Public Health Experts Criticize World Bank on Malaria Efforts

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

A year ago, the World Bank announced a new program to control malaria in Africa and Southeast Asia. It launched the Global Strategy and Booster Program in April of two thousand five on Africa Malaria Day.

A boy suffering from severe malaria in Sudan

The five-year plan calls for expanded use of medicines and preventions like bed nets treated with insect poisons. Public health experts say mosquitoes spread as many as five hundred million cases of malaria each year.

Now, thirteen of those experts in North America, Africa and Europe have criticized the World Bank for its history on the disease. Their criticism appeared in the medical publication the Lancet.

They accuse the World Bank of wasting money on ineffective medicines. They say claims of "success stories" in India and Brazil are wrong. And they accuse the bank of false claims about increased spending in Africa in the past five years.

Amir Attaran at the University of Ottawa in Canada and the other experts call on the World Bank to close down its malaria projects. They say the bank should instead finance groups that are better able to save lives quickly.

The Lancet published a reaction from World Bank officials, led by Jean-Louis Sarbib. The officials call the financial reporting accusations untrue. And they use evidence from India to dispute the accusations about treatments.

They say the bank is basing drug treatment policies on differences in the disease within the country. They say a one-size-fits-all policy would not work there.

The statement says malaria control efforts have been successful in parts of Brazil, Eritrea, India and Vietnam. But it also says that the bank's overall efforts in the past did not have enough money or people. The officials say the bank has learned from the past years. They call the new plan "results-driven."

Malaria kills more than one million people each year, mostly young children in Africa. The Abuja declaration of two thousand calls for a fifty percent cut in malaria deaths in Africa by two thousand ten. A Lancet editorial says that if the World Bank is serious about being judged on results, then this is a chance for cost-effective action.

In economic terms, the disease costs an estimated twelve thousand million dollars a year of lost productivity in Africa alone.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

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The Empire State Building Turns 75

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(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. One of the best known buildings in the world is having a birthday. This famous building in New York City is seventy-five years old. And it is our subject this week.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Empire State Building under construction

The ground was broken on January twenty-second, nineteen thirty. Workers dug a hole about seventeen meters deep for the foundation. In March, work began on the steel structure. It grew taller and taller. By November, well ahead of plans, the stonework on the outside of the building was finished.

On May first, nineteen thirty-one, President Herbert Hoover pressed a button in Washington, D.C. On went the lights of, at that time, the world’s tallest building.

The Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan was open for business.

VOICE TWO:

The Empire State Building is just over four hundred forty-three meters tall. That includes the sixty-two meter tall lightening rod on top. There are one hundred three floors.

And if you want to reach them all on foot, just know there are more than one thousand eight hundred sixty stairs. Runners compete in a yearly race to the top. If even the thought of that makes you tired, then you might want to ride an elevator instead. The building has seventy-three of them.

The Empire State Building sits on more than seven thousand square meters of land.

The building has five entrances and six thousand five hundred windows.

And, last but not least, it has two hundred fifty workers who take care of the building.

VOICE ONE:

The Empire State Building holds a special place in the hearts of Americans. For one thing, it was the tallest building in the world for more than forty years.

But the Empire State Building is also a big player in the cultural history of New York City. One reason is its light shows. The first took place in nineteen thirty-two. A searchlight was lit on top of the building to honor the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as president. New York is known as the Empire State, and Roosevelt was its governor.

In nineteen fifty-six, four large searchlights were added to the building. They were called Freedom Lights. They were meant as a way to send a message of welcome and hope to immigrants. The Freedom Lights were also meant to signal the hopes of Americans for peace. People at that time worried about the threat from the Soviet Union.

VOICE TWO:

More lights were added in nineteen sixty-four. But a big surprise came in nineteen seventy-six. The Empire State Building shined in red, white and blue. The colors of the flag celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of American independence.

Ever since then, the owners of the Empire State Building have observed holidays and special events with color. For example, on February fourteenth, the building glows red for Valentine’s Day, the day for love.

On Saint Patrick’s Day, March seventeenth, the Empire State Building turns green to honor the patron saint of Ireland. And on April twenty-second, it shines a combination of green and blue to mark Earth Day.

There are also special colors to mark the independence days of several countries and to honor campaigns against diseases. There are even light shows to celebrate the birthdays of cartoon characters like Popeye and Betty Boop.

Sometimes the building goes dark as a remembrance, as it did in two thousand four after the death of former President Ronald Reagan.

VOICE ONE:

Even if you have never visited New York, there is a good chance you have seen the Empire State Building. It has been photographed countless times. It has even played parts in movies.

1933 film King Kong

In nineteen thirty-three the Empire State Building was one of the stars of “King Kong.” A huge ape climbs to the top, fighting off airplanes and holding in his hand a screaming woman, played by Fay Wray.

