Aid Operation Bringing Food for the Hungry in Niger

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I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Development Report.

Thousands of tons of emergency food aid is on its way to Niger. That country faces the greatest need in what the World Food Program calls a severe "hungry season" in West Africa. The crisis is the result of a combination of dry weather, civil conflict and the worst invasion of locusts in fifteen years.

The World Food Program says two and one-half million people in Niger need help. Last week, the United Nations agency announced flights out of Italy and Ivory Coast to bring tons of food to Niamey, the capital. Also, food is arriving by ship in ports in Togo, Ghana and Benin, and being sent to Niger by truck.

Niger is one of the world's poorest countries. About eighty percent of its people depend on farming and raising cattle. But only fifteen percent of the land is good for farming. Now the insect invasion has destroyed crops and cattle grasslands.

The World Food Program has expanded its feeding operation in Niger to more than one million people, three times the number as before. The agency says it warned as early as last November about the growing need for aid. But it says such warnings failed to bring an international reaction until recently.

Recent findings show that about three percent of children under age five in Niger and Mali suffer from severe malnutrition. In some areas the rate is six percent.

The World Food Program says it urgently needs millions of dollars to prevent starvation in West Africa. The agency has appealed for sixteen million dollars in aid for Niger.

On July twenty-sixth the United States announced almost seven million dollars in additional emergency food aid for Niger. The Agency for International Development says about one million of it will go to feed mothers and children in the worst affected areas.

Locusts and a lack of rain have also ruined crops in Mali and Mauritania. The World Food Program says locusts invaded all of Mauritania's agricultural lands.

In Chad, the agency is feeding almost two hundred thousand refugees from the violence in Darfur, in western Sudan. Civil war in Ivory Coast and a political crisis in Togo have also created hungry refugees. And people are struggling to overcome the effects of conflict in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Guinea Bissau.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein.

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Finding Nature in America's National Park System

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week on our show, we explore America's national parks.

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VOICE ONE:

The National Park Service began in nineteen sixteen. That year, three hundred fifty-eight thousand people went to national parks. In two thousand four, the National Park System had two hundred seventy-six million visitors.

Visitors have a wide choice of places. The National Park System has about four hundred protected areas. These include parks, monuments, historic places, rivers, trails, seashores and lakeshores. They cover about thirty four-million hectares.

VOICE TWO:

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone was the first national park in the world. Most of it is in the state of Wyoming, in the West.

Yellowstone was established in eighteen seventy-two. But the idea of protecting areas from development was proposed years earlier. American painter George Catlin offered the idea during the eighteen thirties.

Once Yellowstone opened, it became a place where animals and other natural resources could be protected. Today millions of people visit Yellowstone National Park, most of them during summer.

VOICE ONE:

A businessman from Chicago, Illinois, became the first director of the National Park Service in nineteen sixteen. Stephen Mather was very important to the success of the agency. He retired in nineteen twenty nine. At that time, national parks covered more than two times as much land as they had when the park service began.

Other major expansions took place in the nineteen thirties and around the middle of the twentieth century.

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VOICE TWO:

The National Park Service is part of the United States Department of the Interior. The park service has two main jobs. One is to protect America’s national parks. The other is to help visitors enjoy them. Some people think these two jobs conflict.

They say some of the problems of the parks are the result of too many people visiting them. For example, the many vehicles in national parks cause pollution and road damage.

VOICE ONE:

Some national parks cost money to enter, but not very much. Parks that charge entry fees must share the money with parks that do not. That means they cannot keep all the money for things like repairs and improvements.

VOICE TWO:

Private groups help support the National Park System. So do individuals and businesses that give money to the parks through the National Park Foundation. Congress established this organization in nineteen sixty-seven. The job of the foundation is to gather private support for America's national parks.

There is also the National Parks Conservation Association. This private group wants Congress to provide millions more dollars to improve conditions in parks. The association also tries to protect parks from what it sees as threats. For example, its electronic newsletter recently warned against a proposal for exploratory drilling for oil and gas.

VOICE ONE:

The proposed drilling would take place in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona and Utah. The newsletter said the drilling would harm the red rocks of the Glen Canyon area and could harm its bighorn sheep. The newsletter suggested that people study the issue and offer comments to officials about the proposal.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Another concern is dirty air in some parks, such as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That park is on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. The association points out that sixty percent of people say they do not want to visit parks with air pollution.

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VOICE TWO:

The National Park System includes beautiful areas of nature. Visitors also can see monuments and historic areas like battlefields. They can take part in open-air sports and other activities at the parks.

Now, let us take you to a few of America's national parks. We begin at some islands in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin.

VOICE ONE:

Your tour boat takes you over the waves of Lake Superior to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. The islands are known for their rocky coastlines and, especially, for their lighthouses. The Apostle Islands were named a national lakeshore in nineteen seventy.

The Ojibwe Indians believe they were the first settlers of this area. Some still live there. Over the years they fished, killed game and worked the land. Later, white settlers also fished and farmed on the islands. And they dug and processed stone from the earth.

In the middle and late eighteen hundreds, lighthouses began guiding sailors on the dangerous waters of Lake Superior. Lighthouse keepers operated the signals. Today, three of the lighthouses still guide and warn sailors. But machines do the signaling.

VOICE TWO:

You might like to sail in a small kayak while visiting the Apostle Islands. Swimming and fishing are other activities. Or you might want to explore the thick forests of pine and other trees on the islands. There is a lot of wildlife to see. You might even get a look at a black bear. It probably should be a quick look, though.

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VOICE ONE:

From the Midwest we travel to the middle of the Atlantic coast to a big home in Arlington, Virginia. Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, is near Washington, D.C. General Lee commanded the armies of the South against the Union during the Civil War in the eighteen sixties.

Arlington House is on a hill overlooking the national burial grounds at Arlington Cemetery.

Walking through Arlington House, you can see the room where Lee wrote his letter of resignation from the United States Army. After joining the cause of the South, Lee took command of its armies. After the South lost the war, Robert E. Lee tried to help heal the bitterness felt by both sides.

VOICE TWO:

The portico of the huge home looks like a Greek temple. Tall columns of brick mark the entrance. If you stand on the portico and look east, you can get a fine look at the Potomac River and the Washington skyline.

VOICE ONE:

Now we travel to a very different kind of protected land. In nineteen seventy-two, the government created a new kind of recreation area. It is not a wilderness area. Nor is it a single place. Instead, the Gateway National Recreation Area covers a huge area of New York City and northern New Jersey.

The Gateway National Recreation Area contains more than ten thousand hectares. It offers many activities for people to enjoy in their free time.

VOICE TWO:

You can watch professional sports teams or attend music concerts and plays in busy cities in the Gateway area. Or you can spend peaceful hours on the shores of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Its beaches on the Atlantic Ocean are a thirty-minute boat ride from Manhattan island.

Sandy Hook is a good place to watch birds. The New Jersey Audubon Society established a bird observation center there in two thousand one. Hundreds of different kinds of birds and butterflies have been recorded from the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory.

VOICE ONE:

Grand Canyon

For our last stop, we return to the West to see the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It extends four hundred forty-six kilometers along the Colorado River.

You can stand at the top of the Grand Canyon and look over the edge. The huge opening in the earth is more than one and one-half kilometers deep. People walk down or ride a mule into the canyon.

If you like action, consider a rafting trip on the fast-moving waters of the Colorado River. The Grand Canyon also has wildlife to enjoy.

It is a world in itself. American composer Ferde Grofe captured this world in the "Grand Canyon Suite." We leave you with "Cloud Burst."

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VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Doug Johnson. Please join us again next week for another THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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Susan B. Anthony: She Fought for U.S. Women's Right to Vote

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VOICE ONE:

People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. In the eighteen-fifties, women in the United States began to try to gain the same rights as men. One woman was a leader in the campaign to gain women the right to vote.

I'm Stan Busby.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. Today we tell about a fighter for rights for women, Susan B. Anthony.

