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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Today in our Foreign Student Series we discuss writing college papers. Writing a term paper, research paper or essay for a college class is a kind of academic writing. Academic writing among professionals is a way to create new knowledge.
A professor assigns students to write a paper. The students examine an issue, review what is already known, think about what they have learned and come to some conclusion.
This means that each student-writer must present information and also take a position. The student might support an idea, question it or even disprove it. Or the writer could show how the subject may be understood better or in a different way than it has been. And the student must support the position with evidence.
Cultural differences may interfere when international students try to write this way. Writing teachers say students in many countries have learned to write beautiful descriptions about something without ever stating the main idea. American college students are expected to state their main idea at the beginning of the paper.
In other cultures, paragraphs may be organized to build toward the main idea, which is revealed at the end. But in the
Teachers at the writing center at
He says their sentences may be too long. Or they incorrectly use articles such as "a", "an" and "the." He also says non-native speakers generally use too much emotional language and give too many details before getting to the main idea.
The associate director of the writing center, Tammi Conard-Salvo, says international students should look online for materials that explain the kind of writing they will be required to do. They should ask their professors for help. Most colleges have a writing center where they can get free individual help with their work.
Links to writing center materials can be found on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Jim Tedder.
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Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
Now, we continue the story of
Pierce was elected in eighteen fifty-two. He was a compromise candidate of the Democratic Party. He was well-liked. But he was not considered a strong leader.
The eighteen fifties were an increasingly tense time in the
What kind of laws would these new territories and states have? Would the laws be decided by the Congress in
The biggest legal question affecting western lands was slavery. This week in our series, Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith tell more about the long disputed issue of slavery and the Kansas-Missouri bill.
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Owning another human being was legal in many parts of the
People who owned negro slaves wanted to take all their property -- including the slaves -- with them when they moved west. People who opposed slavery did not want it to spread. Some of them considered slavery a moral issue. They believed it violated the laws of God. An increasing number of white Americans, however, saw slavery as an economic issue. They wanted new states to be free from slavery, so they would not have to compete with slave labor.
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The
Like other presidents, Franklin Pierce hoped to avoid the issue. He also believed that earlier legislation had settled the debate. In eighteen twenty, Congress had passed the Missouri Compromise. It extended a line across the map of the
Thirty years later, another political compromise made the situation less clear.
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The compromise of eighteen fifty made slavery a local issue, instead of a national issue, in several western territories. It said the people in those territories had the right to decide for themselves if slavery would be legal or illegal.
Within a few years, that law caused a new debate in Congress. Lawmakers argued: was the peoples' right to decide the issue of slavery restricted only to the territories named in the compromise of eighteen fifty? Or was the right extended to the people of all future territories?
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The answer came in eighteen fifty-four. In that year, Congress debated a proposal to create two territories from one large area in the west. The northern part would be known as the
President Pierce did not like the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He feared it would re-open the bitter, national debate about slavery. He did not want to have to deal with the results. Tensions were increasing. Violence was increasingly possible.
The Kansas-Nebraska bill had a lot of support in the Senate. It passed easily. The bill had less support in the House of Representatives. The vote there was close, but the measure passed. President Pierce finally agreed to sign it. In exchange, congressional leaders promised to approve several presidential appointments.
Supporters of the Kansas-Nebraska bill celebrated their victory. They fired cannons as the city of
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The new bill gave the people of
Groups in the South organized quickly to help pro-slavery settlers move to
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Some of the northern groups were companies called emigrant aid societies. Shares of these companies were sold to the public. The money was used to help build towns and farms in
The southern effort to settle
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In
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Governor Reeder rejected the demands. He decided to hold an election, but only for a territorial representative to the national Congress. On election day, hundreds of men from
The same thing happened when
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The governor ordered an investigation. The investigation showed evidence of wrong-doing in six areas, and new elections were held in those areas. This time, when only legal votes were counted, many of the pro-slavery candidates were defeated. Yet there were still enough pro-slavery candidates to have a majority.
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Andrew Reeder was governor of a bitterly divided territory. He wanted to warn President Pierce about what was happening.
Reeder went to
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Pierce agreed that
Governor Reeder vetoed these bills. But there were enough votes to reject his veto and pass the new laws.
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The
Free-state leaders were extremely angry. They felt they could not get fair treatment from either the president or the new governor. So they took an unusual step. They met and formed their own government in opposition to the elected government of the territory. It would not be long before the situation in
That will be our story next week.
ANNOUNCER:
Our program was written by Christine Johnson. The narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs can be found along with historical images at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.
| Maya Lin's Works Are Her Answer to the Beauty of the Natural World | |
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I'm Steve Ember.
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And I'm Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the work of the American artist and building designer Maya Lin. She is best known for designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. which was completed in nineteen eighty-two. Throughout her career, Lin's monuments, buildings, and sculptures have been influenced by the natural world.
Her art also expresses her interest in environmental activism. This spring, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in
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The first large sculpture that greets visitors to the exhibit "Systematic Landscapes" is very surprising. A huge form that looks like a hill or wave takes up an entire room of the museum. The work is called "2 x 4 Landscape." It is made of more than fifty thousand pieces of cut blocks of wood. The highest point of the softly curved hill measures about three meters tall, while the lowest point is only a few centimeters thick. Visitors can explore the work from three sides. The sculpture looks like it would be fun to walk on.
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At first it might seem very unusual to see a natural form like a hill inside a museum. But this surprise is part of Maya Lin's aim. Her work explores how people experience landscape in a time of increased technological influence and environmental awareness.
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"Water Line" is another sculpture that takes up an entire room. It is a line drawing made out of aluminum wire that looks like a wavy net floating in mid-air. The lines represent a mountainous underwater area in the
Maya Lin worked with ocean scientists to develop a three dimensional image of this part of the ocean. Then, she recreated that image in a smaller sculptural form. The very top of the wire drawing represents the only part of the ocean landscape that can be seen on the surface of the water: It is
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But not all of Lin's sculptures are huge. In one room, visitors can see a series of works called "Atlas Landscapes". For this series, Maya Lin turned a series of map books into sculptures. She carefully cut into each page of the book to create small canyons and formations.
Her series called "Bodies of Water" is like an artistic geography lesson. These works are also about unseen underwater landscapes. Maya Lin cut out the shapes of three bodies of water using thin layers of wood.
One work is done in the shape of the Caspian Sea, another in the shape of the Black Sea, and the third takes the form of the
Another series called "Fractured Landscapes" looks like drawings of rivers and streams. But these drawings were made by pressing paper against broken sheets of glass covered in ink.
Maya Lin has also made a sculpture for the United States Embassy in
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Maya Lin was born in
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Maya Lin studied building design at
Her design was very different from other war memorials. It was very modern, simple, and expressive. Her design is made up of two long black granite pieces that meet at an angle. The wall is set below ground level. Cut into the wall are the names of the more than fifty-eight thousand Americans dead or missing in the Vietnam War. Maya Lin purposely called for the granite to be shiny. Visitors experience a link with the monument by seeing their reflection in the stone.
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Maya Lin has said that death is a private and personal matter. She says this monument is a quiet place for people to come to terms with loss caused by the war. Many people had criticized early plans for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. They thought it was not heroic. But once it was built, family members of the dead,
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Maya Lin has designed many other memorials. These structures combine elements of nature such as earth and water with written language to express meaning. Her Civil Rights Memorial in
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Lin made another "water table" sculpture out of green granite for an outdoor area at
Maya Lin has said that her work exists on the boundaries -- somewhere between science and art, art and architecture, public and private, east and west. She says that she is always trying to find a balance between these opposing forces to find a place where opposites meet.
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Maya Lin has also designed many buildings. In nineteen ninety-nine, the Children's Defense Fund hired her to build a library on a farm it owns in the state of
Maya Lin also designed a private home known as "The Box House" in Telluride,
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Maya Lin's "Ecliptic" outdoor area in
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Lin's design for the new
VOICE ONE:
One of Maya Lin's most recent memorials, "What is Missing?", is to be completed later this year. The project rejects the idea of memorials as a single unmoving object. This memorial will exist in several different places and forms at the same time. The aim of "What is Missing?" is to bring attention to the number of animals and places that have either disappeared or will disappear in our lifetime. The memorial is to exist as a video project, a Web site and as a book.
VOICE TWO:
Maya Lin has said that she does not believe that anything she creates can compare to the beauty of the natural world. But she says her works are her answer to that beauty. Visitors who see her work can enjoy experiencing both the beauty of art and the natural environment.
VOICE ONE:
This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Steve Ember.
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And I'm Faith Lapidus. To see pictures of Maya Lin's work, visit our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.
| 'Gone Rural' Project in | |
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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
Every three weeks, a truck drives to a rural community in the
The Swazi women make and sell woven baskets, placemats for dinner tables and other objects for the home. The women gained their weaving skills long ago. Traditionally, women in the African nation work with long grasses to make the thatched roofs that cover houses.
The manufacture of goods is important for the women because they can do this at home. Many care for a number of children, including those whose parents died of AIDS.
But life is brighter for the women weavers today than it was seventeen years ago. That is when a business project called Gone Rural was launched. Today, more than seven hundred women take their goods to Gone Rural for sale. One of their main materials is Lutindzi grass, which grows only in mountain areas. Gone Rural also has some products available in other materials.
The project now has sales of five hundred thousand dollars worth of goods each year. The goods are sold in more than thirty countries around the world.
Three years ago, Gone Rural started a nonprofit organization called Gone Rural boMake. Its purpose is to provide for the educational, health and social needs of the women and their communities. The parent organization gives Gone Rural boMake at least twenty percent of its profits and helps with administrative costs. The non-profit organization's projects include working to provide communities with clean drinking water.