//ACT 1 -- King Kong//

“Attention all stations. King Kong is going west. He is making for the Empire State Building. Standby for further reports.”

“If he goes up there what can we do?”

“We won’t be able to get near him.”

"Kong is climbing the Empire State Building. He is still carrying Ann Darrow. That is all.”

“That licks us.”

“There’s one thing we haven’t thought of.”

“What?”

“Airplanes. If he should put Ann down and they can fly close enough to pick him off without hitting her…”

“You’re right! Planes! Call the field…”

“Oh boy, what a story…”

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen fifty-seven the Empire State Building appeared in the love story "An Affair to Remember." Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr play a man and a woman who meet and fall in love on a ship. They are looking at the New York City skyline from the ship when they plan a future meeting.

//ACT 2-- An Affair to Remember//

“Nicky…”

“Oh, I was so worried that you…”

“I didn’t have time to get dressed. I didn’t get to bed until five…”

“I didn’t sleep at all…”

“Oh…Now listen carefully…”

“Yes”

“…if everything goes right,…”

“Yes”

“…and I mean for both of us, in six months…here I started to write it out…”

“Should I read it now?”

“Mmm-hmm”

“Alright… ‘Darling’--- that’s me?”

“Mmm-hmm…”

“ ‘You have a date my beloved, July the first at five o’clock.’ But you don’t say where…”

“Well you name the place and I’ll obey.”

“I don’t know…I can’t think…How about the top of the Empire State Building?”

“Oh, yes, that’s perfect. It’s the nearest thing to heaven we have in New York.”

“The 102^nd floor…and don’t forget to take the elevator…”

“No, I won’t…”

VOICE ONE:

He goes there, but she has an accident that prevents her from meeting him. He waits and wonders what has happened to her.

VOICE TWO:

More recently, in "Sleepless in Seattle," two people in love agree to meet at the Observation Deck on Valentine’s Day. Both do arrive, but one is a little later. They almost miss each other.

The makers of that film made a small mistake. They should have lit the tower in red.

In the movie "Independence Day" the Empire State Building is destroyed by creatures from space.

But there is one motion picture in which the main character IS the Empire State Building. The Pop artist Andy Warhol made the nineteen sixty-four movie “Empire.”

He and a crew set up a camera in an office high up in another tall building. They filmed the Empire State Building through an evening into night. The camera never moved. The result is a silent film eight hours long in black-and-white.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In the early nineteen seventies, the Empire State Building lost its place as the tallest building in New York. People in the city now had the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center to look up to.

Tragically that all changed the morning of September eleventh, two thousand one. Members of al-Qaida crashed hijacked passenger airplanes into the Twin Towers and destroyed them. The Empire State Building again became the city's tallest building.

The Empire State Building survived a plane crash. In nineteen forty-five, a large military plane hit the building at the seventy-ninth floor. The pilot had gotten lost in foggy conditions.

The pilot and two passengers were killed. The crash also killed eleven people in the building. Yet a woman survived a drop of seventy-five floors in an elevator after the cable lines broke as a result of the crash.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Many people say the Empire State Building looks like a giant pencil. They may be right.

John Jacob Raskob was the business leader mainly responsible for the Empire State Building. The story goes that Raskob held up a pencil in front of the architects and asked them how high they could build it.

VOICE ONE:

Raskob chose the architects at Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates to design the building. They planned for the top of the building to serve as a port for airships. But that never happened. The winds were too strong at that height.

Still, the height of the building was useful for another purpose. NBC, the National Broadcasting Company, placed a television tower on the building in nineteen fifty. It was the most powerful transmitter in the world. Antennas on the Empire State Building still serve many communication needs.

VOICE TWO:

More than one hundred million people have visited the Empire State Building since it opened in May of nineteen thirty-one. It is very popular with people who visit New York City.

But the building never became as popular with large companies as the developers had hoped. Today the building has about nine hundred tenants. Small businesses are the main occupants.

The Empire State Building opened during the Great Depression. At that time few people were willing or able to pay for office space there.

But the depression did cut in half the expected cost of putting up the building. The structure alone cost about twenty-five million dollars. The cost of the land brought the price to more than forty million.

VOICE ONE:

The Web site of the Empire State Building offers a virtual tour and use of cameras on top of the building to see New York City. The Web site is e-s-b-n-y-c dot com. Again, the Empire State Building is on the Internet at esbnyc.com.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. Read and listen to our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. Now we leave you with music that George Gershwin wrote for the opening of the Empire State Building in nineteen thirty-one. Here is "Rhapsody in Rivets."