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VOICE ONE:

In seventeen seventy-six, a new nation declared its freedom from Britain. The Declaration of Independence was the document written to express the reasons for seeking that freedom. It stated that all men were created equal. It said that all men had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

VOICE TWO:

Not every citizen of the new United States of America had one important right, however. That was the right to vote. At first, the only people permitted to vote in the United States were white men who owned property and could read. By eighteen sixty, most white male citizens over the age of twenty-one had the right to vote. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution gave black male citizens the right to vote. These amendments were passed in eighteen sixty-eight and eighteen seventy.

VOICE ONE:

Women were not really full citizens in America in the eighteen hundreds. They had no economic independence. For example, everything a woman owned when she got married belonged to her husband. If a married woman worked, the money she made belonged to her husband. In addition, women had no political power. They did not have the right to vote. In the eighteen fifties, women organized in an effort to gain voting rights. Their campaign was called the women's suffrage movement. Suffrage means the right to vote. American women sought to gain that right for more than seventy years.

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VOICE TWO:

One of the leaders of the movement was Susan B. Anthony of Massachusetts. Miss Anthony was a teacher. She believed that women needed economic and personal independence. She also believed that there was no hope for social improvement in the United States until women were given the same rights as men. The rights included the right to vote in public elections.

VOICE ONE:

Susan B. Anthony was born in eighteen twenty. Her parents were members of the Quaker religion. She became one too. The Quakers believed that the rights of women should be honored. They were the first religious group where women shared the leadership with men.

VOICE TWO:

As a young woman, Susan had strong beliefs about justice and equality for women and for black people. And she was quick to speak out against what she believed was not just. Many young men wanted to marry her. But she could not consider marrying a man who was not as intelligent as she. She once said: "I can never understand why intelligent girls should want to marry fools just to get married. Many are willing to do so. But I am not. " She did meet some young men who were intelligent. But it always seemed that they expected women to be their servants, not their equals.

VOICE ONE:

Susan B. Anthony became a school teacher in New York state. She realized that women could never become full citizens without some political power. They could never get such power until they got the right to vote. She went from town to town in New York state trying to get women interested in their right to vote. But they did not seem interested. Miss Anthony felt this was because women were not able to do anything for themselves. They had no money, or property of their own. The struggle seemed long and hard. She said:

VOICE TWO:

"As I went from town to town, I understood more and more the evil we must fight. The evil is that women cannot change anything as long as they must depend on men for their very lives. Women cannot change anything until they themselves are independent. They cannot be free until they have the legal right to own property and to keep the money they make by working. "

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VOICE ONE:

Miss Anthony went to every city, town and village in New York state. She organized meetings in schools, churches, and public places. Everywhere she went, she carried pamphlets urging rights for women. She urged the lawmakers of New York to change the state law and give women the right to own property. Her campaign in New York failed at that time. But elsewhere the struggle for women's rights was making progress.

VOICE TWO:

In eighteen fifty-one, Susan B. Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Missus Stanton also supported equal rights for women. Missus Stanton had many children. She needed to remain at home to raise her large family. Miss Anthony, however, was not married. She was free to travel, to speak, and to organize for the women's rights movement. The two women cooperated in leading the fight to gain rights for women in the United States. Their first important success came in eighteen sixty when New York finally approved a married woman's law. For the first time in New York, a married woman could own property. And, she had a right to the money she was paid for work she did. At last, Miss Anthony's campaign was beginning to show results. The campaign spread to other states.

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VOICE ONE:

The end of the American Civil War in eighteen sixty-five freed Negroes from slavery. Susan B. Anthony felt that there was still much to be done to get full freedom -- for Negroes and also for women. She began to campaign for the right for Negroes and women to vote. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was approved in eighteen sixty-eight. It gave Negro men the right to vote. But it did not give women the right to vote.

VOICE TWO:

Susan B. Anthony led efforts to have voting rights for women included in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Her efforts were not successful. Then Miss Anthony decided to test the legal basis of the Fourteenth Amendment. She did this during the presidential election of eighteen seventy-two. On election day, Miss Anthony led a group of women to vote in Rochester, New York. Two weeks later, Miss Anthony was arrested. She was charged with voting although she had no legal right to do so.

VOICE ONE:

Before her trial, Susan B. Anthony traveled around New York state. She spoke to many groups about the injustice of denying women the right to vote. She said:

VOICE TWO:

"Our democratic, republican government is based on the idea that every person shall have a voice and a vote in making the laws and putting them to work. It is we, the people -- all the people -- not just white men or men only, who formed this nation. We formed it to get liberty not just for half of us -- not just for half of our children -- but for all, for women as well as men. "Is the right to vote a necessary right of citizens? To my mind, it is a most important right. Without it, all other rights are nothing. "

VOICE ONE:

Susan B. Anthony was tried and found guilty of violating the law. She was ordered to pay one hundred dollars as a punishment. She said the law was wrong. She refused to pay. Miss Anthony then led efforts to gain voting rights for women through a new amendment to the Constitution. She traveled across the country to campaign for such an amendment until she was seventy-five years old. In nineteen-oh-four, she spoke to a committee of the United States Senate for the last time. The committee was discussing the proposal for an amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote. She knew the victory would come. But she also knew it would not come while she was alive.

VOICE TWO:

Susan B. Anthony died in nineteen-oh-six at the age of eighty-six. Thirteen years later, in nineteen nineteen, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment stated that the right to vote shall not be denied because of a person's sex. The amendment had to be approved by three-fourths of the states. It won final approval on August twenty-sixth, nineteen twenty. It was called the Anthony Amendment, to honor Susan B. Anthony.

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VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Stan Busby.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.

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Traditional Music? Heck No, It's Techno

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

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

We hear some techno music…

Answer a question from a listener about American states called commonwealths …

And report about a theater festival in the state of West Virginia.

Contemporary American Theater Festival

Shepherdstown is the oldest town in the state of West Virginia. Every summer, it presents the newest American plays during the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Barbara Klein tells us more.

BARBARA KLEIN: Historic Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is on a hill near the Potomac River. The first Europeans arrived in the early seventeen hundreds. Shepherd College was established in eighteen seventy-one to teach languages and science. The Contemporary American Theater Festival has taken place at the college every summer since nineteen ninety-one.

Four new plays are being performed this month. Three of them are based on the September eleventh terrorist attacks on America or the war in Iraq.

Carolyn Swift and Lee Sellars in "The God of Hell"

One of the plays is by the famous playwright Sam Shepard. It is called “The God of Hell.” A mysterious stranger arrives at a quiet farm in the state of Wisconsin. He questions the farmer’s wife. He is looking for a man who is hiding in the house. The stranger is a government agent and the man he is looking for once worked on a secret project. This man later becomes the victim of torture.

Visitors at the festival also saw a play called “Sonia Flew” by Melinda Lopez. An American family is celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah in two thousand one. But the recent attack on America is causing tension.

Michael Alperin, left, as Zak and Veronica Cruz as Nina in "Sonia Flew"

The college graduate son, Zak, announces that he is joining the armed forces. But his mother, Sonia, opposes this action. Sonia relives her past as a teenager in Cuba forty years earlier when Fidel Castro came to power. Her parents sent her to America against her wishes. She never saw them again.

“American Tet” by Lydia Stryk (pronounced strike) is about a family living on a military base. Elaine is the wife of a retired American military officer who fought in the Vietnam war more than thirty years earlier. She teaches the husbands and wives of soldiers in Iraq how to deal with Army life. Her own son Danny is a soldier guarding prisoners of war in Iraq. He returns home on leave for a few weeks. But he does not want to return to the war.

The last play in the theater festival is “Father Joy,” by Sheri Wilner. Abigail, a young female sculptor, is struggling to create work that is meaningful. Her former art professor is a famous environmental sculptor. They fall in love. At the same time, Abigail’s father is slowly “disappearing.” This play is not about war. It is about the value of art, the power of time and the nature of love.

