New Book Compares Education Systems Around the World

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I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report.

A new book by two professors at Pennsylvania State University compares public education systems around the world. The book is called “National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling.”

David Baker and Gerald LeTendre led a group of researchers who gathered information on about fifty countries. Some findings came from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. That study took place in nineteen ninety-four and again five years later.

The professors say education is increasingly shaped by what they call "transnational forces." Officials in many countries are concerned about how their students compare with students in other countries.

Each part of the book develops a different subject researched in schools around the world. One of the subjects is violence among students. The professors say countries with the most school violence include Hungary, Romania and the Philippines.

They say the United States is somewhere in the middle, above nations like New Zealand, Canada, South Korea, Spain and Australia. The findings are based on reports from students.

Professor Baker says inequalities in educational systems act as an influence. He says schools that are sharply divided between "winners and losers" in math have higher levels of violence. "This does not mean that nations should stop trying to raise scores," he says. "But they should be careful to raise the performance among all students."

Also, the researchers often found no connection between national performance and the average amount of homework given in a nation. Teachers generally give little homework in countries with the highest average test scores, such as Japan, the Czech Republic and Denmark. But the professors say teachers in countries with low average test scores like Thailand, Greece and Iran often give lots of homework.

Yet the authors say most teachers worldwide could learn to make better use of homework. Children are mostly given material to remember. But conditions at home, especially in poorer families, may not support the kind of environment needed to do such work.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Gwen Outen.

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Andrew Johnson: The Story of America's Seventeenth President

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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

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In the spring of eighteen sixty five, America's Civil War was over. The man who had led the Union during the war, Abraham Lincoln, was dead. He had been assassinated before the final surrender of Confederate forces.

Now, the re-united nation had a new president, Andrew Johnson. He had been Lincoln's vice president.

Andrew Johnson

The chief justice of the United States swore-in Johnson a few hours after Lincoln's death. Most of Lincoln's cabinet was there, together with leading members of Congress. They looked to the new president with a mixture of shock and hope. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Shep O'Neal and I begin the story of America's seventeenth president.

VOICE TWO:

Andrew Johnson was -- like Abraham Lincoln -- a man of the people. He was born in North Carolina. His family was poor. There was no money, or time, for young Andrew to go to school.

When he was fourteen years old, his mother sent him to work for a tailor to learn to Make clothes. Andrew worked hard. He opened his own tailoring business in the eastern part of the state of Tennessee. When he was eighteen, he married. His wife, Eliza, taught him to read and write.

VOICE ONE:

Andrew became active in politics.

At the age of twenty-one, he was elected to the town council. Two years later, he became mayor of the town. At thirty-five, he won a seat in Congress, in Washington. Next, he became governor of Tennessee. Then the state made him one of its two senators. The poor tailor boy was a success.

VOICE TWO:

Andrew Johnson was a member of the Democratic Party. In the presidential election of eighteen-sixty, he supported his party's candidate, not the candidate of the Republican Party: Abraham Lincoln. But Lincoln won the election.

And, as a result, southern states carried out their earlier threat. They began leaving the Union to form their own nation.

Johnson opposed this secession. He believed the South should remain part of the United States. He decided he had no choice but to support the Republican president.

Most of the other citizens in Tennessee disagreed with him. They decided to leave the Union. Andrew Johnson had to flee his home to save his life. He returned only after Union forces took control of Tennessee and made him military governor.

VOICE ONE:

President Lincoln noticed the man from Tennessee who supported the Union over the opposition of others. In eighteen sixty-four, Lincoln decided to run for re-election. He chose Johnson to be his vice presidential candidate.

Lincoln hoped Johnson would win the support of Union-loving Democrats. He hoped Johnson would help heal the wounds between North and South.

Now, Lincoln was dead. And Johnson was president. It was up to this little-known former tailor to make the decisions on reconstruction -- on rebuilding the Union.

Johnson, not Lincoln, would decide if reconstruction would be easy or hard. Johnson would choose if the North would punish the defeated rebel states or be merciful to them.

VOICE TWO:

The radicals of Lincoln's Republican Party wanted severe reconstruction. They said the South was a defeated enemy. They demanded strong punishment for all southerners who took part in the rebellion.

These radicals had disliked Lincoln's plans for reconstruction. They felt he was too weak. Now, they hoped Johnson would share their ideas. They urged him to call a special session of Congress to pass strong legislation against the South.

The radicals had reason to believe the new president agreed with them. He had called the rebels traitors. He had demanded strong action against them when the war ended.

"The time has come," Johnson had said, "when the American people should understand what crime is. And that it should be punished."

VOICE ONE:

But Andrew Johnson surprised the radicals. He did not call the special session of Congress. Instead, he announced his own program for the southern states.

Johnson declared a pardon for all former confederates who promised to support the Union and obey laws against slavery. Then, he permitted former officials of the confederacy to run for office in their states' new elections. Many of these former rebels were elected.

The radical Republicans were angry. They saw these elections as proof that the South had not really changed. They accused Johnson of being too soft. They urged him to punish the rebels.

One radical newspaper wrote: "There is only one sure and safe policy for the immediate future. The North must remain the dictator of the republic until the spirit of the North shall become the spirit of the whole country. The South's treason is still unpunished. Southerners cannot be trusted. "

VOICE TWO:

The radicals also worried about what would happen to the recently freed slaves. They said the new state governments of the south would not treat blacks as free and equal citizens. As proof, they pointed to new laws the southern legislatures passed.

For example, the state legislature in Mississippi said no black person could rent farmland. It said a black person needed special permission to work at any job except farming.

Mississippi also passed a law saying a black person could be forced to work for a white man -- usually his former owner -- if he had no other job.

Another way the state governments in the South acted against blacks was by refusing to give them the right to vote.

VOICE ONE:

The radical Republicans decided that President Johnson's reconstruction program must be stopped. They began working to get control of Congress to pass their own program. Only by gaining political power could they punish the South and guarantee full political rights to former slaves.

The radicals tried to take control in two ways.

First, they refused to let many of the recently elected southern congressmen take their seats when Congress opened.

Then they formed their own joint committee on reconstruction. This committee -- not the Senate or the House of Representatives -- would make many of the decisions about reconstruction.

VOICE TWO:

Radical lawmakers took other steps to seize control of reconstruction efforts in the South.

Congress had established a government agency to take care of black refugees in the South. The agency gave food and clothing to former slaves who had no food, money, or jobs. It began to teach them to read and write.

Republicans in Congress moved to extend the life of the agency and increase its powers. They passed a bill and sent it to the White House for the president's approval.

President Johnson vetoed the bill. He said it would create false hopes among former slaves. He also said it was unconstitutional. The radicals tried to overturn Johnson's veto. However, they failed to get the necessary votes.

VOICE ONE:

Congress passed several other bills giving the federal government power to protect the rights of blacks in the southern states. President Johnson vetoed these bills, too. He said they interfered with the rights of the states.

These defeats made the radicals even more angry. Their newspapers began a steady attack against the president and his policy toward the South. Some even accused him of treason.

VOICE TWO:

Many Americans agreed with this criticism of President Johnson. They gave the radicals a big victory in congressional elections of eighteen sixty-six.

Radical leaders gained the power to pass any bill they wished, even over the president's veto. And they wasted no time doing just that. Time after time, they voted to overturn Andrew Johnson's vetoes.

The atmosphere in Washington became very tense. Relations between Congress and the White House sank to their lowest level in history. The political skies darkened. Soon, the storm broke. The radicals tried something that had never been tried before. They tried to remove the president from office.

The conflict between the radicals and Andrew Johnson would provide some of the most historic and intense moments in American history. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION.

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VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Shep O'Neal. Our program was written by David Jarmul and Frank Beardsley.

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A Visit to Two National Parks: Mount Rainier in Washington State and Valley Forge in Pennsylvania

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

Mount Rainier

And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about two areas that are popular with visitors to the United States. One is a place of fierce beauty. It is Mount Rainier National Park in the northwestern state of Washington. The other is one of the most important places in the history of the American Revolution. It is Valley Forge National Historical Park, in the eastern state of Pennsylvania.

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VOICE ONE:

The American Indians who lived in the northwest called the great mountain “Takhoma.” One tribe said it was a female monster that would eat people. Other old stories among the Indians said the mountain could produce huge amounts of fire.

