit holds a collection of pins that people wore on the front of their clothing. They look like flowers, until you look more closely. Detainees in two of the camps made them with small shells that they painted to look like flower arrangements. There were no real flowers for detainees to use in ceremonies like funerals and weddings. So, they would make their own flowers.

At another camp, detainees used different colored pipe cleaners to make large flower arrangements.

One extremely detailed container for holding cigarettes is woven out of an unusual material. The artist tied together pieces of string from a bag that was made to hold onions.

BARBARA KLEIN: Professionally trained artists made some of the works in the exhibit. For example, Sadayuki Uno had studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts. During the war, he was detained in Jerome, Arkansas. In the camp, he carved objects out of wood. He made four small carvings that looked like the faces of four leaders during World War Two: Benito Mussolini, Josef Stalin, Adolph Hitler and Winston Churchill. These carvings are very expressive and lively.

STEVE EMBER: Before the war, Chiura Obata was an art professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Mister Obata helped start an arts program for detainees in his camp. He found other professional artists at the camp to help teach. Mister Obata also kept a detailed record in his drawing book. The drawings show what life was like during the forced move and detainment of Japanese-Americans.

Several of his sketches are in the exhibit. One shows Mister Obata’s wife, Haruko, sitting on the train that took them from a temporary camp to their long-term camp in Topaz, Utah. Another drawing shows an old man bent over, trying to reach for a small dog near a metal fence. The old man was unable to hear, so when prison guards warned him to halt, he did not stop. The guards shot the man because they believed he was trying to escape.
(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Jewel Okawachi’s parents were also detained during the war. Her father made dental devices during his detainment. She says people in the camps gave him the objects they had made as payment for his services. She kept the shell jewelry, bird pins and carved objects her parents collected over the years.
Miz Okawachi does not know the identity of the artists who created the objects. But she says she believes they would be happy to learn their work was on exhibit. And she says “The Art of Gaman” pays a welcome honor to her parents.

JEWEL OKAWACHI: “The only time I feel bitter is what it did to my parents. Because they came to this country for freedom and to make a better life for themselves and this happened.”

BARBARA KLEIN: She says many people would ask her father why he was not an American citizen, but he would never answer the question.

JEWEL OKAWACHI: “Having your freedom taken away from you is really something that is hard to forget.”

STEVE EMBER: No Japanese in the United States was ever found guilty of sabotage or treason during World War Two. But, it took more than forty years for the United States government to officially apologize for its actions. This apology resulted from a campaign organized by the Japanese-American community.
In nineteen eighty-eight the United States passed a law admitting the injustice. The act also gave each surviving victim of internment twenty thousand dollars.

Delphine Hirasuna says in her book that her aim has been to honor the experience of Japanese-Americans in the camps. She says the objects in this exhibit show their strong will and resourcefulness as well as their spirit and humanity.

BARBARA KLEIN: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange with reporting by Susan Logue. I’m Barbara Klein.
STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. You can comment on this program on our website, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

To see and read more about the art of gaman, click on the following link: Renwick: The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946

"The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park" from VOA.

2010-05-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

This is Gwen Outen. And this is Bob Doughty with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Today we tell about the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. This unusual national park celebrates the great harbor of San Francisco, California. It also celebrates the men and women who sailed the ships that made this harbor famous.

(MUSIC)

Our story begins long ago in October, 1769. A group of Spanish explorers have come north from Mexico. They are moving slowly up the coast of the territory of California. The governor of California, Gaspar de Portola, leads the group.

The men and horses are tired. It has been a long trip. Governor de Portola decides to rest for a few days. But he still wants to explore the area. He orders a young man to take some soldiers and search to the north for a few kilometers. The young man is Jose Francisco Ortega.

On the morning of November second, 1769, Ortega leads his small group of soldiers up a hill. What they see from the top of the hill makes them stop. There, below them, is a body of water. They are looking at a huge bay. Its waters seem to stretch for many kilometers to the north, south and east. The waters are very calm.

When the small group of soldiers reports to Governor de Portola, they are excited. They tell him of a huge natural harbor. A Spanish religious worker reports the harbor is so large it could hold all of the ships of Europe.

Six years after the huge bay was discovered, the Spanish ship San Carlos is sailing north along the coast of California. Juan Manuel de Ayala commands the ship. As the little ship sails along the coast, one of the crew reports to de Ayala. He says there is a huge opening in the landmass several kilometers wide.

De Ayala orders the San Carlos to sail carefully into the opening. A crew member reports the water in the opening is more than 120 meters deep. Slowly the little ship enters the huge natural harbor.

For more than a month, de Ayala and his crew will sail their little ship around the huge bay. They make maps and study the area. They discover the bay is more than 80 kilometers long and from three to 19 kilometers wide. On September 18, 1775, the San Carlos leaves the great bay. The San Carlos was the first ship to enter what would become San Francisco Bay.

(MUSIC)

The Spanish exploration was the beginning of the history of San Francisco harbor. That long history is celebrated at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

The park’s main visitor center and museum is only a few hundred meters from the waters of the great harbor. The main building and the surrounding area are part of the history of the city and its link with the Pacific Ocean. It is a memorial to the great ships and those who sailed them.

The Maritime National Park was designed to tell the story of the huge harbor. It also tells of the importance of the bay to the city of San Francisco, the state of California and the United States.

The visitor center holds many objects linked to the past of the great harbor. There are small ships, ship equipment, and hundreds of beautiful old photographs. Many of the photographs from about 1849 show thousands of sailing ships surrounding the city of San Francisco. This is when gold was discovered in California. Thousands of people came looking for gold and wealth.

Many visitors also stop to look at a large painting of a huge sailing ship. The painting shows the ship fighting against an angry ocean. Blue and green waters break against the side of the ship. Men high up in the ship’s masts are trying to control the sails. It is a painting of a ship named the "Balclutha." The ship was built in Scotland in 1886.

Visitors learn that the Balclutha fought storms around the tip of South America on its first trip. It reached the harbor of San Francisco after one 140 days at sea. It carried a cargo of coal from Britain.

Visitors who look at the painting can go out the front door of the visitor center and see the real Balclutha. The Balclutha is the largest of almost 100 ships and boats that are part of the Maritime National Park.

People walking near Fisherman’s Wharf often do not believe their eyes when they first see the Balclutha. Almost everyone stops and looks at the huge ship. Many people take photographs.

The Balclutha is more than 91 meters long. The three tall masts that once carried its sails reach 44 meters into the sky. It seems to be an object from the past that has arrived in modern San Francisco.

The great ship looks almost new. Several years ago, more than one million dollars was spent to repair and paint the Balclutha. Now, more than 200,000 people a year visit the ship. The visitors learn how the Balclutha once traveled the world carrying cargo. They can see a photograph of the first crew of the Balclutha. That crew sailed it into San Francisco harbor with a cargo of coal more than 100 years ago.

(MUSIC)

The Balclutha is perhaps the most popular ship with visitors to the Maritime Park. However they can also visit several others ships. These are also very important to the history of the great harbor. But not all of these ships are open to the public. One that is open is a small steam-powered workboat that was built in 1907.

This small boat is named the Hercules. The Hercules is a tugboat. Until 1924 it pulled ships around the harbor. It pulled huge amounts of wood from trees from the city of Seattle, Washington in the north all the way to Panama. And it moved cargo from place to place within San Francisco harbor.

Another boat popular with visitors is the Eureka. It was built in 1890. It is the largest wooden ship still floating today. The Eureka was a ferryboat. It carried people and cars across San Francisco bay. It did this until the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland Bay Bridge were built.

The C.A. Thayer is another sailing ship. It was built in 1895. It carried wood from trees along the Pacific Coast from the state of Washington to California. Later it was used as a fishing boat. It is one of only two West Coast lumber ships in existence. A few years ago, it was badly in need of repair. The park decided to rebuild the ship using traditional materials

The work began in 2003. The C.A. Thayer returned to its home in the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in April 2007. The superintendent of the park, Kate Richardson, said the project "preserved an important piece of history and culture."

A much smaller sailing ship is called the Alma. Sailors called this kind of ship a scow. It usually had only two crew members and perhaps a boy who was learning how to work on a boat. The Alma was the kind of small ship used during the California Gold Rush. It delivered cargo across the great harbor and up rivers. Ships like the Alma carried almost everything -- bricks, salt, lumber, grain, food. The little ships could carry as much cargo as a large modern truck.

(MUSIC)

The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park also has a very unusual looking museum. It is a large building that almost looks like a ship. The museum is filled with interesting equipment. One room has been made to look like a ship’s radio room

Radio operators show visitors how the equipment was used.

One of the most interesting objects in the museum is a small sailboat only large enough for one person. It is only five-and-one-half meters long. The little boat is named Mermaid. In 1962, Japanese sailor Kenichi Horie sailed the Mermaid alone across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to San Francisco. No one had ever done such a thing before.

From the top of the building, visitors can watch the ships of the world sail in and out of the great harbor. Visitors to the San Francisco Maritime National Park learn that the history of the harbor is important to the past. And the work of San Francisco harbor continues into the future.

(MUSIC)

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. And this is Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English.

COMPREHENSON CHECK

1. Kenichi Horie sailed the __________ from Japan to San Francisco Bay.

a. Alma
b. Hercules
c. Mermaid
d. Eureka

2. The largest and most popular ship on display at the Maritime Museum and Park is the __________ .

a. C. A. Thayer
b. Balclutha
c. Santa Maria
d. Titanic

3. Many ships crowded San Francisco Bay during the __________ .

a. Bicentennial Celebration
b. Independence Day celebration
c. Gold Rush
d. 1929 Stock Market Crash

4. Explorers on an expedition led by _____________ were the first Europeans to see San Francisco Bay.

a. Arnold Schwarzenegger
b. C.A. Thayer
c. Juan Manuel de Ayala
d. Gaspar de Portola

5. It is not true that the C. G. Thayer was __________ .

a. restored using traditional materials
b. a fishing boat
c. a cruise ship
d. carried lumber from Washington to California

6. The Alma, used during the Gold Rush, had a crew of __________ .

a. no more than three
b. over a hundred
c. about twenty or twenty-five
d. animals as well as humans

7. The San Francisco Maritime Museum is shaped like a __________ .

a. sea gull
b. sail
c. ship
d. island

8. The first ship to sail into San Francisco Bay was the __________ .

a. Balclutha
b. San Carlos
c. San Bernadino
d. Mermaid

9. Another name for this article could be " __________ ."

a. The History of the Bay Area
b. San Francisco's Harbour
c. A Great Maritime Museum and Park
d. Schwarzenegger's Journey

10. This article is mainly about __________ .

a. different types of vessels
b. Bay Area shipping practices
c. the largest fishing boats in San Francisco
d. the San Francisco Maritime Museum and Park

This is Sweeney Ridge. It is the site of the first view of San Francisco Bay by the Portola expedition. There is a plaque on the ridge that
marks the probable site of the dramatic discovery by Jose Francisco Ortega and his small group. There is a very nice hike to the ridge you can take. You will also enjoy this magnificent view.

Discovery Site, Sweeney Ridge

This not a bad video of the bay, sea gulls, the bridge, and the Maritime Musuem.
The wind sound is soothing. I hope you enjoy it.

"Doctor Seuss" - a great writer of children's books, from VOA.

2010-05-01T19:41:00.001-07:00

MARY TILLOTSON: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.

Today we tell about one of the most successful writers of children’s books. Sarah Long and Steve Ember tell about Doctor Seuss.

(MUSIC)

SARAH LONG: Doctor Seuss was the name used by Theodor Seuss Geisel. He was famous because of the books he wrote for children. They combine humorous words, funny pictures, and social opinion. Mister Geisel also illustrated his books with pictures of funny creatures and plants. He did not receive training in art. Yet he created the pictures for most of his books.

The Doctor Seuss books are very popular with young readers. They enjoy the invented words. And they like to look at the pictures of unusual creatures such as the Cat in the Hat, Thing One, Thing Two, Little Cindy-Lou Who, and Sam-I-Am.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Theodor Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in nineteen-oh-four. He graduated from Dartmouth College in nineteen twenty-five. He spent a year studying literature at Oxford University in England. Mister Geisel returned to the United States in nineteen-twenty-seven. He hoped to become a writer of serious literature.

During this time the United States was in an economic decline known as the Great Depression. This forced Mister Geisel to delay his dreams of becoming a serious writer. He found work as a creator of advertising campaigns designed to sell products. He also drew cartoons for popular magazines including Life and Vanity Fair. Cartoons are humorous pictures with words.

Doctor Seuss wrote his first book for children in nineteen thirty-seven.
seussville.com

SARAH LONG: Doctor Seuss wrote his first book for children in nineteen thirty-seven. It is called "And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street." A number of publishers rejected it. They said it was too different. A friend finally published it. Soon other successful books followed. Over the years he wrote more than forty children's books. They were fun to read. Yet his books sometimes dealt with serious subjects including equality, responsibility and protecting the environment.

By the middle nineteen fifties, Doctor Seuss had become one of the best-loved and most successful children's book writers in the world. He had a strong desire to help children.

In nineteen fifty-four, Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read. The report said many children's books were not interesting. Doctor Seuss decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read. He used rhyming words, words with the same ending sound, like fish and wish.

In the book "Hop on Pop," he presented two words. Then he used them in simple sentences like this. Day. Play. We play all day. Night. Fight. We fight all night.

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen fifty-seven, Dr. Seuss wrote "The Cat in the Hat." He used less than two hundred twenty-five words to write the book. This was an estimate of the number of words a six-year-old should be able to read.

The story is about a cat who tries to entertain two children on a rainy day while their mother is away from home. The cat is not like normal cats. It is more like a human. It walks on two legs instead of four. It wears a tall, red and white hat. A big red bow is around its neck. And it talks. As the cat entertains the children it creates complete disorder in the house.

The book was an immediate success. It was a fun story and easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today many adults say it is still one of the stories they like best.

Listen as Ray Freeman reads from "The Cat in the Hat."

RAY FREEMAN:

The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play.

So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day.

I sat there with Sally. We sat there, we two.

And I said, "How I wish we had something to do!"

Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball.

So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all.

So all we could do was to Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit!

And we did not like it. Not one little bit.

And then something went BUMP!

How that bump made us jump!

We looked!

Then we saw him step in on the mat!

We looked!

And we saw him! The Cat in the Hat!

And he said to us, "Why do you sit there like that?

I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny.

But we can have lots of good fun that is funny!"

SARAH LONG: Doctor Seuss was very concerned that some children were not learning to read. The success of the Cat in the Hat made him want to write more books for children. He started a series called Beginner Books. Beginner Books remain well liked among children today. The series includes such titles as "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories," "Fox in Socks" and "The Lorax."

In nineteen sixty Doctor Seuss was urged by a book publisher to write a book using less than fifty words. And he did. The book is called "Green Eggs and Ham." It is one of Doctor Seuss' most popular books. In the book a creature named Sam-I-Am tries to get another creature to eat an unusual meal, green eggs and ham.

Here is part of the story read by Miko Prescott.

(SOUND)

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen sixty, Doctor Seuss wrote the story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It is about an extremely unkind man called the Grinch. He tries to stop Christmas from arriving in a village called Whoville. He steals all the Christmas gifts and food in the village while everyone is sleeping. Yet Christmas comes anyway. The people of Whoville are happy although they have no gifts. By the end of the story, the Grinch becomes a kind person. In this story Doctor Seuss gives the message that Christmas is about more than receiving gifts.

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas" was later produced for television. It first was shown in nineteen sixty-six. It continues to be a very popular holiday program. Here is a song from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It is called "You're a Mean One Mister Grinch."

(MUSIC)

SARAH LONG: In nineteen eighty-four, Mister Geisel won a Pulitzer Prize for children's literature. At that time he had been writing children's books for almost fifty years. He was honored for the education and enjoyment his books provided American children and their parents.

In nineteen eighty-six, Doctor Seuss wrote "You're Only Old Once." It was his first book written for adults. It talks about getting old. His last book was written in nineteen ninety. It was called "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

STEVE EMBER: Theodor Seuss Geisel died in nineteen ninety-one. He was eighty-seven years old. Doctor Seuss's influence remains through the books he wrote and illustrated. Millions of copies of them have been sold worldwide.

Experts say his books helped change the way American children learned to read. Yet, his books are loved by people of all ages. Doctor Seuss once said "I do not write for children. I write for people."

People continue to honor Doctor Seuss. Theodore Seuss Geisel was born on March Second. Each year on that day the National Education Association calls for every child and every community in America to celebrate reading. This program is called "Read Across America."

(MUSIC)

MARY TILLOTSON: This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Sarah Long and Steve Ember. I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

"To Build a Fire" by Jack London

2010-05-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

Now, the weekly Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES.

(MUSIC)

Our story today is called "To Build a Fire." It was written by Jack London. Here is Harry Monroe with the story.

(MUSIC)

HARRY MONROE: The man walked down the trail on a cold, gray day. Pure white snow and ice covered the Earth for as far as he could see. This was his first winter in Alaska. He was wearing heavy clothes and fur boots. But he still felt cold and uncomfortable.

The man was on his way to a camp near Henderson Creek. His friends were already there. He expected to reach Henderson Creek by six o'clock that evening. It would be dark by then. His friends would have a fire and hot food ready for him.

A dog walked behind the man. It was a big gray animal, half dog and half wolf. The dog did not like the extreme cold. It knew the weather was too cold to travel.

The man continued to walk down the trail. He came to a frozen stream called Indian Creek. He began to walk on the snow-covered ice. It was a trail that would lead him straight to Henderson Creek and his friends.

As he walked, he looked carefully at the ice in front of him. Once, he stopped suddenly, and then walked around a part of the frozen stream. He saw that an underground spring flowed under the ice at that spot. It made the ice thin. If he stepped there, he might break through the ice into a pool of water. To get his boots wet in such cold weather might kill him. His feet would turn to ice quickly. He could freeze to death.

At about twelve o'clock, the man decided to stop to eat his lunch. He took off the glove on his right hand. He opened his jacket and shirt, and pulled out his bread and meat. This took less than twenty seconds. Yet, his fingers began to freeze.

He hit his hand against his leg several times until he felt a sharp pain. Then he quickly put his glove on his hand. He made a fire, beginning with small pieces of wood and adding larger ones. He sat on a snow-covered log and ate his lunch. He enjoyed the warm fire for a few minutes. Then he stood up and started walking on the frozen stream again.

A half hour later, it happened. At a place where the snow seemed very solid, the ice broke. The man's feet sank into the water. It was not deep, but his legs got wet to the knees. The man was angry. The accident would delay his arrival at the camp. He would have to build a fire now to dry his clothes and boots.

He walked over to some small trees. They were covered with snow. In their branches were pieces of dry grass and wood left by flood waters earlier in the year. He put several large pieces of wood on the snow, under one of the trees. On top of the wood, he put some grass and dry branches. He pulled off his gloves, took out his matches, and lighted the fire. He fed the young flame with more wood. As the fire grew stronger, he gave it larger pieces of wood.

He worked slowly and carefully. At sixty degrees below zero, a man with wet feet must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire. While he was walking, his blood had kept all parts of his body warm. Now that he had stopped, cold was forcing his blood to withdraw deeper into his body. His wet feet had frozen. He could not feel his fingers. His nose was frozen, too. The skin all over his body felt cold.