Lomtanda so Hlope was one of the first seven hundred women to weave for Gone Rural. Years ago, she and other women from her community went to the Gone Rural office in the town of
Lomtandaso Hlope and her friends have been selling to Gone Rural ever since. Their community is among thirteen that sell to the group. She has educated her own children and grandchildren with the money earned from her work.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember.
| Cow Genome Could Improve Milk, Beef Production | |
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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Researchers from twenty-five countries now have a full genetic map of a cow. Understanding what makes a cow a cow could lead to better milk and meat production.
It could also help drug companies. The cow genome is more similar to humans than to mice or rats. Mice and rats are commonly used to test new medicines. Project scientist Harris Lewin from the
The Bovine Genome Sequencing Project found that the cattle genome contains at least twenty-two thousand genes. Most of these are shared among humans as well as mice, rats and other mammals used for comparison in the study.
More than three hundred researchers studied a female
A genome is not just a map of the order of genes. It contains information about every position including spaces on the chromosomes on which genes are grouped.
The findings are in the journal Science. A related report looked at genetic changes in cattle over time. The bovine family tree divided into two major groups more than two hundred fifty thousand years ago.
Taurine cattle have no hump on their back. They are mostly found in Europe, Africa and East and West Asia, as well as the
Humans started to domesticate wild cows about eight to ten thousand years ago. Scientists examined several breeds and say the cow genome appears to show evidence of this selective reproduction.
Today more than eight hundred breeds of cattle are raised for different qualities. But some people are concerned that intensive breeding has reduced genetic differences among cattle. This could make it easier for disorders to affect a large number of animals.
The scientists say the current level of diversity within cattle breeds is at least as great as within humans. They also say the new genome will make it possible to better protect genetic diversity.
Yet there may be more questions to settle about what makes a cow a cow. A team led by Steven Salzberg at the
And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson.
| Studying in the | |
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
In the
But the crop of foreign students in agriculture and natural resources was twenty percent bigger than the year before. The
About one hundred colleges and universities began as public agricultural schools and continue to teach agriculture. These are known as land-grant schools.
In eighteen sixty-two, Congress passed legislation that gave thousands of hectares to each state. States were to sell the land and use the money to establish colleges to teach agriculture, engineering and military science. A congressman from
The state of
Today,
The
In all, the college has four hundred thirty-three foreign students in
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty.
| American History Series: The Struggle Over Slavery in the | |
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Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.
The most difficult national problem facing the administration of President Franklin Pierce was the situation in
Pro-slavery settlers elected a representative to Congress. Then they won a majority of seats in the territorial legislature. An investigation found that people from the neighboring state of
The new
This week on our series, Ray Freeman and Steve Ember continue the story of the presidency of Franklin Pierce. And they talk about the presidential election of eighteen fifty-six.
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Anti-slavery settlers in
Their political group was known as the Free State Party. Party members wrote their own constitution and chose their own governor.
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President Pierce said the actions of the Free State Party seemed revolutionary. He warned against violence. He said if party members attacked any officials or property of the territory or the federal government, party leaders should be charged with treason.
The president gave the pro-slavery governor of
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Fighting between the two sides almost began when a
The pro-slavery governor and the
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In the weeks that followed, a number of attempts were made to stop or arrest the leaders of the
The pro-slavery mob attacked and burned several buildings. A number of people were killed. The violence might have ended quickly. But one of the men defending the town believed that the battle against the forces of slavery must continue. And he believed that God had chosen him to lead it. The man was John Brown.
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John Brown heard that five
The civil disorder in
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It was clear that there were deep differences between the northern and southern American states. The differences involved their economies, their systems of labor, and their way of life.
The civil disorder caused by these differences was the chief issue in the presidential election of eighteen fifty-six. Three political parties offered candidates: the Democrats, the Republicans and the Know-Nothings.
The Whig Party did not offer a candidate. The party had gone out of existence by then. Its members had split over the question of slavery in the western territories. The split could not be healed. Most southern Whigs joined the Democratic Party. Most northern Whigs joined the Know-Nothing Party.
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The Know-Nothing Party began as a secret anti-immigrant organization. It feared that too many people from other countries were coming to live in the
Members did not want to admit that they belonged to the group. When asked, they said, "I know nothing."
And that is how the organization got its name.
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The Democratic Party was led by President Franklin Pierce. Pierce wanted to run for re-election. Many northern Democrats, however, objected to his support of the pro-slavery legislature in
One opponent was Senator Stephen Douglas of
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Pierce's other opponent for the Democratic nomination was James Buchanan of
"I am not friendly to the idea of slavery," he said. "but the rights of the South -- under our constitution -- should have as much protection as the rights of any other part of our
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The Democratic Party met in the city of
Candidates needed two-thirds of the votes to win the nomination. After several days of voting, no candidate had received enough. So, in an effort to unite the party, Stephen Douglas offered to withdraw. James Buchanan got his votes and the nomination.
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The Republican Party was a new political party. Its members opposed slavery for either moral or economic reasons.
Many Republicans were Abolitionists. They wanted to ban slavery everywhere in the
The Republican Party held its presidential nominating convention in
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The Know-Nothing Party had a divided nominating convention. Northern and southern members agreed on policies that denounced immigrants. But they split on the issue of slavery. Northern members opposed it. Southern members supported it.
Delegates to the convention chose a candidate who seemed to support the party's policies. Yet he was not even a member of the party. He was a Whig, former president Millard Fillmore.
Northern members refused to support Fillmore. They broke away from the Know-Nothing Party and supported the Republican candidate, John Fremont.
VOICE ONE:
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Buchanan had said that the constitutional rights of the southern states should be protected. So he could expect to win some votes there. When all the votes were counted, Buchanan was elected. Now he would have to deal with the problems that presidents before him had not been able to solve.
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James Buchanan was sixty-five years old. He had served in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. He had served as secretary of state and as ambassador. He was a good diplomat. But he was not considered a strong political leader.
Buchanan usually supported the southern position in the dispute about slavery. He said the North should stop interfering with the South. He even said the South had good reason to leave the
As president, Buchanan believed he could solve the slavery question by keeping the Abolitionists quiet. He wanted a cabinet that shared and supported this idea.
We will tell about James Buchanan's administration in our next program.
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ANNOUNCER:
Our program was written by Christine Johnson. The narrators were Ray Freeman and Steve Ember. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs can be found along with historical images at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history
| Charlie Parker,1920-1955: His Music Influenced Jazz During his Lifetime and Even Today | |
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I'm Shirley Griffith.
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And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in
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Charlie Parker forever changed the performance and writing of jazz music. He developed a new style of jazz called "bebop." It was different from the dance or "swing" style that was popular for years.
Performers of bebop left the traditional musical melody and played a song freely, with the music and rhythm that was felt at the time. So, the same song could be played in a different way each time it was performed. Charlie Parker said: "Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. "
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Charlie Parker was born August twenty-ninth, nineteen twenty, in the middle western state of
Two years later, he decided to leave school and become a professional musician. For the next four years, he worked mainly in
learned by listening to older local jazz musicians. During this time, Charlie developed serious problems that were to affect him the rest of his life. He became dependent on alcohol and the illegal drug, heroin.
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One night in nineteen thirty-six, the young musician decided to take part in a "jam session." Musicians from all over
Charlie began to play the saxophone that night. He played well for a while. But he then became lost in the music. The drummer threw down his instrument and brought Charlie to a halt. Charlie later said: "I went home and cried and didn't play again for three months." The incident, however, made Charlie work even harder to improve his playing.
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In nineteen thirty-nine, Charlie went to
He said later that this was when he made a big discovery. He was unhappy playing songs the same way all the time. He thought there had to be another way to play. He said: "I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it." He began working on the song "Cherokee." He used the higher notes of a chord as a melody line and made other changes. He now could play the things he had been hearing.
It was in December, nineteen thirty-nine, that Charlie Parker made this discovery. He later said that with it, he "came alive." Here he is playing "Cherokee":
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Charlie Parker's name first appeared in the press reports about music in nineteen forty. During the next five years, he joined different bands. He played with the Earl Hines orchestra and the Billy Eckstine orchestra. He also played with other young jazz musicians who helped make the new sound known. Trumpet players Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, and pianists Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell were some of them. Parker was considered the greatest of the bebop jazz musicians. This song, "Now's the Time," is one of his hits during this time:
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Parker's continuing drug habit was affecting him. He often was late for performances. Or he missed them. He had decided he did not like the music of the big bands. He apparently did not feel at ease playing with a big band, even one that followed his own musical ideas.
In nineteen forty-five, he returned to
That year, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie took the new jazz sound to
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen forty-six, Charlie Parker suffered a nervous breakdown. His dependence on heroin and alcohol led to this severe mental condition. He was sent to a hospital and stayed there for six months.
He returned to
In July, nineteen fifty-one,
VOICE TWO:
Charlie Parker was given a permit to play in
famous jazz nightclub in
Parker knew those performances might be his last chance to re-claim the success he had gained only a few years earlier. His last public appearance was on March fifth, nineteen fifty-five, at Birdland. It was not a success. He died seven days later of a heart attack. He was thirty-four.
VOICE ONE:
Charlie Parker's influence on modern jazz music continues to live. He led many artists to "play what they hear." Jazz musicians continue to perform his music, often copying his sound and style. But, experts say, no one has ever played the same as "Bird".
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This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in
| 'Hair' – More Than a Rock Musical | |
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Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
A listener named Rita wants to learn about expressions with the word "hair." So we will tell a story.
Yesterday when I woke up, I looked in a mirror. I looked very neat and organized. Not a hair was out of place. But today when I woke up, I knew I was going to have a bad hair day. My hair was standing up in all the wrong places. I thought I would be unhappy all day and things would not go well. I work at home so I just hoped that my computer would work right and not have a bad hair day also.