In seventeen ninety-two, British explorer George Vancouver became the first European to see the huge mountain. He named it after a navy friend, Captain Peter Rainier.

Today the people who live in the northwestern city of Seattle call it “The Mountain.” Mount Rainier is almost one hundred kilometers from Seattle. Yet it can be seen from almost any place in the city. The beautiful, snow covered mountain seems to offer the city its protection.

VOICE TWO:

The mountain’s offer of protection is false. Mount Rainier is not just a mountain. It is a sleeping volcano. Steam and heat often rise from the very top of the huge mountain, causing snow to melt. Mount Rainier is four thousand three hundred ninety-two meters tall. Its top is covered in snow all year. More than twenty-five thick rivers of ice called glaciers cover a lot of the mountain. In some areas, these glaciers are more than one hundred meters thick.

VOICE ONE:

Mount Rainier always has been a popular place to visit. Many people go to enjoy the beautiful forests that surround the mountain. Others go to climb the mountain.

Hazard Stevens and Philemon VanTrump became the first people known to reach the top of Mount Rainier. They reached the top in August of eighteen seventy after a ten-hour climb through the snow.

In eighteen ninety, a young schoolteacher became the first woman to reach the top. Her name was Fay Fuller. For many years after her successful climb, she wrote newspaper stories asking the federal government to make Mount Rainier a national park. Many people who visited the mountain also wanted it to be protected forever by the government.

On March Second, eighteen ninety-nine, President William McKinley signed a law that made Mount Rainier a national park. It was the fifth national park established in the United States.

VOICE TWO:

Today, National Park Service experts say about ten thousand people climb the huge mountain each year. But only about half of the climbers reach the top.

The mountain can be extremely difficult to climb. Severe weather is possible at almost any time. Snow and ice cover parts of the mountain all year.More than fifty people have died trying to climb Mount Rainier. Mountain climbing experts often use it as a difficult test for people who want to climb some of the world’s highest mountains.

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VOICE ONE:

You do not have to climb the huge mountain to enjoy Mount Rainier National Park. More than one million people visit the park each year. Many walk on the hundreds of kilometers of paths. The paths lead through flat meadows filled with wild flowers and up through forests of large old trees. Other visitors drive around the park to experience its natural beauty. They often see black tailed deer, elk, and mountain goats.

The park is large. It is almost one hundred thousand hectares. Many lakes, rivers, roads, two hotels and six camping areas are inside the borders of the park.

VOICE TWO:

Experts agree that Mount Rainier will become a very active volcano at sometime in the future. They say the real problem is that they do not know when.

They also agree that the great heat produced by an explosion of the volcano would melt the ice rivers that are part of the mountain. This could happen in only a few minutes. They say the melting ice would produce flowing rivers of mud and rock. People who live in the southern part of Seattle and in the city of Tacoma, Washington would be in danger.

Experts carefully study the great mountain. They hope to be able to warn of any dangerous change. But for now, the great mountain provides a safe and beautiful place to visit in the Northwest area of the United States.

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VOICE ONE:

A very different kind of national park is in the eastern state of Pennsylvania. It is called Valley Forge National Historical Park. It is near the city of Philadelphia.

Valley Forge also is a beautiful place. Within the park are many different kinds of trees and flowers. Huge areas of green grass. And a beautiful, slow moving river. You can see many deer. Often you can come very near them. Deer do not run away because they are used to seeing people in the park.

It is not the natural beauty that made Valley Forge a National Historic Park. It is what happened there. Many other places were important in the American War for Independence, but no other place is so filled with suffering. No battle was fought at Valley Forge. Yet, more than two thousand soldiers of the small American army died there. They died of hunger, disease and the fierce cold in the winters of seventeen seventy-seven and seventeen seventy-eight.

It was also at Valley Forge that the men of this small army learned to be real soldiers.

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VOICE TWO:

What happened at Valley Forge began in August of seventeen seventy-seven. A

Living Spaces for Soldiers at Valley Forge.

British force threatened to capture the American capital at Philadelphia. The American commander, General George Washington, moved the army to defend the city. A battle was fought at a place called Brandywine and another at Germantown. The British forces won those battles and occupied Philadelphia.

By the month of December, General Washington needed to find a place his small army could easily defend. He chose Valley Forge. More than fifteen centimeters of snow fell only a few days after the army arrived. Ice covered the rivers. The soldiers began building very small wooden houses called log cabins. They built more than one thousand of these small houses.

VOICE ONE:

The fierce winter was only one of the many problems the American army faced. Many of the soldiers had no shoes. Most had no winter clothing. All suffered from a severe lack of food. Then, several diseases struck. Typhus, typhoid, dysentery and pneumonia were among the diseases that spread through the army. Most of the soldiers became sick. Many died.

General Washington wrote letters to Congress asking for help. He asked for money to buy food and clothing. But Congress had no money to give him.

Several things happened to change the small army during that long and terrible winter. General Washington knew the army had been defeated in the past because of a lack of real training. A man named Baron Friedrich von Steuben had recently come from Europe. He was an expert at training soldiers. So, each day during the terrible winter, Baron von Steuben taught the men of the American army to be soldiers. He also taught them something very important. He taught them to believe in themselves.

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VOICE TWO:

As the winter passed, the army slowly changed. New troops arrived. New equipment arrived. An alliance with France brought guarantees of military support. The men who survived that terrible winter were no longer a group of armed citizens. They were well-trained soldiers who no longer feared the enemy.

When the American army left Valley Forge on June nineteenth, seventeen seventy-eight, the soldiers took with them the spirit that had helped them to survive.

The War for Independence would continue for another five years. Terrible battles were yet to be fought. However, the men who had survived the winter in Valley Forge knew they could win. They did.

VOICE ONE:

Today, you can visit the area where Baron von Steuben trained the soldiers of the American Revolution. You can watch a movie about the American soldiers’ struggle to survive that long ago winter. You can see examples of the small log cabins the soldiers built. You can walk on paths along the remains of the defense system and the officers’ headquarters. And you can feel the spirit of Valley Forge.

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VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

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W.H.O. Seeks Worldwide Campaign Against Cancer

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I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report.

The World Health Organization

The World Health Organization has established an international committee of cancer experts. The experts will develop a plan to fight what the W.H.O. calls “the global epidemic of cancer.” They held their first meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this month.

The advisory committee is expected to develop the W.H.O. Global Cancer Control Strategy by early next year. The goal is to reduce cancer rates and improve quality of life for cancer patients and their families.

The W.H.O. is the United Nations health agency. Delegates at the World Health Assembly meeting last month approved a resolution on cancer prevention and control. They agreed on the need to do more to fight increases in cancer deaths. The committee is a first step.

The World Health Organization says more than twenty million people are living with cancer. The disease is a leading cause of death. Cancer kills almost seven million people a year. By comparison, AIDS-related conditions kill three million people a year.

The W.H.O. expects the number of cancer deaths to increase fifty percent within fifteen years. The agency says cancer rates are on the rise in both developing and developed countries. It says the increase is linked to such things as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and a lack of exercise.

Infections and cancer-producing chemicals are also responsible. Medical experts say at least one-third of all cancers can be prevented.

In some developing countries, people are living longer because of better treatments for infectious diseases. But cancer risk increases with age. As a result, aging populations play a part in the increase in cancer rates.

Worldwide, the most common cancers in men are in the lungs and stomach. In women, the most common are breast and cervical cancer. The W.H.O. notes that some of the most common forms of cancer are curable with operations, drugs or radiation treatment.

Many countries have national cancer policies and programs. However, health officials say more action is needed.

The World Health Assembly resolution calls on all member states to develop national cancer programs. These would include prevention measures, early cancer testing, and improved treatment and care for those living with cancer.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Gwen Outen.

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Speaking of Alabama, Part 1

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AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a lesson in regional English in the American South.

RS: And to give you that lesson is a woman who wrote to us from Alabama named Donna Akins. Donna Akins is not an English teacher, not a linguist, not an author. She heads a non-profit organization for adults with developmental disabilities.

AA: But when she's not busy at work, Donna Akins takes a strong interest in language. And she's proud of her Southern linguistic roots -- roots which she worries may be withering.