(MUSIC)

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Country and Western Singer Hank Williams Wrote Songs About Love and Heartbreak

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(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

(THEME)

Every week at this time, we tell you a story about people who played a part in the history of the United States. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I tell the story of country and western singer and songwriter, Hank Williams.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

That was the record Hank Williams made when he first tried to interest recording companies in his music. None of the companies liked it at the time. But a few years later, the high sharp voice of Hank Williams would cut like a knife through the music world. When he sang his songs, people listened. They are still listening, long after his death.

VOICE ONE:

Hank Williams was born in nineteen twenty-three on a small farm near Mount Olive, Alabama. Like most people at that time in the southern United States, the Williams family was poor. Hank's father could not work. He had been injured in World War One. He spent many years in a hospital when Hank was a boy.

The Williams family did not own many things. But it always had music. Hank sang in church. When he was eight years old, he got an old guitar and taught himself to play. From then on, music would be the most important thing in his life.

VOICE TWO:

By the time Hank was fourteen, he had already put together his own group of musicians. They played at dances and parties. They also played at a small local radio station. They were known as "Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys."

For more than ten years, Hank remained popular locally, but wasunknown nationally. Then, in nineteen forty-nine, he recorded his first major hit record. The song was "Lovesick Blues."

(MUSIC)

Hank Williams and his group performed "Lovesick Blues" on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry house in Nashville, Tennessee. People in the theater would not let him stop singing. They made him sing the song six times. After years of hard work, Hank Williams had become a star.

VOICE ONE:

Hank wrote many songs in the years that followed. Singers are still recording them today. They may sing the songs in the country and western style -- the way Hank wrote them. Or they may sing them in other popular styles. Either way, the songs will always be his.

Hank Williams wrote both happy songs and sad songs. But the sad songs are remembered best.

Hank Williams

When Hank sang a sad song, those who listened knew it was about something that had happened to him. Somehow, he was able to share his feelings in his music. One of the most famous of these sad songs is "Your Cheatin' Heart." One music expert said: "Your Cheatin' Heart" is so sad, it sounds like a judge sentencing somebody to a punishment worse than death itself.”

(MUSIC)

"Your Cheatin' Heart" was written in the early nineteen fifties. It has been recorded by more than fifty singers and groups in almost every style of popular music.

VOICE TWO:

Many years after Hank Williams' death, new fans of his music have asked why he could put so much of his life into his songs. There is no easy answer to that question.

Hank Williams had many problems during his life. He and his wife Audrey did not have a happy marriage. Many of his songs seemed to ask: “Why can't we make this marriage work?” Many people knew that when Hank sang this song, "Cold Cold Heart", he was singing about his wife and their problems. Those who had similar problems felt that Hank was singing about them, too.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Hank Williams drank too much alcohol. Those who knew Hank Williams say he did not have the emotional strength to deal with his problems. They say he often felt he had no control over his life.

Everything seemed to be moving too fast. He could not stop. And he could not escape. He had money and fame. But they did not cure his loneliness, his drinking, or his marriage problems.

Hank was always surrounded by people, especially after he became famous. None, however, could break through the terrible sadness that seemed to follow him everywhere. One song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", expresses his feelings of loneliness.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

When Hank Williams began to record his songs, country and western music was not popular with most Americans. It was the music of the poor farming areas of the South. However, because Hank's songs told of real-life troubles with such great emotion, something unusual began to happen to his music.

Radio stations that had never played country and western music began to play Hank Williams' songs. Famous recording stars who never sang country and western music began recording songs written by Hank Williams. He had created a collection of music that stretched far past himself and his times.

Hank Williams' life and career were brief. He died on New Year's Day, nineteen fifty-three. He was twenty-nine years old.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Larry West and Tony Riggs. PEOPLE IN AMERICA was written by Paul Thompson.

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

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Announcer: Now, the V.O.A. Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES.

(MUSIC)

Our story today is called, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. " It was written by Ambrose Bierce.

The occurrence, or event, in our story takes place during the Civil War of the eighteen sixties between the American states of the north and the states of the south. A group of soldiers is hanging a southern farm owner for trying to stop northern military movements across the Owl Creek Bridge.

In the last moments of his life, the southern prisoner dreams he has escaped. And everything that happens in the story is really the images in the prisoner's mind just before he dies.

Here is Shep O’Neal with our story.

Narrator: A man stood on a railroad bridge in Alabama looking down into the swift waters of the Owl Creek River below. The man's hands were tied behind his back. There was a rope around his neck. The rope was tied to part of the bridge above him. Three soldiers of the northern army stood near the prisoner, waiting for their captain's orders to hang him.

Everybody was ready. The prisoner stood quietly. His eyes were not covered. He looked down and saw the water under the bridge. Now, he closed his eyes.

He wanted his last thoughts to be of his wife and children. But, as he tried to think of them, he heard sounds -- again and again. The sounds were soft. But they got louder and louder and started to hurt his ears. The pain was strong. He wanted to shout. But the sounds he heard were just those of the river running swiftly under the bridge.