Commonwealth or State

HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Van Kien wants to know why the state of Kentucky calls itself a commonwealth.

Four states in the United States call themselves commonwealths. They are Kentucky, Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. These four are no different from the other forty-six states in the country. The structure of government in a commonwealth is the same as in other states.

They are called commonwealths because this is the official name used in their state constitutions. To understand why Kentucky is called a commonwealth, we need to consider United States history after the American Revolution.

Thirteen American colonies had just won their independence from Britain. Representatives from each of the colonies came together to write a federal Constitution in seventeen eighty-seven. Similar constitutions were being written in each state.

The term commonwealth was popular during this period in history. It described a state or nation where the people come together for the common good. The term dates back to Oliver Cromwell of Britain. Cromwell helped lead a series of civil wars against King Charles the First during the sixteen-forties.

The wars led to the trial and execution of the king. The defeat of King Charles the First briefly ended the royal system of government in Britain. It was replaced for several years with a commonwealth ruled by Cromwell.

Lawmakers in the United States used the word years later to describe their states. Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were former colonies. They wrote constitutions after the American Revolutionary War. Kentucky became a state a few years later. It was created out of Virginia in seventeen ninety-two. It is possible the term commonwealth carried over when the Kentucky constitution was written.

Techno Music

Today we present a kind of dance music that we have never talked about before. Electronic music is very popular in the United States as well as around the world. It is also known as “techno." Pat Bodner tells us more.

PAT BODNER: Techno is not produced by traditional musical instruments. It is made using machines like the turntable, drum machine, and bassline sequencer. The people who make techno music are usually called DJ's. They use these machines to make noises that sound like the drum instrument. To this drum beat they can add repeated sounds. Sometimes DJ's include voice recordings.

Techno developed in many different ways around the world.

Kraftwerk

Music experts often say the German group Kraftwerk made some of the first techno music. Here is their song “The Robots.”

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Experts say techno then developed in the American city of Detroit, Michigan. It soon spread all over the world. There are many kinds of techno. Each kind has different influences. Here is an example of “breakbeat” by an American DJ named DJ Abstract.

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Another kind of techno is called “trance”. This example is by the German DJ ATB.

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To listen to more techno, visit Ishkur’s Guide on the Internet. The address is www.ishkur.com/music.

DJ Talvin Singh

We leave you now with an example of “fusion” techno. This is several kinds of traditions mixed together. Here, the DJ Talvin Singh combines Indian music with the techno sounds of “drum and bass.”

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

Our show was written by Dana DeMange, Shelley Gollust and Jill Moss. Caty Weaver was our producer.

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

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Savings Plans Help Ease Pain of College Costs

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I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report.

A college education is an investment in the future. But it can be a costly investment. The College Board estimates that the costs at a four-year public college in the United States increased ten percent this past school year. That was less than the thirteen percent increase the year before, but still much higher than the inflation rate. Public colleges and universities still cost a lot less than private ones.

Financial aid often helps. But financial advisers tell parents to start college savings plans when their child is still very young.

All fifty states and the District of Columbia offer what are called five-twenty-nine plans. These plans are named after the part of the federal tax law that created them in nineteen ninety-six. States use private investment companies to operate most programs.

Every state has its own rules governing five-twenty-nine plans. Some of the plans are free of state taxes. And all are free of federal taxes. However, the government could start to tax withdrawals in two thousand eleven if Congress does not change the law.

Five-twenty-nine plans include investment accounts that increase or decrease in value with the investments they contain. Families must decide how aggressively they want to put money into stocks, bonds or other investments.

Another kind of five-twenty-nine plan lets parents begin to pay for their child’s education long before their child starts college. This kind of savings program is called a prepaid tuition plan. The money goes into an account to pay for an education at a public college or university in the family's home state.

What if a student decides to go to college in another state ... or not go to college at all? Any unused money in a college savings plan can be put into an account for the education of another family member. Or the parents can withdraw the money, but they will lose at least ten percent of the earnings in taxes.

Families that invest in the five-twenty-nine plan of another state may also have to pay taxes. Many plans are open to families outside the state.

There are limits to how much money families can put into five-twenty-nine plans. But there are other ways to save for college while also saving on taxes. One way is for parents to put money into what is called a custodial account for their child until the child becomes an adult.

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

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Major Labor Unions Leave the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

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

Organized labor in America split apart this week. On Monday, two major unions announced that they are cutting ties with the nation's biggest labor group, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. The two unions are the Service Employees International and the Teamsters.

This was supposed to be a week to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. at its convention in Chicago. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. is the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Its president, John Sweeney, says a divided labor movement hurts the hopes of working families for a better life.

John Sweeney

On Friday Mister Sweeney got more bad news, this time from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Its leaders said they are taking their more than one million members out of the federation.

Until Monday, the A.F.L.-C.I.O represented fifty-six unions with thirteen million members. It will lose more than four million of them with the loss of the three unions. Others could follow.

The Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters are part of a group called the Change to Win Coalition. This is a group of seven unions. Labor experts say the coalition has brought more than half the new members into the A.F.L.-C.I.O. in the past ten years.

Andrew Stern is president of the service employees union. Mister Stern says the American economy has changed but the labor movement has not. To survive, he says, unions must expand efforts to organize workers in areas like health care. Mister Stern says the Change to Win Coalition can appeal to more workers than the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

Officials of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. say the dissident unions are trying to seize power.

The dissidents say the federation spends too much on political campaigns. They say it does not spend enough on efforts to stop losses in union membership. They want John Sweeney to retire.

But on Thursday [correction: Wednesday] Mister Sweeney won a fourth term as president. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. this week also approved reform measures including more than twenty million dollars for local organizing efforts.

Fifty years ago, one-third of privately employed workers were in a union. By nineteen eighty-three, it was down to twenty percent. Now it is around half that. Unions were strongest when there were plenty of manufacturing jobs. Service-related jobs are now the big target for labor organizers.

But organized labor has lost much of its political power, traditionally tied to the Democratic Party. Unions have lost one battle after another. They failed to stop the North American Free Trade Agreement. And, just this week, Congress gave final passage to the Central American Free Trade Agreement, though by only two votes.

CAFTA will lower trade barriers for American exports to six countries. Unions expressed concern for American jobs and for Central American labor protections.

To learn more about the labor movement, listen to THIS IS AMERICA on September fifth -- Labor Day in the United States.

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

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Gerunds vs. Infinitives, Part 2

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AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our discussion of gerunds and infinitives with English teacher Lida Baker.

RS: A gerund, remember, is a verb ending in -ing but used as a noun. An infinitive is a verb with the preposition "to" as in to go, to swim, to walk.

AA: Huy Doan in Vietnam asks about the verb "regret." He wants to know if the verb that follows it should be a gerund or an infinitive, and what's the difference? We asked Lida.

LIDA BAKER: "If we have a sentence like 'I regret to inform you that you have not been accepted to the university of your choice,' that's a correct sentence. In contrast to that, if we say something like 'I regret buying that car,' that's also a correct sentence. So what's the difference? OK, with this verb, and with a few other verbs, the choice of infinitive or gerund has to do with which event happened first. If I say 'I regret buying that car,' what happened first?"

AA: "You bought the car."

LIDA BAKER: "I bought the car. And later I regretted it. Now let me give you a clearer example of that: 'I stopped smoking' versus 'I stopped to smoke.'"

RS: "Alright ... "

AA: "Ohhh."

RS: "Right, 'I stopped smoking' means 'I don't smoke anymore' and 'I stopped to smoke' means I stopped ... "

AA: "To go smoke a cigarette out on the street."

RS: "It's very tricky."

LIDA BAKER: "That's very tricky and very, very -- a pitfall for students. Let's see if we can form some kind of a generalization from this, OK? Basically some verbs must have a gerund after them. Some verbs must have an infinitive after them. And some verbs can have both.