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I was very tired because I did not sleep well last night. I made the mistake of watching a horror movie on television. The movie really made my hair stand on end. It was about a house possessed by evil spirits. The thought of having to live alone in a house like that was so frightening it was enough to curl your hair. I will say it another way: watching that movie was a hair-raising experience.
I prepared a meal for my children but they were behaving badly. I turned on the television so they would be quiet. I did not want them to be difficult or to get in my hair while I was working on the computer.
My children were making so much noise that I could not work. I was getting angry. In fact, I was ready to pull my hair out. I told them to please be quiet or I would punish them. But they knew I would not harm a hair on their heads.
I decided to make myself some strong coffee so I could work better. But my drink was so strong that it could put hair on your chest.
Finally, I got back to work. I was writing a proposal for a project. I knew that I was very close to finishing the proposal. Success was very close – within a hair's breadth. My supervisor called me to discuss the project. She wanted to argue about very small differences and unimportant details. But I told her not to split hairs.
Later, I got a telephone call from a friend whom I had not seen in a long time. In fact, I had not seen hide nor hair of him in months. So I was glad to know that he was all right.
I worked all day and finished my project. So I decided to celebrate, have some fun and let my hair down. I played some old recordings, and my children and I danced around the room. The recordings are from my favorite musical, a show called "Hair." It takes place during the nineteen sixties when many young people wore their hair very long.
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This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Faith Lapidus. You can find other WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.
| President Obama Marks 100 Days in Office | |
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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week we look at President Obama's first one hundred days in office.
The tradition of marking the first one hundred days of a new president began with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was sworn-in as president seventy-six years ago during the Great Depression -- the worst economic crisis in the country's history.
In his first one hundred days in office, President Roosevelt worked with Congress to pass a series of measures. They were designed to re-build trust in the American economy, and help the unemployed and those in danger of losing their homes and farms.
Since then, the first three months of a presidency have been compared to
The media and political observers have spent a lot of time examining Mister Obama's first one hundred days in office. But many of them admit the one hundred day mark is a meaningless number. Others say it is too soon to be judging the work of the president.
On Wednesday, Mister Obama marked his one hundredth day by speaking at a school in the state of
BARACK OBAMA: "Now, after one hundred days, I am pleased with the progress we have made. But I am not satisfied. I am confident in the future. But I am not content with the present – not when there are workers who are still out of jobs, families who still cannot pay their bills."
Mister Obama has dealt with many issues since becoming the nation's first African-American president on January twentieth. He has faced economic problems and worked to strengthen relations with other countries. Congress passed his seven hundred eighty-seven billion dollar economic recovery plan. The president has also taken steps to rescue the struggling financial and automotive industries.
Since taking office, Mister Obama has ordered the closure of the American detention center at
Mister Obama also made efforts to improve
The party opposes his plan to cut taxes for middle class Americans and use of government spending to increase economic activity. Party leaders warn that will result in a huge increase in the national debt.
Yet studies show Mister Obama's public approval rating is above sixty percent. The president also increased his support in the Senate this week. Long-time Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter announced he is leaving the Republicans to join the president's Democratic Party.
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember.
| Mothers Through the Eyes, and the Years, of TV and Movie Makers | |
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Welcome to THIS IS
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. This week, our subject is mothers and how their image has changed over the years in film and television.
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In the
Early in the nineteen hundreds, a woman named Anna Jarvis began a campaign to honor mothers in
Finally, President Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution in May of nineteen fourteen that officially established Mother's Day.
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Anna Jarvis thought mothers should be honored with expressions of love and respect.
Professor Robert Thompson at
This was a woman who gave all her time to her husband, home and children. Many women in society felt pressure to try to be this kind of mother.
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Like many observers, Professor Thompson uses the example of the imaginary June Cleaver, the mother on "Leave It to Beaver." That was a TV series from nineteen fifty-seven to nineteen sixty-three.
The Cleavers were a happy family. June Cleaver always had time and patience for her two sons, Wally and "Beaver." His real name was Theodore. And if there was ever a problem she could not handle, her husband put things right.
The same was true on another nineteen fifties television show. The name said it all: "Father Knows Best."
VOICE TWO:
A different image, though, could be found in films like the nineteen forty-eight motion picture "I Remember Mama." It was set in
It was about a family that came from
Mama Hanson, played by actress Irene Dunne, had little education. But she knew a lot about dealing with people. She guides her family.
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Mama hates "going to the bank" -- she means borrowing money. But she also recognizes the importance of staying in school. We listen as Mama and her family are sitting around the table, counting money.
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MAMA: "Yah, is all for this week. Is good. We do not have to go to the bank."
SON: "Mama, mama, I'll be graduating from
MAMA: "You want to go to high school?"
SON: "Well, I'd like to, very much, if you think I could."
MAMA: "Is good."
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"I Remember Mama" earned Irene Dunne an Academy Award nomination for best actress of nineteen forty-eight.
Two years later, in the lighthearted film "Cheaper by the Dozen," Myrna Loy played Lillian Gilbreth, a mother of twelve. The father is an efficiency expert, an expert in doing things better and faster.
Lillian Gilbreth obeys her husband, or at least appears to. But she also has a mind of her own.
At one point, the husband, played by Clifton Webb, plays a joke on their son Bill. The father honks the horn just as the boy crosses in front of their car. Bill jumps. His father laughs and says the boy jumped six and nine-tenths inches.
VOICE ONE:
A little later, Bill plays the same joke on his father. This time his father does not laugh.
The mother has to save Bill from getting punished and, in the process, she teaches her husband a lesson.
(SOUND)
FATHER: "Who did that?"
BILL: "Uh, that was a good joke on you, Dad."
FATHER: "Listen, young man. There's a time and a place for jokes and a time and place for spankings. And the sooner you learn -- get out. Get out!"
MOTHER: "Mercy Maude, Frank, I'll bet you jumped six and nine-tenths inches that time."
FATHER: "You're right, son. That was a good joke on me. By jingo, I'll bet I did jump six and nine-tenths inches. Oh these kids, these kids."
(HORN SOUNDS AGAIN)
MOTHER: "Excuse me, dear, I did it. It was accidental."
VOICE TWO:
The Gilbreths were a real family. "Cheaper by the Dozen" was the name of a book written by two of the twelve children.
Their mother, Lillian, was a psychologist and herself an expert in the area of industrial management. In fact, Lillian Moller Gilbreth is known as the mother of modern management.
A woman who graduated from a women's college in nineteen fifty-three remembers hearing her as a graduation speaker. She remembers Lillian Gilbreth urging the young women to have full lives, with professions if they wanted them.
When Lillian Gilbreth received her doctorate in psychology, she already had four young children who attended the ceremony.
VOICE ONE:
Over the years, as mothers and American women in general became more independent, more and more of them entered the job market. They did so by choice or because of financial need or both.
Pop culture expert Robert Thompson says the changes could be seen in film and television as well. For example, working women used to be shown mostly as nurses or teachers, because those were the jobs that many held in real life.
But these days, whatever new jobs are written into movies or TV shows, some images of mothers are timeless. One is the image of the overprotective mother who gets too involved in her child's life, even after the child grows up.
Diane Keaton plays just such a mother, a single mom named Daphne, in the two thousand seven films "Because I Said So." Mandy
Daphne is supposed to be seen as one of those moms who mean well even if they make their kids crazy.
MAGGIE: "Mom, you have to leave her alone."
DAPHNE: "Fine, but I just want you girls to understand something about motherhood. It's the most impossible love. You tell me when it ends. You tell me when it stops!"
VOICE ONE:
For years, almost all leading movie and television stars, male or female, were white. Activists say members of racial and ethnic minority groups are still not well represented enough.
But the social gains that minorities made in the nineteen sixties and seventies led the way to shows like "The Jeffersons." This was a comedy on CBS television from nineteen seventy-five to nineteen eighty-five. It about a newly wealthy black family that moved into a
VOICE TWO:
One of the most popular TV shows ever was "The Cosby Show," on NBC from nineteen eighty-four to nineteen ninety-two. It starred Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad as his wife, Clair.
He was a doctor and she was a lawyer. The Huxtables were presented as a strong, loving, successful African-American family. Still, pop culture expert Robert Thompson notes that Clair Huxtable was often shown more as a wife and mother than as a successful lawyer.
VOICE ONE:
"Mississippi Masala" was a nineteen ninety-one film about an ethnic Indian family exiled from
Daughter Meena is in love with a black American named Demetrius, played by Denzel Washington. Their parents strongly disapprove.
The family decides to return to
(SOUND)
MEENA: "Ma, I'm not coming back. I'm sorry, but I can't go to
FATHER: "Are you alone?"
MEENA: "No, I'm with Demetrius. Pa, are you there? Ma, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. Why did he put the phone down?"
MOTHER: "I'll talk to your father."
VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Barbara Klein. Transcripts and audio archives of our programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. Be sure to join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. We leave you with a song from a classic film from nineteen sixty-seven. It was about a relationship between a recent college graduate and what popular culture today would call a "hot mom" -- a sexy older woman. The young man feels regret, which only grows as he falls in love with her daughter. The actress who played the mother was Anne Bancroft, the lover was Dustin Hoffman and the movie was "The Graduate."
| Barbie Not the Only Thing Turning 50 | |
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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS
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And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we tell you about some fiftieth anniversaries that are being observed this year.
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In nineteen fifty-nine, an unusual art museum opened in
Most museums lead visitors through a series of rooms. But the
VOICE TWO:
The
A fiftieth anniversary exhibition will honor the architect and his work. From May fifteenth till August twenty-third, the Guggenheim in
VOICE ONE:
The exhibition will show sixty-four projects that he designed, including homes, public buildings and religious spaces. More than two hundred of his original drawings will be shown. The Guggenheim says the aim is to celebrate the basic idea behind Wright's architecture -- the sense of freedom in interior space.