DONNA AKINS: "I think we have a real neat dialect and I hear it dying, especially when you visit the larger towns. We're very close to Huntsville, Alabama, and we're not too far from Atlanta or Birmingham, and when you visit those places a lot of the locals you can't even tell are Southerners anymore. And that's sad to me. But then, as I used in the example to you in an e-mail, you'll hear those people who are very proud of their Southern heritage and don't hesitate to use it.

"I heard one woman say, she was asking about someone's family, and said, 'How's your mom and them? Well, tell 'em I said how-do.' And that's just such a neat expression to me."

RS: "And that phrase again is."

DONNA AKINS: "Well, what she said was 'how's your mom and them?' which means 'how is your family?' -- it's 'your momma and them' -- and 'tell 'em I said how-do,' which is howdy-do or how are you, hello, I'm thinking about you. Just a good, all-purpose phrase that means several different things."

AA: "How do you reply to a statement like that?"

DONNA AKINS: "Well, you would say, 'Well, thank you for asking, and I'll let them know that you asked about them."

RS: "Well, that I can understand."

DONNA AKINS: "Yeah!"

AA: "Now, what are some other expressions, terms you might toss into your conversation?"

DONNA AKINS: "Well, I was talking with Pat this morning, my friend. She has kidded me unmercifully since I told her I was doing this with y'all, that I better not get on the radio and embarrass us. But she said 'you just let them know that we do own pickup trucks and we can come whup 'em if they embarrass us.' You know, that was just a big joke between us.

"But, you know, I still hear friends that will use that expression about 'if he steps out of line, I'm going to whup him.' That's not an uncommon thing to say.

"We laugh about when things are a distance away, it's 'fur and snakey."

AA & RS: "It's what?"

DONNA AKINS: "Fur and snakey."

RS: "You mean 'far and ... "

DONNA AKINS: "Snakey just means it's rural, it's a long way off."

RS: "Like there might be snakes there."

DONNA AKINS: "Exactly! You're catching on. And I remember as a child just certain words that would be used. I can remember my elderly aunt who would say 'we'll do that directly.'"

RS: "You mean like 'right now.'"

DONNA AKINS: "Well, it wasn't right now, it was more 'it won't be too long before we do that.' And I remember my father would use the word 'hope' instead of 'help.'"

RS: "Could you spell that word please?"

DONNA AKINS: "H-O-P-E."

AA: "But he meant help. I mean, he was pronouncing it hope."

DONNA AKINS: "That's right. He would say 'I stopped and hoped him.' I always found that somewhat embarrassing. I thought it sounded so old.

"And then I can remember one of my high school English teachers asking, did any of our parents say that? And she told us that of course that was the old English form of the word 'help' and that you still heard that some as a carryover in the South. I don't hear that anymore. I haven't heard that probably since my father passed away a number of years ago."

RS: "Well, one of the things you always hear in Southern speech is the expression 'y'all.' Why don't you go through that for us."

DONNA AKINS: "Well, y'all, I hear that a little bit of everywhere now. I'm hearing it on TV, I'm hearing it when I travel. It doesn't seem to be as much a Southern word anymore as it used to be. I think of it as one word because we would never consider saying 'you all,' which is what you're implying. "

AA: "You don't use that for one person, [but] when you're talking to a group or a couple of people."

DONNA AKINS: "That's right. And I've heard that on TV where they'll be trying to use the word and they'll refer to a singular person as y'all. And that would never be done here. Y'all is a group."

RS: And we hope y'all -- y-apostrophe-a-l-l -- will listen again next week. We will have more of our conversation about Southern dialects with Donna Akins, a resident of the mussel shoals area of Alabama.

AA: Our English teaching segments are all on our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

MUSIC: "Sweet Home Alabama"/Lynyrd Skynyrd (the Swampers, referred to in the lyrics, are a music group in the Mussel Shoals area of the state)

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Immigration Issues Shape the Experience of U.S. Latinos

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VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

A store in Chicago, a city with a large Polish population, has signs in Polish and Spanish, reflecting changes in the area

And I’m Bob Doughty. About one out of seven people in the United States is Hispanic, or of Spanish-speaking ancestry. This week, we present the second part of our report about Hispanic life in America.

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VOICE ONE:

We start in California. This Friday, Antonio Villaraigosa [vee-yah-ry-GOH-sah] will begin his duties as mayor of Los Angeles. Around half the four million people in the city are Latino, mostly of Mexican ancestry. Yet the place that Spanish settlers named "City of the Angels" has not had a Latino mayor since eighteen seventy-two.

Mister Villaraigosa is from Los Angeles. He was born Antonio Villar. When he married his wife, Corina Raigosa, he made his name Villaraigosa.

He grew up poor. His father, a Mexican immigrant, left the family. In high school, young Antonio suffered a growth on his spine and lost some of his ability to move. But he recovered after an operation.

The future mayor once had a tattoo on his arm that read "Born to Raise Hell." He was expelled from one high school and left another.

But he completed his schooling. He went to college, then law school. Mister Villaraigosa became a labor lawyer and a state legislator. He served as speaker of the California Assembly from nineteen ninety-eight to two thousand.

VOICE TWO:

Now, Mister Villaraigosa will lead the second largest city in America. He won with strong support, and says he wants to be mayor of all the people.

The mayor in Los Angeles has limited powers, though. And many problems await the new mayor. These include troubled schools and racial and ethnic tensions. L.A. is famous not just for Hollywood, but also for its traffic. And there are the violent gangs of young people, mainly Latino or black.

Mister Villaraigosa has done a lot in his fifty-two years. Now a lot more is about to be expected of the man seen as one of the new stars in the Democratic Party.

VOICE ONE:

The United States has a growing number of Latino public officials. Yet many Latinos believe Hollywood and other media often misrepresent the Hispanic population. They say films and television programs mostly show Latinos as housekeepers, gardeners or gang members.

There has been some improvement, though, as more Latinos enter the public eye through popular culture.

In sports, professional soccer has only a limited following in the United States. But Latin American players are well known in baseball. In fact, Major League Baseball says they represent almost one-fourth of all the players. The largest numbers come from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and the United States territory of Puerto Rico.

Spanish-language media in the United States are expanding. So are marketing campaigns aimed at Latinos, both in Spanish and English.

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VOICE TWO:

Immigration is a major part of the Latino experience in America.

A research group estimates that more than ten million immigrants were in the United States illegally as of March of two thousand four. The Pew Hispanic Center says most came from Latin America; more than half came from Mexico.

Traditionally, illegal immigrants went to states like California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois or New Jersey. Now many are going to other parts of the country. By two thousand four, almost four million had gone to states other than the six most traditionally popular.

The researchers say illegal immigrants almost always work, and most live with families. Some family members are citizens, others are not. Children born in the United States become American citizens by birth. The researchers estimate that parents who came here illegally have about three million children with American citizenship.

VOICE ONE:

For some illegal immigrants, trying to reach the United States can be deadly. Many Cubans and Haitians have drowned attempting to reach Florida. Part of the border area between Mexico and the state of Arizona is also an especially dangerous crossing. Some illegal immigrants die in the heat of the desert; others die in the cold of the mountains.

VOICE TWO:

Border Patrol officials call the period of hot weather between May and late September "the season of death."

Criminals known as “coyotes” [koh-YOH-tehs] also play a part. Immigrants pay these people to help them enter the United States illegally. In two thousand three, the Border Patrol found the bodies of nineteen people in Victoria, Texas. A "coyote" had left them trapped without water or enough air in the back of a truck.

Some illegal immigrants who are caught by the Border Patrol try again and again.

In April, a civilian group offered to help guard the border area between Arizona and Mexico. The civilians carried weapons and reported sightings to the Border Patrol. At that time, the group called itself the Minuteman Project. Now it is known as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

VOICE ONE:

Some in the public denounced the Minutemen as “migrant hunters.” President Bush criticized the group. But members say they were responsible for the arrests of several hundred people. They are planning more operations.

Another group, the New Mexico Minutemen, has also been established. Its members say they do not carry weapons. They say they provide food, water and medical help to people who are caught.

Some churches and other community groups provide humanitarian aid to illegal immigrants but do not report them.

There are calls for immigration reform. President Bush has proposed a guest worker plan. Temporary work permits would let illegal immigrants in the country stay for at least three years without fear of expulsion. After that, they would have to return home unless they had been approved for the process of citizenship.

Critics say such a plan will only increase illegal immigration.