Now, however, his fire was beginning to burn more strongly. He was safe. He sat under the tree and thought of the old men in Fairbanks. The old men had told him that no man should travel alone in the Yukon when the temperature is sixty degrees below zero. Yet here he was. He had had an accident. He was alone. And he had saved himself. He had built a fire.

Those old men were weak, he thought. A real man could travel alone. If a man stayed calm, he would be all right. The man's boots were covered with ice. The strings on his boots were as hard as steel. He would have to cut them with his knife.

He leaned back against the tree to take out his knife. Suddenly, without warning, a heavy mass of snow dropped down. His movement had shaken the young tree only a tiny bit. But it was enough to cause the branches of the tree to drop their heavy load. The man was shocked. He sat and looked at the place where the fire had been.

The old men had been right, he thought. If he had another man with him, he would not be in any danger now. The other man could build the fire. Well, it was up to him to build the fire again. This time, he must not fail.

The man collected more wood. He reached into his pocket for the matches. But his fingers were frozen. He could not hold them. He began to hit his hands with all his force against his legs.

After a while, feeling came back to his fingers. The man reached again into his pocket for the matches. But the tremendous cold quickly drove the life out of his fingers. All the matches fell onto the snow. He tried to pick one up, but failed.

The man pulled on his glove and again beat his hand against his leg. Then he took the gloves off both hands and picked up all the matches. He gathered them together. Holding them with both hands, he scratched the matches along his leg. They immediately caught fire.

He held the blazing matches to a piece of wood. After a while, he became aware that he could smell his hands burning. Then he began to feel the pain. He opened his hands, and the blazing matches fell on to the snow. The flame went out in a puff of gray smoke.

The man looked up. The dog was still watching him. The man got an idea. He would kill the dog and bury his hands inside its warm body. When the feeling came back to his fingers, he could build another fire. He called to the dog. The dog heard danger in the man's voice. It backed away.

The man called again. This time the dog came closer. The man reached for his knife. But he had forgotten that he could not bend his fingers. He could not kill the dog, because he could not hold his knife.

The fear of death came over the man. He jumped up and began to run. The running began to make him feel better. Maybe running would make his feet warm. If he ran far enough, he would reach his friends at Henderson Creek. They would take care of him.

It felt strange to run and not feel his feet when they hit the ground. He fell several times. He decided to rest a while. As he lay in the snow, he noticed that he was not shaking. He could not feel his nose or fingers or feet. Yet, he was feeling quite warm and comfortable. He realized he was going to die.

Well, he decided, he might as well take it like a man. There were worse ways to die.

The man closed his eyes and floated into the most comfortable sleep he had ever known.

The dog sat facing him, waiting. Finally, the dog moved closer to the man and caught the smell of death. The animal threw back its head. It let out a long, soft cry to the cold stars in the black sky.

And then it tuned and ran toward Henderson Creek…where it knew there was food and a fire.

(MUSIC)

SHEP O'NEAL: You have just heard the AMERICAN STORY called "To Build a Fire." It was written by Jack London and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Harry Monroe. For VOA Special English, this is Shep O'Neal.

"The Exact Science of Matrimony" by O. Henry, from VOA.

2010-04-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

Now, the VOA Special English program AMERICAN STORIES. Our story today is called “The Exact Science of Matrimony.” It was written by O. Henry. Here is Barbara Klein with the story.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Jeff Peters and Andy Tucker could never be trusted. One day, the two men decided to open a marriage business to make some quick and easy money. The first thing they did was to write an advertisement to be published in newspapers. Their advertisement read like this:

“A charming widow, beautiful and home-loving, would like to remarry. She is only thirty-two years old. She has three thousand dollars in cash and owns valuable property in the country. She would like a poor man with a loving heart. No objection to an older man or to one who is not good-looking. But he needs to be faithful and true, can take care of property and invest money with good judgment. Give address, with details about yourself. Signed: Lonely, care of Peters and Tucker, agents, Cairo, Illinois.”

When they finished writing the ad, Jeff Peters said to Andy Tucker: “So far, so good. And now, where is the lady?”

Andy gave Jeff an unhappy look. “What does a marriage advertisement have to do with a lady?” he asked.

“Now listen,” Jeff answered. “You know my rule, Andy. In all illegal activities, we must obey the law, in every detail. Something offered for sale must exist. It must be seen. You must be able to produce it. That is how I have kept out of trouble with the police. Now, for this business to work, we must be able to produce a charming widow, with or without the beauty, as advertised.”

“Well,” said Andy, after thinking it over, “it might be better, if the United States Post Office should decide to investigate our marriage agency. But where can you hope to find a widow who would waste her time on a marriage proposal that has no marriage in it?”

Jeff said that he knew just such a woman.

“An old friend of mine, Zeke Trotter,” he said, “used to work in a tent show. He made his wife a widow by drinking too much of the wrong kind of alcohol. I used to stop at their house often. I think we can get her to work with us.”

(MUSIC)

Missus Zeke Trotter lived in a small town not far away. Jeff Peters went out to see her. She was not beautiful and not so young. But she seemed all right to Jeff.

“Is this an honest deal you are putting on, Mister Peters?” she asked when he told her what he wanted.

“Missus Trotter,” said Jeff, “three thousand men will seek to marry you to get your money and property. What are they prepared to give in exchange? Nothing! Nothing but the bones of a lazy, dishonest, good-for-nothing fortune-seeker. We will teach them something. This will be a great moral campaign. Does that satisfy you?”

“It does, Mister Peters,” she said. “But what will my duties be? Do I have to personally reject these three thousand good-for-nothings you speak of? Or can I throw them out in bunches?”

Jeff explained that her job would be easy. She would live in a quiet hotel and have no work to do. He and Andy would take care of all letters and the business end of the plot. But he warned her that some of the men might come to see her in person. Then, she would have to meet them face-to-face and reject them. She would be paid twenty-five dollars a week and hotel costs.

“Give me five minutes to get ready,” Missus Trotter said. “Then you can start paying me.”

So Jeff took her to the city and put her in a hotel far enough from Jeff and Andy’s place to cause no suspicion.

Jeff Peters and Andy Tucker were now ready to catch a few fish on the hook. They placed their advertisement in newspapers across the country. They put two thousand dollars in a bank in Missus Trotter’s name. They gave her the bank book to show if anyone questioned the honesty of their marriage agency. They were sure that Missus Trotter could be trusted and that it was safe to leave the money in her name.

Their ad in the newspapers started a flood of letters – more than one hundred a day. Jeff and Andy worked twelve hours a day answering them. Most of the men wrote that they had lost their jobs. The world misunderstood them. But they were full of love and other good qualities.

Jeff and Andy answered every letter with high praise for the writer. They asked the men to send a photograph and more details. And they told them to include two dollars to cover the cost of giving the second letter to the charming widow.

Almost all the men sent in the two dollars requested. It seemed to be an easy business. Still, Andy and Jeff often spoke about the trouble of cutting open envelopes and taking the money out.

A few of the men came in person. Jeff and Andy sent them to Missus Trotter and she did the rest. Soon, Jeff and Andy were receiving about two hundred dollars a day. One day, a federal postal inspector came by. But Jeff satisfied him that they were not breaking the law.

(MUSIC)

After about three months, Jeff and Andy had collected more than five thousand dollars, and they decided it was time to stop. Some people were beginning to question their honesty. And, Missus Trotter seemed to have grown tired of her job. Too many men had come to see her and she did not like that.

Jeff went to Missus Trotter’s hotel to pay her what she was owed, and to say goodbye. He also wanted her to repay the two thousand dollars that was put into her bank account.

When Jeff walked into the room she was crying, like a child who did not want to go to school.

“Now, now,” he said. “What’s it all about? Somebody hurt you? Are you getting homesick?”

“No, Mister Peters,” she said. “I’ll tell you. You were always a good friend of my husband Zeke. Mister Peters, I am in love. I just love a man so hard I can’t bear not to get him. He’s just the kind I’ve always had in mind.”

“Then take him,” said Jeff. “Does he feel the same way about you?”

“He does,” Missus Trotter answered. “But there is a problem. He is one of the men who have been coming to see me in answer to your advertisement. And he will not marry me unless I give him the two thousand dollars. His name is William Wilkinson.”

Jeff felt sorry for her. He said he would be glad to let her give the two thousand dollars to Mister Wilkinson, so that she could be happy. But he said he had to talk to his partner about it.

Jeff returned to his hotel and discussed it with Andy.

“I was expecting something like this,” Andy said. “You can’t trust a woman to stick with you in any plan that involves her emotions.”

Jeff said it was a sad thing to think that they were the cause of the breaking of a woman’s heart. Andy agreed with him.

“I’ll tell you what I am willing to do,” said Andy. “Jeff, you have always been a man of a soft and generous heart. Perhaps I have been too hard and worldly and suspicious. For once, I will meet you half-way. Go to Missus Trotter. Tell her to take the two thousand dollars out of the bank and give it to this Wilkinson fellow and be happy.”

Jeff shook Andy’s hand for a long time. Then he went back to Missus Trotter. She cried as hard for joy as she had done for sorrow.

(MUSIC)

Two days later, Jeff and Andy prepared to leave town.

“Wouldn’t you like to go meet Missus Trotter once before we leave?” Jeff asked Andy. “She’d like to express her thanks to you.”

“Why, I guess not,” Andy said. “I think we should hurry and catch the train.”

Jeff was putting all the money they had received in a belt he tied around his body. Then Andy took a large amount of money out of his pocket and asked Jeff to put it together with the other money.

“What’s this?” Jeff asked.

“It’s Missus Trotter’s two thousand dollars,” said Andy.

“How do you come to have it?” Jeff asked.

“Missus Trotter gave it to me,” Andy answered. “I have been calling on her three nights a week for more than a month.”

“Then you are William Wilkinson?” Jeff asked.

“I was,” Andy said.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: “The Exact Science of Matrimony” was written by O.Henry. It was adapted for Special English by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. Your storyteller was Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to other AMERICAN STORIES on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

Celebrating Earth Day, 2010.

2010-04-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Mission Language Lab and ESL Listening. In recognition of Earth Day, we'll read and listen to six articles about nature. All six articles point to both nature's fragility and great strength and power. You can find the articles by clicking on the links. They are:

1. Mysterious Changes in the Forest, from Edcon publishing.

2. Natural Wonders of the World, from Voice of America.

3. Yosemite National Park, from Voice of America.

4. Antarctica. A Scientific Laboratory Like No Other in the World, from Voice of America.

5. The Grand Canyon: a True Wonder of the World, from Voice of America.

6. Death Valley, a Beautiful but Dangerous Place, from Voice of America.

7. PBS video, American Experience, "Earth Days": The story of the beginning of Earth Day and the important message of conservation and environmentalism it is intended to convey.

8. People in America: Rachel Carson, the author of "Silent Spring". This is the book that launched the environmentalist movement. From Voice of America.

In addition, you can enjoy this film clip from the great B.B.C. series,
Planet Earth.

You're welcome to write a comment at the end of this post. Also, if you'd like to write something about how nature has touched you personally, you're welcome to submit an essay of any length. Just enclose your essay in an email and send it to
johnnyboylr@gmail.com Your essay will be edited and published in the New Mission Journal with an appropriate photo from you or from the internet.

Eleanor Roosevelt. She Was the Most Influential Wife of Any American President. From VOA.

2010-04-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

VOICE ONE:
I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:
And I'm Shirley Griffith with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the woman who was the most influential wife of any American president, Eleanor Roosevelt.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:
Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of America's thirty-second president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She helped her husband in many ways during his long political life. She also became one of the most influential people in America. She fought for equal rights for all people -- workers, women, poor people, black people. And she sought peace among nations.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City in eighteen eighty-four. Eleanor's family had great wealth and influence. But Eleanor did not have a happy childhood. Her mother was sick and nervous. Her father did not work. He drank too much alcohol. He was not like his older brother, Theodore Roosevelt, who was later elected president. When Eleanor was eight years old, her mother died. Two years later, her father died. Eleanor's grandmother raised the Roosevelt children. Eleanor remembered that as a child, her greatest happiness came from helping others.

VOICE TWO:

In the early nineteen hundreds, many people were concerned about the problems of poor people who came to America in search of a better life. Eleanor Roosevelt could not understand how people lived in such poor conditions while she and others had so much wealth.

After she finished school, Eleanor began teaching children to read in one of the poorest areas of New York City, called "Hell's Kitchen." She investigated factories where workers were said to be badly treated. She saw little children of four and five years old working until they dropped to the floor. She became involved with other women who shared the same ideas about improving social conditions.
Franklin Roosevelt began visiting Eleanor. Franklin belonged to another part of the Roosevelt family. Franklin and Eleanor were married in nineteen-oh-five. In the next eleven years, they had six children.

VOICE ONE:

Franklin Roosevelt began his life in politics in New York. He was elected to be a state legislator. Later, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to be assistant secretary of the Navy. The Roosevelts moved to Washington in nineteen thirteen.
It was there, after thirteen years of marriage, that Eleanor Roosevelt went through one of the hardest periods of her life. She discovered that her husband had fallen in love with another woman. She wanted to end the marriage. But her husband urged her to remain his wife. She did. Yet her relationship with her husband changed. She decided she would no longer play the part of a politician's wife. Instead, she began to build a life with interests of her own.

In nineteen twenty-one, Franklin Roosevelt was struck by the terrible disease polio. He would never walk again without help. His political life seemed over, but his wife helped him return to politics. He was elected governor of New York two times.

VOICE TWO:

Eleanor Roosevelt learned about politics and became involved in issues and groups that interested her. In nineteen twenty-two, she became part of the Women's Trade Union League. She also joined the debate about ways to stop war. In those years after World War One, she argued that America must be involved in the world to prevent another war.
"Peace is the question of the hour," she once told a group of women. "Women must work for peace to keep from losing their loved ones."
The question of war and peace was forgotten as the United States entered a severe economic depression in nineteen twenty-nine. Prices suddenly dropped on the New York stock market. Banks lost their money. People lost their jobs.

(MUSIC: "Happy Days Are Here Again")

VOICE ONE:

Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in nineteen thirty-two. He promised to end the Depression and put Americans back to work.

Missus Roosevelt helped her husband by spreading information about his new economic program. It was called the New Deal. She traveled around the country giving speeches and visiting areas that needed economic aid.

Missus Roosevelt was different from the wives of earlier presidents. She was the first to become active in political and social issues. While her husband was president, Missus Roosevelt held more than three hundred news conferences for female reporters. She wrote a daily newspaper commentary. She wrote for many magazines. These activities helped spread her ideas to all Americans and showed that women had important things to say.

VOICE TWO:

One issue Missus Roosevelt became involved in was equal rights for black Americans. She met publicly with black leaders to hear their problems. Few American politicians did this during the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. One incident involving Missus Roosevelt became international news.

In nineteen thirty-nine, an American singer, Marian Anderson, planned a performance at Constitution Hall in Washington. But a conservative women's group refused to permit her to sing there because she was black.

VOICE ONE:

Missus Roosevelt was a member of that organization, the Daughters of the American Revolution. She publicly resigned her membership to protest the action of the group. An opinion study showed that most Americans thought she was right. Eleanor Roosevelt helped the performance to be held outdoors, around the Lincoln Memorial. More than seventy thousand people heard Marian Anderson sing. Missus Roosevelt was always considered one of its strongest supporters of the civil rights movement.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:
The United States was forced to enter World War Two when Japanese forces attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in nineteen forty-one. Missus Roosevelt made many speeches over the radio praising the soldiers she saw on her travels. She called on people to urge their government to work for peace after the war was over.
Franklin Roosevelt died in nineteen forty-five, soon after he was elected to a fourth term as president. When his wife heard the news she said: "I am more sorry for the people of this country than I am for myself."

VOICE ONE:

Harry Truman became president after Franklin Roosevelt died. World War Two ended a few months later. The leaders of the world recognized the need for peace. So they joined together to form the United Nations. President Truman appointed Missus Roosevelt as a delegate to the first meeting of the UN. A newspaper wrote at the time: "Missus Roosevelt, better than any other person, can best represent the little people of America, or even the world."

Later, Missus Roosevelt was elected chairman of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. She helped write a resolution called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That declaration became an accepted part of international law.

VOICE TWO:

Missus Roosevelt spent the last years of her life visiting foreign countries. She became America's unofficial ambassador. She returned home troubled by what she saw. She recognized that the needs of the developing world were great. She called on Americans to help the people in developing countries.
A few years before she died, Eleanor Roosevelt spoke about what she believed in life. This is what she said.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: "This life always seems to me to be a continuing process of education and development. What we are preparing for, none of us can be sure. But, that we must do our best while we are here and develop all our capacities is absolutely certain. We face whatever we have to face in this life. And if we do it bravely and sincerely, we're probably accomplishing that growth which we were put here to accomplish."

VOICE ONE:

Eleanor Roosevelt gave the best she had all through her life. People around the world recognized their loss when she died in nineteen sixty-two.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.

"Blockheads" from Edcon Publishing.

2010-03-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

Laurel and Hardy may be gone, but they have left behind a treasury of their classic wit and humor.

An accident that resulted in an injury to Oliver Hardy as he cooked a leg of lamb, was to be a key factor in the formation of the world famous comedy team of Laurel and Hardy that has entertained audiences for years.

Both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were veterans of show business before that freak incident in 1926. Slender, meek looking Laurel had already made more than fifty silent films before he joined Hardy. Stout, mustached Hardy had appeared in about the same number. Together, the English-born Laurel and the American, Hardy, were to star in ninety silent and sound films. They would win acclaim from both the columnist and the average moviegoer.

Stan Laurel, an experienced comedian, was working for a time behind the scenes as a film writer. Oliver Hardy, who was to play the butler in a silent picture, "Get 'Em Young," was not attentive to details while enjoying his hobby of cooking. He burned himself so badly that he could not perform. Although Laurel preferred not to step in as a substitute, a $100 bonus from the director made him change his mind. It wasn't long before the next film was made and this time it featured both Laurel and Hardy.

In order to understand what made Laurel and Hardy the foremost comedy team of their day, we should examine some of the more famous sketches that are mentioned even today by reviewers and columnists.

"Liberty," one of the last silent films the duo made, has a distinct, sparkling humor. Stan and Ollie are trying desperately to escape from prison in a getaway car with the police in fast pursuit. In addition to this action, they must take off the prison uniforms and get into their ordinary street clothes. Not being very attentive to what they are doing, Ollie struggles to put on Stan's much too small trousers while Stan is obviously having a difficult time with his friend's overly large ones. As they try to adjust their clothing, they are forced to leave the car, requiring them to continue dressing in the street in a series of extremely amusing movements. As they pass a fish market, a crab falls into Ollie's tremendously large pants which Stan is still fussing with. The crab starts to pinch Stan causing him to jump and damage merchandise in a nearby record shop. Finally, Stan and Ollie turn into what appears to be a deserted building site. They each take off the ill fitting pants and as they exchange them, they realize that they are on an elevator used in the construction of a skyscraper. Before long,they are on a beam high above the city with the ground several stories below them. At last they adjust their clothing and then, as they proceed to walk down to ground level, the crab has a grand time biting the fat Ollie.