VOICE TWO:
The Guggenheim opened in October of nineteen fifty-nine. That same month, the Voice of America began to broadcast special programs for English learners. Some language experts thought the idea would fail. But millions of listeners welcomed Special English.
Special English is read one-third slower than VOA's other English programs. The slower speed is combined with an extra effort to make the writing easy to understand.
Most of the words come from a vocabulary list that gets updated about every ten years. It began with one thousand words. Today it has about five hundred more. But writers can use any other words they need to report a story if the meaning is clear.
VOA Special English is an example of a controlled language. Another example is called Simplified Technical English. This language was developed to make it easier to understand and translate documents used at aircraft repair centers around the world.
VOICE ONE:
Special English is popular because it helps people learn American English while they learn about world news, science, American life and other subjects. The first broadcast was ten minutes of news to Europe, Africa and the
There was no special announcement. Announcer Paul Parks just said, "Here is the news in Special English." Feature programs were added later, starting with Special English versions of short stories by famous writers. That program, AMERICAN STORIES, can be heard each Saturday.
VOICE TWO:
Today, Special English writers do a lot more original reporting and the programs are more lively. But one thing has never changed. Special English has a loyal following -- in homes, cars and classrooms throughout the world.
Some people are second-generation fans whose own children are now growing up with Special English. And not just on radio, but also TV and the Web: voaspecialenglish.com is one of VOA's most heavily visited sites.
Visitors can read and listen to programs, write comments, find shows they missed and sign up to receive programs by weekly e-mail. They can download MP3s and podcasts and access the Word Book. And they can watch videos in Special English. There is also voaspecialenglish.com/mobile. And Special English is expanding into social media. The goal, as always, is to follow English learners wherever their interests take them.
VOICE ONE:
This year is the fiftieth birthday of Barbie. The doll first appeared at the toy fair in
Its creator was Ruth Handler, an American businesswoman. She and her husband Elliott along with Harold "Matt" Matson started the toy company Mattel. She named the new doll after their daughter Barbara. She based the design on a German doll named Bild Lilli.
The first Barbie wore a black and white swimsuit and had her hair in a ponytail. She looked and seemed very grown up. But any concerns that parents would not want to buy it for little girls were soon proved wrong.
Mattel sold three hundred thousand Barbie dolls in the first year at a price of three dollars. Today, a fifty-year-old Barbie in good condition might cost more than twenty-seven thousand dollars.
VOICE TWO:
Barbies have represented fifty different nationalities and are sold in one hundred fifty countries. Mattel says ninety percent of girls in the
Barbie has faced recent competition from Bratz dolls. Barbie has also faced her share of critics.
A well-known example was when women's education groups objected to a talking Barbie that declared, among other things, "Math class is tough!" Mattel agreed to change it. That was back in nineteen ninety-two, the same year as the first Barbie for President doll. The dolls, though designed in
Some people say Barbie is an unhealthy role model for young girls. Robin Gerber disagrees. She wrote a book about Barbie. She points out dolls like scientist Barbie and race car driver Barbie. She says people who criticize Barbie should tell girls the story of the businesswoman who created her. She says Ruth Handler wanted the dolls to help girls think about what they wanted to do with their lives.
(MUSIC: "That'll Be The Day")
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Singer Buddy Holly died in February of nineteen fifty-nine. He was just twenty-two, but he was already being called a musical genius.
Buddy Holly was killed in the crash of a small plane while on a singing tour in the
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
The plane went down after the singers had performed at the Surf Ballroom in the small town of
This year, some of those who performed with them that night gathered at the Surf to remember. The gathering, held over several days, was called "Fifty Winters Later." It included educational programs, dance lessons, speeches and theatrical performances. It also included a ceremony to declare the Surf Ballroom a rock and roll landmark. The events were organized by the Surf Ballroom and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Guests included Buddy Holly's wife, Ritchie Valens' brothers and sisters and the Big Bopper's son.
VOICE ONE:
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The day of the plane crash -- February third -- is known in rock and roll history as "the day the music died." We end with a song inspired by that sad day. Here is Don McLean with his number one hit from nineteen seventy-two, "American Pie."
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.
| Computer Terms: Have You Googled Someone Lately? | |
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Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories.
Computer technology has become a major part of people's lives. This technology has its own special words. One example is the word mouse. A computer mouse is not a small animal that lives in buildings and open fields. It is a small device that you move around on a flat surface in front of a computer. The mouse moves the pointer, or cursor, on the computer screen.
Computer expert Douglas Engelbart developed the idea for the mouse in the early nineteen-sixties. The first computer mouse was a carved block of wood with two metal wheels. It was called a mouse because it had a tail at one end. The tail was the wire that connected it to the computer.
Using a computer takes some training. People who are experts are sometimes called hackers. A hacker is usually a person who writes software programs in a special computer language. But the word hacker is also used to describe a person who tries to steal information from computer systems.
Another well known computer word is Google, spelled g-o-o-g-l-e. It is the name of a popular "search engine" for the Internet. People use the search engine to find information about almost any subject on the Internet. The people who started the company named it Google because in mathematics, googol, spelled g-o-o-g-o-l, is an extremely large number. It is the number one followed by one-hundred zeros.
When you "Google" a subject, you can get a large amount of information about it. Some people like to Google their friends or themselves to see how many times their name appears on the Internet.
If you Google someone, you might find that person's name on a blog. A blog is the shortened name for a Web log. A blog is a personal Web page. It may contain stories, comments, pictures and links to other Web sites. Some people add information to their blogs every day. People who have blogs are called bloggers.
Blogs are not the same as spam. Spam is unwanted sales messages sent to your electronic mailbox. The name is based on a funny joke many years ago on a British television show, "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Some friends are at an eating place that only serves a processed meat product from the
(MUSIC)
This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I'm Faith Lapidus.
| In the Red: When a Business is Losing Money | |
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Now, Words and Their Stories, a VOA Special English program about American expressions.
I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with some financial words and expressions used in business and the stock market.
Our first expression is "in the red." It is another way of saying that a business is losing money. In the past, numbers in the financial records of a company were written in red ink to show a loss.
A business magazine recently published a report about a television company. The report said the company was still in the red, but was able to cut its loss from the year before.
A profit by a business is written in black numbers. So a company that is "in the black" is making money. An international news service reported that a private health insurer in
Another financial expression is "run on the bank." That is what happens when many people try to withdraw all their money from a bank. A "run on the bank" usually happens when people believe there is danger a bank may fail or close.
Newspaper reports about a banking crisis in
"Day trading" is a system that lets investors trade directly on an electronic market system. The system is known as NASDAQ, short for The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation. It was the first completely computerized stock market. It sells stocks of companies not listed on any stock exchange. Many high technology companies are listed on it.
Day trading companies provide a desk and a computer system to an investor who wants to trade. Individuals must provide fifty thousand dollars or more to the trading company to pay for the stocks they buy. Thousands of other investors do day trading from computers in their homes.
A day trader watches stock prices carefully. When he sees a stock rise in price, he uses the computer to buy shares of the stock. If the stock continues to rise in price in the next few minutes, the day trader sells the shares quickly to make a small profit. Then he looks for another stock to buy. If a stock goes down instead of up, he sells it and accepts the loss.
The idea is to make a small profit many times during the day. Day traders may buy and sell stocks hundreds of times each day.
Many day traders lose all their money in a week or so. Only about thirty percent succeed in earning enough from their efforts to continue day trading.
This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Frank Beardsley. This is Rich Kleinfeldt.
| The Spoken Word is Still Heard After 35 Years At Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City | |
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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we go to
(Poem)
READER:
I search the chemistry of specific emotions,
a combination of earth and air
that evokes the vital detail,
the phrase that heats the frying pan,
the look that smiles,
offering signals that localize,
where I am, and clarify what I see.
I'm child of the Electronic Frontier.
I learn off the radio waves
of 98.7 Kiss F.M. salsa/disco jams,
that come from a Sony,
bought even though I need a coat,
even though I'm behind on my payments
for the Trinitron Remote Control Color T.V.
that I picked up at Crazy Eddie's last month.
I'm child of the Columbia Space Shuttle,
and I need to know all the electronic gimmicks
invented yesterday
that are already primitive cousins
to those developed today
from eight to five P.M. in
VOICE ONE:
That poem, "Electronic Frontier," was written by Miguel Algarin. The native of Puerto Rico is a founder of one of
Miguel Algarin is sitting in his special seat at the end of the bar in the Café. He has a deep warm voice. He appears exactly as a poet should -- dreamy and intellectual, emotional and distant, humorous and dark.
VOICE TWO:
The Nuyorican Poets Café is in the Loisaida neighborhood of
Historically, the
Loisaida was one of
VOICE ONE:
Loisaida was poor and dangerous. But the neighborhood was also home to undiscovered poets, playwrights, and musicians. These included Miguel Pinero, writer of the award-winning Broadway play "Short Eyes." He abused drugs and was jailed for robbery by the time he was a teenager. His work speaks to the short, hard life he lived. Mister Pinero died of alcohol-related disease in nineteen eighty-eight at the age of forty-one. He was a co-founder of the Nuyorican.
The Reverend Pedro Pietri was another. A former soldier in the United States Army, the Puerto Rican native wrote protest poems and plays about civil rights issues in
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen seventy three, Miguel Algarin opened up his apartment to these men and other artists. They would gather to read their work and discuss social issues. His home became very crowded quickly. And there was another problem.