VOICE TWO:

The terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one, have increased efforts to strengthen border security. They have also led to measures such as a new federal law called the REAL ID Act of Two Thousand Five.

Among other things, the law aims to increase security requirements for states to give someone a permit to drive. That is because Americans commonly use their driver's license for identification. The new law sets requirements for licenses to be accepted for federal purposes, such as to get on a plane. If states choose to give a license to an illegal immigrant, they are supposed to mark it with a special design or color.

Opponents protested the legislation as anti-immigrant.

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VOICE ONE:

It is illegal to hire undocumented workers. But some employers depend on them. They say illegal immigrants are willing to take jobs that Americans do not want.

In Northern Virginia, Latino day laborers wait in the snow for jobs

Work conditions are often dangerous, and jobs usually do not provide a health plan. In some communities, laborers gather on streets, often near home improvement stores, waiting and hoping to get a day's work.

VOICE TWO:

Many people are sympathetic to the struggles of immigrants in search of a better life. But communities must also find ways to deal with the costs of education, medical care and other services for the poor. English language classes for adults are often full. Cities need more Spanish-speaking teachers, police officers and others.

Immigration has always been an issue of debate in America. Some say people who enter the country illegally have no right to free services and should be punished for breaking the law. Others argue that illegal immigrants are more important to the economy than many people recognize.

VOICE ONE:

Traditionally, blacks were the largest minority group in the United States. Now there are more than forty-one million Latinos, fourteen percent of the population. Their numbers are growing through high birth rates and immigration. Latino leaders hope that as the numbers continue to grow, so will the social and political influence of Hispanic America.

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VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson, with additional reporting by Brianna Blake. Caty Weaver produced both parts of our series. I’m Bob Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Our programs can be found on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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Eleanor Roosevelt Was the Most Influential Wife of Any American President

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

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

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VOICE ONE:

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

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City in Eighteen eighty-four. Eleanor's family had great wealth and influence. But Eleanor did not have a happy childhood. Her mother was sick and nervous. Her father did not work. He drank too much alcohol. He was not like his older brother, Theodore Roosevelt, who was later elected president.

When Eleanor was eight years old, her mother died. Two years later, her father died. Eleanor's grandmother raised the Roosevelt children. Eleanor remembered that as a child, her greatest happiness came from helping others.

VOICE TWO:

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

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

Franklin Roosevelt began visiting Eleanor. Franklin belonged to another part of the Roosevelt family. Franklin and Eleanor were married in nineteen-oh-five. In the next eleven years, they had six children.

VOICE ONE:

Franklin Roosevelt began his life in politics in New York. He was elected to be a state legislator. Later, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to be assistant secretary of the Navy. The Roosevelts moved to Washington in nineteen thirteen. It was there, after thirteen years of marriage, that Eleanor Roosevelt went through one of the hardest periods of her life. She discovered that her husband had fallen in love with another woman. She wanted to end the marriage. But her husband urged her to remain his wife.

She did. Yet her relationship with her husband changed. She decided she would no longer play the part of a politician's wife. Instead, she began to build a life with interests of her own. In nineteen twenty-one, Franklin Roosevelt was struck by the terrible disease polio. He would never walk again without help. His political life seemed over, but his wife helped him return to politics. He was elected governor of New York two times.

VOICE TWO:

Eleanor Roosevelt learned about politics and became involved in issues and groups that interested her. In nineteen twenty-two, she became part of the Women's Trade Union League. She also joined the debate about ways to stop war. In those years after World War One, she argued that America must be involved in the world to prevent another war. "Peace is the question of the hour," she once told a group of women. "Women must work for peace to keep from losing their loved ones."

The question of war and peace was forgotten as the United States entered a severe economic depression in nineteen twenty-nine. Prices suddenly dropped on the New York stock market. Banks lost their money. People lost their jobs.

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VOICE ONE:

Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in nineteen thirty-two. He promised to end the Depression and put Americans back to work. Missus Roosevelt helped her husband by spreading information about his new economic program. It was called the New Deal. She traveled around the country giving speeches and visiting areas that needed economic aid.

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

VOICE TWO:

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

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

VOICE ONE:

Missus Roosevelt was a member of that organization, the Daughters of the American Revolution. She publicly resigned her membership to protest the action of the group. An opinion study showed that most Americans thought she was right.

Eleanor Roosevelt helped the performance to be held outdoors, around the Lincoln Memorial. More than seventy thousand people heard Marian Anderson sing. Missus Roosevelt was always considered one of its strongest supporters of the civil rights movement.

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VOICE TWO:

The United States was forced to enter World War Two when Japanese forces attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in nineteen forty-one.

Missus Roosevelt made many speeches over the radio praising the soldiers she saw on her travels. She called on people to urge their government to work for peace after the war was over. Franklin Roosevelt died in nineteen forty-five, soon after he was elected to a fourth term as president.

When his wife heard the news she said, "I am more sorry for the people of this country than I am for myself."

VOICE ONE:

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

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

VOICE TWO:

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

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

VOICE ONE:

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

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VOICE TWO:

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

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

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Calls for Change Mark 60th Anniversary of United Nations

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I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report.

United Nations in New York

The United Nations was created on June twenty-sixth, nineteen forty-five. Representatives from fifty countries signed charter documents in San Francisco, California. Four months later, the U.N. officially came to exist, after a majority of those countries approved the charter.

The United Nations Association of San Francisco organized events to mark the sixtieth anniversary. Organizers invited many former world leaders. They also invited President Bush or a high-level representative. The administration chose Sichan Siv, the American representative on the U.N. Economic and Social Council.

The anniversary comes as the United Nations faces calls for reforms. The organization is criticized for its supervision of the Iraq oil-for-food program, for sex crimes by U.N. peacekeepers and for other reasons.

On June twenty-second the United States proposed a reform plan to the U.N. General Assembly. The plan includes more seats for the Security Council. The United States says it supports "two or so" new permanent members, including Japan, and two or three more non-permanent seats.

Japan, Brazil, India and Germany have jointly proposed their own expansion plan. It would include them as permanent members, along with two African nations. China rejects a permanent seat for Japan.

Other reform proposals being discussed include replacing the U.N. human rights commission with a smaller council. It would exclude countries with poor human rights records.

In March, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan offered his own reform plan. He proposed expanding the Security Council and creating a new human rights council. His plan also includes ideas for defining terrorism, and new rules on when to use military force. World leaders are to consider the proposals in New York in September.

In Washington, Senate Democrats have delayed a vote on President Bush's nominee for U.N. ambassador. They say John Bolton is wrong for the job. He has strongly criticized the United Nations.

In the House of Representatives, lawmakers recently passed a Republican bill to pressure the United Nations. The bill calls for the United States to make only half its U.N. payments unless there are reforms by two thousand seven. The Bush administration opposes that bill.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish. I'm Gwen Outen.

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More From Less: America’s Highly Productive Farms

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I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

At one time, the United States was a nation of farmers. In nineteen hundred, about thirty-nine percent of Americans or thirty million people lived on farms. A similar percentage of the labor force earned a living by working on farms.

By nineteen ninety, fewer than two percent of the population lived or worked on farms. There were also fewer farms. In nineteen forty, there were more than six million farms in America. Today there are fewer than two million.

While the number of farms decreased, the size of the remaining farms increased. The average farm today is about two hundred hectares. In nineteen hundred, it was sixty.

As the United States became an industrial nation, its farms changed not only in size, but in their business plans.

In the past, farmers raised many different crops or animals. For example, in nineteen hundred, almost all farms raised chickens. More than seventy-five percent of farms raised pigs and milk cows. In nineteen ninety-seven, however, only about six percent of farms raised these animals.

The trend in American farming has been to specialize. Farmers put their efforts into intensively raising only a few things.

New technology has helped create specialized systems that produce more using less labor. Two examples of this are milk and corn.

Since nineteen twenty-four, American milk production has grown almost one hundred percent. But the number of milk cows has decreased by half. Cows today produce more than four times more milk than their ancestors eighty years ago.

The same is true for corn. Improved kinds of corn produce about four point seven times more corn per hectare than one hundred years ago.

Economists call producing more with less an increase in productivity. The Department of Agriculture uses a measure called an index to show how productivity changes. It says America’s agricultural productivity increased by more than one hundred percent between nineteen fifty and nineteen ninety-six.