"Of the verbs that can have both a gerund and an infinitive after them, sometimes there is no difference in meaning. But sometimes there is a big difference in meaning, as we just saw in the example of 'I stopped smoking/I stopped to smoke.' So those are the four classes of uses of infinitives and gerunds in object position, alright?"

AA: "How do you learn them?"

LIDA BAKER: "The learner first of all has to know that there is such a thing as a gerund, there is such a thing as an infinitive, that they can occur in subject position, that they can occur following the verb in a variety of positions. So the learner first of all needs consciousness-raising. You know, what are the options?"

RS: "So should a student, once he has that overview, get out a list of words and start memorizing?"

LIDA BAKER: "No, that is not the best way to learn infinitives and gerunds -- although, interestingly, when I started teaching many, many, many years ago, typically what textbooks would have would be a list of verbs in alphabetical order. You know, you'd have a list of verbs that are followed by gerunds and a list of verbs that are followed by infinitives. The student would have no choice but just to memorize them.

"Since then, what linguists have learned, or have figured out, is that infinitives and gerunds very often fall into meaning categories. For example, there are a whole bunch of verbs that are generally used with the meaning of communicating something that are all followed by gerunds. I'll give you a couple of examples. To recommend: 'My best friend recommended seeing a doctor.' Or the verb suggest: 'He suggested leaving early in order to avoid the traffic.'

"So, many textbooks nowadays present the verbs which are followed by gerunds versus the verbs that are followed by infinitives in terms of meaning categories, OK? Then there is a category of verbs of choice or intention, that have that meaning, so verbs like choose or decide or refuse. They're followed directly by the infinitive. So: 'He decided to go,' 'He expected to receive a letter from his mother.' The point is that infinitives and gerunds can be learned alphabetically, like you mentioned, but they can also be learned in categories."

AA: Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners and teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. We have the first part of this topic, and all of her previous segments, on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster.

RS: And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

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Everybody's Business: Summer Camps for Future C.E.O.'s

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I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report.

Many young people in America attend camps when they are out of school during the summer. Summer camps can last one week or several weeks. They can be close to home or across the country. They offer a chance to explore different things: nature, sports, music, technology -- even business and economics.

One such program for high school students in the Pacific Northwest is called Washington Business Week. It is organized by the Foundation for Private Enterprise Education, in Olympia, Washington.

The program began in nineteen seventy-five. Officials say forty-five thousand people have attended Washington Business Week. Other states now have similar camps.

Washington Business Week describes itself as a way to learn more about how to plan for the future in an ever-changing economy. Students form an executive management team. They lead an imaginary company to financial success. At least that is where they are supposed to lead the company.

The camp is held at three colleges in Washington State. The high school students live in the college housing. The cost of the camp is almost three hundred dollars, but families can receive financial assistance.

Samuel Dominguez, Mott Hall Middle School, NFTE student and flower retailer, NYC

Some business camps are free. These are for students from poor areas. The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship is an organization based in New York City that supports such camps. It has programs around the United States and its Web site lists international partners in China, Tanzania and a few other countries.

N.F.T.E. says it has served more than one hundred thousand young people since nineteen eighty-seven.

Among other business camps is Camp C.E.O. C.E.O. is chief executive officer. And this camp is for girls only. Camp C.E.O. is supported by the Girl Scouts of America and takes place for one week each summer.

The camp took place last month in Tennessee. The girls worked with successful businesswomen from different industries. The girls learned how to build a business and develop an idea into a product. And, we imagine, they also had some fun.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are all on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. And more information about the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship can be found at nfte.com. I'm Shep O'Neal.

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The Story of Longitude

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VOICE ONE:

This is Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

Far away from land, ships need to find their longitude so they can know where they are.

And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about how people learned an important piece of information necessary for safely sailing on the oceans. It is called longitude.

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VOICE ONE:

On a foggy October night in Seventeen-Oh-Seven, four English navy ships hit rocks in the Atlantic Ocean and sank. Two thousand men drowned. The ships had been sailing in the thick fog for twelve days. There was no sure way to know where they were. The commander of the ships had been worried that they could hit rocks if they were not careful. He asked his navigators for their opinion on their location in the ocean.

The navigators did not really know. They told the commander they thought they were west of a small island near the coast of northwestern France.

They were wrong. Instead, they sailed onto rocks near a small group of islands southwest of England's Atlantic coast. The navigators' lack of knowledge led to the loss of four ships and two-thousand lives.

VOICE TWO:

When people began sailing out of sight of land, sailors did not know how to tell where they were on the open sea. Land travelers can look at a mountain, or a river, or an object that shows them where they are in relation to where they came from. On the ocean, however, there is no sign to tell a sailor where he is.

The most important device for knowing directions on the ocean is a compass. A compass is a device containing a metal object that points toward the magnetic north pole. This shows navigators the direction of north, and therefore also south, east, and west. But sailors need more information to sail safely on the open sea.

VOICE ONE:

Most maps of the world show lines that are not on the Earth's surface. One line is the equator. It is an imaginary line around the widest part of the Earth.

There are similar lines both north and south of the equator. These circles become smaller and smaller toward the north pole and the south pole.

These lines, or circles, are parallel - meaning that they are equally distant from each other at any point around the world. These lines show what is called latitude.

A navigator can know the latitude of his ship by observing the location of stars, where the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, and what time of year it is. With this information he knows where his ship is in relation to the north or south pole and the equator.

VOICE TWO:

Still, there is one more important piece of information necessary for safely sailing the oceans.

For many centuries, scientists, astronomers and inventors searched for a way to tell longitude. The lines of longitude go the other way from latitude lines. They stretch from the North Pole to the South Pole, and back again in great circles of the same size. All of the lines of longitude meet at the top and bottom of the world.

In her book, “Longitude,” writer Dava Sobel tells the story about longitude and how the problem of knowing it was solved.

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VOICE ONE:

For centuries, the great scientists of the world struggled to develop a way to learn longitude. To learn longitude at any place requires knowledge about time. A navigator needs to know what time it is on his ship and also the time at another place of known longitude - at the very same moment.

The Earth takes twenty-four hours to complete one full turn or revolution of three-hundred-sixty degrees. One hour marks one twenty-fourth of a turn, or fifteen degrees. So each hour's time difference between the ship and the starting point marks a ship's progress of fifteen degrees of longitude to the east or west. Those fifteen degrees of longitude mark a distance traveled.

At the equator, where the Earth is widest, fifteen degrees stretches about one-thousand-six-hundred kilometers. North or south of that line, however, the distance value of each degree decreases. One degree of longitude equals four minutes of time all around the world. But in measuring distance, one degree shrinks from about one-hundred-nine kilometers at the Equator to nothing at the North and South poles.

VOICE TWO:

For many centuries, navigators hoped they could find longitude by observing the movement of stars at night. During the day, the sun provided information about the time on a ship, and its direction. However, it did not provide necessary information about the time somewhere else.

In the sixteenth century, one astronomer suggested that navigators could observe the moon as it passed in front of different known stars to tell longitude. But, there was not enough information about the stars to use this method effectively. Astronomers could not tell exactly where the moon would be from one night or day to the next.

Yet it seemed to those seeking to solve the longitude problem that the only solution was in the moon and stars.

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VOICE ONE:

During the Seventeenth Century, English astronomers began a major effort to map the stars and their relationship to the moon as it passed across the sky. Royal Astronomer John Flamsteed worked at this task for forty years. The next Royal Astronomer, Edmund Halley, spent another forty years gathering information about the moon's orbit.

After many years of gathering the necessary information, it became possible to learn longitude by observing the stars and the moon. In Seventeen-Sixty-Six, Royal Astronomer Nevil Maskelyne published the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris.

It contained all the necessary information about the moon and stars that sailors would need to help them learn their longitude.

This new method was not simple. A navigator had to use complex observing instruments to note the position of the moon and stars. Then he had to seek the correct information in the Nautical Almanac about the moon and stars at that time of night or day. The final step in the process was to take the mathematical information from the book, link it to the current information and solve the resulting problem. This took an average of four hours to do.