The prisoner quickly opened his eyes and looked at the water. "If I could only free my hands," he thought. "Then I could get the rope off my neck and jump into the river. I could swim under the water and escape the fire of their guns. I could reach the other side of the river and get home through the forest. My house is outside of their military area, and my wife and children are safe there. I would be, too…"

While these thoughts raced through the prisoner's mind, the captain gave the soldiers the order to hang him. A soldier quickly obeyed. He made the rope firm around the prisoner's neck. Then he dropped him through a hole in the bridge.

As the prisoner fell, everything seemed black and empty. But then he felt a sharp pain in his neck and could not breathe. There were terrible pains running from his neck down through his body, his arms and his legs. He could not think. He could only feel, a feeling of living in a world of pain.

Then, suddenly, he heard a noise…something falling into the water. There was a big sound in his ears. Everything around him was cold and dark. Now he could think. He believed the rope had broken and that he was in the river.

But the rope was still around his neck, and his hands were tied. He thought: "How funny. How funny to die of hanging at the bottom of a river!" Then he felt his body moving up to the top of the water.

The prisoner did not know what he was doing. But his hands reached the rope on his neck and tore it off.

Now he felt the most violent pain he had ever known. He wanted to put the rope back on his neck. He tried but could not. His hands beat the water and pushed him up to the top. His head came out of the water. The light of the sun hurt his eyes. His mouth opened, and he swallowed air. It was too much for his lungs. He blew out the air with a scream.

Now the prisoner could think more clearly. All his senses had returned. They were even sharper than before. He heard sounds he never heard before -- that no man's ears ever heard -- the flying wings of small insects, the movement of a fish. His eyes saw more than just the trees along the river. They saw every leaf on the trees. And they saw the thin lines in the leaves.

And he saw the bridge, with the wall at one end. He saw the soldiers and the captain on the bridge. They shouted, and they pointed at him. They looked like giant monsters. As he looked, he heard gunfire. Something hit the water near his head. Now there was a second shot. He saw one soldier shooting at him.

He knew he had to get to the forest and escape. He heard an officer call to the other soldiers to shoot.

The prisoner went down into the river, deep, as far as he could. The water made a great noise in his ears, but he heard the shots.

As he came up to the top again, he saw the bullets hit the water. Some of them touched his face and hands.

One even fell into the top of his shirt. He felt the heat of the bullet on his back.

When his head came out of the water for air, he saw that he was farther away from the soldiers. And he began swimming strongly.

As he swam, the soldiers fired their rifles. Then they fired their cannon at him. But nothing hit him. Then, suddenly, he could not swim. He was caught in a whirlpool which kept turning him around and around. This was the end, he thought. Then, just as suddenly as it had caught him, the whirlpool lifted him and threw him out of the river. He was on land!

He kissed the ground. He looked around him. There was a pink light in the air. The wind seemed to make music as it blew through the trees. He wanted to stay there. But the cannon fired again, and he heard the bullets above his head. He got up and ran into the forest. At last, he found a road toward his house. It was a wide, straight road. Yet it looked like a road that never had any travelers on it. No farms. No houses on its sides, only tall black trees.

In the tall black trees, the prisoner heard strange voices. Some of them spoke in words that he could not understand.

His neck began to hurt. When he touched it, it felt very large. His eyes hurt so much that he could not close them. His feet moved, but he could not feel the road.

As he walked, he was in a kind of sleep. Now, half-awake, half asleep, he found himself at the door of his house. His lovely wife ran to him. Ah, at last.

He put his arms about his beautiful wife. And just then, he felt a terrible pain in the back of his neck. All around him there was a great white light and the sound of a cannon. And then…then…darkness and silence.

The prisoner was dead. His neck was broken. His body hung at the end of a rope. It kept swinging from side to side. Swinging gently under a hole in Owl Creek Bridge.

(MUSIC)

Announcer: You have just heard the American story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." It was written by Ambrose Bierce. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal.

Listen again next week at this same time for another American story told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Faith Lapidus.

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Politics and Bullets: Facing Maoist Rebels in Nepal and India

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

Mao Zedong led the revolutionary army that established the People's Republic of China in nineteen forty-nine. Mao led Communist China until he died in nineteen seventy-six. Today, governments in two countries that border on China face rebels following in his name.

India's Maoist rebellion goes back almost forty years. The conflict has intensified. Rebels are now active in areas of southern, eastern and central India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently described it as the biggest threat to internal security since independence.

More than six thousand people have been killed in violence between rebels and government forces in the last twenty years. The Maoists say they are fighting for the poor and unemployed against wealthy farmers and landowners.

Government officials in New Delhi are urging state governments to form local resistance groups. Human rights activists have criticized some of the measures being taken to deal with the rebellion.