Over the same period, prices of agricultural goods fell by more than fifty percent. So, the trend toward increased productivity has meant lower prices. Many farmers have answered by increasing the size of their specialized operations. Information in this report comes from the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen.

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Scientists Find Most Earth-Like Planet Yet Discovered

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VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we talk about a natural substance that makes people more likely to trust each other. We also answer a question about stuttering and describe treatments for the speech disorder. But first, space scientists report the discovery of what they call the most Earth-like planet ever found.

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VOICE ONE:

Artist's version of Gliese 876 by Trent Schindler, National Science Foundation

American scientists say they have discovered the smallest Earth-like planet ever observed outside our solar system. They announced their findings earlier this month at the National Science Foundation, near Washington, D.C.

The scientists made the discovery with one of the huge telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Each telescope stands eight levels tall and weighs more than three hundred metric tons.

The scientists describe the newly-discovered planet as a ball of rock made of the same materials as Earth. They also said the planet could have an atmosphere.

VOICE TWO:

The scientists said the planet is more similar to Earth than anything ever observed. Yet it is very different. It is more than seven times the size of Earth and unable to support life. That is because the planet is extremely hot. Its surface temperature is between two hundred and four hundred degrees Celsius.

The scientists told reporters the planet orbits a star called Gliese Eight-Seven-Six. It is fifteen light years away from Earth in the group of stars known as Aquarius. The planet moves around the star once every two days. Gliese Eight-Seven-Six has two larger planets. They are closer in size to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

VOICE ONE:

The scientists say the newly-discovered planet may be the first rocky planet ever found orbiting a star similar to our Sun. Three other rocky planets have been reported in other solar systems. But they orbit the remains of an exploded star, not a normal one.

The scientists said they do not know where the planet came from. But it is as small as can be found with current instruments. They also said improved instruments are planned in the next ten years. And they said the discovery suggests that more Earth-like planets will be found in the future.

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VOICE TWO:

Do you have trouble trusting people? Maybe your body needs more oxytocin. That is a hormone that some scientists say makes people more likely to trust each other.

Research scientists at universities in Switzerland and the United States recently tested the effects of oxytocin on a group of students. About one hundred eighty male students from the University of Zurich took part.

The researchers set up an investment game as part of the study. Some of the students were investors in the money game. Others were called trustees.

VOICE ONE:

Investors and trustees were not permitted to communicate. Investors were given money. They were told any investment they made would be immediately worth three times more. But, they had to work with a trustee on each investment. And, the trustee had complete control of the money after the investment was made. So, a trustee could keep it all. Or give some back to the investor.

To make it even trickier, an investor could work with each trustee only once. So an investor had no experience of a trustee before working with him.

VOICE TWO:

Before the games began some students were given oxytocin through their noses. Others breathed in a harmless substance, or placebo.

The researchers found that persons who received the hormone invested seventeen percent more than those who got the placebo. Forty-five percent of those in the oxytocin group invested all their money. That compared with twenty-one percent of the investors in the placebo group.

The researchers also reported that oxytocin only affected investors when they working with human trustees. The researchers say the effects of the hormone disappeared when the investors worked with computers as trustees.

Ernest Fehr of the University of Zurich led the study. He says increasing trust may be useful for people with social fears and the brain disorder autism.

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VOICE ONE:

There are new estimates of the number of Americans with the virus that causes AIDS. Government scientists say more than one million were living with the human immunodeficiency virus, or H.I.V. at the end of two thousand three. Health officials gave a report this month at the National H.I.V. Prevention Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set a goal in two thousand one to cut the rate of new infections in half. That goal has not been met. But a C.D.C. official, Doctor Ronald Valdiserri, said researchers do think they are making progress.

VOICE TWO:

Doctor Carlos del Rio of Emory University in Atlanta, however, suggested that prevention efforts have failed. He says there may be as many as sixty thousand new cases per year. In recent years, the number has been estimated at forty thousand.

Almost half of those infected are believed to be men who have sex with other men. And, experts say, almost half are black. People who are infected with H.I.V. often do not know it. There are no cures. But drug treatments can delay the progress of H.I.V. into AIDS. AIDS leaves a person defenseless against disease.

Researchers estimate that about forty million people worldwide are living with H.I.V. They estimate that every day more than eight thousand people die from conditions linked to AIDS.

About half of all people living with H.I.V. are women. And about half of new infections are in young adults.

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VOICE ONE:

Our question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen To Hieu would like to learn more about stuttering.

Stuttering is speech disorder. It also may be called stammering in some countries. Stuttering happens when the normal flow of speech is broken up. The speaker may repeat sounds or words. Or the speaker may have problems starting a word.

Some situations may cause people to stutter. For example, talking in front of a group might cause stuttering. Yet singing or speaking alone might not.

VOICE TWO:

Experts estimate that more than three million Americans stutter. Stuttering affects people of all ages. But it is most common in children between the ages of two and six years. This kind of stuttering is called developmental stuttering. Children might stutter as they develop language skills, but they usually learn to speak normally once they are older.

Adults who stutter might have a form of stuttering called neurogenic. This means there are signal problems between the brain and the muscles and nerves that control speech.

Another kind of stuttering is called psychogenic. It is linked to the mental activities of thought and reasoning. This kind of stuttering is rare and can be found in individuals who have a mental illness or who experienced extreme mental pressure.

VOICE ONE:

Medical experts do not know exactly why people stutter. They do know that stuttering may be common among members of the same family. Yet, the gene that is responsible has yet to be found.

Several treatments for stuttering do exist. Speech-language pathologists can provide help. They are trained to test and treat persons with voice, speech and language disorders. They can help people who stutter learn ways to improve their speech through special training. Speech-language pathologists also can help patients deal with the feelings that often come with such a disorder. When asked to speak, some people who stutter become easily frightened or shy.

VOICE TWO:

Experts say it helps to be patient when talking with someone who stutters. When that person speaks, listen quietly. Also, it is important for parents of children who stutter to provide an easy home environment. Parents should be supportive of their children and not punish them for stuttering.

Many Americans who stuttered have become successful in work that requires public speaking. They include the actress Marilyn Monroe, actors Bruce Willis and James Earl Jones, and singer Carly Simon.

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VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Dana Demange, Cynthia Kirk, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

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

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Six Months After the Tsunami: A Progress Report

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I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Sunday will be six months since the earthquake and tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean. The undersea quake produced a series of ocean waves as high as ten meters. Extensive damage spread across twelve countries in Asia and Africa, from Indonesia to Somalia.

On Friday, officials from the United Nations and the European Union met to discuss progress in the aid efforts. Jan Egeland is the top U.N. official for emergency aid. It took, in his words, "five to ten seconds to wipe away two hundred twenty-five thousand people." And, Mister Egeland added, "it will take five to ten years to rebuild all that was lost."

Perhaps two million people were displaced from their homes. Many still live in emergency shelters. The World Health Organization says many survivors now suffer mental health problems.

Indonesia this week said the discovery of more bodies increased the confirmed number of dead there to one hundred thirty-one thousand.

Mister Egeland says the world has reacted as never before to the events of December twenty-sixth. He says the amount spent or promised for assistance and rebuilding is around eleven thousand million dollars.

The United Nations has created a Web site to follow where aid is going. And, it has appointed Bill Clinton to assist the tsunami recovery efforts. The former president says it is going to take time for governments to provide the money they have offered.

Government aid from the United States includes about five hundred twenty-five million dollars now being released for rebuilding. The money is for projects like roads and schools.

An expert on aid financing says governments can provide help only after they receive a country’s rebuilding plan. Sri Lanka and Indonesia provided those plans in May.

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Tamil Tiger rebels signed an agreement Friday. It calls for the government to share international aid with the rebels. The deal is expected to speed up aid to heavily damaged areas controlled by the Tamil Tigers. There are hopes, too, that it will help restart peace talks in Sri Lanka.

But some groups oppose the agreement. They say it will help the Tamil Tigers gain international recognition. A Marxist group left the government last week in protest. On Friday, police fired tear gas as hundreds of protesters marched in Colombo.

Six months after the tsunami, scientists and governments are working to save lives in the future. Experts are meeting in Paris to discuss details of a tsunami early-warning system for the Indian Ocean. Some temporary measures are now in place. The goal is to have the new system in operation by July of two thousand six.