An early sound film, "The Music Box," won them the acclaim of an Academy Award in 1932 and still gets laughs from almost every viewer. Laurel and Hardy own a moving company. They are delivering a piano at the top of a long flight of stairs at a home located on a hill. The men grunt and groan getting the piano up the steps. As they struggle, a maid, pushing a carriage, blocks their way. When Stan and Ollie try to get the piano off to one side, they lose control and the piano makes its way jerkily down the stairs to the street below, its keys playing by themselves. The maid, meanwhile, laughs, and she angers Stan, who kicks her. Before long, Ollie gets hit with the baby's bottle and the maid leaves to tell a policeman about the woman beaters.

Stan and Ollie get the piano up the steps again, when the officer summons them. As they tum, the piano, almost as if it had intelligence, again descends the steps, one at a time. After numerous other problems, the two movers finally get the piano up to the house only to be informed that a side road exists, making their labor unnecessary. Laurel and Hardy do what is obvious for them. They carry the piano down the steps and push it up the side road.

Although they were among the foremost comedians of the silent film, Laurel and Hardy were equally as successful in films with sound. In the film "Helpmates," Ollie is telephoning Stan, and asks him where he had been the previous night instead of at a party. Stan answers that a dog had bitten him. "Where?" Ollie asks. "Here," replies Stan, and places the telephone receiver next to the wounded area to show where he had been injured.

One of the unusual features of an early film, "Leave 'Em Laughing," is that when Stan does something unbelievably stupid, Ollie responds and looks at the camera to stop the action. The movie goers naturally laugh at Stan's silly behavior and at Ollie's expression. For some strange reason, the action doesn't seem to start again until after the audience has finished laughing.

When this film was made, Stan and some of the writers previewed the picture in different theaters. They timed how long the audience laughed at different scenes. Then, they went back to the studio and lengthened or shortened the time that Ollie looked at the camera to stop the action.

It is not hard to see why audiences all over the world grew to love and laugh at Laurel and Hardy. In a way, these comedians used fantasy to reach their viewers. It was not the fantasy of outer space or superhuman strength, but, rather, of silliness. In the silent films, viewers from all language backgrounds could easily understand the situation and were able to enjoy the zany antics of the duo. Their sound films contained both visual and verbal humor that got laughs from viewers of all ages.

In "The Big House," there is a classroom scene in which the jail's teacher is educating prisoners, including Stan and Ollie.

Teacher: Spell "needle."
Ollie: NEIDDLE
Teacher: There is no "i" In needle.
Stan: Then it is a rotten needle.

Their movie, "Blockheads," has a memorable scene. Stan has started his sentry duty in a trench during World War I and has continued to do so for twenty years after the war is over. He has followed the same routine for the entire time patrolling, stopping for meals at the proper time and heating a can of beans for lunch. The pile of empty bean cans is seen towering above the landscape. Stan, the last soldier, finally learns that the war is over and is once again united with Ollie who invites him to meet his wife and have dinner. What does Stan want to eat? Naturally, he asks for beans!

During their lifetimes, Stan and Ollie enjoyed the acclaim of millions of people who saw their movies in all parts of the world. Their films are still among the most popular. Audiences to come will enjoy the antics of these comedians who truly knew how to make people laugh.

1. Laurel and Hardy made up a successful _____
a. cooking team.
b. comedy team.
c. film directing team.
d. police team.

2. An important factor in the team's formation was ____
a. their English birth.
b. their work in the film, "The Music Box."
c. a car accident.
d. a cooking accident.

3. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy _____
a. entered show business before 1926.
b. entered show business in World War I.
c. started their acting careers together.
d. entered show business after 1926.

4. After Stan and Oliver formed a team, their popularity _____
a. remained the same.
b. decreased.
c. increased greatly.
d. increased very little.

5. These comedians used the fantasy of ______
a. the classroom.
b. outer space.
c. superhuman strength.
d. silliness.

6. One of the funniest films shows the team ______
a. digging a trench during World War I.
b. cooking a leg of lamb.
c. pinching a crab.
d. delivering a piano.

7. Film clips of Laurel and Hardy might be seen on the following television special:
a. "The Laugh Makers."
b. "Cooking Safely."
c. "Favorite Comedians of 1925."
d. "A Forgotten Comedy Team."

8. People will probably ______
a. forget about Laurel and Hardy films.
b. continue to enjoy Laurel and Hardy films in the future.
c. become bored with film comedy.
d. not understand the silly actions of Laurel and Hardy in the future.

9. Another name for this selection could be _______
a. "A Team of Comedy Kings."
b. "Laurel and Hardy, Stars of Sound
Films."
c. "The Best of Laurel and Hardy's Silent Films."
d. "Leaders of the Silent Film."

10. This selection is mainly about _______
a. Laurel and Hardy's silent films.
b. Laurel and Hardy's sound films.
c. some of Laurel and Hardy's little
known films.
d. a famous pair of comedy actors.

Laurel and Hardy in Wikipedia
Laurel and Hardy, Official Website

This story is an article from a series of Reading Comprehension Workbooks by Edcon Publishing Group. Edcon Publishing has a very large selection of different types of readings and other
materials for learning. I highly recommend this company. - The Teacher

Laurel and Hardy in "Pick a Star", Youtube
Laural and Hardy in "Hollywood Party"

"Mark Twain, One of America's Best Known and Best Loved Writers", from Voice of America

2010-03-22T19:17:00.001-07:00

I’m Barbara Klein.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of America’s best-known writers, Mark Twain. We also talk about his famous book, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Mark Twain wrote “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in eighteen eighty-four. Since then, the book has been published in at least sixty languages. Some people say it is the best book ever created by an American writer. American students still read “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” And parents, teachers and literary experts still debate the issues discussed in the book.

BOB DOUGHTY: The writer who became Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in eighteen thirty-five. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri on the Mississippi River. After his father died in eighteen forty-seven, young Samuel went to work as an assistant to a publisher. Ten years later, he became a pilot on a steamboat that sailed on the Mississippi. He heard the riverboat workers call out the words “mark twain!” That was a measure for the depth of water.

In eighteen sixty-one, the American Civil War put an end to steamboat traffic on the Mississippi. So Clemens traveled west and became a reporter for newspapers in Nevada and California.

BARBARA KLEIN: Later, he wrote funny stories and called himself Mark Twain. Twain became famous for his story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” in eighteen sixty-five. It tells about a jumping competition among frogs.

Twain also traveled a lot and began writing books about his travels. His stories about a trip to Europe and the Middle East were published in “The Innocents Abroad.” And his stories about life in the western United States became the book called “Roughing It.”

In eighteen seventy, he married Olivia Langdon and moved to Hartford, Connecticut. During the eighteen eighties, he wrote books for children, such as “The Prince and the Pauper.” It tells about a poor boy who trades identities with a member of England’s ruling family. Twain also wrote “Life on the Mississippi.” This book describes his days as a steamboat pilot and his return to the river twenty years later.

BOB DOUGHTY: Mark Twain was already a successful writer before he became famous as a public speaker. Over the years, he had invested a lot of money in unsuccessful businesses. In eighteen ninety-three, he found himself deeply in debt. So to earn money, he traveled around the world giving humorous talks. His speeches made people laugh and remember events they had experienced.

However, his later life was not a happy one. Two of his daughters died. His wife died in nineteen-oh-four after a long sickness. Some critics think Mark Twain’s later works were more serious because of his sadness. He died of heart failure in nineteen ten.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Mark Twain was the first writer to use the speech of common Americans in his books. He showed that simple American English could be as fine an instrument for great writing as more complex language. Through his books, he captured American experiences as no other writer had.

Many of the stories take place in Hannibal, Missouri. The small wooden house where he lived as a boy still stands there. Next to the house is a wooden fence. It is the kind described in Twain's book, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” published in eighteen seventy-six.In that story, Tom has been told to paint the fence. He does not want to do it. But he acts as if the job is great fun. He tricks other boys into believing this. His trick is so successful that they agree to pay him money to let them finish his work. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is considered one of the best books about an American boy’s life in the eighteen hundreds.

BOB DOUGHTY: Tom Sawyer's good friend is Huckleberry, or "Huck," Finn. Mark Twain tells this boy's story in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Huck is a poor child, without a mother or home. His father drinks too much alcohol and beats him.

Huck's situation has freed him from the restrictions of society. He explores in the woods and goes fishing. He stays out all night and does not to go to school. He smokes tobacco.

Huck runs away from home. He meets Jim, a black man who has escaped from slavery. They travel together on a raft made of wood down the Mississippi River. Huck describes the trip:

READER: "It was lovely to live on the raft. Other places seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft... Sometimes we'd have that whole river to ourselves for the longest time... We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim, he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to make so many."

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Mark Twain started writing “Huckleberry Finn” as a children's story. But it soon became serious. The story tells about the social evil of slavery, seen through the eyes of an innocent child. Huck’s ideas about people were formed by the white society in which he lived. So, at first, he does not question slavery. Huck knows that important people believe slavery is natural, the law of God. So, he thinks it is his duty to tell Jim's owners where to find him. Here is part of the story after Huck decides he must do this.

READER: "I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt. And I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking -- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking...

And I see Jim before me all the time; in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind."

BOB DOUGHTY: Huck comes to understand that Jim is a good man. He finds he cannot carry out his plan to tell Jim’s owners where to find him. Instead, he decides to help Jim escape. He decides to do this, even if God punishes him.

Huck's moral search is part of Twain's humor. Huck's heart leads him to do the right thing, even when everything he has been taught tells him it is wrong. Huck's nature is good, but he has no idea of it. Twain tells us more through Huck's voice than Huck himself knows.

BARBARA KLEIN: It took Mark Twain longer to write “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” than any of his other books. He started writing in eighteen seventy-six, but put the story away after about two years of work. He returned to it in eighteen eighty-three. It was published the next year.

From the beginning, the book was hotly debated. Some early critics praised its realism and honesty. But the leading critics of Twain's time hated it. They objected to the personality of Huck -- a rough, dirty and disobedient boy.

They were insulted by Twain’s attacks on the commonly accepted morals and traditions of white society. And they disliked the way Twain used the language of a common, uneducated person to tell the story. No writer had ever done that before.

BOB DOUGHTY: The debate over “Huckleberry Finn” re-opened in recent years, but for different reasons. The book uses the racist expressions of its time. So some people say reading it is too painful and insulting for black children.

They know that Twain was really attacking racism. But he attacked indirectly, and with humor. So they feel young people will not understand what he was attempting to do. A few American schools have banned the book for young children. A few have banned it for all students. Some schools used a version in which all racist words have been removed.

Other people say young people can understand “Huckleberry Finn” if they study it with a good teacher. They say the book remains one of the best denunciations of racism ever written.

BARBARA KLEIN: There is no longer any debate about the importance of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in American literature. In nineteen thirty-five, Ernest Hemingway wrote: “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn.’ There was nothing before. And there has been nothing as good since.”

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. Caty Weaver was our producer. Doug Johnson read the part of Huckleberry Finn. I’m Bob Doughty.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.

The following is a complete online book of

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

The following is a video about the book from Youtube:

Rachel Carson and "The Silent Spring" from VOA.

2010-03-14T13:35:00.000-07:00

FAITH LAPIDUS: People America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today, Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about scientist Rachel Carson. Her work started the environmental protection movement in the United States.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Rachel Carson was born on May twenty-seventh, nineteen-oh-seven in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Rachel’s father, Robert Carson, was a salesman who invested in local land. He purchased twenty-six hectares of land to make a home for his family. The area was surrounded by fields, trees, and streams. The Carson family enjoyed living in the beautiful, country environment.

Rachel’s mother, Maria Carson, had been a schoolteacher. She loved books. She also loved nature. Rachel was the youngest of three children. Her sister and brother were already in school when she was born. So Missus Carson was able to spend a lot of time with Rachel. She showed Rachel the beauty of nature. She also taught Rachel a deep love for books. Missus Carson became the most important influence on Rachel’s life.

RICH KLEINFELDT: Rachel was a quiet child. She liked to read and to write poems and stories. She was very intelligent. At a very early age she decided she wanted to be a writer someday. Her first published story appeared in a children’s magazine when she was ten years old.

Rachel went to the Pennsylvania College for Women. She studied English because she wanted to become a professional writer. Yet, she felt she did not have the imagination to write creative stories. She changed her area of study from English to science after she took a biology course that she liked. Her professors advised her not to study science. They said there was no future for a woman in science.

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen twenty-nine, Rachel graduated from college with high honors. She won a financial award to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In nineteen thirty-two, she earned a master’s degree in zoology, the scientific study of animals. She taught zoology at the University of Maryland for a few years. During the summers, she studied the ocean and its life forms at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts. That is when she became interested in the mysteries of the sea.

(MUSIC)

RICH KLEINFELDT: Rachel’s life changed greatly in the middle nineteen thirties. Her father died suddenly in nineteen thirty-five. He left very little financial support for Rachel’s mother. It was during the economic decline in the United States called the Great Depression. Rachel now had to support her mother and herself. She needed more money than her teaching job could provide. She began part-time work for a federal government agency, the Bureau of Fisheries in Washington, D.C.

One year later, Rachel’s sister died. Her sister was the mother of two young girls. Rachel and her mother cared for the girls. Rachel now had to support her mother, two nieces and herself. Again, she needed a job with better pay.

STEVE EMBER: A full time job for a biologist opened at the United States Bureau of Fisheries. Rachel Carson was the only woman to try for the position. She had the highest score of all people competing for the job.

Miss Carson got the position in August, nineteen thirty-six. She was chosen to work in the office of the chief of the biology division.

Her first job was to write a series of programs called “Romance Under the Waters.” The series was broadcast on radio for a year. She continued to write and edit publications for the Bureau of Fisheries for many years. The bureau was happy to have a scientist who was also an excellent writer. Rachel Carson provided information to the public in interesting and understandable ways.

RICH KLEINFELDT: In nineteen-forty, the United States Bureau of Fisheries and the Biological Survey joined to become the Fish and Wildlife Service. Miss Carson continued as one of the few women employed there as a scientist. The other women worked as office assistants.

While she was working for the government, Miss Carson wrote at night and on weekends. In nineteen thirty-seven she wrote a report about sea life. It was called Undersea. It appeared in the magazine, Atlantic Monthly. An editor at a publishing house encouraged her to write a book about the sea for the general public. So she did. Her first book, "Under the Sea Wind," was published in nineteen forty-one.

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen forty-eight, Miss Carson began working on another book, "The Sea Around Us." It became her first best-selling book.
Rachel Carson always researched carefully when she wrote. She gathered information from more than one thousand places to write "The Sea Around Us." She also wrote letters to experts all over the world.

STEVE EMBER: "The Sea Around Us" was published in nineteen fifty-one. It was number one on the best-seller list for more than a year. It won the National Book Award. "The Sea Around Us" made Rachel Carson famous. The money the book earned eased her financial responsibilities for the first time in years.

In nineteen fifty-two, Miss Carson was able to leave her job at the Fish and Wildlife Service and spend her time writing. Miss Carson moved to a home on the coast of Maine. There she studied the ecology of the sea. Her next book, "The Edge of the Sea," was published in nineteen fifty-five. It told of the connection of all living creatures in areas where land and ocean meet.

(MUSIC)

RICH KLEINFELDT: Rachel Carson’s most famous book, "Silent Spring" was published in nineteen sixty-two. The idea for the book developed from a suggestion from a friend. Rachel’s friend owned a protected area for birds. An airplane had flown over the area where the birds were kept and spread a powerful chemical called DDT. It was part of a project to control mosquitoes. Many songbirds and harmless insects were killed by the DDT.

Miss Carson and other scientists were very concerned about the harmful effects of DDT and other insect-killing chemicals called pesticides. After World War Two, these poisonous chemicals were widely used to control insects. Pesticides were sprayed almost everywhere including agricultural fields and communities. DDT and other pesticides had become popular with the public and the government because they were so effective. Manufacturing these chemicals had become a huge industry.

STEVE EMBER: Rachel Carson tried to get many magazines interested in publishing a report about the subject. However, none would agree to publish anything about such a disputed subject. They said no one wanted to hear that industrial companies could cause great ecological damage.

Miss Carson believed the public needed to know about this important issue. She decided to write a book about it. She collected facts from experts from all over the world. She gathered studies that showed the harmful effects of DDT, including declining bird populations and increased human cancers.

In her book "Silent Spring," Miss Carson questioned the right of industrial companies to pollute without considering the effects on the environment. Miss Carson argued that this kind of pollution would result in ever-decreasing populations of birds and other wildlife. She said this would lead to the loss of the wonderful sounds of nature. The chemical poisoning of the environment, she said, would cause a silent spring.

RICH KLEINFELDT: The chemical industry felt threatened. Industry spokesmen and other critics said the book was non-scientific and emotional. They misunderstood the message of the book. Miss Carson did not suggest that all pesticides be banned. She urged that control of these substances be given to biologists who could make informed decisions about the risks involved.

Support for the book increased. By the end of nineteen sixty-two, there were more than forty bills in state legislatures proposing to control pesticides. Finally, in November, nineteen sixty-nine, the United States government ruled that the use of DDT must stop in two years.

Rachel Carson did not live to see how her book influenced the government’s decision to ban DDT. She died of breast cancer in nineteen sixty-four. She was fifty-six years old.

STEVE EMBER: Two memorials honor Rachel Carson. One is the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine. The other is the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, Pennsylvania, the home she lived in when she was a child. Education programs are offered there that teach children and adults about her environmental values.

Rachel Carson’s voice is alive in her writings that express the wonder and beauty of the natural world. And her worldwide influence continues through the activities of the environmental protection movement she started.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. Rachel Carson wrote "Silent Spring" __________________ .
a. ten years ago.
b. during The Depression.
c. during World War 2.
d. in the 1960s.

2. Rachel Carson's father was a ____________________ .
a. salesman
b. real estate speculator
c. politician
d. environmentalist

3. Rachel Carson's early influence regarding the importance and beauty of nature came from ____________________ .
a. John Hopkins University
b. her father
c. her mother
d. DDT

4. Rachel Carson's first best selling book was ___________________ .
a. a novel
b. about the environment
c. about the ocean
d. about the distruction of animals

5. Rachel Carson is credited with beginning the _____________________ .
a. Green Party
b. Environmental Movement
c. Tea Party
d. Science of Oceanography

6. The effects of ______________ convinced Rachel Carson to write about man's threat to nature.
a. atomic energy
b. pesticides
c. pollution from cars
d. pollution from factories

7. The corporations most threatened by the writings of Rachel Carson were the _______________ industries.
a. mining
b. oil
c. chemical
d lumber

8. Rachel Carson will probably be remembered most for ___________________ .
a. her writings about the ocean
b. her criticisms of the military
c. raising environmental consciousness
d. her illumination of corporate greed

9. Another name for this story could be ____________________ .
a. "The Effect of Pesticides"
b. "The Oceans Around Us"
c. "Environmental Problems"
d. "A Great Writer and Scientist"

10. This story is mainly about __________________________ .
a. the life and impact of environmental writer, Rachel Carson
b. the history of the abuse of the environment by corporations
c. the role of pesticides in poisoning of agricultural lands
d. the spread of mosquitoes during the current period of global warming

Billie Holiday, America's Greatest Blues Singer, from Voice of America.