At the same time, the Indian government has been working to return democratic rule across the border in Nepal. Nepal is a small country surrounded by India and China. Rebels have been trying to overthrow the government of Nepal for ten years. At least eleven thousand people have been killed.

The rebels are now cooperating with seven political parties supporting a democracy movement. King Gyanendra seized full control of the government in February of last year. The opposition alliance organized protests that began earlier this month and resulted in deadly clashes with security forces.

Almost three weeks of demonstrations ended with a victory Monday for the opposition. King Gyanendra announced that Parliament would meet for the first time in four years. He was, in effect, returning power to elected political leaders.

Nepalese shout for joy as they take to the streets on the outskirts of Katmandu to celebrate Tuesday, April 25, 2006, following an announcement by the King Gyanendra to reinstate Parliament

At first, the rebels rejected the king’s move. They said it was a trick to let him hold onto power. But on Thursday, Prachanda the Maoist rebel leader announced a three-month ceasefire. And King Gyanendra named an eighty-four-year-old politician, Girija Prasad Koirala, as the new prime minister.

Mister Koirala was too sick to attend the opening of Parliament on Friday. But in a written statement he proposed a ceasefire, talks with the rebels and elections for a special assembly to rewrite Nepal's constitution. Parliament prepared for debate on Sunday.

And American Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher prepared to visit Nepal next week. He says the United States might renew military aid -- if the army accepts a full return to democracy.

Mister Boucher says the political parties should decide on the king’s future relationship with the government. And he says the United States would like to see the Maoists stop the violence and play a part in governing Nepal.

IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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Investigating Crimes the Scientific Way: Secrets of Forensic Medicine

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(MUSIC)

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

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

We play music by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs…

Answer a question about professional wrestling…

And report about a special kind of medical science known as forensics.

Forensic Science

HOST:

When life unexpectedly ends, people want to know the cause. Forensic science experts can provide answers. Forensics is a special kind of medical science that explains how people die. A show about forensic science is at the National Library of Medicine near Washington, D.C. Faith Lapidus has more.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Part of an exhibit on forensic science at the National Library of Medicine

The show is called “Visible Proofs — Forensic Views of the Body”. It presents the history of forensic medicine. For centuries, medical professionals have worked to develop ways to help explain death. Such methods are also used to solve crimes, protect the innocent, or prove human rights violations.

Among the objects in the show are the medical tools used in the autopsy of President Abraham Lincoln. An autopsy is a detailed medical examination of a dead body to discover the cause of death. Autopsy was among the first scientific methods used by experts to help solve crimes. President Lincoln’s autopsy in eighteen sixty-five confirmed his death from a gunshot wound.

The show at the National Library of Medicine also includes several small models of crime areas. These are part of a collection called the “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.” Frances Glessner Lee, a wealthy woman living in Boston, Massachusetts, created the collection in the nineteen forties and fifties.

Missus Lee was interested in forensic medicine and scientific crime investigation. In nineteen thirty-six, she helped establish a school for legal medicine at Harvard University. She later gave her collection to the university to be used as teaching tools. Students training to become crime investigators used the models to learn about evidence.

Michael Sappol organized the show “Visible Proofs — Forensic Views of the Body”. He is a cultural history expert on death and medicine. Mister Sappol says people naturally withdraw in the presence of death. When a life unexpectedly ends, people need answers and seek the cause. Mister Sappol says the show is meant to help people better understand death.

“Visible Proofs” continues at the National Library of Medicine through February, two thousand eight. The Library is on the grounds of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

To learn more about the history of forensic medicine, listen on Wednesday to EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Professional Wrestling

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from India. P.K. Visvesvaran asks about World Wrestling Entertainment and how much the performers are paid.

World Wrestling Entertainment is the largest professional wrestling

Pro wrestlers performing

organization in North America. It was called World Wrestling Federation until it changed its name because of a legal dispute. Its more than one hundred wrestlers fight each other in competitive matches that are written and practiced before they are performed.

Professional wrestlers are athletes but act as entertainers. They are not seeking athletic records, but instead want to excite an audience. To do this, they use unusual names and wear special clothing during wrestling matches. These wrestlers include the Stone Cold Stunner and the Undertaker.

Most professional wrestling matches are between two men or two women. They fight inside an area called a ring that is separated from the audience by ropes. Each match continues until one wrestler forces the other’s shoulders to the floor and holds them there for a count of three. Most World Wrestling Entertainment matches continue for only about four to seven minutes.

An organization official called a promoter decides before the match who will win. But who wins and who loses is not the important thing in professional wrestling. The important thing is that the audience enjoys the pretend fight. Some wrestlers rarely win, but continue to be popular.

Not all wrestling matches are between two people. Some are called tag team matches and involve teams of two, three or four wrestlers. Another kind of match is called a battle royal. It involves thirty to sixty wrestlers competing against each other. A wrestler loses when he or she is thrown out of the ring. The winner is the last wrestler still standing.