VOICE TWO:

While scientists were studying the stars and moon to solve the longitude problem, a

John Harrison

man named John Harrison was working on another project. He was trying to build a clock that would help sailors learn longitude.

His task also was difficult and complex. Mister Harrison had to develop a clock that was not affected by the movement of a ship on the ocean or changes in temperature or atmospheric pressure.

John Harrison's first clock H 1

He began developing his clock in Seventeen-Thirty. It took five years to complete. The complex device weighed thirty-four kilograms. Several years later, Mister Harrison built a second clock. It was smaller, but weighed more than the first. Mister Harrison was not satisfied and began working on yet another device.

Twenty years later, he completed a device that was smaller than the first two, and weighed less. But, still Mister Harrison was not satisfied.

Two years later, in Seventeen-Fifty-Seven, he produced a small clock that he could hold in his hand. The clock could tell the correct time in two places, meeting the requirements for learning longitude on the sea.

VOICE ONE:

For many years after Mister Harrison's work was completed, the idea of using a clock to learn longitude was rejected. However, that opinion changed when manufacturers learned how to make better and less costly versions of Mister Harrison's clocks. The clocks became known as chronometers. By Eighteen-Fifteen, five-thousand chronometers were in use on ships sailing the world's oceans. The complex documents and mathematical work were no longer necessary. Almost any sailor could tell what his longitude was by simply looking at a clock. The world had changed.

VOICE TWO:

John Harrison's clocks can be seen today at the Old Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. The first three are still operating, showing the correct time.

To look at them is to see the simple solution to a problem that worried people for many centuries. Today, the solution to the problem is so common that it is difficult to understand that there was a problem at all.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Al Alaby. This is Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.

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SARS Virus No Longer Such a Mystery

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I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Health Report.

SARS is a viral disease

There is progress toward a possible treatment for lung diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Researchers have learned more about how the SARS virus works. It interferes with a system in the body that uses enzymes to control blood pressure and fluid balance. The scientists say the virus attaches to an enzyme known as ACE-two. The virus blocks the enzyme, permitting fluid to enter the lungs.

So the researchers put large amounts of the ACE-two enzyme into the lungs of laboratory mice. The scientists say the ACE-two attached to the virus and prevented it from linking to normal cells. The enzyme helped to protect against lung failure.

A team from Europe and Asia reported the findings in Nature Medicine. Doctor Josef Penninger of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in the Austrian Academy of Sciences was the lead writer of the report.

The discovery could lead to new ways to treat not just SARS but also other diseases that can cause lung failure. These include avian flu and influenza in humans. First, however, more study is needed to know if the enzyme will have the same effect in people as in mice.

The first cases of SARS were discovered in Guangdong province, in southern China, in November of two thousand two. Chinese officials were criticized for delaying or hiding information about the problem. SARS was not recognized as a worldwide threat until March of two thousand three.

The disease spread to twenty-six countries, most of them in the Asia-Pacific area. An estimated eight thousand people had SARS. More then seven hundred seventy of them died, or about ten percent, a relatively high rate.

The World Health Organization warned people not to travel to affected areas. The crisis hurt international travel and business. The W.H.O. says the disease stopped spreading by July of two thousand three. As a result of SARS, the health agency got new powers to act before a government officially announces a crisis.

SARS is a newly discovered member of the coronavirus family. Some coronaviruses are mild by comparison, like those that cause the common cold. But coronaviruses in animals can be more severe.

SARS is believed to have crossed from animals to people. Many questions remain about how the virus first appeared and when it might appear again.

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

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Simple Ways to Protect Water Quality

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I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Farmers are the biggest users of freshwater resources. The Food and Agriculture Organization says agriculture uses seventy percent of all surface water supplies. That is the world average. Without the right measures, agriculture can be a major cause of water pollution.

But solutions do not have to cost much. There are simple methods for farms of any size to reduce or prevent pollution of water supplies. We are going to talk about a few of them.

The first deals with fertilizers and poisons. One way such chemicals can enter the environment is when they are not stored correctly. Stored chemicals can slowly leak into the soil and get into groundwater. To help avoid such problems, chemicals should be kept in structures with a floor made of cement.

Farm animals can also pollute water supplies. Animals like cattle, pigs, sheep and goats are often left to feed on grass in open fields bordered by streams or rivers.

Large animals loosen dirt and rocks as they walk along waterways to drink. Animal waste also enters water supplies. Experts say it is important to keep large farm animals away from water supplies with the use of a fence or barrier.

Instead of leading animals to water, bring the water to them. It does not have to be transported long distances. Farmers can send water through pipes to a watering area for their animals with a pump powered by electricity or fuel. Human-powered treadle pumps are another solution.

Trees, bushes and smaller plants can act as natural barriers along streams and rivers. Bushes provide excellent ground cover when grown near waterways or along the borders of fields. Animals avoid bushes with sharp thorns.

Tree roots provide natural support for soil. Trees planted near waterways help stop soil loss from heavy rains. They also help keep the sun from drying out soil. Other plants and grasses also help protect water quality. They hold soil in place during rains and ease the water flow.

These methods will not solve all water quality problems. But they are good first steps.

This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. You can even learn how to make a treadle pump. Just enter the word treadle, t-r-e-a-d-l-e, in the search box. I'm Barbara Klein.

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True or False: Kids + Too Much TV = Less Ability to Learn?

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VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein. On our program this week, we tell about proposed changes to an important environmental law. We tell about the first look inside a comet in space. We also present some interesting questions about science. But first, does watching television harm a child’s ability to learn?

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VOICE ONE:

All parents want their child to perform well in school. However, three new studies suggest this may not happen if the child watches too much television. The studies were published this month in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

Researchers at Stanford University in California and Johns Hopkins University in Maryland carried out one study. They examined the test scores of three hundred fifty students who were about eight years old.More than seventy percent of these students reported having a television in the room where they sleep. These students performed between seven and nine points lower on math, reading and language tests than students without televisions in their rooms.

VOICE TWO:

Scientists at the University of Washington carried out the second study. They examined information on about one thousand eight hundred students. The researchers found that too much television before age three was linked to lower reading skills by age six. The study also found that six and seven-year-old children had poorer short-term memory if they had watched a lot of television in their earliest years. However, children who watched TV after age three seemed to be better able to sound out and say words.

VOICE ONE:

Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand did the third study. They followed more than one thousand people born around nineteen seventy-two. They found that those who watched the most television between the ages five and fifteen were the least likely to finish high school and college by age twenty-six.

A report critical of the three studies also appeared in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. Deborah Linebarger of the University of Pennsylvania helped write it. She said the studies measured only the time children spent watching television and not what programs they watched. Her research has shown that quality educational programs can help children learn.

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VOICE TWO:

A committee of the United States Congress is considering changes to a law meant to protect plants and animals from disappearing from Earth. Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in nineteen seventy-three. The law provides protection for more than one thousand kinds of plants and animals that are threatened with dying out.

Some groups say it is the strongest and most important wildlife protective legislation in the world. But a number of interest groups say the Endangered Species Act slows progress and economic growth.

VOICE ONE:

Reports say the proposed changes call for stronger requirements for defining species as endangered. The change in description would limit the measures taken to protect them. Another change reportedly being considered would narrow the definition of protected living areas. These areas would be limited to places where a plant or animal now grows or lives. The law currently includes places where the plant or animal could live if its population grew.

VOICE TWO:

Landowners, developers and builders are urging changes in the law. These critics say government and environmental groups unfairly restrict people’s control over their own land. They say the landowner does not receive anything in return for limitations placed to protect wildlife.

Opponents also say the current law has not helped rescue many species. They charge that only one percent of protected species have been removed from the list of endangered wildlife. The rescued species include the Florida manatee, the Florida panther and the American bald eagle.

Some environmental activists agree that the law needs changing. But they say they fear its purpose may be lost in the rewritten legislation. They worry that changes could cause some animals and plants to die out forever.