2010-03-06T15:08:00.001-08:00

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I'm Shirley Griffith.

STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. This week, we tell about Billie Holiday. She was one of the greatest jazz singers in America.

(MUSIC: "God Bless the Child")

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: That was Billie Holiday singing one of her famous songs. She and Arthur Herzog wrote it. Billie Holiday's life was a mixture of success and tragedy. Her singing expressed her experiences and her feelings.

STEVE EMBER: Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in nineteen fifteen in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents were Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday. They were young when their daughter was born. Their marriage failed because Clarence Holiday was not at home much. He traveled as a musician with some of the earliest jazz bands.

Sadie Fagan cleaned people's houses. But she could not support her family on the money she earned. So she moved to New York City where the pay was higher. She left her daughter in Baltimore with members of her family.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The young girl Eleanora Fagan changed her name to Billie, because she liked a movie star, Billie Dove. Billie Holiday loved to sing. She sang and listened to music whenever she could. One place near her home had a machine that played records. The building was a brothel where women who were prostitutes had sex with men for money.

Billie cleaned floors and did other jobs for the prostitutes so she could listen to the records. It was there that young Billie first heard the records of famous black American blues artists of the nineteen twenties. She heard Bessie Smith sing the blues. And she heard Louis Armstrong play the horn. Both musicians had a great influence on her.

STEVE EMBER: Billie Holiday once said: "I do not think I'm singing. I feel like I am playing a horn. What comes out is what I feel. I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That is all I know."

Here is Billie Holiday singing a popular song of the Nineteen thirties, "More Than You Know."

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Billie Holiday had a tragic childhood. When she was ten, a man sexually attacked her. She was accused of causing the man to attack her and sent to a prison for children.

In nineteen twenty-seven, Billie joined her mother in Harlem, the area of New York City where African-Americans lived. Billie's mother mistakenly sent her to live in a brothel. Billie became a prostitute at the age of thirteen. One day, she refused the sexual demands of a man. She was arrested and spent four months in prison.

STEVE EMBER: Two years later, Billie's mother became sick and could not work. Fifteen-year-old Billie tried to find a job. Finally, she was given a job singing at a place in Harlem where people went at night to drink alcohol and listen to music.

For the next seventeen years, Holiday was one of the most popular nightclub singers in New York. She always wore a long white evening dress. And she wore large white flowers in her black hair. She called herself "Lady Day."

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In the early nineteen thirties, a music producer, John Hammond, heard Billie Holiday sing in a nightclub. He called her the best jazz singer he had ever heard. He brought famous people to hear her sing.

Hammond produced Holiday's first records. He got the best jazz musicians to play. They included Benny Goodman on clarinet, Teddy Wilson on piano, Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Ben Webster on saxophone. They recorded many famous songs with Billie Holiday. "I Wished on the Moon" is one of them.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: In the late nineteen thirties, Billy Holiday sang with Artie Shaw's band as it traveled around the United States. She was one of the first black singers to perform with a white band. But racial separation laws in America made travel difficult for her.

During this time, a new nightclub opened in the area of New York called Greenwich Village. It was the first club that had both black and white performers. And it welcomed both black and white people to hear the performers. The nightclub was called Cafe Society.

It was here that Billy Holiday first sang a song called "Strange Fruit." A school teacher named Lewis Allan had written it for her. The song was about injustice and oppression of black people in the southern part of the United States. It told about how mobs of white men had killed black men by hanging them from trees.

Many people objected to the song. It was unlike any other popular song. But it was a huge hit. Here is Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit."

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In the nineteen forties, Holiday started using the illegal drug heroin. Soon her body needed more and more of the drug. It began to affect her health.

In nineteen forty-seven, Billie Holiday was arrested for possessing illegal drugs. She was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison. When she was released, New York City officials refused to give her a document that permitted her to work in any place that served alcoholic drinks. This meant Holiday no longer could sing in nightclubs and jazz clubs. She could sing only in theaters and concert halls.

Ten days after her release from jail, she performed at New York's famous Carnegie Hall. People filled the place to hear her sing. This is one of the songs she sang at that concert. It is called "I Cover the Waterfront."

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen fifty-six, Billie Holiday wrote a book about her life. The book was called “Lady Sings the Blues.” A friend at the New York Post newspaper, William Dufty, helped her write the book. A few months later, she was arrested again for possessing illegal drugs. But instead of going to prison, she was permitted to seek treatment to end her dependence on drugs. The treatment was successful.

That same year, she performed her second concert at Carnegie Hall. Here is one of the songs Holiday sang that night. It is called "Lady Sings the Blues." She and Herbie Nichols wrote it.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Billy Holiday's health was ruined by using illegal drugs and by drinking too much alcohol. Her last performance was in nineteen fifty-nine. She had to be led off the stage after singing two songs. She died that year. She was only forty-four. But Lady Day lives on through her recordings that continue to influence the best jazz singers.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA.

"Walt Disney", the creator of "Disneyland" and many animated feature films. From Voice of America.

2010-02-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

"Mickey Mouse", the cartoon character
that brought Walt Disney fame.

VOICE ONE:

I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Walt Disney and the movie company he created.

(MUSIC: "When You Wish Upon a Star)

VOICE ONE:

That was the song "When You Wish Upon a Star." It is from Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio." For many people, it is the song most often linked with Walt Disney and his work. The song is about dreams -- and making dreams come true. That is what the Walt Disney Company tries to do. It produces movies that capture the imagination of children and adults all over the world.

VOICE TWO:

Millions of people have seen Disney films and television programs. They have made friends with all the Disney heroes: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan. Millions more have visited the company's major entertainment parks. There is Disneyland in California. Disney World in Florida. Tokyo Disneyland in Japan. Euro Disney in France.

Probably no other company has pleased so many children. It is not surprising that it has been called a dream factory.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois in nineteen-oh-one. His family moved to the state of Missouri. He grew up on a farm there. At the age of sixteen, Disney began to study art in Chicago. Four years later, he joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company. He helped make cartoon advertisements to be shown in movie theaters. Advertisements help sell products.

In nineteen twenty-three, Walt Disney moved to Hollywood, California to join his brother Roy. He wanted to be a movie producer or director. But he failed to find a job. So he decided to make animated movies. In them, drawings are made to move in a lifelike way. We call them cartoons. Disney the artist wanted to bring his pictures to life.

VOICE TWO:

A cartoon is a series of pictures on film. Each picture is a little different from the one before. Each shows a tiny change in movement. When we see the movie, the pictures seem to be alive. The cartoon people and animals move. They speak with voices recorded by real actors.

Disney opened his first movie company in the back of an office. For several years, he struggled to earn enough money to pay his expenses. He believed that cartoon movies could be as popular as movies made with actors. To do this, he decided he needed a cartoon hero. Help for his idea came from an unexpected place.

VOICE ONE:

Disney worked with Ub Iwerks, another young artist. They often saw mice running in and out of the old building where they worked. So they drew a cartoon mouse. It was not exactly like a real mouse. For one thing, it stood on two legs like a human.

It had big eyes and ears. And it wore white gloves on its hands. The artists called him "Mickey." Earlier filmmakers had found that animals were easier to use in cartoons than people. Mickey Mouse was drawn with a series of circles. He was perfect for animation.

The public first saw Mickey Mouse in a movie called "Steamboat Willie." Walt Disney himself provided the voice for Mickey Mouse. The film was produced in nineteen twenty-eight. It was a huge success.

VOICE TWO:

Mickey Mouse appeared in hundreds of cartoons during the years that followed. He became known all over the world. In Japan, he was called "Miki Kuchi." In Italy, he was "Topolino." In Latin America, he was "Raton Miquelito." Mickey soon was joined by several other cartoon creatures. One was the female mouse called "Minnie." Another was the duck named "Donald," with his sailor clothes and funny voice. And there was the dog called Pluto.

VOICE ONE:

Mickey Mouse cartoons were extremely popular. But Walt Disney wanted to make other kinds of animated movies, too. In the middle nineteen thirties, he was working on his first long movie.

It was about a lovely young girl, her cruel stepmother, and the handsome prince who saves her. It was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." "Snow White" was completed in nineteen thirty-seven after three years of work. It was the first full-length animated movie to be produced by a studio. It became one of Hollywood's most successful movies.

VOICE TWO:

Movie experts say Walt Disney was responsible for the development of the art of animation. Disney's artists tried to put life into every drawing. That meant they had to feel all the emotions of the cartoon creatures. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Fear. The artists looked in a mirror and expressed each emotion. A smile. Tears. A red face. Wide eyes. Then they drew that look on the face of each cartoon creature.

VOICE ONE:

Many movie experts say Disney's art of animation reached its highest point in nineteen forty with the movie "Pinocchio." The story is about a wooden toy that comes to life as a little boy.

Disney's artists drew two-and-one-half million pictures to make "Pinocchio." The artists drew flat pictures. Yet they created a look of space and solid objects. "Pinocchio" was an imaginary world. Yet it looked very real. Disney made other extremely popular animated movies in the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties. They include "Fantasia," "Dumbo," "Bambi," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "Lady and the Tramp," and "Sleeping Beauty." These movies are still popular today.

VOICE TWO:

In addition to cartoons, Walt Disney produced many movies and television programs with real actors. He also produced movies about wild animals in their natural surroundings. Real or imaginary, all his programs had similar ideas. In most of them, innocence, loyalty and family love were threatened by evil forces. Sad things sometimes happened. But there were always funny incidents and creatures. In the end, good always won over evil. Disney won thirty-two Academy Awards for his movies and for scientific and technical inventions in filmmaking.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen fifty-five, Walt Disney opened an entertainment park not far from Hollywood, California. He called it "Disneyland." He wanted it to be the happiest place on Earth. Disneyland recreated imaginary places from Disney movies. It also recreated real places -- as Disney imagined them. For example, one area looked like a nineteenth century town in the American West. Another looked like the world of the future.

Disneyland also had exciting rides. Children could fly on an elephant. Or spin in a teacup. Or climb a mountain. Or float on a jungle river. And -- best of all -- children got to meet Mickey Mouse himself. Actors dressed as Mickey and all the Disney cartoon creatures walked around the park shaking hands.

VOICE TWO:

Some critics said Disneyland was just a huge money machine. They said it cost so much money that many families could not go. And they said it did not represent the best of American culture. But most visitors loved it. They came from near and far to see it. Presidents of the United States. Leaders of other countries. And families from around the world.

Disneyland was so successful that Disney developed plans for a second entertainment and educational park to be built in Florida. The project, Walt Disney World, opened in Florida in nineteen seventy-one, after Disney's death.

The man who started it all, Walt Disney, died in nineteen sixty-six. But the company he began continues to help people escape the problems of life through its movies and entertainment parks.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in Special English on the Voice of America.

Comprehension Check One:

1. Disneyland is __________________ .
a. a movie
b. an entertainment park
c. the home of Walt Disney
d. a motion picture studio

2. In 1923, Walt Disney moved to Hollywood in order to become __________ .
a. an animator of full length cartoons
b. a producer or director
c. a developer of an entertainment park
d. a newspaper reporter

3. Animated filmmakers discovered that it was easier to use _______________ than people.
a. animals
b. scenery
c. real actors
d. animators

4. Mickey Mouse first appeared in a film entitled " ___________________ ".
a. Snow White and The Seven Dwarves
b. Peter Pan
c. Steamboat Willie
d. Sleeping Beauty

5. In 1940, Walt Disney made the critically acclaimed "__________ " the story of a wooden toy that became a real boy.
a. Snow White and The Seven Dwarves
b. Peter Pan
c. Pinocchio
d. Topolino

6. Critics of Disneyland stated that the entertainment park was too ___________ .
a. boring
b. dangerous
c. complicated
d. expensive

7. Walt Disney's films capture the imagination of adults and most of all, ______________ .
a. children
b. film actors
c. critics
d. Hollywood

8. Before Disney moved to Hollywood, he made cartoon film ______________ .
a. features
b. adventures
c. fairy tales
d. advertisements

9. Another name for this article could be "______________ ".
a. "Mickey Mouse's Movies"
b. "Fairy Tales in Animation"
c. "The Story of Walt Disney"
d. "How Dumbo Got Long Ears"

10. This article is mainly about _____________ .
a. a great film animator
b. the history of movies
c. making a park out of cartoons
d. Hollywood's greatest hits

Comprehension Check Two:

Please answer using complete sentences:

1. "When You Wish Upon a Star" was sung in what movie?

2. How did most visitors feel about Disneyland?

3. What is Mickey Mouse's name in Spanish?

4. Which Walt Disney movie has a wicked stepmother in it?

5. Where can your child meet Mickey Mouse?

6. Where was Walt Disney born?

7. When did Disneyland open?

8. What art form did Walt Disney perfect?

9. Which of the following is not a Disney cartoon character:
Mickey Mouse, Snow White, Peter Pan, George Bush, Pinocchio?

10. This article is mainly about:
a: The history of Mickey Mouse.
b: How Dumbo became king of the elephants.
c: A famous inventor of animated motion pictures.
d: The creation of Disneyland.

More Comprehension Questions about Walt Disney

VOA video of the Disney Museum

The Yukon Gold Rush, from Voice of America, Part One

2010-02-19T18:07:00.000-08:00

VOICE ONE:

This is Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Richard Rael with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we begin the first of two programs about the discovery of gold. Huge amounts of gold. Enough gold to make a person extremely rich. Our story begins in an area called the Klondike in the Yukon Territory of western Canada. The discovery took place on a warm August day in eighteen ninety-six.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

George Carmack and his two Indian friends, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie, were working near the edge of a small river in western Canada's Yukon Territory. The area was just across the border from Alaska, which was owned by the United States. The men were using large steel pans to search for gold. They placed dirt and rocks in a pan and then filled it about half way with water. Slowly, they moved the water around in the pan until most of the dirt and water washed away. This left only very small rocks.

This method was a very good way to find small amounts of gold. The three men had often worked like this in an effort to find gold. But they had never been very successful.

VOICE TWO:

The three men moved along the small river as they worked. History does not say which of the three found gold first. But it does say that all three began to find large amounts.

In eighteen ninety-six, gold was selling for about sixteen dollars for twenty-eight grams. The three men knew they were rich after just a few days. They also knew they must go to the government office and claim the land. They had to keep their discovery a secret until they had a legal claim to the land where they had found the gold.

VOICE ONE:

George Carmack, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie were the first men to discover a great amount of gold in the Klondike. Before that August day, others had found gold, but never in huge amounts.

The three men had found one of the largest amounts of gold ever discovered lying on the surface of the Earth. The news of this discovery could not be kept secret very long. Other people quickly traveled to the area of the great Klondike River where the three had made the discovery. Some also found huge amounts of gold, enough to make them extremely rich.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

On July sixteenth, eighteen ninety-seven, the ship Excelsior came into the American port of San Francisco, California. It carried the first men who had found gold in the Klondike. The next day, the ship Portland landed in Seattle, Washington. It too carried men who had found gold in the Yukon.

Clarence Berry was one of these men. He was a fruit farmer from California. He came off the ship Excelsior in San Francisco with one hundred thirty thousand dollars worth of gold. Niles Anderson came off the ship Portland with one hundred twelve thousand dollars in gold. They were only two men among more than one hundred who left the ships with huge amounts of money.

Photographs taken when the ships landed show thousands of people meeting the two ships. Newspapers printed long stories about the discovery of gold and the rich men who had just returned from the Yukon. The news quickly traveled around the world that gold had been discovered.

VOICE ONE:

To understand the excitement it caused, you must understand the value of that much money at the time. In eighteen ninety-seven, a man with a good job working in New York City was paid about ten dollars each week. To earn the one hundred thirty thousand dollars that Clarence Berry took off the ship, that man would have had to work for two hundred fifty years!

People all over the world became excited about the possibility of finding gold. Newspaper stories said it was easy to find the gold. It was just lying on the ground. All you had to do was go to Alaska, and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon Territory of Canada and collect your gold.

VOICE TWO:

The possibility of finding gold caused thousands of people to make plans to travel to Alaska and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon. American and Canadian experts say between twenty and thirty thousand people may have traveled to the gold fields.

These people were called "stampeders." The word "stampede" means a mass movement of frightened animals. In eighteen ninety-seven, the word came to mean the huge groups of people running or stampeding to Alaska and the Klondike.

The people wanted a chance to become rich. The United States was suffering a great economic depression. It had begun in the southern United States as early as eighteen ninety.

By eighteen ninety-seven, thousands of people were out of work. Men who had no jobs decided to use all the money they had left to go to Alaska. Many believed that it would be worth taking a chance to become extremely rich.

VOICE ONE:

Newspapers and magazines began writing stories about traveling to Alaska. Books told what a person would need to be successful at finding gold. Other books explained sure methods of finding gold.

Many of these books told people what they wanted to hear -- that finding gold in the Yukon was easy. Most of the people who wrote the books had no idea at all where the Canadian Yukon Territory was. Many did not know anything about the American territory of Alaska. The people who wrote the books had no idea what was involved. They were only interested in selling books.

Many of the people who would travel to the gold fields had no idea what they would face. They did not know about the extremely cold weather that could kill. Most did not know they would face extremely hard work and terrible living conditions.

VOICE TWO:

This was not true of the Canadian government. The Canadian government knew how hard it was to live in the western part of the country. The Canadian government quickly approved a law that said each person must bring enough supplies to last for one year. This was about nine hundred kilograms of supplies.

Each person would have to bring food, tools, clothing, and everything else they needed for one year. The reason for this was very simple. There were no stores in the Yukon. There was no place to buy food. The nearest port was more than one thousand kilometers away from where the gold discovery had been made.

There were no railroads. At first, there were no roads that would permit a horse and wagon. The stampeders would have to walk all the way, and transport the supplies by themselves. The price of these supplies quickly increased.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In eighteen ninety-seven, a travel company in the middle western American city of Chicago, Illinois listed the prices of what it cost to travel to Alaska. A ticket to ride the train from Chicago to Seattle, Washington was fifty-one dollars and fifty cents. The company said a ticket on a ship from Seattle to Skagway, Alaska was thirty-five dollars.

Companies across the United States offered to sell all the supplies a gold seeker would need to take to the Klondike. Newspapers and magazines printed long lists of the supplies a stampeder would need. The price for these goods was often extremely high. The trains and the ships would carry these supplies for an additional price.

VOICE TWO:

A young man who had the money to buy the supplies and the necessary tickets to travel to Alaska usually landed at the little port of Skagway. The first shipload of several hundred gold seekers landed at Skagway on July twenty-sixth, eighteen ninety-seven. Many ships quickly followed.

The little town of Skagway soon had thousands of people looking for a place to live, food to eat and directions to where they could find gold. The stampeders were in a hurry. They wanted to quickly travel to the area where they could find gold.

Many wanted to buy the rest of the supplies they would need before they began the trip into Canada. These supplies became extremely valuable. Prices increased even more. Violence and a lack of a police department soon caused problems. People fought over supplies.