Most professional wrestlers attend special schools to learn the skills they will need. Not all the students succeed. But those who do can earn a lot of money. We found a Web site that claims to show recent yearly earnings of sixty-five W.W.E. wrestlers. The wrestlers earned from forty-one thousand dollars to more than two million dollars a year.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

HOST:

“Show Your Bones” is the newest album from a musical group with an unusual name, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The energetic music made by these three rock musicians is becoming very popular in America. Steve Ember tells us more.

STEVE EMBER:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs in concert

A singer, guitar player and drummer make up the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Their rock sound is inventive, unusual, and full of personality. Their music is considered an example of “indie” rock. Indie musicians like to protect their independence or artistic freedom. One way to do this is to avoid using major recording companies.

Lead singer Karen O is known for wearing wild clothing and hairstyles while performing. Sometimes she even pours beer over herself and the audience. Imagine Karen O dancing around on stage as you listen to her sing this song, “Phenomena”.

(MUSIC)

The words to the songs on “Show Your Bones” are poetic and also a little strange. It is not always clear what the songs mean. In this song called “The Sweets”, Karen O describes colors and the motion of water. She wonders about meeting someone again.

(MUSIC)

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs started singing in New York City. But Karen O has moved to Los Angeles, California. She says she likes flying between the two cities and the band is now “bi-coastal.” Karen O also said this album was the most difficult to make. The band was trying to find a different sound from their earlier albums.

Their work seems to have been worth the effort. Critics say “Show Your Bones” might be one of the best albums of the year.

We leave you now with another Yeah Yeah Yeahs song. It is called “Cheated Hearts.”

(MUSIC)

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

Our show was written by Dana Demange, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer.

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

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Protecting an Investment With Stock Options

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

Stock options are agreements to trade shares of a stock at a set price by a set date

Stock options are a way to profit from changes in the price of a stock without the need to buy the shares immediately. Stock options are agreements to trade shares of a stock at a set price by a set date.

An option comes with a strike price. This is the agreed price at which the stock will be traded. Options also have an expiration date. After that date the agreement is cancelled.

An option holder buys a contract. It can be a contract to purchase or a contract to sell shares of a stock in the future.

Option holders commonly buy contracts to protect the value of a stock investment. Say an investor has recently bought stock at ten dollars a share. The investor worries that the price will drop in the next three months.

To protect that investment, the investor can buy an option to sell the shares at ten dollars each.

That way, if the stock price drops to five dollars, the investor can exercise the option and sell the shares at ten dollars. The investor loses only the cost of the option contract. But the option has served as insurance against a loss.

What would have happened had the price of the stock gone up? Say it jumps to fifteen dollars. The option gives the holder the right to sell at ten, but now that is below the market price.

In this case the investor would not exercise the option. The contract expires and becomes worthless. But who cares? The stock is now worth fifty percent more than what it was.

Some investors buy options because they think a stock price will rise. An option to buy a stock at today’s price could be valuable if the price goes up before the option expires.

So far we have heard about option holders. Option writers are the ones who sell the contracts on exchanges. The price paid is called a premium. It usually represents the difference between the strike price and the market price of the stock.

Options trading is organized by a clearinghouse. A clearinghouse settles trades between holders and writers and credits profits or losses. The biggest clearinghouse is the Options Clearing Corporation in the United States.

Next week, we will discuss why stock options are in the news and how they will affect American business earnings this year.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. And to send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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Some American Colleges Drop the SAT and ACT as Required Tests for Admission

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This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report.

The United States has more than three thousand colleges and universities. Most require high school students to take an admissions test, either the SAT or the ACT. But some have reconsidered.

The activist organization FairTest opposes the requirements. It lists more than seven hundred individual schools now where testing is optional. Students can provide their results, but only if they want to. The list is on the Web site fairtest.org.

A number of the schools are related as campuses within university systems. Yet in some cases, it appears that other campuses do still require testing.

Testing critics say one reason to drop the requirement is that preparing for the tests takes away too much time from schoolwork, and life. They say the requirement places too much importance on one test and causes too much stress for students.

Admissions officers at other schools, however, say test scores are important but are only one of the things they consider.

Still, critics question just how much the tests really show about a student. They say higher scores in some cases might only show that a student's family had the money for costly test-preparation classes.

One of the first colleges to drop the requirement was Bates College in Maine in nineteen eighty-four. Over the next twenty years, it compared students who provided their test scores and those who did not. The study found that grades and graduation rates were the same.

Bates College also found an increase in the number of women, minorities and poor students who applied. The same was true of students with learning disabilities and international students.