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VOICE ONE:

American space agency scientists are getting their first look inside a comet. Earlier this month, NASA crashed its Deep Impact spacecraft into a comet called Tempel One. The crash took place more than one hundred thirty million kilometers from Earth.

NASA scientists say the Comet Tempel One may provide information about the development of the Solar System. Comets are made of ice, gas and dust. They are made of particles from the farthest and coldest areas of the Solar System that formed more than four thousand million years old.

NASA is studying the ancient matter inside the comet where material from the formation of the solar system remains generally unchanged.

Deep Impact's instruments show that a huge cloud of fine powdery material was released when the spacecraft hit the nucleus of the comet

Scientists are studying the photographs taken before, during and after the crash. They say a huge cloud of fine powdery material was released when the spacecraft crashed into the comet. The cloud shows that the comet is covered with the powdery material.

VOICE TWO:

Deep Impact was launched into space in January. It traveled more than four hundred thirty million kilometers. The spacecraft was made of two parts. The larger part of the spacecraft was called the “flyby”. It flew near the comet and took pictures of the crash. The smaller part of the spacecraft was called the “impactor”. It separated from the spacecraft and crashed into the comet while traveling at about ten kilometers per second. The crash caused a great explosion of heat and light. The impactor was destroyed deep below the comet’s surface when it crashed.

The spacecraft’s three cameras took more than four thousand images. It will take experts some time to study all of the photographs and information gathered by the spacecraft. Who knows what secrets about the universe this comet will reveal.

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VOICE ONE:

American inventor Thomas Edison started Science magazine one hundred twenty-five years ago. Today, many important researchers publish their findings in Science. The magazine recently asked more than one hundred scientists what they thought were the most important unanswered questions facing science today. The magazine published a list of one hundred twenty-five questions in honor of its one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary.

VOICE TWO:

The magazine chose the top twenty-five questions on the list. Some of these questions have interested people for years, such as: “How and where did life on Earth arise?” And “Are we alone in the universe?” Many scientists believe that we are not alone and that they may have an answer to this question in about twenty-five years. Other questions on the list are: “Why do humans have so few genes?” And “What genetic changes made us human?”

Another important question is: “How much can human lifespan be extended?” Some scientists believe people in the future will live more than one hundred years. Others say a person’s lifespan is more limited. The Population Council says human lifespan has increased by more than fifty percent during the past one hundred years.

VOICE ONE:

The scientists said they chose the top twenty-five questions for several reasons. They chose some questions because of the major effect the answers would have on society. These questions include: “Is an effective vaccine against H.I.V. possible?” “How hot will the world become because of greenhouse gases?” And “What can replace cheap oil – and when?”

You can learn more about the project at Science magazine’s Internet web site. The address is www.sciencemag.org. Click on the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary issue.

VOICE TWO:

Now it is your turn to ask a question about science. If you have a question that we can answer, send an e-mail to special@voanews.com. Please tell us your name and where you live. Or you can mail a question to VOA Special English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A.

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VOICE ONE:

This Science in the News program was written by Jill Moss, Jerilyn Watson, Dana Demange and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. I’m Bob Doughty.

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

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Douglas MacArthur: Born to Be a Soldier

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ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about one of the most unusual and successful American military leaders, General Douglas MacArthur.

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VOICE ONE:

General Douglas MacArthur was a most unusual man. He was extremely intelligent and very demanding. He expected his orders to be followed exactly. Yet he had problems all his life following the orders of those who were his commanders.

Douglas MacArthur was very intelligent and could remember things that others would easily forget. He could design battle plans that left the enemy no choice other than surrender and defeat. His battle plans defeated the enemy and saved as many of his own men as possible.

At other times, he would make simple mistakes that made him appear stupid. He often said things that showed he felt important. Many people made jokes about him. Some of his soldiers sang songs that made fun of him. Others believed he was the best general ever to serve in the United States military.

General Douglas MacArthur was extremely brave in battle, sometimes almost foolish. It often seemed as if he believed he could not be killed. He won every medal and honor the United States can give a soldier. However, at the end of his life, he rejected war and warned American political leaders to stay away from armed conflict.

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VOICE TWO:

Douglas MacArthur was born to be a soldier. His father, Arthur MacArthur, was a hero of the American Civil War and continued to serve in the army after the war ended in eighteen sixty-five. He became the top officer of the army in nineteen-oh-six.

Douglas was born on an Army base near the southern city of Little Rock, Arkansas in January, eighteen eighty. He grew up on army bases where his father served. He said the first sounds he could remember as a child were those of the Army: the sounds of horns, drums and soldiers marching.

VOICE ONE:

There was never any question about what Douglas MacArthur would do with his life. He would join the army. He wanted to enter the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. The Academy is a university that trains officers for the United States Army. School officials rejected him two times before he was accepted. He finished his four years at West Point as the best student in his class.

VOICE TWO:

Douglas MacArthur began his service in the Army by traveling to several Asian countries including Japan, and to the Philippines, then an American territory. He also served at several small bases in the United States. He became a colonel when World War One began. He led troops on very dangerous attacks against the enemy. He won many honors for his bravery and leadership. After that war, he served as head of the West Point Military Academy. He became a general. During the nineteen thirties, President Herbert Hoover appointed him Chief of Staff of the Army, one of the most important jobs in the American military.

In nineteen-thirty-five, General MacArthur was appointed military advisor to the Philippines. He was to help the government build an army for defense purposes as the Philippines began planning for independence. He had retired from the army. He was the chief military advisor to the Philippine military forces when the United States entered World War Two in December, nineteen forty-one.

VOICE ONE:

Japanese aggression in the Pacific developed very quickly. Japanese troops began arriving in the Philippines on December eleventh, nineteen forty-one. The fighting was extremely fierce.

President Roosevelt

The Japanese were defeating the Philippine and American forces. General MacArthur had been recalled to active duty by President . President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave the Philippines to command American forces in the South Pacific. General MacArthur finally agreed to leave for Australia before the Philippines surrendered to Japan. But he made a promise to the Philippine people. He said, "I shall return."

VOICE TWO:

Military history experts continue to study General MacArthur's decisions during World War Two. He won battle after battle in the South Pacific area. Often, he would pass islands with strong enemy forces, cut off their supplies and leave them with no chance to fight. In nineteen forty-four, he returned to the Philippines with an army that defeated the Japanese.

VOICE ONE:

MacArthur was chosen to accept the Japanese surrender in September, nineteen forty-five. He was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, the leader of the occupation forces that would rule Japan. As an American soldier, he had to follow the orders of the government in Washington. But in Japan, General MacArthur ruled like a dictator.

VOICE TWO:

The Japanese expected severe punishment. They saw MacArthur as a very conservative ruler who would make Japan suffer.

MacArthur did charge some Japanese leaders with war crimes. But he did not try to punish the Japanese people.

General MacArthur told the Japanese they must change, both politically and socially. He began with education. Before the war, female children in Japan received little if any education. MacArthur said education would be for everyone, including girls and women.

He said women must have the right to vote in elections, and be permitted to hold political office. He said Japanese women would now have the same legal rights as men. And he said that every person had the same legal protection under the law.

VOICE ONE:

General MacArthur told the Japanese people they were now free to form political parties. And he ended the idea of an official government religion. Religion would be a matter of individual choice. He also said the Japanese government would no longer be controlled by a few powerful people.

MacArthur told Japan it would now be ruled by a parliament that was freely elected by the people. He helped the people of Japan write a new constitution for a democratic form of government.

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VOICE TWO:

On June twenty-fifth, nineteen fifty, North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Within two days, the United States decided to send armed forces to aid South Korea.

Douglas MacArthur was appointed commander of the United Nations forces in South Korea. As the weeks passed, the North Korean army forced the South Korean Army and its allies to retreat to the southern city of Pusan.