The gold seekers quickly learned that life in Alaska would be extremely difficult. And they soon learned they still had more than one thousand kilometers to travel. They learned they would have to carry their supplies over high mountains. Then they would need to build a boat to travel on the Yukon River. They learned the last part of their trip would be the hardest of all. That trip and what the thousands of gold seekers found will be our story next week.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America.

Michael Jackson, a biography from Voice of America.

2010-02-12T14:24:00.000-08:00

VOICE ONE:

I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Bob Doughty with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of the most famous performers in the world, Michael Jackson. Known as the “King of Pop,” Jackson sold more than seven hundred fifty million albums over his career. Michael Jackson redefined popular culture with his energetic music, dance moves and revolutionary music videos.

But Jackson’s huge success as a performer was not always easy. He was a complex individual with an often troubled private life.

(MUSIC: "Billie Jean")

VOICE ONE:

That was a song that hardly needs an introduction. “Billie Jean” first came out on the nineteen eighty-two hit album “Thriller.” The Guinness World Records lists that record as the best-selling album of all time. Other famous songs on the album include “Thriller,” “Beat It” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.”

The album “Thriller” was as much about moves as it was about music. Michael Jackson brought attention to his body’s movements by wearing a shiny white glove, shortened black pants and white socks. He created dance movements that were electrifying. He could be as hard as a robot, or as smooth as liquid. While doing his famous “moonwalk” step, he seemed to be walking backwards on air.

(MUSIC: "I Want You Back")

VOICE TWO:

Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana in nineteen fifty-eight. He was the seventh of nine children. He was five years old when he began singing with his brothers in a group called the Jackson 5. In nineteen sixty-eight the group signed a recording deal from Motown Records. Michael was eleven years old when they released their first album a year later.

The Jackson 5 became an immediate success. Their music set records. Their first four songs were “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There.” They all reached the number one position in pop music record sales in nineteen seventy.

VOICE ONE:

Michael was the star of the group. He was the lead singer and danced with great energy. His extraordinary skill and presence on stage was remarkable, especially for someone so young. The group made youthful and fun music that was very popular with both African-Americans and white listeners.

In the nineteen seventies, the group changed record companies and shortened their name to the Jacksons. They continued to perform together, although Michael Jackson started to record music on his own as well. His first album performing alone was “Off the Wall,” released in nineteen seventy-nine.

(MUSIC: "Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough")

VOICE TWO:

Three years later, Jackson released “Thriller.” The album was not just the best selling album of all time. It also won eight Grammy Awards and seven American Music Awards. And it helped establish the popularity of a new form of entertainment, music videos. The video for the song “Thriller” was important in the history of the music industry. Michael Jackson understood the power of these videos in bringing attention to his music and to his image. He worked hard to make exciting videos with complex stories and dances.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen eighty-five, Michael Jackson helped write the song “We Are the World.” He recorded it with many other famous performers. The aim of the record was to raise money for starving people in Africa. The project raised millions of dollars with this best selling song.

Michael Jackson’s next album, “Bad,” produced five number one hits, including “The Way You Make Me Feel.”

(MUSIC: "The Way You Make Me Feel")

VOICE TWO:

Michael Jackson was a huge success, but he was also a very troubled man. His behavior and appearance became increasingly strange. He had many operations to change his face.

He acted and spoke in a childlike way. Jackson bought a huge property in California which he called Neverland after the children’s story of Peter Pan. He had amusement park rides, a zoo and a large movie theater built for his home. Michael Jackson also went into major debt. And he suffered from injuries and illness that reportedly led him to take many kinds of pain-killing medicines.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen ninety-three, a thirteen-year-old boy accused him of sexual abuse. The child molestation case was settled out of court with Jackson reportedly paying the boy millions of dollars. But ten years later, a similar accusation by another boy led to a criminal trial which began in two thousand five. A jury cleared Jackson of all charges. He called the trial the hardest thing he had ever done in his life.

During this time, Michael Jackson kept recording and performing music. His later albums include “Dangerous,” “HIStory” and “Invincible.”

(MUSIC: “Black and White”)

VOICE TWO:

Michael Jackson was briefly married to Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of musician Elvis Presley. He later married a nurse named Deborah Rowe. They had two children, Michael Joseph Jackson and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. The couple divorced in nineteen ninety-nine. Mister Jackson later had a third child, Prince Michael Jackson.

VOICE ONE:

After his two thousand five trial, the singer spent much of his time in Europe and the Middle East. He returned to the United States with the aim of planning what was to be a victorious comeback. Michael Jackson died on June twenty-fifth, two thousand nine of heart failure. He was just days away from launching a series of fifty concerts in London.

VOICE TWO:

Fans around the world mourned his death. Prisoners in a jail in the Philippines danced for him. Fans in Paris, France attended a service at the city’s ancient religious center in his honor. Famous performers around the world told about the influence he had on their work. Michael Jackson left a huge mark on popular culture. His memory will live on in his unforgettable music.

(MUSIC: "Man in the Mirror")

VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Faith Lapidus

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Bob Doughty. You can learn about other famous Americans on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

"Design Is Where You Find It", from Edcon Publishing.

2010-01-31T09:04:00.001-08:00

The Robie House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

"The Story of Design and Designers" from Edcon Publishing

Nature is good, but mankind is not. Natural things are beautiful, but things made by people are ugly and spoil the world. This is what many people think these days.

There is some truth to these thoughts. Nothing that humans make can match the majesty and beauty of the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls. We do scar the country with long stretches of concrete linking one mean city with another, and then we litter roads and cities with empty cans and waste paper. We visit national parks and other places of great natural beauty and spread our trash.

But there is another side to the picture. Not all humans insist on destroying beauty. The lives of many people involve one main idea: making the world a more pleasant place in which to live. Some of these people are the ones who work to preserve the natural world - to save the great redwood forests, to protect species of animals and birds that are disappearing from the world, and to clean our water and air.

Others are trying to make the world better by making better things. These people deal with design. They plan man-made things to appeal to our sense of beauty and fitness. We see their work everywhere.

There is the architect who designs graceful homes and towering office buildings. Many people admire only architecture of the past. They seek out gracious old homes and majestic old churches as if modern architecture were not
worth looking at. Even some architects prefer old designs and build new churches and public buildings modeled on the ones in ancient Greece and Rome. But there is also beauty in modern architecture - in shining glass and steel towers and graceful stone and brick shopping centers. There are also planned towns where every home is a designed gem, beautiful and durable enough to stand for generations.

Designers work with small items as well as with tall buildings. If you look around, you will see design everywhere in your classroom - the calendar on the wall, your pens and pencils, even in the books that you use. Doorsteps and paper clips are designed as well as churches. Your attention may be drawn to certain small designed things, such as a fine watch with a genuine gold band, or a handsome portable television set so small that you can easily carry it wherever you go.

But most design that we see we don't even notice. Did you know that design influences what we buy and how much we buy? People who run supermarkets know this. Their shelves are designed so that the packages seem to jump right into your shopping basket.

All kinds of packages involve design. In fact, some packages seem to be all design and little product! The next time you are in a supermarket or a drugstore, look at the rows and rows of household articles. Pick up a graceful bottle that looks as if it might hold a pint. The label may tell you that it holds only six ounces.

Design is more than the shape and size of the package. The writing and the bold colors on the label are also carefully designed. You can recognize many familiar products before you are close enough to read their labels. You can recognize them by the way the product's name is written or even by the bright patterns of red or blue or green. Picture in your mind the lines of cold drink cans on the shelf. Even though the cans are all the same size and shape, can't you recognize the brands without reading the labels?

You may think that the package designers are trying to help the store owners get your money. That is partly true, of course. No one could afford to run a store unless people bought goods, and no one could afford to be a designer unless people bought designs. Anyway, you are probably wise enough not to be fooled by a fancy package. You look at the price of what you are buying and read the label to see how much the package actually holds. You can admire a pretty box on the shelf without having to take it home.

You don't have to buy things that you don't need, but you can still share the designer's pleasure in the finished product. Take just one kind of package - the glass bottle. Dozens of kinds of bottles are found in stores: small bottles and large ones, squat bottles and tall ones, fat bottles and thin ones. Even when the bottles are empty, people save them. They save them as containers for coins or to build ship models inside them. They spend hours carefully making lamps from old store bottles.

We who love the land may resent the many miles of concrete highways. Still, we should notice that engineers often build with a thought for beauty. Few sights in the world can equal the soaring Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco or the breathtaking views along the Skyline Drive in Virginia. Good designers take nature into account. If they can make natural beauty more available, they will do it.

Almost everything we touch and see has been designed to be beautiful as well as useful. Look at our stamps and coins. Look at the portable dishwashers with genuine wooden tops and the plain but durable tables and chairs as well as at the fancy wallpapers and flowered bed sheets.

Design is everywhere. Enjoy it!

"Design Is Where You Find It" - Comprehension Check

1. Many people think that natural things are _______ .

a. made with concrete.
b. littering roads.
c. artificial and of little value.
d. more beautiful than man-made.

2. Some people who wish to make the world a more pleasant place in which to live _______ .

a. plan man-made things.
b. seek out gracious old homes.
c. prefer old designs.
d. spread trash.

3. Of all the people who deal with design, the first one mentioned in this story is _______ .

a. the highway engineer.
b. the small item designer.
c. the architect.
d. the packaging designer.

4. Good designers _______ .

a. resent the use of land for roads.
b. try to fool people with fancy packaging.
c. charge very high fees.
d. take nature into account.

5. Good package designs _______ .

a. help sell more products.
b. always fool people.
c. are planned for people who cannot read.
d. are planned by architects.

6. A person interested in becoming a designer might find it most helpful to study _______ .

a. music.
b. art.
c. another language.
d. cooking.

7. Beauty and grace are found _______ .

a. only in old building designs.
b. in both old and new building designs.
c. only in modern building designs.
d. only in the building designs of Greece and Rome.

8. Almost everything we touch and see has been designed to be beautiful and _______ .

a. natural.
b. graceful.
c. useful.
d. durable.

9. Another name for this story could be _______ .

a. "Graceful Homes and Towering Buildings."
b. "Design Is Everywhere."
c. "Buildings of the Past."
d. "Planned Towns of the Future."

10. This story is mainly about _______ .

a. designers who work with small items.
b. fancy packaging.
c. noticing design.
d. destroying natural beauty.

This story is an article from a series of Reading Comprehension Workbooks by Edcon Publishing Group. Edcon Publishing has a very large selection of different types of readings and other materials for learning. I highly recommend this company. - The Teacher

Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright's Works

Rudolph Schindler
Some Photos of Schindler's Work

Richard Neutra
Some Examples of Neutra's Works

Matt Henson at the North Pole, from Edcon Publishing.

2010-01-24T12:02:00.000-08:00

That flag was made by Robert Peary's wife, and Matt Henson is proud to raise it at the North Pole.

Something you will read about: trailblazer: someone who guides or prepares the way for others

Most people believe that Robert Peary was the first person to reach the North Pole. Everybody agrees that it was Peary's idea to search for the North Pole, and that he was the leader of the group that did find it. In fact, Robert Peary was made an admiral in the United States Navy for his work. However, a man named Matt Henson arrived at the North Pole shortly before Peary. Henson, a black man born in Maryland, explored the polar lands with Peary for sixteen years. They made seven trips together, and they shared every peril.

While a boy, Matt lived near the sea, and he loved to watch the sailing ships. Men told him that the ships sailed all around the world. Matt decided to become a sailor, and, at thirteen, he signed on a ship as a cabin boy. Matt never had time for school as a boy, and the captain of the ship decided to teach him to read and write. Matt stayed with the sailing ship for five years. He visited many civilized countries and some that were not so civilized. He learned to get along with all kinds of people. After the long voyage, Matt worked at different jobs on land. He was working in a clothing store when a man came in to buy a hat. The man was Robert Peary, an officer in the United States Navy.

Peary and Matt Henson became friends immediately. Peary was going on an exploring trip, and he offered Matt a job as his servant. Although Matt didn't want to be a servant to anyone, he did want to go on the trip. He thought it would be a great adventure, and he looked forward to times of peril in unusual lands. Matt decided to accept the job of being Peary's servant. He was never sorry that he did. Peary soon recognized Matt's courage and imagination and construction skills. Matt was made a part of the regular crew. For twenty-three years, Peary and Henson traveled together. Their last sixteen years together were spent searching for the North Pole. They used all kinds of transportation - sailing ships and Eskimo kayaks, wagons pulled by horses, and sleds drawn by dogs.

The North Pole
Seven years after their first trip together, they went to explore the frozen country of the Far North. There was no money to pay Matt, but he wanted to go so badly that he was willing to go without pay. With a sailing ship for transportation, they left the civilized world behind.

When they had landed in the bitter cold of the North, Peary broke his leg. This did not stop him. He insisted on staying and exploring. The ship was sent home and the men spent a year near the North Pole. They faced many perils without any hope of outside help. At the end of the year, Peary and Henson returned to the United States. Peary told Henson that he wanted to return to the North and find the North Pole. He needed Henson's skill in the construction of shelters. He also needed his strength and courage.

Nobody knew exactly where the North Pole was. There was no way of finding it except by using dog sleds for transportation across the empty miles of ice and snow. Robert Peary and Matt Henson made their last trip to the North in 1908. They had suffered bitterly on all their trips. On one voyage, Peary's feet were frozen and most of his toes had to be removed. Another time, Matt Henson fell into the sea. He would have frozen in the icy water, but an Eskimo rescued him.

Four Eskimos who accompanied
Peary and Henson to the North Pole
The last voyage was the most difficult. The men struggled through the winter and into the spring. Spring near the North Pole was worse than winter anywhere else. Only six men remained for the last part of the trip. Four of the men were Eskimos who didn't care anything about the North Pole. To them, it was just another icy spot in a frozen world. The fifth man was Robert Peary, who had spent much of his life looking for the North Pole. The sixth man was Matt Henson, the black American, and the first one to reach the Pole.

Matt was the trailblazer, and he led the way every day, driving his dog sled across the snow. He wore fur clothes as the Eskimos did, but the bitter northern winds cut his face. At every stopping place, Matt was responsible for the construction of a house built from blocks of ice so the men would have a place to sleep. On a cold day in April 1909, Matt Henson and one Eskimo reached the North Pole. Matt started cutting blocks of ice for the shelter house. Almost an hour later, Admiral Peary arrived with the other three Eskimos. Peary was very excited, and he gave the American flag to Matt. He told him to place it in the snow at the North Pole. And Matt did it.

That was how Matt Henson became the first person known to stand at the North Pole.

COMPREHENSION CHECK:

1. This story is about ________
a. an Indian.
b. an Eskimo.
c. an explorer.
d. a soldier.

2. The hero of the story is _____
a. Admiral Peary.
b. an Eskimo.
c. a polar bear.
d. Matt Henson.

3. When Matt was thirteen, _____
a. he got a job on a sailing ship.
b. he got a job in a clothing store.
c. he became Robert Peary's servant.
d. he placed a flag at the North Pole.

4. Matt learned to read and write __
a. in school.
b. at home.
c. on a ship.
d. with Admiral Peary.

5. Matt Henson and Robert Peary were looking for __
a. a civilized place.
b. the North Pole.
c. Matt's mother and father.
d. a buried treasure.

6. One kind of transportation used by Peary and Henson in the frozen North, was _____
a. automobiles.
b. trucks.
c. snow plows.
d. dog sleds.

7. In the snow at the North Pole, Matt Henson placed __
a. an American flag.
b. a book by Admiral Peary.
c. a message he wrote himself.
d. some supplies.

8. The most important thing that Matt Henson did was __
a. to spend five years on a sailing ship.
b. to work in a clothing store.
c. to build ice shelters in the Far North.
d. to place a flag at the North Pole.

9. Another name for this story could be ______
a. "A famous black explorer."
b. "How to Travel by Dog Sled."
c. "Matt Henson and the Sailing Ships."
d. "An Adventure at Sea."

10. This story is mainly about _______
a. kinds of transportation.
b. exploring.
c. construction of ice shelters.
d. helping a friend.

Read the following short article from Wikipedia:

Matt Henson Bio

The following is a longer article:

Matt Henson, Arctic Explorer

Here is a video about Matt Henson as part of a Black History Month celebration:

This video explains more details of the expedition and Matt Henson's role:

"Trapped in Death Valley" from Edcon Publishing

2010-01-11T21:30:00.000-08:00

This is the story of the Sand Walking Company and their
treacherous journey through Death Valley in an effort to reach
California.

Something you will read about: borax: a white powdery substance used to destroy germs.

The road west was treacherous and untamed~ yet these brave men and women were determined to reach the territory called California.

The Sand Walking Company, consisting of a hundred wagons full of settlers heading for California and the newly discovered gold fields, halted in southwestern Utah. An argument had been going on for some time. Part of the group wanted to take a shortcut through the desert, but the leader, Captain Hunt, was very much opposed to it.

He squatted with the impatient young men, William Manly and John Rogers, critically examining a crude map outlined on the already cold ground. It was nearly December, in 1849, and this evidently worried Manly.

"We'll travel south," urged Manly. "These mountains are very treacherous in the winter. Remember what happened to the Donner party?"

A shudder swept over the three of them as they recalled the ordeal of the Donner party stranded by blizzards in the Sierras. Captain Hunt still argued.

"At least we know the way through the mountains. It would be suicide to endeavor to travel through that unknown desert."

Manly gazed carefully at the jagged line he had drawn due south, through the mysterious southeast desert region where Nevada meets California. It looked so easy, so direct.

"I want to attempt it," he insisted.

"Suit yourself," replied Captain Hunt, "but I'm taking all those who will accompany me over the mountains, the safe and sure way."

The following morning, most of the wagons in the train rumbled off to the mountains. A small party of adventurous souls, including the Bennett and Arcane families and Reverend James Brier and his family, gathered their belongings together, loaded up their wagons and headed south into the mysterious, unknown basin of sand, shimmering under a torrid sun. Around them towered rock formations of weird shapes, eroded by the sun and wind. Coyotes howled at night and bighorn sheep appeared in ghostly herds on distant hills. Day after day, the constantly turbulent wind whipped the grey sand against the slow-moving wagons.

The temperature rose as the wagons creaked forward and a large pond became visible. The children scampered to the welcome water, but a white, salty substance lay upon the surface.

"Don't drink it," Juliette Brier warned her three children, "it may be contaminated. "

"But we're thirsty," whined the children, "and we're tired."

"I know," soothed their mother, concealing her growing anxiety.

The fresh water supply was becoming scant and so were the provisions. It was difficult traveling through the sand, not nearly as swift as Manly had imagined. The shortcut had turned into a nightmare but Juliette maintained her fortitude and good spirits and constantly encouraged her companions. When the children got tired, she played a game with them, letting them ride on empty leather saddlebags. Manly and Rogers scanned the horizon, peering at the distant peaks of the Panamint Mountains, which separated them from California's wealth.

"The path to the mountains goes through those hills," Manly observed, and he directed the group toward a ravine. Wearily, the gaunt, starving oxen dragged the wagons down into a narrow depression through two cliffs, seeking a path between the rough stone walls. Oxen stumbled and perished and since the survivors couldn't pull all of the wagons, precious possessions had to be abandoned along with stranded vehicles. As food and water began to give out, the settlers wandered in the endless maze of grey rocks, thinking they were nearing the end of their journey but never getting closer to the mountains.