Porter Hall on the Mount Holyoke campus

Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts ended its requirement in two thousand one. Mount Holyoke is a small, highly rated liberal arts college for women. Recently its president, Joanne Creighton, wrote in the Los Angeles Times about the effects of making the SAT optional.

Like Bates, Mount Holyoke has compared student performance. Joanne Creighton says the study has found "no meaningful difference."

She says the SAT might have made sense in the nineteen twenties when it was developed. College then was only for a relatively limited group of people. But she says American students and schools are too different today for what she calls a "one-size-fits-all test."

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal.

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Wilson Builds Public Support for the League of Nations

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

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Woodrow Wilson in 1919

After the end of World War One, President Woodrow Wilson sought national support for his idea of a League of Nations. He took his appeal directly to the American people in the summer of nineteen-nineteen. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Tony Riggs and I continue the story of Wilson's campaign.

VOICE TWO:

The plan for the League of Nations was part of the peace treaty that ended World War One. By law, the United States Senate would have to vote on the treaty. President Wilson believed the Senate would have to approve it if the American people demanded it. So he went to the people for support.

For almost a month, Wilson traveled across America. He stopped in many places to speak about the need for the League of Nations. He said the league was the only hope for world peace. It was the only way to prevent another world war.

Wilson's health grew worse during the long journey across the country. He became increasingly weak and suffered from severe headaches. In Witchita, Kansas, he had a small stroke. A blood vessel burst inside his brain. He was forced to return to Washington.

VOICE ONE:

For a few days, President Wilson's condition improved. Then, his wife found him lying unconscious on the floor of his bedroom in the White House. Wilson had lost all feeling in the left side of his body. He was near death.

The president's advisers kept his condition secret from almost everyone. They told reporters only that Wilson was suffering from a nervous breakdown.

For the next few days, the medical reports from the White House were always the same. They said Mr. Wilson's condition had not changed.

People began to wonder. Were they being told the truth. Some people began to believe that the president was, in fact, dead. Vice President Thomas Marshall was worried. If the president died or could not govern, then he -- Marshall -- would become president. But even Vice President Marshall could get no information from Wilson's doctors.

VOICE TWO:

After several weeks, the president seemed to get a little stronger. He was still very weak. He could not work, except to sign several bills. This simple act took most of his strength.

Wilson's wife Edith guarded her husband closely. She alone decided who could see him. She alone decided what information he could receive. All letters and messages to Woodrow Wilson were given first to Edith Wilson. She decided if they were important enough for him to see. Most, she decided, were not. She also prevented members of the cabinet and other government officials from communicating with him directly.

Misses Wilson's actions made many people suspect that she -- not her husband -- was governing the country. Some spoke of her as the nation's first woman president.

VOICE ONE:

There was one issue Misses Wilson did discuss with her husband: the League of Nations.

The Senate was completing debate on the Treaty of Versailles. That was the World War One peace agreement that contained Wilson's plan for the league. It seemed clear the Senate would reject the treaty. Too many Senators feared the United States would lose some of its independence and freedom if it joined the league.

The leader of Wilson's political party in the Senate, Gilbert Hitchcock, headed the administration campaign to win support for the treaty. He received Misses Wilson's permission to visit her husband.

Hitchcock told the president the situation was hopeless. He said the Senate would not approve the treaty unless several changes were made to protect American independence. If the president accepted the changes, then the treaty might pass.

VOICE TWO:

Wilson refused. He would accept no compromise. He said the treaty must be approved as written.

Senator Hitchcock made one more attempt to get Wilson to re-consider. On the day the Senate planned to vote on the treaty, he went back to the White House. He told Misses Wilson that compromise offered the only hope for success.

Misses Wilson went into the president's room while Hitchcock waited. She asked her husband: "Will you not accept the changes and get this thing settled?" He answered: "I cannot. Better a thousand times to go down fighting than to surrender to dishonorable compromise."

VOICE ONE:

The Senate voted. Hitchcock's fears proved correct. The treaty was defeated. The defeat ended Wilson's dream of American membership in the League of Nations.

Misses Wilson gave the news to her husband. He was silent for a long time. Then he said: "I must get well."

Woodrow Wilson was extremely sick. Yet he was not the kind of man who accepted opposition or defeat easily. From his sick bed, he wrote a letter to the other members of the Democratic Party. He urged them to continue debate on the League of Nations. He said a majority of Americans wanted the treaty approved.

Wilson probably was correct about this. Most Americans did approve of membership in the League of Nations. But they also wanted to be sure membership would not restrict American independence.

VOICE TWO:

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee agreed to re-open discussion on the treaty. It searched yet again for a compromise. It made new efforts to get Wilson to accept some changes.

But, as before, Wilson refused. He was a proud man. And he thought many of the Senators were evil men trying to destroy his plan for international peace.