Miguel Algarin was working as a professor of English at
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At first, the Nuyorican moved to a rented space on Sixth Streetin Loisaida. Then Miguel Algarin and the others were offered a nearby building on
This local arts supporter saw the promise the Café held for new poets. So, she sold the building for only one dollar. The Nuyorican Poets Café remains at
(MUSIC)
ROLAND LEGIARDI-LAURA:
"The mission of the Café has always been to support and nurture the arts of the spoken word. So poetry, plays, screenplay readings, and we've expanded to music and visual arts. Our deepest concern is to serve the underserved communities; the people who don't normally get access to arts in the city. Poor people, youth, people of color, so we try to keep our prices very, very low. We try to speak to those communities and provide them with artistic experiences that they can relate to."
VOICE ONE:
That is Roland Legiardi-Laura, a poet, filmmaker and member of the Café's board of directors. And he leads many of the Café's educational projects.
One of those he is especially proud of is the Nuyorican Power Writers Program. The year-long program involves at-risk children in troubled
The program aims to empower young people by making them masters of language and reading. The Power Writers' motto is: "If you don't learn how to write your own life story, someone else will write it for you." Roland LeGiardi-Laura says life feels out of control for a lot of the children he works with. He says the program can help them take control, make changes and imagine a future. They can become "warriors of words."
VOICE TWO:
Mister LeGiardi-Laura's first Power Writers class was in the Bronx area of
The Power Writers program is the subject of "To Be Heard," a film that will be released soon. It was paid for by the public television network.
VOICE ONE:
Currently, the Nuyorican Poets Café is best known for its poetry slams. They are held Wednesday and Friday nights. Poetry slams are competitions where poets perform their poems in front of an audience and judges. The poems can be no longer than three minutes and are rated from zero to ten, ten being the best score possible.
Former Nuyorican board member Bob Holman brought slam to the Café from
VOICE TWO:
At a slam earlier this month, one poet performed a piece about a girl with a very troubled mother. Here is part of it.
"I used to try on Mommy's jeans, just to see how they'd fit on me. They were always too big for me, but I knew in my heart, that it was Mommy's jeans that help me be the best Mommy that I could be.
But now, Mommy wears my jeans, adorned with glitter belts and shirts that say hottie and sexy. You see, my Mother's not a hottie nor is she sexy. She's more than that. She's beautiful.
I just don't think anyone's ever told her so. She's cocoa brown with the red undertones. She's got the night sky in her eyes, but she wears glitter shirts so she can shine. Not knowing that she's got the shine of the stars and moon in her eyes. Fire on her lips, Cherokee in her blood and Zulu in her hips, she's a Goddess, who has never been told."
VOICE ONE:
The Café also has hip-hop poetry and music events, poetry readings and theatrical productions. And Executive Director Dan Gallant says there is room for expansion. The Nuyorican Poets Café is in a three- level building. Mister Gallant says the two top floors could be turned into rooms for workshops or studios or more performance space.
All in time, he says. Mister Gallant notes that the Nuyorican is very lucky as a non-profit organization to own its own building, especially in a recession. "We don't have to worry about paying rent," he says. "We still can keep our entrance prices low. We don't depend so much on money from donors."
VOICE TWO:
Over the years, Loisaida has changed. It is now a desired place to live. Crime has been reduced. Housing prices have increased.
There are still some public housing apartments for poor people, but many fewer than in the past. Developers have bought a lot of empty properties and have re-built costly apartments. There are many popular restaurants and stores in the area.
The Nuyorican Poets Café looks and feels a lot like it did many years ago. But Dan Gallant did get the Café to modernize one way this past year. "We now accept credit cards," he says proudly.
VOICE ONE:
This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. Our reader was Mario Ritter. I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for This is
| Let Us Plant Lettuce… | |
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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
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Even in ancient times, people liked to eat lettuce. Egyptians and Romans served the green, leafy vegetable at the end of dinner.
Now, people in some countries start the meal with lettuce as part of a salad. There are hundreds of kinds of lettuce. The main ones include head lettuce, such as iceberg, leaf lettuce,
Experts say lettuce is one of the easiest crops to grow in your garden. The best time to plant the seeds is during cool weather. The
Lettuce seeds are small, so do not place them too deep in the ground. If you plant some seeds every week or two, you will have crops ready to eat one after another.
To start the seeds inside, you can use a seed tray in your home or other shelter. This container should be deep enough to hold at least three centimeters of soil or more. There should be about one centimeter of space between the soil and the top of the container. The container should have holes in the bottom so the extra water can flow out.
Drop the seeds over the surface and cover them lightly with soil. If the soil is not already a little wet, give it some water. But do not drown the seeds.
Next, cover the seed tray with paper. When the seedlings have come up far enough to touch the paper, take it off. You can transplant the seedlings into the garden when they are about two to three centimeters tall. Do this when the weather is not too hot and not too cold.
Take out as much soil as you can with the seedlings. Then dig a hole in the ground bigger than the lettuce roots. Water the plants but not too heavily.
Harvest leaf lettuces when the leaves are big enough to eat. Pull the leaves from the outside of the planting so the inside leaves will keep growing. Or, you can cut off the whole plant. Leave about two or three centimeters above the ground so the plant will re-grow. Cut off head lettuces at ground level.
Lettuce is best when served fresh, so make a salad and enjoy. Store the unused part in the refrigerator in a plastic bag. It will last at least a few days, sometimes longer.
And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. You can find transcripts, MP3s and pod casts of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
| Obama Returns From First Official Trip to | |
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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
President Obama returned to the
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On his way back, the president made an unannounced stop in
Earlier, Mister Obama traveled to
PRESIDENT OBAMA: "Let me say this as clearly as I can: The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam."
Before visiting
PRESIDENT OBAMA:"Today I state clearly and with conviction
He said all nations with nuclear weapons should be involved.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: "As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the
The president spoke just hours after
Last week, President Obama attended a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the French-German border. He said he was pleased that the NATO allies supported his new plans for
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the NATO allies are pleased to work with the new American president. He said they trust him, and that he is speaking words they have been waiting to hear.
Mister Obama's trip may also have increased his support at home. New public opinion studies show sixty-six percent of Americans approve of the job President Obama is doing. A CBS News and New York Times study found thirty-nine percent say the country is moving in the right direction, up from fifteen percent in January.
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
| Obama Turns Attention to | |
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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
This week, President Obama made his first official visit to
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Drug-related violence in
President Obama says the
Also this week, the Obama administration named a former Justice Department official as so-called border czar. Alan Bersin will supervise efforts to secure the border with
President Obama made a campaign promise to begin efforts for immigration reform in his first year in office. He has already met with Hispanic members of Congress and promised to work with them to try to shape a plan.
A new report says Mexicans now represent one-third of all immigrants in the
From
The actions do not end the nearly fifty year old trade embargo against the island. But Americans with family in
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember.
| Teacher Sees 'Big Push' to Promote English as a Foreign Language in UAE | |
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AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: meet an English teacher in the
AA: "Tell me your name and a little bit about yourself."
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LEILA MOUHANNA: "My name's Leila Mouhanna. I'm a teacher at a foundations program at a university in the U.A.E, of Lebanese background, raised in
AA: "And what age do you teach?"
LEILA MOUHANNA: "Nineteen-, twenty-year-old girls."
AA: "Tell me a little bit about English teaching in the Emirates right now, the state of English teaching."
LEILA MOUHANNA: "There's a big push by the government to promote English as a foreign language. So eighty percent of the U.A.E.'s population are foreigners, so there's a big push to get English just for communication purposes. Also, it's becoming -- it's a globalized country, they need it for economic reasons. So it's very important."
AA: "And what about the resources you have, Internet or educational materials, what do you find works? What do you personally have the most success with in teaching English?"
LEILA MOUHANNA: "Possibly the best way is probably having an eclectic approach to the resources, the kinds of resources that you use with your students. I don't just focus on using one textbook. It's a variety of different materials from all over the place -- you know, YouTube or Internet resources, textbooks from a variety of places. So, yeah, pretty much everything."
AA: "You mentioned YouTube, the video-sharing Web site. How can English teachers use YouTube in the classroom?"
LEILA MOUHANNA: "I've just used it just to build field knowledge about different topics that students need to write about. So, for example, they had to write an essay about nuclear power. So we'd look at different video footage of catastrophes that have happened all over the world using nuclear power and things like that. And that gets them to build their vocabulary, to build knowledge about the field, and then to transfer that knowledge and get them to write about it."
AA: "So it's interesting, you're using video -- it sounds like mostly for listening comprehension, although also for the material. But it occurs to me, you've got sites now obviously like YouTube, millions of videos available. I wonder if the fifth skill would now be visual comprehension. There's reading, writing, listening and speaking, and now, when you have video, does that add kind of a fifth dimension to teaching?"
LEILA MOUHANNA: "Well, [there's] critical literacy, the visual literacy, but there's always the time constraints, so you can't really get into it. But I've never really had a big issue with it. My students really love television, really love using the Internet, so they're very technologically savvy."
AA: "And I'm assuming -- do some of your students use Twitter and Facebook and MySpace and sites like that?"
LEILA MOUHANNA: "Yes, yes. But I don't venture into any of these Web sites. I think it's a bit iffy, I think it's a bit problematic."
AA: "Well, let's talk briefly about social media sites. I know a lot of teachers use those for English teaching. What do you see as the sort of pluses and minuses of using social media sites as a teaching resources?"
LEILA MOUHANNA: "Well, I personally would steer clear away from it, because it can cause a lot of potential problems, especially coming from a very traditional society, working with females. So it could cause a lot of issues to arise that I wouldn't even contemplate initially."
AA: "But do your students, though, find it useful to them in their own learning?"
LEILA MOUHANNA: "I don't think they use it for learning. I think they use it as a social utility."