Scientists said the earthquake had a magnitude strength of nine. Now, they say it was nine-point-one-five. The quake was strong enough to shake the planet for months.

IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

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Where Do Martians Go When They're in Seattle?

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HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

Music from Les Paul …

A question from a listener about where Americans spend their holiday …

And a report about the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.

Science Fiction Hall of Fame and Museum

Martian invasion: Detail from "War of the Worlds Endpaper #1," a 2000 painting by Thomas Kidd. The work is part of an exhibit on the continued popularity of "The War of the Worlds," written by H.G. Wells and first published in 1898.

Most museums present information about the past. One museum takes visitors into the future. Well, at least people’s ideas about the future. The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington, combines the real and imaginary of science. Gwen Outen tells us more.

GWEN OUTEN: Could space creatures be real? Will visitors from another planet come to Earth? A visit to the Science Fiction Museum offers a chance to explore theories about the future. The museum also explains the influence science fiction has had on our modern beliefs about the world. The museum shows that while science fiction was unpopular eighty years ago, it is now at the center of our culture.

The museum’s exhibits include rare science fiction books and interesting objects from films.

The collection is organized into different areas such as weapons, space creatures, and the future. Visitors can see objects from famous science fiction films and television shows. These include guns from the popular television show “Star Trek.” Clothes worn by actors in the nineteen eighty-two film, “Blade Runner” share an exhibit with clothes worn by real astronauts. The exhibit called “The Changing Face of Mars” examines the past, present and future of the "Martians” and their Red Planet.

In a separate area, the Science Fiction Hall of Fame honors the lives and work of science fiction’s greatest creators. Four new members were added this year. They include American filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Ray Harryhausen. Mister Spielberg is well known for his films including “E.T.:The Extra-Terrestrial,” “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” and “Jurassic Park.” Mister Harryhausen created memorable films including “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad,” and “Clash of the Titans.”

Among other Hall of Fame members is Mary Shelley, who wrote the book “Frankenstein” in the year eighteen eighteen.

In past years, only writers had been honored in the Hall of Fame. This year, the awards were expanded to include other professions. There are now forty members in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Each member is honored with his or her image on a wall, personal objects and professional works.

Americans on the Move

HOST: In their free time, Americans love to travel. A middle school student in China asks where Americans like to go when they travel.

Although the cost of travel is rising, Americans will be traveling in record numbers this summer. Studies show that Americans’ holiday travel will increase two percent this summer, compared to last summer. The Travel Industry Association of America completed the recent study.

Three out of four Americans plan to visit friends and family this summer. Seventy percent will go to a beach or lake. And sixty-four percent will visit small towns or farming areas. Others will visit big cities, national or state parks or historic areas. Still others will go camping or fishing or visit museums or amusement parks.

Public opinion studies found that travelers would most like to visit the states of Florida, California, Nevada and New York this summer.

One study said these are the top ten places Americans would like to visit: The Grand Canyon, The Statue of Liberty, Yellowstone National Park and the White House and monuments in Washington, D.C. Other places on the list are Niagara Falls, the Hawaiian Islands, Mount Rushmore, the Redwood Forest, the Glaciers and the Fjords of Alaska and the Rocky Mountains.

All of the top ten places show the natural beauty or history of the United States.

When Americans travel, they often like to see something new, or get away from their usual surroundings. This year, three hundred twenty-eight million Americans are expected to travel more than eighty kilometers from their home.

Of those who will travel on holiday this year, about two-thirds said they will leave their state. About twenty percent will leave the country.

Travel spending by people in the United States also continues to rise. American travel spending is expected to reach more than five hundred fifty thousand million dollars.

However, high prices will be a consideration for travelers. Many will look for places to stay that do not cost as much, while others will take shorter trips.

Les Paul

HOST: What would rock and roll music sound like if you could not hear the guitar? For Les Paul, the inventor of the solid-body electric guitar, this was an important concern. Faith Lapidus tells us about him.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Les Paul was a young musician in the late nineteen twenties. He decided that the acoustic guitar was not loud enough for playing outside or in front of large groups of people. After years of experimenting, Les Paul created a guitar that could be powered by electricity and produce a much louder sound. This invention helped change the history of popular music.

The National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio recently added Les Paul to its list of important American inventors. Les Paul did not only create the solid-body electric guitar. He also invented new methods of recording music. He was one of the first musicians to combine several different recordings into one song.

In some of his music, he had as many as six recordings of himself playing different musical instruments. Here is an example of such a song. It is called “Brazil”.

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Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford made many records together. Les Paul wrote the songs and played the guitar while Mary Ford sang. Here is one of their hits from nineteen fifty-one called “How High the Moon”.

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Les Paul is now ninety years old and still playing his guitar! We leave you with another number one hit by Les Paul and Mary Ford called “Vaya Con Dios”.

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HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program.

Our show was written by Brianna Blake and Dana Demange. Caty Weaver was our producer.

Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

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General Motors and Ford Cut Jobs and Costs

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I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are traditionally known as the "Big Three" carmakers in North America. But the industry has been going through a lot of changes.

Recently both G.M. and Ford have had their debt ratings cut. Agencies that advise investors on risk said that both companies depend too much on sales of big sports-utility vehicles. Higher fuel prices have cut into sales of S.U.V.'s.

G.M. and Ford have been criticized for not developing more hybrid vehicles. These use both electrical and gasoline power.

Ford and G.M. also face growing long-term costs connected with their retirement programs.

General Motors says it will cut twenty-five thousand jobs in North America in the next three years. G.M. announced a loss of more than one thousand million dollars in the first three months of this year.

Ford, too, has announced job and spending cuts. It plans to cut two thousand seven hundred jobs this year. Ford also said it would suspend payments into one of its employee retirement plans. And it plans to sell stock in its Hertz car-rental business to raise money.

Foreign competition has made its mark on the American auto industry.

In nineteen ninety-eight, Chrysler joined with Daimler-Benz to form DaimlerChrysler. Headquarters are in Michigan and Germany. But this third member of the Big Three is no longer listed as an American company.

And, last year, Toyota of Japan sold more cars than Ford to become the second largest car company in the world. General Motors is the largest. But industry observers are not sure how much longer that will be true.

As foreign carmakers have expanded in the United States, they have built factories here. Similarly, the Big Three have joined with foreign carmakers to sell cars all over the world. For example, Ford owns Volvo and Jaguar, among others. It also controls the Japanese carmaker Mazda.

G.M.'s holdings include Saab. General Motors has factories in thirty-two countries and sells cars in two hundred countries. G.M. has invested heavily in China. It has joint investments with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation.

America's "Big Two," General Motors and Ford, must deal with some problems. But they remain the third and fourth largest companies in the country.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty.

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June 22, 2005 - Emotion in Words

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Today on Wordmaster with Rosanne Skirble, the emotions behind the words we say.

RS: Think of how many emotions our voices are able to convey. English teacher and Wordmaster contributor Lida Baker says meaning changes by modifying the tone of voice in subtle ways. Take this simple sentence:

LIDA BAKER: "The words are: 'you cut your hair.' Now I am going to quiz you, Rosanne. I am going to say those four words in certain ways and you tell me what the emotion is that I am trying to convey. Ready?"

RS: "OK. Ready."

LIDA BAKER: "OK here we go:

"You cut your hair!

RS: "Surprise!"

LIDA BAKER: "Yes! How about this one: 'You cut your hair?'"

RS: "You don't sound like you are too happy with me. You don't like my haircut."

LIDA BAKER: "Right. Or what about this one? 'YOU CUT YOUR HAIR!' I'm sorry for shouting. Let me give you another example. The words are: 'I got 75 percent on a test.' All right, here we go again: (HAPPY TONE) 'I got 75 percent on a test.'"

RS: "You sound like the happiest (person) in town.

LIDA BAKER: "That's right. This is a student who has to work really hard to get average grades. So this student is quite pleased about the 75 percent, or else it was just a very hard test and nobody did very well and the person is just happy to have passed it."

RS: "Right because 75 percent isn't the greatest grade."

LIDA BAKER: "No. How about this one? [SURPRISED TONE] 'I got 75 percent on a test?'"

RS: "You should have gotten 100 percent, which means that you should be surprised, at least in that sentence it sounds like it."