Many military experts said South Korea was lost. General MacArthur did not agree. He wanted to attack from the sea, deep behind the enemy troops at the city of Inchon. MacArthur said the enemy would not be prepared. Most other military leaders believed this would be extremely dangerous. American Marines did attack Inchon September fifteenth. It was a complete success. MacArthur had been right.

VOICE ONE:

General MacArthur often disagreed with political leaders. President Truman warned him several times not to disagree with government policy. General MacArthur continued to disagree and told reporters when he did. He often gave orders that were not approved by the president.

President Truman

MacArthur called for a total victory in Korea. He wanted to defeat communism in East Asia. He wanted to bomb Chinese bases in Manchuria and block Chinese ports. President Truman and his military advisers were concerned World War Three would start.

In April, nineteen fifty-one, President Truman replaced MacArthur as head of the U.N. forces in Korea. Douglas MacArthur went home to the United States. It was the first time he had been there in more than fifteen years. He was honored as a returning hero. He was invited to speak before Congress. There was a huge parade to honor him in New York City.

VOICE TWO:

General MacArthur retired again. Some political leaders wanted him to compete for some political office, perhaps for president. Instead, he lived a quiet life with his wife and son. He died at the age of eighty-four on April fifth, nineteen sixty-four.

Today, many Americans have forgotten Douglas MacArthur. However, the people of the Philippines built a statue to honor him for keeping his promise to return. And, many Japanese visitors go to General MacArthur's burial place in Norfolk, Virginia to remember what he did for Japan.

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ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long. I’m Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

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Gains in Aid for Poor Nations Fuel Talk of 'Dutch Disease'

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I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report.

Earlier this month, leaders at the Group of Eight meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, agreed to increase their foreign aid. They promised to double aid for Africa by two thousand ten.

Last year, official development assistance worldwide came to a total of seventy-nine thousand million dollars. In five years, the amount should be around fifty thousand million dollars higher.

These numbers are all estimates from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Richard Manning of the O.E.C.D. says Africa is expected to receive an additional twenty-five thousand million dollars. That will bring the level of aid to the continent to around fifty thousand million dollars in two thousand ten.

But there is a danger when nations receive too much money, too fast. There is even a name for it: "Dutch disease." Finance and Development, a magazine of the International Monetary Fund, defined the term as "too much wealth managed unwisely."

Dutch disease was first observed in the Netherlands in the nineteen sixties. At that time, large amounts of natural gas were discovered under the North Sea. Profits from oil exports flowed into the Dutch economy. This is good, right?

Not necessarily. The foreign exchange value of the Dutch guilder unexpectedly became stronger. As a result, exports other than oil became less competitive. Manufacturing suffered.

The causes of Dutch disease are complex to explain. Simply put, it describes harmful effects when money enters an economy faster than the economy can swallow it. Economists say Dutch disease can also happen with increases in economic aid.

I.M.F. economists Raghu Rajan and Arvind Subramanian released two studies shortly before the Group of Eight conference. The economists say it is difficult to find a relationship, good or bad, between aid and economic growth.

They say that for aid to be more effective in the future, policymakers must deal more seriously with important questions. These involve how the aid is given as well as the competitiveness of the economy. Mister Subramanian says the findings support current efforts "at national and international levels to improve aid effectiveness."

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

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A New 'Old' Look for Historic Montpelier

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

James Madison

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Ever hear of Montpelier? It was the Virginia home of James Madison, the fourth president and the man known as the "Father of the Constitution." He wrote the first plan for unifying the newly established United States. Also, Madison was the one mainly responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution, called the Bill of Rights.

VOICE ONE:

Now a campaign aims to give new life to Montpelier so more people will want to see the historic home. This week on our show, learn about James Madison and Montpelier.

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VOICE TWO:

Top Image: View of Montpelier, summer 2002, which shows the house as it appeared after the 1901 duPont additions. Bottom image: Montpelier as it appears today during the restoration phase.

Montpelier is about one hundred thirty kilometers south of Washington, D.C. It covers more than one thousand hectares in the middle of farm country in Virginia. Montpelier is a short drive from the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is only about forty-five kilometers from Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president.

VOICE ONE:

In late two thousand four, a public campaign opened to establish Montpelier as a national monument to James Madison. The Montpelier Foundation is working to raise sixty million dollars for projects. These include restoration of the Madison home and property. The money will also be used to open a study center at Montpelier, the Center for the Constitution.

Work on the home is in progress. It is expected to be completed in two thousand seven. The home will be reduced from fifty-five rooms to the twenty-two rooms that existed in the eighteen twenties. It will look as it did when James Madison and his wife Dolley lived there. Madison was president from eighteen-oh-nine to eighteen seventeen.

Visitors can take a special "restoration tour" of the home while the work goes on. They can also take guided walks through the surrounding lands.

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VOICE TWO:

James Madison was born in Port Conway, Virginia, on March sixteenth, seventeen fifty-one. He grew up in Orange County, at his family home at Montpelier. James Madison’s grandfather, Ambrose Madison, first settled the land in seventeen twenty-three.

James spent the first nine years of his life in a house built by his grandfather. His father built the main house at Montpelier in about seventeen sixty. The family moved there a short time later.

James Madison was the oldest of twelve children. He was educated at home and at schools in Virginia until he was eighteen years old. Then he attended the College of New Jersey, now called Princeton University. He completed his college education in just two years. He stayed in New Jersey one more year for independent studies.

James Madison returned to Montpelier in seventeen seventy-two. He was not sure what he would do for his future. He thought about becoming a lawyer, a clergyman or a businessman. But he decided against all those jobs.

VOICE ONE:

As Madison thought about his future, Britain and its American colonies were increasingly angry with each other. This period, the early seventeen seventies, was about the time James Madison began his political activism. He served in local government. Then he was elected to Virginia’s first House of Delegates. There he helped to write a new state constitution.

Madison represented Virginia at the Second Continental Congress during the War of Independence. After the war, he attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in seventeen eighty-seven.

Madison thought the United States should have a strong central government. He led efforts in Virginia and other states to approve the proposal. He helped write The Federalist, a series of reports that explained the proposed Constitution.

VOICE TWO:

The Constitution was approved. Madison continued as a leading member of the new federal government. He was elected to the first Congress. He led the fight to approve the first ten amendments to the Constitution -- the Bill of Rights.

A few years later, he and Thomas Jefferson formed a political party. It is known today as the Democratic Party.

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VOICE ONE:

While in Congress, James Madison met a young woman, Dolley Payne Todd. Her husband had died of yellow fever the year before. Madison proposed marriage a short time after they met. They were married on September fifteenth, seventeen ninety-four.

James Madison was a small, quiet man. Dolley Madison liked to organize big parties. They were married forty-one years, until his death. They had no children together. But they raised her son by her first husband.

James Madison left Congress in seventeen ninety-seven. He and Dolley retired to Montpelier. But the retirement did not last long. Thomas Jefferson became president in eighteen-oh-one. Jefferson appointed his friend Madison as secretary of state. Madison served as America’s top diplomat for eight years.

VOICE TWO:

The Jefferson presidency was a period of growth for the new nation. In eighteen-oh-three, the United States agreed to pay France about fifteen million dollars for a huge piece of land. This agreement was called the Louisiana Purchase. It increased the area of the United States by one hundred percent.

There were, however, some problems. Secretary of State Madison could not get France and Britain to honor the rights of Americans on the high seas.

James Madison became president in eighteen-oh-nine. Trade relations with the French and British became his government’s biggest problem.

President Madison served two terms, eight years in all. He led the United States through the War of Eighteen Twelve. British troops invaded the country and burned Washington. The United States won the war in eighteen fifteen.

VOICE ONE:

Two years later, Madison left office at the end of his second term. He and Dolley returned to Montpelier. The former president remained active and interested in politics.

Madison had many slaves at Montpelier. Now, he founded a group that sought to free the slaves in the United States and return them to Africa. He also took part in Virginia’s constitutional convention in eighteen twenty-nine.

James Madison died at Montpelier on June twenty-eighth, eighteen thirty-six. He was eighty-five years old. Dolley Madison died thirteen years later. They are buried on the property.