AA: Leila Mouhanna from the
And you can now follow our weekly segments through Twitter, attwitter.com/voalearnenglish, all one word. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. I'm Avi Arditti.
| The Global Snakebite Initiative Is Working to Improve Treatment for Victims | |
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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
More than four million people around the world are bitten by snakes each year. At least one hundred twenty-five thousand of these people die. Almost three million others are seriously injured. Doctors and researchers say the world does not provide enough good treatment for poisonous snakebites. To help improve the situation, experts have formed an international project called the Global Snakebite Initiative.
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Poisonous snakebites are common in rural areas of many developing countries with hot climates. Many victims are agricultural workers and children in Asia and southern
Ken Winkel directs the
The International Society of Toxinology officially supported the Initiative last month at the World Congress of Plant, Animal and Microbial Toxins in
Doctor Winkel says antivenom treatment is too costly for many poor people who need it most. The drugs are developed from the venom of poisonous snakes.
The Global Snakebite Initiative is trying to increase the availability of good quality antivenom treatments and improve medical training for patient care. Another goal is to help manufacturers of antivenom medicines improve their products.
The project also wants communities to learn about snakebites and first aid. It wants more research and reporting systems. And it aims to help national health officials choose antivenoms for their countries' special needs.
The antivenom that cures the bite of one kind of snake may not be effective for another kind of snake. And the medicines for a cobra bite in the
Experts look forward to improvements in worldwide treatment for snakebite. But they say the best ways to reduce death and injury from snakebites are education and prevention.
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember.
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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
American officials say they will publish results on May fourth from a special examination of banks. The purpose was to see if the country's nineteen largest banks could survive losses in the event that the recession got even worse.
The Obama administration announced the so-called stress tests in February as part of efforts to rebuild the trust of investors. If banks are told they need more capital, they will have six months to raise the money from private markets or the government.
Some experts think banks have seen the worst of their losses and that the worst of the financial crisis may already have passed. On Thursday JP Morgan Chase rep
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orated more than two billion dollars in profit for the first three months of this year. That was better than expected. Earlier, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo also reported strong results.
But the same is not true for the housing market. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the building of new homes fell in March to the second-lowest level on record.
President Obama warned in a speech on Tuesday that economic pain will continue through this year and those losses of jobs and homes will not end soon.
BARACK OBAMA: "But from where we stand, for the very first time, we are beginning to see glimmers of hope."
The president suggested that the economy could have reached the beginnings of a recovery.
One sign is that the Standard & Poor's list of five hundred stocks has risen more than twenty-five percent in the past five weeks. The S&P hit a twelve-year low in early March. Financial stocks have had some of the largest gains.
All nineteen banks are expected to pass the stress tests. But how the results will be presented is not clear. There is debate over whether releasing too much information might cause more harm than good. Some people might rush to withdraw money from weaker banks.
Yet some small banks have already paid back aid from the government.
The eight largest banks in the country have received about one hundred sixty-five billion dollars in aid. Goldman Sachs received ten billion last October from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Now it wants to pay that back.
On Tuesday, the bank sold more than five billion dollars in common stock in an effort to pay back the government. That was a day after it announced better-than-expected earnings. By returning the aid, Goldman Sachs could free itself from government limits on pay for top employees.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. For more business news, go to voaspecialenglish.com.
| Visiting Endangered Places Around the World | |
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VOICE ONE:
I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we travel around the world visiting several endangered natural and cultural treasures. Some places like
The book "Disappearing Destinations" explains more about these endangered places and suggests helpful ways to take action.
VOICE ONE:
Earlier this month, the Obama Administration called for increased protection of the world's most southern continent,
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This represents a major threat, especially to coastal areas. For example, the ancient city of
Rising sea levels are not the only threat. The salty water is also destroying
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Climate change is also leading to the melting of ice in other areas, such as Mount Kilimanjaro in northeastern
The ice glaciers on the mountain are disappearing very quickly. This will have a bad effect on the mountain's ecosystems and on
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In the
There are twenty-six glaciers remaining today. Scientists estimate that the glaciers will be gone by two thousand thirty. Warming temperatures are also threatening the many kinds of plants and animals that live in this mountain ecosystem.
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Venice, Mount Kilimanjaro, Glacier National Park and other threatened places are described in detail in a book called "Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them." Kimberly Lisagore and Heather Hansen published the book last year.
Both women are reporters who write about travel and the environment. Miz Lisagore says they began to notice how rare it was to find travel writing that recognized environmental problems and solutions. So, the two writers made a list of places that people should see before those places disappear.
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The writers tell about the good work being done by scientists and activists to protect each place. They wanted the book to be a hopeful call to action. Miz Lisagore says their aim was to give travelers a more meaningful experience by educating them about the places they love to visit.
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"Disappearing Destinations" is organized geographically by continental groupings. Some of the threatened places are very well known. For example, the Great Barrier Reef in
Rising sea temperatures are greatly harming the reef. In some areas, healthy yellow, brown and green reefs have become a bleached white color. The coral whitens when it becomes stressed by warmer temperatures and expels the algae organisms it needs to survive. Sick or dying coral affects the entire ecosystem of this special underwater area. Water pollution and visits by careless swimmers and divers also threaten the reef.
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The famous Galapagos Islands, more than nine hundred kilometers off the coast of
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"Disappearing Destinations" also discusses places that face environmental threats that are less well known. For example,
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In the ancient forests of the Lapland area of
But this logging also ruins the areas where Sami bring their reindeer to feed. Some experts say only five percent of
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Many endangered places in "Disappearing Destinations" are cultural treasures. For example, hundreds of thousands of people a year visit the ancient buildings of
And, in
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Kimberly Lisagore says that she has been very pleased by the response of people who have read "Disappearing Destinations." She says she and Heather Hansen have heard from readers who no longer think of the places they visit as pictures on postcards that are frozen in time. Instead, the readers see these places as easily damaged and always changing.
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Miz Lisagore says some readers have decided to work harder to protect the environment. These people learned that the way they choose to live at home has far-reaching effects on the planet. The book also includes a list of organizations working to protect the endangered places described. So readers can learn more information about the groups that interest them. Readers can also learn more about traveling in ways that do not harm the places they visit.
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Kimberly Lisagore says she is starting to see a more balanced travel relationship between tourists and the places they visit. She says Americans often take what a place has to offer and then go back home. Miz Lisagore says it is important for travelers to realize that they are visiting a place that is someone's home. And, she hopes that more travelers of all nationalities will see themselves as ambassadors who have a long term responsibility to the places they visit.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Dana Demange. Mario Ritter was the producer. I'm Steve Ember.
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And I'm Faith Lapidus. You can see pictures of these endangered places on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also get transcripts and MP3 files. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.
| The Law of Life | |
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ANNOUNCER: Now, the V.O.A. Special English Program, AMERICAN STORIES.
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Our story today is called “The Law of Life.” It was written by Jack London. Here is Shep O’Neal with the story.
STORYTELLER: The old Indian was sitting on the snow. It was Koskoosh, former chief of his tribe. Now, all he could do was sit and listen to the others. His eyes were old. He could not see, but his ears were wide open to every sound.
“Aha.” That was the sound of his daughter, Sit-cum-to-ha. She was beating the dogs, trying to make them stand in front of the snow sleds. He was forgotten by her, and by the others, too. They had to look for new hunting grounds. The long, snowy ride waited. The days of the northlands were growing short. The tribe could not wait for death. Koskoosh was dying.
The stiff, crackling noises of frozen animal skins told him that the chief’s tent was being torn down. The chief was a mighty hunter. He was his son, the son of Koskoosh. Koskoosh was being left to die.
As the women worked, old Koskoosh could hear his son’s voice drive them to work faster. He listened harder. It was the last time he would hear that voice. A child cried, and a woman sang softly to quiet it. The child was Koo-tee, the old man thought, a sickly child. It would die soon, and they would burn a hole in the frozen ground to bury it. They would cover its small body with stones to keep the wolves away.
“Well, what of it? A few years, and in the end, death. Death waited ever hungry. Death had the hungriest stomach of all.”
Koskoosh listened to other sounds he would hear no more: the men tying strong leather rope around the sleds to hold their belongings; the sharp sounds of leather whips, ordering the dogs to move and pull the sleds.
“Listen to the dogs cry. How they hated the work.”
They were off. Sled after sled moved slowly away into the silence. They had passed out of his life. He must meet his last hour alone.
“But what was that?” The snow packed down hard under someone’s shoes. A man stood beside him, and placed a hand gently on his old head. His son was good to do this. He remembered other old men whose sons had not done this, who had left without a goodbye.
His mind traveled into the past until his son’s voice brought him back. “It is well with you?” his son asked. And the old man answered, “It is well.”
“There is wood next to you and the fire burns bright,” the son said. “The morning is gray and the cold is here. It will snow soon. Even now it is snowing. Ahh, even now it is snowing.
“The tribesmen hurry. Their loads are heavy and their stomachs flat from little food. The way is long and they travel fast. I go now. All is well?”
“It is well. I am as last year’s leaf that sticks to the tree. The first breath that blows will knock me to the ground. My voice is like an old woman’s. My eyes no longer show me the way my feet go. I am tired and all is well.”
He lowered his head to his chest and listened to the snow as his son rode away. He felt the sticks of wood next to him again. One by one, the fire would eat them. And step by step, death would cover him. When the last stick was gone, the cold would come. First, his feet would freeze. Then, his hands. The cold would travel slowly from the outside to the inside of him, and he would rest. It was easy…all men must die.
He felt sorrow, but he did not think of his sorrow. It was the way of life. He had lived close to the earth, and the law was not new to him. It was the law of the body. Nature was not kind to the body. She was not thoughtful of the person alone. She was interested only in the group, the race, the species.