They followed a stream which they named Furnace Creek because the rocks seemed to have been bleached by the torrid sun. Most of the water was undrinkable. The white powdery mineral served to contaminate all but a few springs. In later years, this substance, borax, would make men rich as they hauled the "white gold" from the desert with twenty-mule teams, but to these travelers the salty powder just added to their ordeal.
The children became sick, oxen died and more wagons were abandoned. Vultures soared overhead as the travelers persisted in their endeavor to reach the mountains. At last they came to a dead end, trapped in the hills.

"We'll surely die now," said Juliette in despair, turning her face so the children could not see her weep.

The men listened to Juliette's sobs in desperation. Her fortitude had inspired them and now even she felt that their situation was hopeless.

"Look," exclaimed William Manly, "John and I got you into this, so we'll have to go and get help. Meanwhile, the rest of you must stay here."

He glanced at the Reverend Brier and his brave wife.

"And pray. Pray like you've never prayed before."

As the two men disappeared into the wilderness, their friends watched in despair. The two men had taken few supplies. Who could survive in this torrid desert? One by one, most of the oxen were killed for their meat. It seemed as if the waiting people would die of thirst when a sudden winter storm, bringing the rare rain of the desert, nearly drowned them in a flash flood but left pure water in hastily set out containers. Then a miracle seemed to happen. Flowers of purple, gold, red and yellow appeared, springing up where the moisture had reached them. Juliette hugged her starving children and gazed hopefully at the flowers, assuring the children that help would come soon.

Meanwhile, John and William had crossed the desert and reached the Panamint Mountains. Powered by sheer fortitude, they crossed the mountains and wandered through a smaller desert, the Mojave. They stumbled into a ranch, looking more like skeletons than living men. At the nearby settlement of San Fernando, they purchased whatever provisions they could carry, plus three horses and a small mule.

The return journey was an ordeal. The horses died. The men utilized few of the provisions, saving them for their friends. As they approached the ravine where the wagons ground to a halt, they were filled with dread. The only sound was the wind whistling around the wagons. Manly raised his revolver and fired, the shot echoing from the forbidding stone cliffs. There was a scratching sound as a man crawled painfully from under a wagon. He blinked, then in a hoarse voice he shouted.

"The boys have come! The boys have come!"

Immediately, the atmosphere was alive with jubilant exclamations and cries as the survivors staggered from the wagons where they had sought shelter from the torrid sun.

"Thank the Lord!" exclaimed Reverend Brier.

The Bennetts and Arcanes embraced the men in wordless emotion and Juliette fell to her knees, tears streaming down her weather-beaten cheeks. Strengthened by the provisions Manly and Rogers had secured, the survivors trudged on foot out of the desert toward the mountains. The trail was desolate but now their leaders knew the way. Halfway up the mountain trail, Juliette Brier surveyed the forty miles of rocks twisted by erosion, endless sand and salt ponds.

"Goodbye, Death Valley," she whispered.

Death Valley, as it has been known since, is a place of terror, mystery, and for some, the source of great fortunes. But no one who travels through Death Valley, even on modern roads, can forget the little group who first crossed it in the winter of 1849.

This story is an article from a series of Reading Comprehension Workbooks by Edcon Publishing Group. It is under Copyright, and included here with permission from the company. Edcon has all the rights to the audio files of their articles and stories. Edcon Publishing has a very large selection of different types of readings and other materials for learning. I highly recommend this company. - The Teacher

"Trapped in Death Valley" - Comprehension Check

Here are some links for more information and
visuals about Death Valley.

Death Valley: Photos
Death Valley:Wikipedia
Borax:Wikipedia
A Drive Through Death Valley: Video
A Cameraman's Journey: Video
Death Valley National Park

"Trapped in Death Valley", Comprehension Check.

2010-01-11T21:24:00.000-08:00

1. The leader of the Sand Walking Company was ___________ .

a. Reed Donner.
b. William Manly.
c. John Rogers.
d. Captain Hunt.

2. This leader was strongly against taking a short cut __________ .

a. through the mountains.
b. through the gold mines.
c. through the desert.
d.through the Sierras.

3. In all probability, the group that followed Manly would have had less trouble if they followed ____________.

a. the Sierra family.
b. Captain Hunt.
c. Juliette Brier.
d. John Rogers.

4. The group followed a stream called ___________ .

a. Furnace Creek.
b. San Fernando.
c. White Gold Creek.
d. Panamint Creek.

5. The powdery mineral which contaminated most of the springs was _________ .
a. sand.
b. borax.
c. gold.
d. table salt.

6. A sudden winter storm caused flowers to spring up __________ .

a. just before the two men left to get help.
b. long after the two men returned.
c. before any of the oxen were killed for
their meat.
d. after the two men had gone for help.

7. Juliette thought of the flowers as a _____________ .

a. sign of hope.
b. sign of winter.
c. dream.
d. sign to pray.

8. A more detailed account of this story might be found in a book on ________ .
a. deserts of the world.
b. western expansion.
c. rocks and minerals.
d. the gold rush.

9. Another name for this selection could be _________ .

a. "Vacationing in Death Valley."
b. "Beware: Death Valley."
c. "Searching for Borax."
d. "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to California."

10. This selection is mainly about _________ .

a. a wagon party stranded by blizzards.
b. the Donner party's mistake.
c. the Sand Walking Company.
d. the little band who were the first to cross Death Valley.

2009: A Year of Discovery and Promise in Space, From Voice of America.

2009-12-31T08:44:00.000-08:00

The Planet Mars Photographed by the Mars Rover

VOICE ONE:

I'm Mario Ritter.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. This week, we tell about some of the biggest space stories of two thousand nine. First, there was the American space agency's discovery of water on the moon. We also talk to a NASA expert about the discovery of methane gas on Mars. And we hear about the test flight of NASA's newest rocket.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

An artist's picture of the LCROSS spacecraft nearing the moon
Possibly the biggest space story this year was the discovery of water on the moon. The best evidence was provided by a dramatic experiment carried out on October ninth. NASA used its Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, to look for water deep beneath the lunar surface.

To get below the ancient lunar rocks, NASA crashed a rocket into the moon's south pole. The crash caused soil to be expelled many kilometers above the lunar surface. LCROSS studied the soil before it too crashed into the moon. The experiment pushed the search for water several meters below the lunar surface—much deeper than had been possible before.

VOICE TWO:

LCROSS scientists Anthony Colaprete and Kim Ennico study early results from the lunar impact experiment.
In November, Anthony Colaprete, a leading scientist with the LCROSS project, spoke about information gathered by the spacecraft. He said about one hundred kilograms of water had been found in the material ejected by the moon crash. Water has now been confirmed in amounts much greater than had been thought.

In September, NASA scientists had announced the discovery of water molecules mainly in the moon's extreme northern and southern areas. They noted, however, that they could also be seeing evidence of another molecule, hydroxyl.

VOICE ONE:

Instruments on three separate spacecraft gathered that evidence of lunar water. NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper made the most recent observations. It was one of eleven scientific devices carried by the Chandrayaan-One spacecraft of the Indian Space Research Organization.

The Mapper is a spectrometer, which measures reflected light wavelengths. The device shows scientists what an object is made of from great distances. Similar devices on NASA's Cassini and Epoxi spacecraft also reported water.

But those observations were made years ago. NASA scientists had not trusted the results without clear confirmation.

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper could only examine lunar soil to a depth of a few millimeters. And the amount of water found in that layer was very small. Now, LCROSS has shown that large amounts of water could exist on the moon. And it raises even more questions.

Was water brought to the moon by space rocks and icy bodies called comets? Or could processes deep within the moon produce water? If that is the case, it may be possible that the moon could hold enough water for future explorations or even colonies.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

An image showing methane on Mars
The presence of water on the moon was not the only major solar system discovery NASA made this year. In January, a team of NASA and university scientists announced that they had found methane gas on Mars. The group used NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility and the W.M. Keck telescope. Both instruments are in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Methane is better known as natural gas. On Earth, it is mainly produced by processes linked to biology.

This raises the exciting possibility that life may have existed in the past on Mars. Or it may still exist deep below the surface. Michael Meyer is lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program in Washington. He spoke to us about the finding.

MICHAEL MEYER: "It really means that the planet is more active than we thought, and more active--and that can be geologically or maybe even biologically."

VOICE ONE:

On Earth, biological activity is very effective in making methane. But Michael Meyer notes that methane also can come from a purely non-biological process called serpentinization. He says the methane discovery presents scientists with a mystery because it is still not clear how the gas is being produced.

Martian methane is also unusual because it is not evenly spread over the planet. It can become concentrated in small areas and then disappear. This suggests processes that both supply and remove methane from the atmosphere in certain places. Currently, the best explanation for the loss of methane is that it chemically reacts with dust in the atmosphere. The gas may then turn into something else such as carbon dioxide.

VOICE TWO:

An artist's picture of how methane could be formed under the Martian surface.
NASA plans to send the Mars Science Laboratory to the red planet in the autumn of two thousand eleven. The exploration vehicle will be able to measure methane even at very low levels in many places on the surface.

Michael Meyer also says NASA is developing an orbiter with European scientists. It will be able to measure small amounts of many different gases. The orbiter could finally provide evidence about how methane on Mars is created and destroyed. Michael Meyer says planetary scientists often study processes that are very different from ones on Earth. But he says understanding these differences can help discover how some complex processes on our own planet really work.

(SOUND: NASA Rocket Launch)

VOICE ONE:

The Ares 1-X launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and it's flight above the earth.
On October twenty-eighth, NASA took an important step into the future. The agency carried out a test flight of its next-generation launch vehicle for astronauts.

NASA is developing two separate rockets for the Ares program. Phil Sumrall is the Ares Project Office Advanced Planning Manager. He says this was done for safety reasons.

The loss of the space shuttle Columbia in February of two thousand three led to an investigation by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The group recommended that human life must not be risked simply to send equipment into space. The result was a design in which safety was the top concern.

PHIL SUMRALL: "We designed the Ares One to be the absolute safest possible vehicle that we could conceive."

VOICE TWO:

Space scientists designed Ares One with a system that would rescue astronauts whether there was a failure of the rocket in the launch area or during flight. Mister Sumrall says NASA estimates the new Ares One will be twenty to thirty times safer than the Space Shuttle.

The other Ares launch vehicle is the huge Ares Five rocket. It will be the biggest rocket ever built. The Ares Five will be one hundred sixteen meters tall and weigh three point seven million kilograms. It will be able to lift nearly forty percent more than the Saturn Five rocket that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon.

VOICE ONE:

Much of the Ares technology has been developed from existing vehicles. Versions of the solid fuel rockets that are used on the Space Shuttle today will serve as the first stage of the Ares One and booster rockets on the Ares Five. An engine first developed for the Saturn Five moon rocket has been updated to be used on Ares.

Existing manufacturing technologies are also being used in new ways on Ares. The tanks of the Ares rockets will be made of aluminum lithium. This is a strong and light metal alloy that has been used on the Space Shuttle. But Ares will use new methods in metal-working science such as friction stir welding. This method uses heat and pressure to join pieces of metal together. Friction stir welding can be used to make complex curved and domed structures out of aluminum lithium and similar alloys. And, friction stir welding uses fewer workers at less cost than other methods.

Scientists developed the new welding technology at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Montgomery, Alabama. It will be used when Ares is built at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana.

VOICE TWO:

Phil Sumrall says NASA's estimate to keep the Ares program going forward as planned calls for three billion dollars in additional spending a year.

He says if money is available, Ares Five could be ready for a test flight by two thousand seventeen. We asked Phil Sumrall how NASA expects to use Ares in its space exploration plans.

PHIL SUMRALL: "It's not just for going to the moon or near Earth objects. It's what we'd use to go to, eventually, to Mars or to the moons of Mars."

NASA named the new rocket system Ares, the Greek name for Mars. The name suggests the goal for a future generation of space explorers. They may be the first humans to set foot on another planet.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

I'm Steve Ember with Mario Ritter who also wrote and produced our program. You can find links to the NASA Web site at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

The following video shows the launching of the Mars Rover into space, its landing on Mars, and the beginning of its mission.

Christmas 2009 in America: A Joyful Season in Not So Joyful Times.

2009-12-21T10:41:00.000-08:00

A Stained Glass Nativity Scene

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, our subject is Christmas in America.

(MUSIC)

This Friday, millions of American Christians will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, their lord. Many families will sing traditional Christmas carols and exchange gifts around decorated trees. And many will attend special church services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Reporter Jerilyn Watson spoke with David Denoon, senior minister at the First Congregational Church of Evanston, Illinois, near Chicago. This is his second year there.

He says that at the early service on Christmas Eve, he will begin with a question for the children. What might Jesus want for his birthday? Then he will turn his talk toward the adults.

DAVID DENOON: "My intention is to spin that for the adults as well, to be talking about our relationship with God and that we find that relationship most special in our relationship with Jesus."

Reverend Denoon will also lead a second service on the night before Christmas.

DAVID DENOON: "One of the great traditions that I really appreciate here at First Congregational is that we do an annual service of 'Nine Lessons and Carols,' which is in the old King's College tradition from England. And the ending of the service is, everyone has just sung 'Silent Night.' We've lit candles, we've turned off the lights, everyone is sitting in darkness except for the lights of their candles as the final reading is read. And at the conclusion of the reading the bell is tolled at midnight and we then sing "Joy to the World."

(MUSIC)

Major holidays are often when houses of religious worship are most busy. And that means extra work for members of the clergy.

Frank Kurimsky is the priest at a Roman Catholic church in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Saint Irenaeus Parish is celebrating one hundred one years in existence. Between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Father Kurimsky will be busy with four services, and another priest will lead a fifth.

Orthodox Christmas is observed on January seventh, based on the Julian calendar. However, the Orthodox Church in America says most of its members follow the revised Julian calendar and celebrate on December twenty-fifth.

(MUSIC)

"Merry Christmas" is the traditional holiday greeting used by millions of Americans. But these days a great many say "Happy Holidays."

Some people are happy about the change. But others are not, including this woman in the state of Mississippi named Merry.

MERRY TIGERT: "Not everyone is Christian. But I would hope that most people who celebrate Christmas in any form understand its origins. And even though historically there's no indication that Jesus Christ was born in December, that's just the day that has traditionally been used to celebrate the birth of the Son of God on Earth. Other people may choose to say 'Happy Holidays,' but to me that just doesn't say enough."

Merry Tigert says people like to have fun with her name at Christmastime. But her name also causes misunderstandings. Many people hear it and think it is Mary, M-A-R-Y, instead of M-E-R-R-Y. We asked how she got her unusual name.

MERRY TIGERT: "When my mother was expecting me, she was expecting a boy to come along in January. And instead a little girl came along in December, oh, about a week before Christmas. So she didn't have a girl's name picked out. She had been addressing Christmas cards, and the only thing that came to her mind was 'Merry' as in Merry Christmas."

So is Merry merry?

MERRY TIGERT: "For the most part, yes. We all have our times, but I do tend to have an optimistic attitude."

Merry arrived seven years after her mother had her first child -- and she was quite a Christmas gift. You see, the doctor had told her mother that she could not have any more children.

(MUSIC)

That was Merry Tigert's favorite Christmas song. But adults are not the only ones who have something to say about the holiday season.

HANNAH:"My name is Hannah"

REPORTER: And what's your favorite thing about Christmas?"

HANNAH: "That we get to spend time with our family."

Reporter June Simms talked to some schoolchildren.

CHILDREN: "We get to open presents." "Getting to see my family." "Celebrating with our family." "Presents!" "I usually get presents that say Santa Claus on them but I'm not really sure if they're from him."

Now, about Santa Claus ...

CHILDREN: "He has a sleigh with flying reindeer. Kids go tell him what they want for Christmas and then he's kind of like the spirit who brings you presents."

"On Christmas Eve we lay out cookies and milk and carrots. The carrots are for the reindeer, and the cookies and milk for Santa Claus." "We put out some vegetables for Santa Claus and a glass of water, and then when we woke up there was a note from Santa Claus."

"He gives presents that children want for Christmas, and give it to them under their tree."

REPORTER: "How does he know what they want?"

CHILD: "Well he lives in the North Pole, I don't know if there's like a speaker or anything, for them to hear what children want."

The children are all fourth-graders at a Washington-area elementary school.

CHILDREN: "My name is Seth Montuori. I was adopted. I usually go up to my grandpa's and my grandma's house. It's one of my best holidays, and, because you get lots of presents and stuff. I'm just really glad that I could be with my family."

"Well, first we go to church, then we come home on Christmas Eve and then we open our presents. And then the next morning our stockings are full and we wake up, go downstairs and empty our socks. And that's the German way. My mom's German."

"Christmas was when Jesus was born, his birthday. They have Christmas trees, and you put ornaments. And it usually snows, and we also have like lots of lights."

Not all the children celebrate Christmas, though.

CHILD: "I celebrate Hanukkah. Well, you have to light candles every night. And you get presents for eight days because -- I mean seven days, because God made the, created the earth in seven days and on the seventh day he rested."

Well, sort of. Hanukkah -- the Jewish Festival of Lights -- really is eight days. But the history goes back more than two thousand years. Jewish rebels defeated a Greek-Syrian army and reclaimed their temple in Jerusalem. The first night this year was December eleventh.

After Christmas, black families in the United States might also celebrate Kwanzaa, which means "first fruits" in Swahili. This modern festival of African-American culture includes lighting candles each night from December twenty-sixth through New Year's Day.

(MUSIC)

By now, the severe recession that began in December of two thousand seven may be technically over. But millions of American families are still hurting. For many, the best gift would be a job and freedom from worry about losing their home.

Other families have different worries. For military families, the best gift would be a way to protect loved ones getting ready to be sent to war, or already serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In the United States, holiday gift giving is important not only for the usual reasons, like showing friendship and love. It also represents an important part of a national economy driven mainly by consumer spending.

Last December, as the recession hit hard, Americans held on to their money. This year, stores and online sellers are seeing a little more willingness to spend.

Reporter Caty Weaver talked to shoppers in the Tysons Corner area of Northern Virginia, outside Washington.

Tyson's Corner Shopping Mall

TINA: "My name's Tina. I have two girl and one boy."

Tina is shopping with Kevin, and they say the difficult economy forced them to Christmas shop a little differently this year, to save money.

KEVIN: "Instead of shopping in just the regular shopping mall we were kind of forced to go to these bargain type shops."

And by the look of their shopping cart, overflowing with boxes and bags, they must be finished.

KEVIN:"We're pretty much done."

TINA: "For everybody. [Laughter]"

But they still have one more purchase to make: their Christmas tree.

TINA: "We're gonna put it up tonight."

Another couple out shopping, Duncan and Alexandra, look happy with their results.

DUNCAN: "This year a lot of stores are trying to reduce prices to help bring customers in during this time of recession. And we've had tremendous success in getting different things that we wanted for the holidays."

We asked Alexandra her favorite Christmas song.

ALEXANDRA: "'It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.'"

Johnnie Truesdale is shopping with two other women -- who point to her to be the one to talk on the radio. She has a thing or two to say about the prices.