LIDA BAKER: "Yeah. That's what I intended! Or, [SAD, DISAPPOINTED TONE] 'I got 75 percent on a test.'"

RS: "You are not happy. You are disappointed with your results.

LIDA BAKER: "Yeah. OK so, you are able to read me very well, even though you can't see my face and there is no story surrounding any one of those sentences. So it is quite amazing that you knew exactly what I was trying to convey without any other clues."

So how can a student of English as a foreign language learn these clues? Lida Baker says you can use visual cues - like facial expressions and gestures - or audio cues like pitch, volume and intonation.

LIDA BAKER: "I was thinking for example about disappointment, and I noticed that when I said 'you cut your hair' the intonation tends to be flat throughout that slightly glides down at the end. 'You cut your hair.' And confusion can often be expressed in the form of a question, don't you think?"

RS: "You cut your hair?"

LIDA BAKER: "Or, I got 75 percent on a test? -- go ahead."

RS: "I was just going to ask you, you know we have pitch and volume and intonation -- three cues that we can watch for -- but as you said it is very subtle and very hard for English learners to get. How can teachers help out?"

LIDA BAKER: "The first thing the teacher really needs to do is to teach students to look at context clues that can help students derive meaning from a situation such as people's facial expressions. I think knowing the relationship between speakers is helpful, and of course listening to what the people have been talking about prior to the utterance."

RS: "What I hear you saying, though, is that context is so important and might be the key (to understanding) here."

LIDA BAKER: "Yes it is."

RS: "Now, when you don't have a context, like when you are talking on the telephone, what are you to do?"

LIDA BAKER: "A valuable teaching aid is to bring in video clips, just little segments and have students look at them and try to analyze the emotional content of this little small segment. First use only the audio and try to figure out what the speakers mean, and then add the visual and see what additional cues are provided when they have the visual available to them and are trying to figure out logically what the speakers could be feeling. And it just takes an enormous amount of practice."

RS: "Practice, practice and more practice."

LIDA BAKER: "Right, and I am always advocating role playing. Put the students in pairs and give them the same script. But one pair of students, give them the instruction that they are to express disappointment or sadness."

RS: "And the other (pair) approval."

LIDA BAKER: "Exactly. That's great. And then have the other students in the class guess what is going on. So then it becomes very interactive."

RS: "That's great!"

LIDA BAKER: "And not to forget, (use) compensation strategies. Where all else fails, ask the person, 'What do you mean?'"

Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is featured in the Wordmaster archives at voanews.com/wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. Avi Arditti will be back next week. I'm Rosanne Skirble.

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Foreign High School Students Get a Free Lesson in American Life

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I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report.

Hundreds of high school students from countries with large Muslim populations have learned for themselves about American society. They spent ten months, one school year, studying in the United States through a State Department program.

More than four hundred fifty students just took part in the second year of the program. They attended high schools and lived with American families in twenty states.

The program is called Partnerships for Learning -- Youth Exchange and Study, or YES. It seeks to improve international understanding and security, and to teach about the rule of law.

Countries involved this year include Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and Lebanon. Others on the list are Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen.

Students from the West Bank, Gaza and Arab communities in Israel also took part.

President Bush met with some of the students at the White House on June thirteenth. He urged them and their friends to think about going to an American university.

In a speech, the president described experiences of students over the past year. He noted that some got involved in political work related to the presidential election last November. One student from Morocco, for example, helped voters in Oregon get rides to voting places.

The president thanked the students for sharing their cultures with Americans. He read comments written by a student from Syria named Abdul Rahman. In one of his classes, Abdul found signs everywhere wishing him a happy Ramadan on the first day of the holy month. Abdul had taken time to explain Ramadan to the other students. He says some students even tried to join him in not eating that day.

One hundred sixty high school students took part in the program in the first year. State Department officials say they expect six hundred fifty students for the next school year in the fall. More countries added to the program include India, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Once students are back home, they are supposed to form groups to work on service projects in their own countries.

More information about the program can be found on the Internet at exchanges.state.g-o-v. Again, exchanges.state.gov.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are all online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen.

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The American Civil War: Final Surrender of the Confederate Army

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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

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Abraham Lincoln

As we reported in our last few programs, President Abraham Lincoln did not live to see the final surrender of the armies of the Confederacy. However, before he was murdered on April fourteenth, eighteen-sixty-five, the war was really over. The surrender of Robert E. Lee, early in April, brought an end to four years of bloody fighting. Several other Confederate armies were still in the field. But they were too small and too weak to continue the fight.

VOICE TWO:

One army was in North Carolina, commanded by General Joe Johnston. Five days after Lee's surrender, Johnston asked for a meeting with General William Sherman, the Commander of Union forces in North Carolina.

General William T. Sherman

Sherman met with Johnston a few days later. He offered him the same surrender terms that General Lee had accepted. He said the Confederates must give up their weapons and promise to fight no more. Then they would be free to return to their homes.

Johnston said he could not accept these terms. Johnston said he had the power to surrender all the Confederate armies everywhere in the south he said he would do so if Sherman agreed on a political settlement.

VOICE ONE:

The two generals met again the next day. Sherman listened as Johnston explained his demands. Most of them, Sherman accepted. He believed that President Lincoln wanted to help the south as much as possible. He had heard Lincoln say that he wanted to make it easy for the southern states to return to the Union.

When the agreement was completed, Sherman sent it immediately to Washington for approval by the new president, Andrew Johnson. The agreement seemed to give the south everything it wanted.

VOICE TWO:

Instead of surrendering to Sherman, the Confederate Armies would break up. The soldiers would return to their homes, taking their weapons with them. They would sign a promise not to fight again and to obey state and federal laws.

In exchange for this, Sherman said the president would recognize state governments in the south which promised to support the Constitution. He said federal courts would be established in the south again. And he said the president -- as well as he could -- would protect the political rights promised to all people by the Constitution of the United States and the state constitutions.

And Sherman said the United States government would not interfere with any of the southern people, if they remained peaceful and obeyed the laws.

VOICE ONE:

President Andrew Johnson

President Johnson held a cabinet meeting to discuss the agreement Sherman had signed. War Secretary Stanton and the other members of the cabinet were violently opposed to it. They said Sherman had no power to make any kind of political settlement.

President Johnson rejected the agreement. He said Johnston's army must surrender within forty-eight hours...or be destroyed. He said the surrender terms could be no better than those given General Lee.

VOICE TWO:

Johnston decided to surrender. On April twenty-sixth, his army laid down its weapons. One by one, the remaining armies surrendered. The soldiers began returning home.

Many of them were bitter. They wanted to continue to fight. They spoke of guerrilla war against the Yankees. But most of the Confederate commanders opposed this. Many, like cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest, urged their men to accept defeat.

Said Forrest in a farewell speech to his men:

"It is a clear fact that we are beaten. We would be foolish to try to fight further. The government which we tried to establish is at an end. Civil War -- such as you have just passed through -- naturally causes feelings of bitterness and hatred. We must put these feelings aside. Whatever your responsibilities may be, meet them like men. You have been good soldiers. You can be good citizens."

VOICE ONE:

Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled south after the fall of his government. He hoped to get across the Mississippi River. He believed that he could form a new Confederate army. If this failed, he planned to escape to Mexico.

President Lincoln had hoped that Davis would escape. He felt that punishing Davis would only create more bitterness and make reconstruction -- the rebuilding of the south -- more difficult. But President Johnson did not share Lincoln's feelings. He believed Davis had a part in the plot to kill Lincoln. He said Davis must be captured.

On May tenth, Union forces found the Confederate president's camp in southern Georgia. They seized him and took him to Fort Monroe, Virginia. He remained there for many months under close guard. His trial was never held. And finally, in eighteen sixty-seven, he was freed.

VOICE TWO:

Late in May, one hundred fifty thousand Union soldiers, representing every one of the Union armies, came to Washington. They came to take part in a big parade -- a victory march through the city.

For two days, the soldiers marched past the White House. Many of the marching men had fought at Bull Run, at Fredericksburg, Antietam, Gettysburg, Petersburg, and Appomattox. Sherman's western army was there from battles at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and Atlanta.

The soldiers marched proudly past the president and other government leaders.

VOICE ONE:

All along the way, from the Capitol building to the White House, were huge crowds of cheering people. Hour after hour, the soldiers passed. Never had the city seen such a celebration. Each group of soldiers had its band and carried its own battle flags. Some proudly carried flags that had been torn in fierce fighting.