This was a deep thought for old Koskoosh. He had seen examples of it in all his life. The tree sap in early spring; the new-born green leaf, soft and fresh as skin; the fall of the yellowed, dry leaf. In this alone was all history.
He placed another stick on the fire and began to remember his past. He had been a great chief, too. He had seen days of much food and laughter; fat stomachs when food was left to rot and spoil; times when they left animals alone, unkilled; days when women had many children. And he had seen days of no food and empty stomachs, days when the fish did not come, and the animals were hard to find.
For seven years the animals did not come. Then, he remembered when as a small boy how he watched the wolves kill a moose. He was with his friend Zing-ha, who was killed later in the
Ah, but the moose. Zing-ha and he had gone out to play that day. Down by the river they saw fresh steps of a big, heavy moose. “He’s an old one,” Zing-ha had said. “He cannot run like the others. He has fallen behind. The wolves have separated him from the others. They will never leave him.”
And so it was. By day and night, never stopping, biting at his nose, biting at his feet, the wolves stayed with him until the end.
Zing-ha and he had felt the blood quicken in their bodies. The end would be a sight to see.
They had followed the steps of the moose and the wolves. Each step told a different story. They could see the tragedy as it happened: here was the place the moose stopped to fight. The snow was packed down for many feet. One wolf had been caught by the heavy feet of the moose and kicked to death. Further on, they saw how the moose had struggled to escape up a hill. But the wolves had attacked from behind. The moose had fallen down and crushed two wolves. Yet, it was clear the end was near.
The snow was red ahead of them. Then they heard the sounds of battle. He and Zing-ha moved closer, on their stomachs, so the wolves would not see them. They saw the end. The picture was so strong it had stayed with him all his life. His dull, blind eyes saw the end again as they had in the far off past.
For long, his mind saw his past. The fire began to die out, and the cold entered his body. He placed two more sticks on it, just two more left. This would be how long he would live.
It was very lonely. He placed one of the last pieces of wood on the fire. Listen, what a strange noise for wood to make in the fire. No, it wasn’t wood. His body shook as he recognized the sound…wolves.
The cry of a wolf brought the picture of the old moose back to him again. He saw the body torn to pieces, with fresh blood running on the snow. He saw the clean bones lying gray against the frozen blood. He saw the rushing forms of the gray wolves, their shinning eyes, their long wet tongues and sharp teeth. And he saw them form a circle and move ever slowly closer and closer.
A cold, wet nose touched his face. At the touch, his soul jumped forward to awaken him. His hand went to the fire and he pulled a burning stick from it. The wolf saw the fire, but was not afraid. It turned and howled into the air to his brother wolves. They answered with hunger in their throats, and came running.
The old Indian listened to the hungry wolves. He heard them form a circle around him and his small fire. He waved his burning stick at them, but they did not move away. Now, one of them moved closer, slowly, as if to test the old man’s strength. Another and another followed. The circle grew smaller and smaller. Not one wolf stayed behind.
Why should he fight? Why cling to life? And he dropped his stick with the fire on the end of it. It fell in the snow and the light went out.
The circle of wolves moved closer. Once again the old Indian saw the picture of the moose as it struggled before the end came. He dropped his head to his knees. What did it matter after all? Isn’t this the law of life?
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ANNOUNCER: You have just heard the American story “The Law of Life.” It was written by Jack London. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. Listen again next week for another American story in V.O.A. Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus.
| Foreign Student Series: TOEFL or IELTS? | |
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
For the past two weeks, we have talked about the SAT and ACT college admissions tests and the GRE for graduate school. This week in our Foreign Students Series, we move on to English language tests.
Most American colleges and universities accept one or both of the two major tests. One is the Test of English as a Foreign Language, known as the TOEFL. The other is the International English Language Testing System, or IELTS.
The TOEFL is given in one hundred eighty countries. The competing IELTS is given in one hundred twenty-one countries.
One million people each year take the TOEFL, says Tom Ewing, a spokesman for the Educational Testing Service. Same with the IELTS, says Beryl Meiron, the executive director of IELTS International.
She says two thousand colleges and universities in the
The IELTS is a paper test, while the TOEFL is given on paper only in places where a computer test is unavailable.
The TOEFL paper test costs one hundred fifty dollars. It tests reading, listening and writing. A separate Test of Spoken English costs one hundred twenty-five dollars.
The computer version is called the TOEFL iBT, or Internet-based test. The price is different in each country, but generally falls between one hundred fifty and two hundred dollars.
The TOEFL iBT and the IELTS both measure all four language skills -- listening, reading, writing and speaking. But with the IELTS, the speaking test is done separately as a live interview. You speak with an examiner who is certified in ESOL -- English for speakers of other languages.
Everyone takes the same speaking and listening tests. But there is a choice of two kinds of reading and writing tests -- either academic or general training.
IELTS International says the test measures true-to-life ability to communicate in English for education, immigration and employment. Institutions in
The cost is different in each country. But Beryl Meiron says the price in local currency is generally comparable to about one hundred sixty dollars. The IELTS Web site is ielts.org. The TOEFL Web site is toefl.org.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
| Studying in the | |
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Being a new student in school can be a little scary. Being a new student in a new country can be even scarier.
A college or university's international student office is a good place to start getting to know the school and the country. This week in our Foreign Student Series, we talk about support services for international students in the
Our example is the
U.S.C.'s Office of International Services says the number of students this year is about seven thousand five hundred. The
The Office of International Services helps explain student life at the university. It also organizes programs to help foreign students feel more at ease in their new surroundings. For example, there are trips to explore the
Most American colleges and universities have a similar office that helps international students. These offices look for ways to get students involved in school life and make American friends. Their job is not always easy. International students often want to spend their free time with friends from their own country or group.
The office at U.S.C. also assists family members who come to the
The Office of International Services also organizes other activities. For example, a State of the World Seminar takes place each semester. A group of international students and a professor discuss current social and political issues and take questions from the audience. The most recent seminar, held earlier this month, dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our series on studying in the
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
This week, in part nine of our Foreign Student Series, we talk about getting a student visa to come to the
Just getting accepted to an American college or university does not guarantee that you will get a visa. And getting a visa just lets you arrive in the
Travel documents come from the Department of State. But immigration is the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security.
The State Department has a Web site with all the rules for getting a visa. The address is unitedstatesvisas.gov.
If you are requesting a visa for the first time, you will probably have to go to an American embassy or consulate. You will need to bring a government form sent to you by your American school that shows you have been accepted.
You will also need banking and tax records that show you have enough money to pay for your education. And be prepared to provide evidence that you will return to your home country after your studies end.
All of this is important in satisfying the requirements to get a visa. A consular official will also take your picture and your fingerprints.
Foreign students must contact their local embassy or consulate to request an interview and to get other information. This includes directions about how and where to pay the visa application charge. The cost is two hundred dollars.
You should apply for the visa as soon as you have been accepted to a school in the
You cannot receive a visa more than one hundred twenty days before the start of your program. And if you are coming as a student for the first time, you cannot enter the country more than thirty days before classes begin.
Once you come to the
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is online with transcripts, MP3s and helpful links at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
| Studying in the | |
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
March Madness is the name for the busy championship season in American college basketball. But March also means another kind of madness -- the nervous wait for admissions letters from colleges and universities.
This week in our Foreign Student Series, we jump ahead to the subject of where to live. Housing policies differ from school to school. Some schools have limited housing or none at all.
Dormitory buildings might house a small number of students or many hundreds. Some dorms have suites. A suite has several bedrooms, a common area and a bathroom. Other dorms have rooms along a common hallway. Two, three or four students might share a room.
Males and females often live on different floors of the same building. Or they might live on the same floor, or in some cases even share a suite if permitted. But single-sex housing is usually also available.
Different groups and organizations such as fraternities and sororities might have their own houses where their members live. And there is often housing for married students.
Some dorms are nice, others are not so nice. But many students say they like the chance to make friends and be near their classes.
Cost is another consideration. Dorms can cost less than off-campus housing. But school-owned housing can also cost more, though the price may include meals.
Here are some questions to ask before making a decision: How much privacy can a student expect? Will the school provide a single room if a student requests one? Will the school provide a special diet if a student needs one? And are any dorms open all year so international students can have a place to stay during long vacations?
Kirsten Kennedy, housing director at the
Students can apply to become resident assistants after living in the dorms for a year. International students can also apply to become resident assistants after a year in the dorms.
Working as a resident assistant in student housing is one way to help finance an education. At many schools, RAs earn money as well as get their room and meals for free or at a reduced price.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Most American colleges and universities take a spring break. Students might go home to their families -- or spend a week partying on a warm beach with no parents around. That is the popular image, at least.
In the
Rules on alcohol differ from college to college in the
At the
Susan Davis, a university lawyer, says campus police and local police report underage drinking violations to administrators. The university judicial committee decides punishment on a case by case basis. For example, the committee might suspend or expel a student. It might require an alcohol education program. Or it might just give a warning.
Jon Zug is a prosecutor in
Schools have to report legal violations by international students to the Department of Homeland Security. International adviser Richard Tanson at the
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Earlier reports in our Foreign Student Series can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
This week in our Foreign Student Series, we look at financial aid that comes in ships. Scholarships, fellowships and assistantships.
But first we talk about financial aid of another kind: grants. A grant, unlike a loan, does not have to be repaid.
One of our examples this week is the University of Missouri-Columbia, known as Mizzou (pronounced mah-ZOO). Mizzou is a public university with more than one thousand five hundred international students this school year. The total student population is more than thirty thousand.
Mizzou has a grant program for international students. The Curator's Grant-in-Aid program is for those who get good grades and take part in university activities. Graduate students who receive a grant get nine free credits to take courses. Undergraduates receive between one thousand and five thousand dollars in support.