JOHNNIE TRUESDALE: "Still high. Could be better."

And the shopping conditions.

JOHNNIE TRUESDALE: "The stores are very crowded. And I'm glad I'm finished shopping."

But she has praise for the people who work at the stores.

JOHNNIE TRUESDALE: "The lines were moving pretty fast. The salespersons were doing a good job."

And her favorite Christmas song?

JOHNNIE TRUESDALE: "'Silent Night.' It's the Temptations."

Finally, there is Vincente Carbajal. He is shopping with his wife and little girl. But not Christmas shopping. He says his family does not celebrate Christmas, although they are Christian.

VINCENTE CARBAJAL: "We think every single day is very valuable. We celebrate every single day with our family, with our community. We don't hate anyone. Every single day can be a Christmas."

(MUSIC)

Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. We hope you join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Louis Kahn Helped Define Modern Architecture.

2009-12-13T11:51:00.000-08:00

The Government Center in Dhaka, Bangladesh: Louis Kahn, Architect

VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about Louis Kahn. He is considered one of the most important American building designers of the twentieth century.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Louis Kahn helped define modern architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and building structures such as houses, museums, and office buildings.Kahn’s architecture has several defining qualities. For example, Kahn was very interested in the look and feel of the materials he used. He used brick and concrete in new and special ways. Kahn also paid careful attention to the use of sunlight. He liked natural light to enter his buildings through interesting kinds of windows and openings. Kahn’s work can also be identified by his creative use of geometric shapes. Many of his buildings use squares, circles and three sided shapes called triangles.

VOICE TWO:

Louis Kahn was born in Estonia in nineteen-oh-one. When he was five years old his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even as a child, Louis Kahn showed excellence as an artist. When he was in school his pictures won several competitions organized by the city. In high school, Kahn studied architecture briefly. He later went to the University of Pennsylvania and studied architecture full time. He graduated in nineteen twenty-four.

Louis Kahn’s buildings have many influences. Some experts say his trip to Rome, Italy in nineteen fifty-one influenced him the most. Kahn spent a few months as an architect with the American Academy in Rome. He also traveled through other parts of Italy, Greece and Egypt. There, he saw the ancient Greek and Roman ruins that also would influence his works. He was very affected by the size and design of these ruins. They helped influence him to develop an architecture that combines both modern and ancient designs.

Other experts believe Kahn was also influenced by the part of Philadelphia where he grew up. There were many factory buildings with large windows. These brick structures were very solid. This industrial design is apparent in several of Kahn’s early works.

VOICE ONE:

Kahn’s first projects involved building housing in Philadelphia. He later received government jobs to design housing during World War Two. In nineteen forty-two, he became a head architect of the Public Building Administration. Kahn’s first important project was the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut in the early nineteen fifties. The outside of the building is very simple. The surface is made of brick and limestone.

The inside of the gallery shows Kahn’s great artistic sense. For example, he created a triangle-shaped walkway of steps that sits inside a rounded concrete shell.

This building was very popular. Its completion represented an important step in Kahn’s professional life. He was now a famous architect.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

One of Kahn’s other important buildings is the Salk Institute, a research center in La Jolla, California.

It was built in the nineteen sixties. This structure further shows how Kahn was able to unite form and function. This means his buildings were beautiful and also useful.

The Salk Institute has two structures that surround a marble garden area or courtyard. This outdoor marble area is almost completely bare. The only detail is a small stream of water running through the middle of the square towards the Pacific Ocean.

This simple design is very striking. Inside the building are many rooms for laboratories. Kahn was very careful to make sure they all received natural light and a view of the ocean. He linked the indoor and outdoor spaces in a very beautiful way.

VOICE ONE:

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas is another famous building by Louis Kahn.
Some say it is his best. Kahn built this museum in the early nineteen seventies. This large museum has long rooms with curved or vaulted ceilings. Inside, all of the walls can be moved to best fit the art collection. Kahn was able to make the concrete material of the building look both solid and airy. He used sunlight and bodies of water to create a truly special building.

Kahn once said this about the Kimbell Art Museum: “The building feels…that I had nothing to do with it…that some other hand did it.” The architect seems to say that he was helped by some higher influence. Many people feel that his architecture has a very spiritual and timeless quality.

Kahn mostly created public buildings such as museums and libraries. However, he also designed a few houses. His most famous home is the Fisher house near Philadelphia.

It is made of several box-shaped buildings. The house is made out of glass, wood and stone. Many windows provide a view of the nearby trees.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Louis Kahn also designed buildings in other countries, including India and Bangladesh. His largest project was a series of buildings that would become the government center of Dhaka, Bangladesh. This structure includes the parliament, meeting rooms, offices, eating places and even a religious center.

This series of buildings looks like an ancient home for kings. Huge rounded and box-like buildings have windows in the shape of circles and triangles. The structure is surrounded by water. From a distance, it appears to float on a lake. Kahn spent the last twelve years of his life on the project. It was completed in nineteen eighty-three, nine years after his death. Because of Kahn, experts say, one of the poorest countries in the world has one of the most beautiful public buildings on Earth.

All of Kahn’s buildings share a common solidity and heaviness. Experts say they are very different from the works of other famous architects of the period. These architects preferred light and airy buildings. Their weightless-looking structures were mostly made of glass and metal. Kahn used stone and concrete to make monumental buildings. Many of his structures look more ancient than modern.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Louis Kahn was an artist who created beautiful works.But he was not a very good businessman. He would change his designs many times. This would make each project take a great deal of time and cost more money. The majority of the projects he designed were never built. Also, he did not like to compromise his design ideas to satisfy a buyer’s wishes. For this reason and others, Kahn did not make many buildings. His design company did not always have many jobs or much money. In fact, when Kahn died, he was in great debt. This is especially unusual since he was considered one of the most important architects in the world.

VOICE TWO:

In two thousand four, Mister Kahn’s son, Nathaniel Kahn, made a film about his father’s life. The film is called “My Architect.” It is interesting for many reasons. “My Architect” gives a history of Kahn’s life. The film presents the architect and his buildings. You can see Kahn working at his desk and talking with his builders. You can also see him teaching university students. You can tell that he had great energy.

The film also shows a great deal about Kahn’s private life. Kahn had a wife and daughter. But he also had two other families. Kahn had a child with each of two other women that he was not married to. In the film, Nathaniel Kahn describes visits from his father.

He says that as a child he did not understand why his father did not live with him and his mother all of the time.

NATHANIEL KAHN IN “MY ARCHITECT”: “I didn’t know my father very well. He never married my mother and he never lived with us. I needed to know him. I needed to find out who he really was. So I set out on a journey to see his buildings and to find whatever was left of him out there.”

VOICE ONE:

Many questions are left unanswered about Kahn. Yet, the film helps tell a very interesting story about a very important man. Louis Kahn died in nineteen seventy-four. Yet his influence lives on. While teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, he trained many future builders. Some students have become important architects. And Kahn’s architecture has remained fresh and timeless.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Dana Demange. It was produced by Dana Demange and Lawan Davis. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Ralph Ellison, Writer of the Novel: "Invisible Man."

2009-12-10T17:14:00.000-08:00

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about writer Ralph Ellison and his famous novel “Invisible Man.” The book is about a nameless black man’s search for his identity and place in society.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Ralph Ellison's novel, “Invisible Man”, was published in nineteen fifty-two. Ellison was at once called a major new writer. The book won the National Book Award, a high and rare honor for a first novel.

Since then millions of copies have been printed. The book is still used in many universities and other schools. One professor said that he has used the book in his teaching for twenty-five years. He said that each time he returns to “Invisible Man” he finds new ideas in it. Ellison writes in the beginning of his book:

READER:

"I am an invisible man … I am a man of substance, flesh and bone, fiber and liquids – and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me…When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination – indeed, everything and anything except me.”

VOICE TWO:

From the start, “Invisible Man” was a book that changed the way white Americans thought about black Americans. It also changed the way black Americans thought about themselves. And it caused major disputes among both black and white critics.

Black critics said the book was too difficult to read. One black critic said that the black man needed “Invisible Man” like he needed a knife in his back. Another black writer dismissed Ellison because Ellison demanded that writing skills must be learned before political ideas can be expressed.

Some white critics refused to accept a black writer who did not write from direct anger at whites. They seemed to want him not to write from his mind, but from the color of his skin. Yet the book continues to live long after most people have forgotten the disputes.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Ralph Ellison was born in nineteen fourteen, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His father died when Ralph was three. His mother supported herself and her son by cleaning other people's houses.

She also supported her son's interest in music and writing. She would take home old music recordings and magazines from the houses where she worked. Ralph liked jazz, and played trumpet in his high school band. He dreamed of writing serious music.

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen thirty-three, Ralph entered a black university, Tuskegee Institute, in the state of Alabama. He wanted to study music. He moved to New York City in nineteen thirty-six. He still planned to study music and art. However, that same year he ran out of money and could no longer attend school.

The nineteen thirties in America were difficult economic times. There were not many jobs to be found, and even fewer for black men. Ellison worked at many things. He shined people's shoes. He played trumpet in a jazz band. He worked for the Young Men's Christian Association. He worked in factories. He worked for a brief time taking pictures. Lack of money was an important reason for Ralph Ellison becoming a writer. He said:

READER:

"I have always read a lot, and I began to realize I had a certain talent for it. It was not easy to be the kind of musician I wanted to be: I did not have enough money to go to Juilliard [school of music]. So I stuck with what I had.”

VOICE ONE:

In New York City, Ellison joined the Federal Writers Project. This was a program created during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency to keep writers employed at writing.

He met two important black writers, Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. Wright soon would publish “Native Son,” the book that made him famous.

Later, during World War Two, Ellison served as a cook in the United States Merchant Marine. Merchant marine ships carried war supplies to American and allied soldiers. For Ellison, the war was a time of learning and trying to write.

He read books by the American writers T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner. And he read books by foreign writers like the Irish writer James Joyce.

VOICE TWO:

Ralph Ellison's stories were first published during World War Two. When the war was over, he visited a friend in the state of Vermont. Ellison said:

READER:

"One day I wrote, 'I am an invisible man.’ I did not know what those words represented at the start, and I had no thought about what gave me the idea."

The book that started with those words took almost seven years to write.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Like many other novels, Ellison's story is a series of experiences as the storyteller learns to deal with life. Yet, unlike other novels, “Invisible Man” takes place in a dream-like atmosphere in the United States. It is a world where dreams come close to reality, and the real world looks like a frightening dream.

The man telling his story in “Invisible Man” lives in a hidden underground space. But to prove that he exists, at least to himself, he has lit his underground room with one thousand three hundred sixty-nine lights. They remain lit with power he has stolen from the electric company.

In much of Ellison's novel the person telling the story is a victim, usually of white people, but also of some blacks. He both loves and hates the world. He plans some day to leave his underground shelter. He says that as a man he is willing to believe that "even the invisible victim is responsible for the fate of all.”

VOICE TWO:

The man telling the story says that as a boy, white men covered his eyes with a cloth. The white men tell the boy to blindly fight other black boys. The blacks are forced to fight each other to please whites.

At the end of the novel the story has moved from the American South to the North. There are riots in Harlem, the black area of New York City. Instead of ten black children fighting each other blindly, grown black men are battling each other to the death. Blacks still are having their strength turned upon themselves.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Critics said “Invisible Man” was well written. But some critics called this a weakness. They said the writing seemed to hide the book's ideas and make them less a product of black life.

One critic said that he found it difficult to call “Invisible Man” an African-American novel. He said that the main person in the book is a southern black man. But, the critic said, he is all of us, no matter where we were born or the color of our skin.

VOICE TWO:

After “Invisible Man” was published in nineteen fifty-two, Ralph Ellison taught at a number of universities. He retired from New York University in nineteen eighty. While he was alive, he published only two other books. They were books of criticism and essays, called “Shadow and Act” and “Going to the Territory.”

Ralph Ellison died in nineteen ninety-four, at the age of eighty. After his death, a book of his stories, “Flying Home,” was published. Shortly before his death, Ellison had told someone that his second novel was almost finished. He had worked on the novel for forty years without finishing it.

Parts of the book had appeared in magazines during the nineteen sixties and seventies. Ellison had to rewrite the novel after a large part of it was burned in a fire at his home in nineteen sixty-seven. The novel was said to be two thousand pages long. Finally, his friend John Callahan put the book together after Ellison died. The novel was published in nineteen ninety-nine. It was called “Juneteenth.”

VOICE ONE:

Since “Invisible Man” was published, many American writers have said how much Ellison influenced them.

In nineteen ninety, another black writer, Charles Johnson, was given the National Book Award. In receiving the prize, Johnson thanked Ralph Ellison for leading the way for black writers. Ellison was present at the ceremony. He thanked Johnson. Then he expressed his belief that black writers should not be influenced only by other black writers. He said:

READER:

"You do not write out of your skin. You write out of your ideas and the quality of your mind. "

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. Shep O’Neal read the part of Ralph Ellison and quotes from “Invisible Man.” I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.

Shirley Horn: One of America's Greatest Jazz Singers.

2009-12-01T21:39:00.000-08:00

VOICE ONE:

I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA IN VOA Special English. Today we tell about jazz singer and pianist Shirley Horn.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Shirley Horn was considered one of the great jazz singers of the nineteen fifties and sixties. She was often compared to the famous singers Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan. She performed for more than fifty years.

Shirley Horn's voice was smooth and expressive, but never hurried. She was one of the slowest singers in jazz. When she sang a song, she wanted the audience to feel it in the same way she did. She had a small voice. But her songs had a big effect.

Here, Shirley Horn sings her popular song "You're My Thrill."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Shirley Horn was born in Washington, D.C. in nineteen thirty-four. She lived all her life in and around Washington. Shirley began taking piano lessons when she was four years old. Her mother recognized her skill and love for the instrument.

Shirley Horn said most of the songs she performed were ones she grew up with. She said her family loved music and there was always music by the greatest singers and bands playing in her home. Horn said she lived for music. She said it was like food and water to her.

Shirley Horn studied classical music as a teenager. When she was seventeen, she had a chance to attend the famous Juilliard School in New York City. But financial difficulties prevented her from going. Instead, she studied classical music at Howard University in Washington.

VOICE ONE:

Shirley Horn had planned to have a career playing classical music on the piano. But she said all that changed after she began going to jazz clubs in Washington. She said she was influenced by some of the greatest jazz artists, such as Oscar Peterson and Ahmad Jamal.

When asked about her change from classical music to jazz, she would later say: "I loved Rachmaninoff, but then Oscar Peterson became my Rachmaninoff. And Ahmad Jamal became my Debussy."

Horn did not plan to be a singer. She said it happened by accident when she was seventeen and playing classical music on the piano at a restaurant. A man offered to give her a huge toy teddy bear if she would sing the song "Melancholy Baby." Although she had never sung in public before, she agreed. She later realized that she could make a living singing and playing jazz. Here she sings the famous song by Cole Porter, "Love for Sale."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen fifty-four, Shirley Horn began to sing jazz in clubs and started her own jazz group. In nineteen sixty, she recorded her first album, called "Embers and Ashes." The album did not get a lot of attention. But the famous jazz musician, Miles Davis, heard it. He liked it so much that he invited Horn to play music with him in New York City. She sang as the opening act before his performance at New York's Village Vanguard nightclub. Davis had refused to play unless the club owner let Horn sing. Shirley Horn and Miles Davis developed a close friendship over the years. Here she sings and he plays the trumpet on the song "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Shirley Horn's performance with Miles Davis in New York led to a record deal with Mercury Records. She was soon performing around the United States. She also recorded with Quincy Jones and other top musicians. But Horn soon left Mercury Records because of creative differences. She wanted to play the piano on all her recordings, but the record company did not agree.

Shirley Horn stopped performing around the country in the nineteen sixties so she could spend more time at home with her husband and daughter. She played at local nightclubs in the Washington area during the nineteen sixties and seventies.

VOICE TWO:

Shirley Horn rebuilt her career in the nineteen eighties. She began performing more widely at jazz festivals and concerts around the world and received strong praise. In nineteen eighty- seven, she signed a record deal with Verve Records and remained with the record company for the rest of her career.

In nineteen ninety, Horn reunited with her good friend and teacher, Miles Davis, on the song, "You Won't Forget Me." She went on to record several successful albums and performed around the world.

She also worked on several soundtracks for movies. Here are Shirley Horn and Miles Davis with "You Won't Forget Me."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Shirley Horn's album Shirley Horn was nominated for several Grammy Awards. In nineteen ninety-eight, she won the award for the album, "I Remember Miles," in memory of Miles Davis, who died in nineteen ninety-one. Horn received many honors during her career. But her last years were difficult. She had a series of health problems, including treatment for breast cancer. And in two thousand two, she had her foot removed because of problems caused by diabetes.

Shirley Horn continued to sing for audiences, but she did so in a chair, with someone else playing the piano. The loss of her foot made it difficult for her to work the pedals that control the way the piano sounds. However, during her last performances, she returned to playing the piano with the help of a device that took the place of her foot. In June of two thousand five, Horn suffered a stroke. She died four months later at the age of seventy-one.

VOICE TWO:

Critics say Shirley Horn influenced many young jazz musicians of today, including Diana Krall and Norah Jones. Critics say she will be remembered as one of the best singers in a great period of American jazz. In two thousand five, Verve Records released a collection of her work, called "But Beautiful: The Best of Shirley Horn." We leave you now with a song from that album called "Here's to Life."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm
Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.

The Meaning of Thanksgiving. From Voice of America

2009-11-23T20:12:00.000-08:00

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Faith Lapidus. This Thursday is a day for families and friends to share a special holiday meal and think about what they are thankful for. This week on our program, we ask some people to share their favorite memories of Thanksgiving Day.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Special English reporters June Simms and Dana Demange talked to people about the holiday.

JIM OLDHAM: "My name is Jim Oldham and I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. I remember my father drove a bus and my mother was a waitress, and so we often didn't get to have Thanksgiving together. And I remember when I was about twelve, her work and his work permitted us all to do that. And we had brothers and sisters, and the traditional turkey and all the trimmings. We always had pumpkin pie, and if we were really lucky, a little bit of whipped cream on top. And it was just a wonderful day."

ANN GEIGER: "I'm Ann Geiger from Tucson, Arizona. Thanksgiving is special for our family because like so many families our adult children live around the country. And we usually get at least part of them together for Thanksgiving."

REPORTER: "And what is one of your fondest Thanksgiving Day memories?"

ANN GEIGER: "Oh, I think a recent Thanksgiving when my son and I had a turkey cook-off. He brined his turkey and I didn't brine mine. And we decided which one was the best."

REPORTER: "Who won?"

ANN GEIGER: "He did."

VOICE ONE:

Brining is a way to prepare meat in a salt solution, whether for a competitive "cook-off" or just any meal. Traditionally the meat served on Thanksgiving is turkey. The bird is usually served with side dishes including a mixture known either as stuffing or dressing.

Many families also bring out their finest table settings -- the "good china" -- for Thanksgiving.

JOEL UPTON: "My name is Joel Upton. I'm from Livingston, Tennessee. Thanksgiving at my family was always a time when brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, we all got together. And someone would bring different dishes. Someone would bring the sweet potatoes. Someone would bring the meat. Someone would bring the dressing. And we would all sort of combine the efforts to have a family Thanksgiving dinner and bring out the good china for that particular event.