Finally, late on the second day, the final group of soldiers passed the White House. The grand parade was over. The battle flags were put away, and the marching bands fell silent. The war was ended. Now, men could look about them and count the cost of the war.

VOICE TWO:

Four years of bloody fighting had saved the Union of states. The northern victory had settled for all time the question of whether states could leave the Union. And it had put to rest the great problem of slavery, which had troubled the nation for so many years.

But the costs were great. More than six hundred thousand men of the north and south lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands more were wounded. Many had lost their arms or legs.

VOICE ONE:

The war cost the north almost three-and-one-half thousand million dollars. It was almost as costly to the Confederates. Most of the war was fought in the southern states. And most of the war damage was there.

Hundreds of cities and towns suffered damage. Some -- like Atlanta -- were completely destroyed by Union forces. The damage outside the populated areas was almost as great. Union armies had marched across the south leaving behind them widespread destruction. Farm houses and buildings had been burned; animals and crops seized or destroyed.

VOICE TWO:

Transport in the south was especially hard hit. Union soldiers had destroyed most of the railroads. The few Confederate trains that escaped capture were worn out from heavy use. River boats had been destroyed. And roads and bridges were in terrible condition.

The south had no money to rebuild. Businessmen and rich landowners had put their money in Confederate bonds...now completely worthless. Confederate war debts would never be paid.

There was also the question of the four million former slaves. They were free now. But few could take care of themselves. They needed jobs and training.

VOICE ONE:

The people of the south faced a difficult future. They had been defeated in battle. Their economy was destroyed. In many areas, there was little food and the people were hungry. Farmers could not plant crops, because they had no seed and no animals to break the ground. There was no money for rebuilding.

To add to all these problems, radical Republicans in Washington were demanding severe punishment for the south. Instead of offering aid, they demanded that the government sell the property of southerners to pay Union war debts.

VOICE TWO:

President Andrew Johnson, himself a southerner from Tennessee, oppposed the radical plans. He had his own program of reconstruction for the south.

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VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Leo Scully and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley.

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As Long as It Remains Profitable, Child Trafficking Will Continue

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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 tell about child trafficking and efforts to stop this crime.

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VOICE ONE:

Children can be forced to become soldiers or forced into the sex trade

Child trafficking is the transportation of children for forced labor or sex or other illegal activities. It is internationally recognized as a crime. Political leaders and human rights activists everywhere condemn it. Yet, trafficking in children has become a huge industry affecting every part of the world.

The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates as many as one million children are being trafficked every year. The exact number is hard to find, however, because trafficking is done in secret.

VOICE TWO:

Many VOA reporters around the world have written about this issue recently. In Washington, the State Department released its yearly report on human trafficking earlier this month. The report named fourteen countries for failing to take acceptable steps to fight the problem. They are Bolivia, Burma, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica and Kuwait. Also on the list are North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Togo, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

These countries could face possible restrictions on American aid if they do not take action by the end of September. State Department officials say the goal of the report is not to punish governments. It is to get them to take action to put the traffickers in jail and free the victims.

VOICE ONE:

The State Department says the largest numbers of child trafficking victims are from Asia. Activists, non-governmental organizations, aid groups and world leaders recognize that child trafficking is a widespread problem. But fighting it has been difficult. Organized criminal groups and individual traffickers use many methods to get children.

UNICEF officials in the Philippines told VOA reporter Nancy-Amelia Collins that traffickers often trick parents into selling their children into forced sex or slavery. Children are taken from villages across the country with promises of high-paying jobs in and around the nation’s capital, Manila. But once there, most girls end up in prostitution -- providing sex for money. Boys often end up working as slaves on farms and in fish markets.

VOICE TWO:

Cecilia Flores Oebande heads a private organization in the Philippines called the Visayan Forum Foundation. The group works with the Philippine government and the country’s largest shipping company to help rescue trafficked children. Most victims come to Manila by boat. Visayan Forum has operations in four main ports in the capital. The group says it rescues between twenty and sixty children a week. However, officials believe thousands more are never found.

Miz Oebande said that child trafficking is the most profitable industry in the Philippines after the illegal drug and arms trade.

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VOICE ONE:

Thousands of children in Africa face similar problems. In Ethiopia, for example, officials estimate tens of thousands of poor children are trafficked each year.

Yitna Getachew heads the International Organization for Migration in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. He told VOA reporter Alisha Ryu that Ethiopia is different from other countries. He says organized crime or criminal groups support child trafficking activities in many nations. But in Ethiopia, children are trafficked by individuals.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Getachew says people promise village children an education and a better life in a bigger city. The children are taken from their families and transported to Addis Ababa. But for some, the trip does not stop there.

Officials believe thousands of Ethiopian girls are sent out of the country each year to countries like Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Traffickers can earn as much as eight hundred dollars for each victim.

VOICE ONE:

The International Organization for Migration says most of the child trafficking takes place inside Ethiopia. Many boys are forced to work in Addis Ababa making clothing for more than ten hours a day. They are given little food. If they cannot perform their jobs, they are left to live on the streets. Young girls usually become slaves for families living in the capital. They are often beaten or sexually attacked by the children of their employers.

The Ethiopian government has established a national committee to protect children and arrest traffickers. Non-governmental organizations in Addis Ababa have also joined local police to find young victims and reunite them with their families.

VOICE TWO:

West African nations are also dealing with the problem. Officials in Sierra Leone estimate more than one thousand five hundred children live on the streets of the capital, Freetown. The children’s parents were killed in the civil war. Or the children left home because their families are too poor to care for them. These street children face the dangers of trafficking, prostitution and illegal drugs. In Ivory Coast, soldiers have been accused of sexually attacking girls working as prostitutes. And in Liberia, Eastern European girls have been brought to the country for foreigners who want European prostitutes. In these countries, some of the sex workers are girls as young as ten years old.

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VOICE ONE:

Boys are also victims of human trafficking. Each year, thousands of boys are taken from Pakistan and other poor Muslim countries in Asia and sent to the Middle East. There they are forced to race large animals called camels. They become camel jockeys. Human rights activists say the boys are treated like slaves. They are beaten, starved, often permanently injured and left to live on the streets.

Ansar Burney heads a human rights organization in Pakistan. He told VOA reporter Benjamin Sand that many boys in Pakistan are kidnapped from their parents and secretly transported out of the country. An estimated forty thousand child jockeys ride in camel races in countries like Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

VOICE TWO:

For years, international aid groups have urged Middle Eastern governments to end the use of children in camel races. Most Persian Gulf countries have laws banning child jockeys. However, activists say the rules are not followed at private race grounds. They say there is no real effort to charge violators under existing laws because many influential, powerful people enjoy the sport. UNICEF estimates there are about four thousand child jockeys in the United Arab Emirates alone.

However, the United Arab Emirates has recently signed an agreement with the United Nations to take action against child traffickers. The government has promised to enforce an existing ban on children in camel races. It also has agreed to create two treatment centers for former child jockeys.

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VOICE ONE:

A new program aims to fight child trafficking in Russia. A non-governmental organization based in Switzerland started the program. The group is called Terre D’Homme. Natalia Chuard [pronounced chew-AHRD] is the head. The program is designed to stop the illegal flow of children into Russia from other former Soviet republics.

The program will start by helping one hundred children from Moldova who are working for criminal groups in Moscow. The children are forced to ask strangers for money on the streets of Moscow. Miz Chuard told VOA reporter Lisa McAdams that the program will send the children back to their country and guarantee that they will not become victims again.

VOICE TWO:

Efforts to stop child trafficking have grown as more people learn of the problem. The United Nations, World Trade Organization and private groups operate campaigns to fight this crime. Many people believe these campaigns are starting to have an effect.

The United States government says at least thirty-two countries now permit their citizens to be tried in court for traveling to other countries to have sex with children. Also, more than fifty international travel companies have signed a promise to urge travelers not to take part in such activities.

Still, human rights activists believe the problem will never be solved until buying and selling children is no longer profitable. Human trafficking is an estimated ten thousand million dollar a year industry. Activists argue that it is because people are making money that more pressure, more laws and more public education are needed.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

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Correction: An earlier version of this page referred incorrectly to an official of the International Organization for Migration. Yitna Getachew is a man.

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