Students must have attended Mizzou for a year before they can receive a grant. And they must reapply for the awards each semester.
Some grants are called scholarships or fellowships. Scholarships are for undergraduates; fellowships are for graduate students. Awards may be based on financial need or on grades, talents or other requirements. The Global Heritage Scholarship at Mizzou, for example, is only for international undergraduates whose mother or father graduated from there.
The scholarship pays seven thousand five hundred dollars a year for tuition. Full tuition is currently almost nineteen thousand dollars.
Tuition is about the same at another public university, the
Seventy international students are currently receiving the scholarship. The
Assistantships are jobs paid with money or free classes. Graduate assistants help professors for about twenty hours a week. They may teach undergraduates, grade papers and tests, and assist with research.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. The earlier reports in our Foreign Student Series are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember
| Foreign Student Series: Thanksgiving in the | |
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the
So where does this leave international students? We asked a few colleges and universities around the country for this week's report in our Foreign Student Series.
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In the Northeast,
In the Southeast, Lelia Crawford is director of international student programs at EmoryUniversity in
Local organizations also get involved, like a group called the Atlanta Ministry with International Students. It arranges for students in the
The group also has a program called Christmas International House. International students can spend the long winter holiday with families in other parts of the
In the Midwest,
And in the West, Bob Ericksen heads the
His office and the Study Abroad Office have a dinner before the holiday. Then, on Thanksgiving Day, local families bring food to a park to share with international students. And that evening, the students can go to another Thanksgiving meal held by a service fraternity.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Students Series can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
We continue our discussion of plagiarism. Last week, we said colleges and universities in the
Professors at American colleges have tried many ways to stop student plagiarism.
Some use online detection services. They also may discuss plagiarism with their students at the start of every term. Some require their students to turn in early versions of term papers, research papers and essays they are writing. This makes it more difficult for students to buy papers from companies that some call "plagiarism mills" or "essay mills."
A recent report in The Chronicle of Higher Education described such businesses. Many can be found on the Internet. They sell newly written papers on many subjects. The cost depends on the difficulty of the subject and how soon the paper is needed. The cost could be from twenty to forty dollars a page.
Such companies say their writers have advanced degrees, and will target the papers to any educational level. Investigators say the writers may be working in countries like
Some students claim that they order such papers as a way to organize their research. But many also say they do not have enough time to do the work themselves and are under great pressure to do well in school.
University of Notre Dame anthropology professor Susan Blum wrote about this in a new book, "My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture." She writes that academic cheating is a result of communication failure between students and professors. And she says international students must be sure they know the rules of the college they are attending.
Plagiarism may also be a problem in other countries. A recent e-mail to us from
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Barbara Klein.
| Foreign Student Series: Answering Your Questions | |
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
We answer some questions this week in our series on getting into an American college or university.
The first question has to do with our recent discussion of English language tests. Vo Ngoc Toan from
This test is designed to measure skills in English as spoken in the workplace. People may be required to take it if they apply for jobs with companies or other employers. But TOEIC scores are not used for college admission in the
The Educational Testing Service administers the TOEIC. It says the test measures the language skills of people working in an international environment.
American colleges and universities accept scores from the TOEFL and often the IELTS. If you missed our report on these tests, you can find it at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Click on Foreign Student Series.
Tahir Mahmood from
The Internet has a lot of free resources for English learners. Visitors to voaspecialenglish.com, for example, can read, listen and watch programs on many different subjects.
The United States Department of Education recently launched a free Web site designed to help immigrants learn English. The site is called USA Learns. The address is u-s-a-l-e-a-r-n-s dot o-r-g.
Next, a question from
And, finally, we have questions from
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.
| Foreign Student Series: College, University or Institute? | |
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Americans use the term "college students" to mean students either in colleges or universities. Not only that, Americans almost never say "going off to university" or "when I was in university." That sounds British. Instead, they say "going off to college" and "when I was in college."
College, university: what's the difference? We answer that this week in part three of our Foreign Student Series on American higher education.
Colleges and universities have many things in common. Both offer undergraduate degrees in the arts and sciences, for example. And both can help prepare young people to earn a living.
But many colleges do not offer graduate studies. Another difference is that universities are generally bigger. They offer more programs and do more research.
Another place of higher education, especially in technical areas, is an institute, like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yet even an institute of technology can offer a wide choice of programs and activities. M.I.T. says that seventy-five percent of freshmen come there with a strong interest and involvement in the arts.
Modern universities developed from those of
"College" came from collegium, a Latin word with a similar meaning. In
The first American universities divided their studies into a number of areas and called each one a college. This is still true.
A college can also be a part of a university. For example,
Programs in higher learning can also be called schools, like a school of engineering or a medical school within a college or university. You know, learning all these terms is an education in itself.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com.
We invite your questions for our Foreign Student Series. We cannot offer any personal advice or assistance. But we might be able to answer a general question during our series.
Be sure to tell us your name and where you are. Write to special@voanews.com or use the Contact Us link at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
| Foreign Student Series: Admissions Tests | |
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Many American colleges and universities require applications for the fall term to be completed by January first. But some have deadlines of December first. So this was a fitting week for a research group in
The report says the price of college has increased more than four hundred percent since nineteen eighty-two. Costs have climbed much faster than other prices -- as well as the wages of average families.
The group warns that a continuation of these trends would put higher education beyond the reach of most Americans. And it would mean greater debt for those who do go to college.
The report also expresses concern that the
But today other countries are making progress more quickly. The
Also, a lot of students drop out. The report says college completion "has never been strength" of American higher education. Among the twenty-nine countries, the
Completing college first requires getting admitted. This week in our Foreign Student Series, we begin a discussion of entrance tests.
Advisers say a student's high school record is the most important consideration. But most American schools require one of the two major college-entrance tests.
The SAT measures reasoning skills in math and language and includes an essay question.
The four-hour test costs forty-five dollars. The international processing charge is twenty-six -- plus an extra twenty-three dollars in
Students may also need to take subject tests. Information about the SAT can be found online at collegeboard.com.
Next time, we will talk about the other major test, the ACT-- and about schools that do not require either. And we will discuss the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.
| Foreign Student Series: Paying for School in the | |
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Governments are not the only ones having to re-examine their budgets. The financial crisis has many families concerned about how they will pay for college. This week in our Foreign Student Series, we discuss costs for higher education for international students in the
Prices differ from school to school, but public colleges and universities usually cost less than private ones.
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A big state university in the western
Tina Tan is the director of international student and scholar services. She says international students are paying a total of forty thousand two hundred dollars for this academic year. The university estimates that the cost for next year will increase by four hundred dollars.
The university does not offer financial aid to international students. This is generally true of American schools, especially at the undergraduate level. Federal and state financial aid can only go to American citizens.
The
Tina Tan says the federal government requires international students to show on their applications how they will pay for their first year of school. This evidence is a signed statement from whoever is paying for it, and confirmation from a bank or lawyer.
Some colleges might require international students to show that they can pay for all four years. But the
Educational advisers say foreign students should keep enough money in a local bank to pay for at least two months of spending. Students have to consider not just tuition but also housing, meals, books and other costs including social activities.
Immigration rules restrict employment for international students in the
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts and MP3s of the earlier reports in our Foreign Students Series are at voaspecialenglish.com
| Apple Pie Order: When Everything Is Just Perfect | |
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Correction attached
Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
Today we tell about the expression, "apple pie order." It means in perfect order, very well organized.
Nobody is sure where and when the expression apple pie order began. Some say that Scottish and English writers used the expression a long time ago. Others say it first was used in the northeastern American states known as
The housewives of
Another old expression describes the opposite condition – wild disorder. That expression is apple of discord. It comes from ancient mythology.
The myth says that all the gods and goddesses were sitting around the table to celebrate the marriage of Thetis and Peleus. One of the goddesses, Discord, was a troublemaker. She threw a golden apple on the table to be given as a prize to the most beautiful goddess.
It was not an easy decision to make. How could they choose among Juno, Minerva and Venus.
At one time, the tomato was called a love apple. That was a mistake. This is how the mistake happened.
In the sixteenth century,
When French growers imported it from
People believe many things about the apple. One belief is that it has great powers of keeping people healthy. A very common expression is "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."
Another belief is based on fact. The expression is "One rotten apple spoils the barrel." When an apple begins to go bad, it ruins all the other apples around it in the container. The expression has come to mean that one bad person in a group can cause everyone to act bad.
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You have been listening to the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. I'm Warren Scheer.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Discord as a Greek god; she was a goddess.
| Proverbs: Some Listeners’ Favorite Sayings | |
| More expressions about a common truth or belief. Transcript of radio broadcast: |
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Correction attached
Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
A proverb is a short, well known saying that expresses a common truth or belief. Many proverbs give advice about the best way to live.
Recently, we presented a program about proverbs. We asked our listeners to send us their favorite proverbs. A short time later, we received suggestions from around the world. We heard from listeners in Africa, Asia, Europe and
The top proverb among these listeners is this one: "Where there is a will, there is a way." This means that you can rise above your problems if you have a goal and work very hard.
Some listeners liked another proverb: "Strike while the iron is hot." This means it is best to take action quickly and at the right time. Another favorite proverb was, "God helps those who help themselves."
Xu Da-ju from
Another proverb is "Blood is thicker than water." This means family ties are stronger than other relationships. A similar proverb states "Charity begins at home." A person should help his family or close friends before helping others.
Alina from
Antonio Jose from
Wafaa from
Another favorite proverb among our listeners is "Practice makes perfect." This means you will become good at something if you keep doing it. Another popular proverb is: "If you want something done right, do it yourself."
Najeeb from
And, here is the favorite proverb of Marius Meledje in
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This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Faith Lapidus. We will present more programs about proverbs in the future. And you can find more WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.
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