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VOICE TWO:

The main building at Montpelier started with eight rooms. It had four rooms on the first floor and four on the second.

James Madison made two major additions to the building, which his father had built. He also made other changes. He built private areas for family use. He combined existing rooms to create larger, public spaces for dinners and parties.

VOICE ONE:

Montpelier Gardens

Dolley Madison sold Montpelier to a friend in eighteen forty-four, eight years after her husband died. The property had five other owners before William and Annie duPont bought the land in nineteen-oh-one.

The duPonts enlarged the main building. Their daughter, Marion duPont Scott, added two large tracks for horse racing. The home remained in the duPont family until nineteen eighty-three. Then it was given to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Montpelier opened to the public in nineteen eighty-seven. The Montpelier Foundation accepted responsibility for the property.

VOICE TWO:

Not everything will change at James Madison’s Montpelier. There will still be many buildings, a large flower garden and farmland.

Some trees on the grounds were there when Madison was alive. The James Madison Landmark Forest includes wooded land near the back of the property. It is recognized as the best example of an old-growth forest in central Virginia.

We leave you with music recorded in recent years at Montpelier. One of the instruments, the crystal flute, belonged to President Madison.

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VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by George Grow and Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Our programs are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Please listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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Senate Prepares to Consider Supreme Court Nomination

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

President Bush this week nominated a federal judge to become the one hundred ninth justice of the United States Supreme Court. John Roberts is fifty years old. He grew up in the Midwestern state of Indiana and attended college and law school at Harvard.

He worked as a lawyer in Washington, D.C. He also worked in the administrations of two presidents: the first George Bush and Ronald Reagan. Mister Roberts represented the government in thirty-nine cases before the Supreme Court.

He has been a judge for two years. He serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court is often called the second most powerful after the Supreme Court.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to begin confirmation hearings by early September.

Supreme Court nominees have often been unwilling to answer questions about their legal positions. The American Bar Association advises nominees not to discuss how they might vote on issues likely to come before them.

There are ten Republicans and eight Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. Unless they reject a nominee, the next step is a vote by the full Senate.

President Bush noted that the Senate approved Judge Roberts for his current job without any opposition. The president says his nominee would not "legislate" from the court, but would "strictly apply the Constitution and laws."

Conservative groups generally support the nomination of John Roberts. Liberal groups say they are concerned about some of his positions on civil liberties. These include the right of women to end unwanted pregnancies. He has questioned the Supreme Court decision in nineteen seventy-three that made abortion legal. But more recently he has called the ruling "settled law."

Right now, interest groups are examining his record of legal writings to look for his positions on different issues.

President Bush says he wants Judge Roberts on the court when it begins its next term in October.

Since seventeen eighty-nine, the Senate has considered more than one hundred forty Supreme Court nominees. The Senate Historical Office says twenty-seven have been rejected.

No one seems to question the ability of Judge Roberts to do the job. Most concerns being expressed involve the balance of the nine-member court.

The current Supreme Court, unchanged for eleven years, has often been conservative in its rulings. But Judge Roberts would replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She is retiring after twenty-four terms. She often took moderate positions that made the difference in cases decided by votes of five-to-four.

Justice O'Connor was the first woman on the court. Her retirement will leave the only other woman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A White House spokesman says the president considered a number of qualified women but believes he chose "the best person to fill this position."

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

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Michelle Shocked: So Much to Sing, It Takes Three Records

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

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

Music from Michelle Shocked …

A question from a listener about the Reverend Billy Graham …

And a report about a new owner of a professional basketball team.

New Mystics Owner

HOST: The Women’s National Basketball Association is in its ninth season. One team is excited about a new member of its organization. Faith Lapidus tells us more.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Sheila Johnson recently became the first African-American woman to own a Women’s National Basketball Association team. She shares in the ownership of the Washington Mystics.

Miz Johnson joined an ownership group that bought the team. She also shares in the ownership of two other professional sports teams in Washington, D.C. -- the Washington Wizards men’s basketball team and the Washington Capitals hockey team. Miz Johnson is believed to be the only black woman to have ownership of three professional sports teams. Sheila Johnson will serve as the Mystics president and managing partner. She also will represent the Mystics at board of governor meetings.

The Washington Mystics joined the Women’s National Basketball Association in nineteen ninety-seven. Abe and Irene Pollin founded the team. Mister Pollin also is majority owner of the National Basketball Association’s Washington Wizards. Mister Pollin has known Sheila Johnson for twenty years. He chose her to share in ownership of the team. Mister Pollin says she is the best person to guide the team.

Sheila Johnson is also a very successful businesswoman. She and her former husband, Bob Johnson, started Black Entertainment Television in nineteen eighty. It was the first cable television network aimed at African-American viewers. They sold the company in nineteen ninety-seven.

Miz Johnson is also president of the Washington International Horse Show. She has given millions of dollars to many aid organizations, including schools and programs to support children’s art education.

Sheila Johnson says she is excited to work with the women of the Washington Mystics. She praised their abilities as athletes and as women.

Billy Graham

HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Mannur, India. C.V.S. Prasad wants to know about the Reverend Billy Graham.

Billy Graham is probably the most famous religious leader in America. He is an Evangelistic Christian. He considers the Christian holy book, the Bible, as exact truth and the word of God.

Billy Graham was born in nineteen eighteen. He was raised on a farm in North Carolina. Graham says he was sixteen when he decided that he would surrender his life to Jesus Christ.

He studied to be a Christian church leader at Florida Bible Institute, graduating in nineteen forty. He began giving religious talks on the streets and in small churches before he even became a minister.

Graham also got a degree from Wheaton College in Illinois in nineteen forty-three. That same year he married Ruth Bell, another Wheaton student.

Billy Graham says his one purpose in life is to help people find a personal relationship with God. He says he believes this comes through knowing Christ.

This was his purpose when he launched his first major Christian event in Los Angeles, California in nineteen forty-nine. He called it an Evangelistic Crusade. It brought fame to Mister Graham and to his Christian campaign. Similar events followed the next year in London and New York City. Tens of thousands of people attended to hear Mister Graham speak.

Over the years, Billy Graham has spoken to an estimated two hundred million people around the world. He has gained many awards and honors. Presidents and other important officials have sought his advice. He has appeared at national events, like presidential inaugurations, to lead prayers. Mister Graham also has used television and radio in his evangelical effort. And, he has written books and made movies to spread his message.

Ruth and Billy Graham have five children. One of them, Franklin, is following in his father’s steps as a national Christian leader.

Billy Graham is now eighty-six. He has Parkinson’s disease and prostate cancer. In June, he held another three-day Evangelistic Crusade in a park in New York City. More than seventy thousand people attended each day. He said it would be his last event in the United States. He said he knew he was coming to the end of his ministry and his life.

Michelle Shocked

Not every musician releases three albums at the same time. Singer Michelle Shocked has done just that with her new album set called “Threesome.” Barbara Klein tells us more about this special performer.

BARBARA KLEIN: Michelle Shocked is not your average musician. She plays many kinds of songs, from blues and rock to gospel and country music. She not only sings these songs, but also writes them and plays the guitar. Shocked is also very politically active. She likes to express her beliefs about women’s rights and spirituality. She believes that the power of music can change the world.

Michelle Shocked often tells about herself in her music. In one of the three new albums, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” she sings about the pleasures and pains of love. This song is called “How You Play the Game.”

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Another of the new albums is called “Mexican Standoff.” Here, Shocked mixes musical traditions. She combines the sounds of her native state of Texas with the sounds of Latino music. She even sings in Spanish. Here is one example, “La Cantina el Gato Negro.”

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The third album is called “Got No Strings.” Shocked takes several well known songs from Walt Disney movies and performs them with a country music sound. We leave you now as Michelle Shocked performs “A Dream Is a Wish.”

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

This show was written by Dana Demange, Lawan Davis and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer.

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

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