And Thanksgiving also, in my early days when I was a child, the kids would all get to play, maybe we hadn't seen each other for a while. The men would always watch a football game on TV. And Thanksgiving was just a really, really special time. And, of course, we had in mind the Pilgrims and what it was all about too. But it was a family time."

VOICE ONE:

Thanksgiving

The Pilgrims first arrived in America in sixteen twenty. They were separatists from the Church of England and other settlers. The ship that brought the first group was the Mayflower.

An exploring party landed at Plymouth, in what became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The state is named after an American Indian tribe -- a recognition of the groups that came long before the Pilgrims.

The first Pilgrims established a village. Those who survived the first difficult years held harvest festivals and religious celebrations of thanksgiving. These events formed the basis of the holiday that Americans now celebrate.

But there are no official "rules" for a Thanksgiving meal. Some people like to find ways to do things a little differently.

BUTCH HUNSINGER: "Butch Hunsinger from Williamsport, Pennsylvania."

REPORTER: "The bird. What are you going to do differently this year?"

BUTCH HUNSINGER: "Try to shoot it myself, instead of go to the store to buy it. Go to the family cabin, and hunt on the family land and try to call in a turkey and fire away."

REPORTER: "And who's the better shot in the family?"

BUTCH: "Oh my son, by far."

REPORTER: "What about your worst Thanksgiving memory?"

BUTCH: "Worst…[Laughter] The worst was also the funnest, 'cause I got up early Thanksgiving day and we went to the Burwick Marathon, but it's a nine-mile road race. Just a crusher." [Laughter]

HUGUETTE MBELLA: "Hi, my name is Huguette Mbella. And I was born in Cameroon and grew up in France. And I live now in the United States in Washington, D.C. The whole concept of Thanksgiving was a little bit bizarre. In France, the main celebration is Christmas, not Thanksgiving."

REPORTER: "Can you think of one of your most fond Thanksgiving memories?"

HUGUETTE MBELLA: "I would say my first one. It was in New York. Suddenly the turkey comes on the table, and I was amazed by the size. It was huge! The first thing that came to my mind was actually that's a lot of food!"

ELIZABETH BRINKMAN: "My name is Elizabeth Brinkman and I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. It was always a day that my mother did all the cooking. And we had turkey and I got to chop the vegetables for the dressing. And we got out the good china."

GORDON GEIGER: "Gordon Geiger from Tucson, Arizona. We used to get together at my parents' house and all of my relatives would come over and we'd have a big dinner. And after dinner we would watch football games on the television.

I think it's probably really the most important holiday in the United States because it is a day that is not tied to a particular religion. It is not tied as much to commercial activities. It's more a reflection of the fact that we've had a good life and we appreciate it."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This Thanksgiving, Americans can be thankful that the Great Recession may be over. But the job market faces a long recovery. Unemployment is now above ten percent. And if the underemployed are added, the rate is seventeen and a half percent. The underemployed are people no longer searching for work or only able to find part time jobs.

Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture released its "household food security" report for two thousand eight. The study found that families in seventeen million households had difficulty getting enough food at times during the year. That was almost fifteen percent -- up from eleven percent in two thousand seven. It was the highest level since the current surveys began in nineteen ninety-five.

The Agriculture Department says poverty is the main cause of food insecurity and hunger in the United States.

President Obama, in a statement, called the report unsettling. Especially troubling, he said, is that there were more than five hundred thousand families in which a child experienced hunger multiple times during the year.

He said the first task is to renew job growth, but added that his administration is taking other steps to prevent hunger. These include an increase in aid for people in the government's nutrition assistance program, commonly known as food stamps.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Continental Congress wrote the first national Thanksgiving proclamation in seventeen seventy-seven, during the Revolutionary War. George Washington issued the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation in seventeen eighty-nine. Here is part of what he wrote.

READER:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor -- and whereas both houses of Congress have by their joint committee requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the twenty-sixth day of November next to be devoted by the people of these states to the service of that great and glorious being, who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be ...

VOICE ONE:

Sarah Josepha Hale was a magazine editor and writer who campaigned for a Thanksgiving holiday. That way, there would be "two great American national festivals," she said, the other being Independence Day on the Fourth of July.

In September of eighteen sixty-three, Sarah Josepha Hale appealed to President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had made proclamations in the spring of eighteen sixty-two and sixty-three. But these gave thanks for victories in battle during the Civil War.

Then came another proclamation on October third, eighteen sixty-three. It gave more general thanks for the blessings of the year. This is part of what it said:

READER:

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. ...

I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

VOICE ONE:

Lincoln's proclamation began a tradition. Presidents have issued Thanksgiving proclamations every year since eighteen sixty-three. All can be found on the Web site of the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth.

In nineteen forty-one, Franklin Roosevelt was president. Roosevelt approved a resolution by Congress. It established, by law, the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

(MUSIC)

Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Jane Goodall: Still Hard at Work for the Chimps. Voice of America.

2009-11-17T18:32:00.000-08:00

VOICE ONE:

I'm Doug Johnson.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Jane Goodall is one of the most well known scientists in the world. She has spent most of her career studying wild chimpanzees in a protected area of Tanzania called Gombe National Park. Over the past fifty years, she has made very important discoveries about the social behavior of chimpanzees.

Today, Ms. Goodall spends most of her time traveling around the world speaking about wildlife protection and working to build support for her foundation. She recently wrote a book about endangered animals.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Ever since she was a child growing up in England, Jane Goodall dreamed of working with wild animals.

JANE GOODALL: "As long as I can remember, it was animals, animals. Even before I could talk, I was watching earthworms and things, reading Doctor Doolittle books, wanting to learn the language of animals. Then finding the books about Tarzan, falling in love with Tarzan."

When she was about eleven years old, she decided that she wanted to go to Africa to live with and write about animals. But this was not the kind of thing young women growing up in the nineteen forties usually did.

JANE GOODALL: "Apart from my mother, everybody laughing, she would say if you really want something, you work hard, you take advantage of opportunity, you never give up, you find a way. So, eventually a school friend invited me to Africa."

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen fifty-seven, Jane Goodall traveled to Africa. She soon met the well-known scientist Louis Leakey and began working for him as an assistant. He later asked her to study a group of chimpanzees living by a lake in Tanzania. Very little was known about wild chimpanzees at the time. Mister Leakey believed that learning more about these animals could help explain the evolutionary past of humans.

JANE GOODALL: "That led to this extraordinary opportunity to study, not just any animal, but chimpanzees. I wouldn't have aspired to that. I mean, I had no degree. I wasn't qualified, I thought. He thought differently."

VOICE ONE:

Louis Leakey thought Jane Goodall would be a perfect candidate for the job. She had spent much of her time reading and writing about animals. And, she was not a trained biologist. He believed this would keep her mind open to new discoveries.

Observing chimps was not easy work. They were very shy and would run away whenever Miz Goodall came near. She learned to watch them from far away using binoculars. Over time, she slowly gained their trust. She gave the chimps human names such as David Graybeard, Flo and Fifi.

VOICE TWO:

Giving the chimps human names was a very unusual method. Most researchers would have identified the animals using numbers instead of names. But Miz Goodall believed that to understand animal behavior, the observer had to see the animals as individuals, not as interchangeable objects. Watching the chimps, she learned that they have very different personalities, with complex family and social relationships.

They ate vegetables and fruits. But she observed that they were also meat eaters and skilled hunters. A few weeks later, she made an even more surprising discovery. She saw chimps making and using tools to help them trap insects.

JANE GOODALL: "I suppose the first really significant thing that the world heard about was chimpanzees using and making tools. It was thought that only humans did this and that this set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom."

VOICE ONE:

Jane Goodall wrote Louis Leakey to tell him about her discovery. He responded by saying: "Now we must redefine 'tool', redefine 'man', or accept chimpanzees as human."

Up to this point, Jane Goodall still did not have a degree. She returned to England to begin working towards a doctorate in animal behavioral science. She received her degree from Cambridge University in nineteen sixty-five.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Jane Goodall spent many years studying chimps in this area of Tanzania. Today, the research program at Gombe represents one of the longest continuous wildlife studies in the world.

Miz Goodall has written many books for adults and children about wild chimpanzees. Her scientific research was published in the book "The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior."

It explains her discoveries about chimp behavior, including the extremely close relationship between mother and child. She describes the chimps' intelligence, their hunting activities and their sometimes extremely aggressive behavior.

VOICE ONE:

Although she has spent her life trying to protect chimps in their natural environment, these animals are still very much in danger. Miz Goodall says when she began working in Tanzania, there were between one and two million chimps in the wild. Today, she says there are about three hundred thousand at the most.

JANE GOODALL: "It's different in different countries. Chimps are in twenty-one nations. In countries like Tanzania, it's simply habitat destruction. But when we come to where the large significant populations are, which is the Congo basin, then we find that it's the bush meat trade that's the commercial hunting of wild animals for food. And, it's made possible by the logging companies, foreign logging companies, opening up the forest with roads."

VOICE TWO:

The destruction of the chimp's natural environment led Ms. Goodall to give her full attention to protection efforts. She spends about three hundred days out of the year traveling around the world to discuss her many projects and goals. She talks about the efforts of the Jane Goodall Institute which she started in nineteen seventy-seven. Its aim is to increase public understanding of great apes through research, education, and activism.

The group teaches local communities how to manage their resources in ways that help them economically and protect the environment. It also has a sanctuary where baby chimps whose parents have been killed by hunters can receive treatment and protection.

VOICE ONE:

The Institute's "Roots and Shoots" program is aimed at getting young people interested in environmental activism and leadership. The group has helped connect young people who are interested in working to save animals and the environment.

JANE GOODALL: "Hundreds of thousands of young people around the world can break through and make this a better world for all living things. Main message? Each one of us makes a difference every single day we impact the world around us and if we would just think about the consequences of the little choices we make -- what we eat, wear, buy, how we interact with people, animals, the environment --then we start making small changes and that can lead to the huge change that we must have."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Jane Goodall's most recent book is called "Hope for Animals and Their World." It tells about efforts to save several species of endangered animals.

JANE GOODALL: "I think the one story that inspired this book was meeting a wonderful man called Don Mertin in New Zealand and he explaining to me how he had saved a species of bird called a Black Robin when there were just seven individuals left in the world of which only two were female and only one of whom was fertile."

VOICE ONE:

Some of the species Ms. Goodall discusses in the book have completely disappeared in the wild, and are only alive because they have been bred in captivity.

The California condor is another such example. This huge bird used to live along the West Coast of North America. By the nineteen eighties, there were only a few condors left in the wild. In a disputed decision, officials took the wild condors into captivity so that their breeding could be supervised and protected. The goal of such programs is to later place the species back into the wild. But preparing the captive bred condors to live in the wild again has not been easy. Threats the condors face in the wild include lead poisoning and mistaking trash for food.

VOICE TWO:

Other species in the book still exist in the wild, but are endangered. One example Jane Goodall discusses is the Golden Lion Tamarin. She tells about the hard work of a group of researchers who have successfully released these monkeys back into protected areas of Brazil. Her book shows what is possible when people come together to work cooperatively to save animals.

VOICE ONE:

Jane Goodall has said that it is often easy to feel upset about the destruction of the natural world. But her overall message has always been one of hope.

She says her hope comes from her belief in four things: the human brain, the human spirit, nature's strength and the energy of young people. She says people are starting to use their minds to solve the world's many problems and make wiser and more responsible choices. And, she believes in the strength of the human spirit which allows people to reach goals which might otherwise seem impossible.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Doug Johnson. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Walter Cronkite, a Great TV Newsman - Voice of America

2009-11-10T21:15:00.000-08:00

VOICE ONE:

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

WALTER CRONKITE: "And that's the way it is ... "

VOICE ONE:

For almost twenty years, that was how Walter Cronkite would end his newscasts. Americans all knew him. So did many world leaders. Today's news anchors could only hope for such recognition. He was often called the most trusted man in America.

He anchored the "CBS Evening News" until nineteen eighty-one. The sixties and seventies produced more than enough stories to fill a daily newscast. Those were years of social change and civil rights protests.

Years that saw John Kennedy, his brother Robert and Martin Luther King all murdered; the war in Southeast Asia expand; a president resign. Years of worry that the same rockets that could take people to the moon could also bring nuclear war to Earth.

And years when most of us still thought of a "mouse" as a small creature. Yet smart minds were thinking up the technology behind today's computers and the Internet.

VOICE TWO:

Walter Cronkite brought it all home each evening, Monday through Friday. As President Barack Obama said in a statement: "He was there through wars and riots, marches and milestones, calmly telling us what we needed to know."

And when the anchorman was not in front of the camera, there was a good chance he was on his boat. He went sailing up until almost his final days. He died on July seventeenth, two thousand nine, at the age of ninety-two.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Walter Cronkite was born on November fourth, nineteen sixteen, in Saint Joseph, Missouri. His father was a dentist, his mother a housewife.

With young Walter, the family moved from the Midwest to Texas. He worked on his high school newspaper and later left the University of Texas at Austin to become a journalist. He was a newspaper and radio reporter and sports announcer.

In nineteen forty he married Mary Elizabeth Maxwell, known as Betsy. They had three children and were together for nearly sixty-five years, until Betsy died in two thousand five.

VOICE TWO:

As a young reporter, Walter Cronkite covered World War Two. He worked for United Press, the wire service which later became United Press International.

He landed in Holland with American soldiers in a glider. And he was in a military plane overhead as Allied forces stormed the beach at Normandy, France. It was June sixth, nineteen forty-four, the start of the Allied invasion of Europe, the final push to defeat Nazi Germany.

Later, Walter Cronkite reported on the trials of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg, Germany.

VOICE ONE:

One day during the war, the famous journalist Edward R. Murrow offered him a job. It was a chance to report for a major television network, CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.

Yet TV was still young then. Walter Cronkite decided to stay where he was. United Press raised his pay and later made him its chief in Moscow. But in nineteen fifty he accepted another offer and went to work for CBS.

One of his early programs was a history show where he questioned actors playing people like Aristotle and Joan of Arc. But he was a serious newsman, and in nineteen fifty-two he led CBS' coverage of the national political conventions. They were the first to be televised coast to coast.

VOICE TWO:

Ten years later, on April sixteenth, nineteen sixty-two, he became anchor of the "CBS Evening News."

The program was only fifteen minutes long then. It took him two years to get his wish to extend it to thirty minutes. He also became managing editor, which expanded his influence over the program.

WALTER CRONKITE: "I participate very directly in the entire process -- in the decision of what stories we cover, in the decision on how we're covering them, what length of time we're going to give to them. It's a continuing process. I write part of the broadcast. Every bit of copy that goes on the broadcast passes through my hands. I edit every word that I say, I say no words that have not gone through my hand, many of them my own."

Walter Cronkite met some of the most important people of his time. This was the time of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. In one interview, though, he asked President John F. Kennedy about another conflict that was growing then.

WALTER CRONKITE: "Mister President, the only hot war we've got running at the moment is the one in Vietnam."

JOHN KENNEDY: "I don't think that, uh, unless a greater effort is made by the government to win popular support, that the war can be won out there."

VOICE ONE:

Americans would come to find truth in Kennedy's words. But, just two months after that interview, shots were fired at his open-top car. As we will hear later, Walter Cronkite had the sad duty of reporting that the young president was dead.

Happier moments came as he reported on the American space program. In July of nineteen sixty-nine he was almost speechless when Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon.

WALTER CRONKITE: "Oh, boy! Whew! Boy!"

VOICE TWO:

Walter Cronkite rarely expressed his own opinions. That was not a reporter's job. But in the late sixties he went to report on the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam.

President Lyndon Johnson and his advisers kept telling Americans that the United States was making progress. Walter Cronkite went to see for himself. Then, in a commentary in February of nineteen sixty-eight, he said the war seemed unwinnable.

WALTER CRONKITE: "It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate."

Some people denounced him and questioned his loyalty. Others praised him for "speaking truth to power," as some might say.

Several weeks later, Lyndon Johnson surprised Americans and announced that he would not seek re-election. The unpopular war had cost him support.

VOICE ONE:

It was Richard Nixon who brought home most of the troops before South Vietnam fell to the north in nineteen seventy-five. But it was also Nixon who became the first and only American president to resign. Americans learned from the press that there was political corruption in his administration.

Night after night, millions turned to Walter Cronkite for the latest developments. There were other anchors and other networks. But people thought of him like family -- "Uncle Walter."

He anchored the "CBS Evening News" for nineteen years. He was sixty-four when he stepped down on March sixth, nineteen eighty-one. But he explained that he was not leaving the network.

WALTER CRONKITE: "Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is. Friday, March sixth, nineteen eighty-one."

VOICE TWO:

Now, Steve Ember looks back with a personal story about Walter Cronkite.

VOICE ONE:

I remember the afternoon of November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three. I was a first-year student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and was relaxing between classes at the student union building. A TV was on. My eyes were elsewhere, but my ear was caught by the unmistakable voice of Walter Cronkite.

WALTER CRONKITE: "A bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting."

The first bulletins coming in from Dallas were read by Cronkite over the CBS News "bulletin" slide.

WALTER CRONKITE: "More details just arrived. President Kennedy shot today, just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Missus Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mister Kennedy. She called 'Oh, no!'"

Before long, though, there were pictures, with Cronkite at his desk in the CBS newsroom in New York.

For so many of us, the presidency of J.F.K. represented a time of promise. "This could not be happening" was the sentiment expressed as a growing crowd gathered around that black-and-white TV set. And Walter Cronkite, in measured tones, informed us that yes it was.

What I'll always remember was seeing him, about an hour later, momentarily take off his thick dark rimmed glasses, and announce:

WALTER CRONKITE: "From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died at one p.m. Central Standard Time, two o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some thirty-eight minutes ago."

You could see the flash of emotion as Cronkite removed and replaced his glasses and regained his composure.

WALTER CRONKITE: "Vice President Lyndon Johnson has left the hospital in Dallas, but we do not know to where he has proceeded. Presumably, he will be taking the oath of office shortly, and become the thirty-sixth president of the United States."

But going beyond this trusted anchor's solid presence in delivering such news, you have to know something about television news in that era. There wasn't the clutter of crawls, flashing graphics or other moving "stuff" that we see today.

There was Walter Cronkite in shirtsleeves, with a microphone in front of him. That was it -- nothing to distract the senses from the message. It was up close, and very personal.

It was not long after the Kennedy assassination that I actually got to meet Mister Cronkite. He was anchoring live coverage of the nineteen sixty-four Maryland Democratic primary election, originating in Baltimore.

I was hired in a minor role on the CBS production team for that night's broadcast. I can't say I remember all that much about the experience, other than it being very fast-paced.

But what I do remember was, at the end of that long, continuous coverage -- it must have been about two a.m. -- Cronkite sat down briefly with us production functionaries to chat.

I could not begin to tell you what we spoke about. It was enough to be in the presence of this great anchor I so admired, and to realize he was not above having a beer at the end of a very long broadcast with low-level support people.

That was the sort of thing that made a young man with broadcasting stars in his eyes ... glow in the dark. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Dana Demange. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.