Wilson's unwillingness to compromise helped kill the treaty once and for all. The Senate finally voted again, and the treaty was defeated by seven votes. The treaty was dead. The United States would never enter the League of Nations. And one of the most emotional and personal stories in the making of the American nation had ended.

VOICE ONE:

The long battle over the Treaty of Versailles ended with political defeat for Woodrow Wilson. Yet history would prove him correct.

Wilson had warned time and again during the debate that a terrible war would result if the world did not come together to protect the peace. Twenty years later, war came. The First World War had been called 'the war to end all wars'. But it was not. And the Second World War would be far more destructive than the first.

VOICE TWO:

The debate over the Treaty of Versailles was the central issue in American politics during the end of Woodrow Wilson's administration. It also played a major part in the presidential election of nineteen twenty.

Wilson himself could not be a candidate again. He was much too sick. So the Democratic Party nominated a former governor of Ohio, James Cox. Cox shared Wilson's opinion that the United States should join the League of Nations. He campaigned actively for American membership.

The Republican Party chose Senator Warren Harding as its candidate for president. Harding campaigned by promising a return to what he called 'normal times'. He said it was time for America to stop arguing about international events and start thinking about itself again.

VOICE ONE:

The two presidential candidates gave the American people a clear choice in the election of nineteen twenty.

On one side was Democrat James Cox. He represented the dream of Woodrow Wilson. In this dream, the world would be at peace. And America would be a world leader that would fight for the freedom and human rights of people everywhere.

On the other side was Republican Warren Harding. He represented an inward-looking America. It was an America that felt it had sacrificed enough for other people. Now it would deal with its own problems.

Warren Harding won the election.

VOICE TWO:

The results of the election shocked and hurt Woodrow Wilson. He could not understand why the people had turned from him and his dream of international unity and peace. But the fact was that America was entering a new period in its history. For a long time, it would turn its energy away from the world beyond its borders.

That will be our story next week.

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VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley.

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Sleepless in America: Report Says Millions Have Trouble at Bedtime

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

Sixteen-year-old Cara Horton prepares to spend the night at the Sleep Disorders Center at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2004

A new report says an estimated fifty million to seventy million Americans have sleep problems. It says many more are suffering from lack of sleep.

A group of sleep research organizations asked the Institute of Medicine to study the problem. The institute is part of America’s National Academy of Sciences. The study examined why we need sleep, the effects of sleep loss and other sleep disorders. A fourteen-member committee carried out the study. The Institute of Medicine reported their findings earlier this month.

Harvey Colten of Columbia University in New York City led the study. He says sleep disorders are not recognized enough by the general public and the medical community.

The report says too few researchers are studying sleep disorders. It also says too few health care workers are trained to identify and treat the problem.

The report says American businesses lose more than one hundred thousand million dollars a year because of tired workers. Some employees are too tired to report for work. They have accidents or are less productive at work. Other costs included increased visits to doctors.

The study found that twenty percent of injuries caused by serious car accidents are linked to sleepy drivers. Alcoholic drinks were not linked to the accidents. Other studies have linked poor sleep to an increased risk of health problems like heart disease, depression and unhealthy amounts of body fat. Researchers say the reason for this link is unclear.

Many experts say a good amount of sleep is as important to health as diet and exercise. They say most people need seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Less than that can interfere with mental and physical abilities. It can lead to more serious problems, including severe sleeplessness. It also can lead to sleep apnea. People with this condition temporarily stop breathing while they sleep.

Researchers involved in the study are suggesting a number of steps to help prevent sleep disorders. They suggest a campaign to inform the public about the problem. They want increased education and training among health care workers. And they are calling for new technology to identify and cure sleep problems.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Lawan Davis. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal.

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A Sticky Black Hole of Ancient Death, Right in the Middle of Los Angeles

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VOICE ONE:

This is Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about an unusual scientific research area in the United States.

It is filled with the remains of ancient animals. This unusual place is in the center of Los Angeles, California. Its name is Rancho La Brea. But most people know it as the La Brea Tar Pits.

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VOICE ONE:

To understand why La Brea is an important scientific research center we must travel back through time almost forty thousand years. Picture an area that is almost desert land. The sun is hot. A pig-like creature searches for food. It uses its short, flat nose to dig near a small tree. It moves small amounts of sand with its nose. It finds nothing. The pig starts to walk away, but it cannot move its feet.

They are covered with a thick, black substance. The pig shakes one foot loose, but the others just sink deeper. The more it struggles against the black substance, the deeper it sinks. The pig attempts to free itself again and again. It now screams in fear and fights wildly to get loose.

Less than a kilometer away, a huge cat-like creature with two long front teeth hears the screams. It, too, is hungry. Traveling across the ground at great speed, the cat nears the area where the pig is fighting for its life.

The cat jumps on the pig’s back. It sinks its long teeth into the pig’s neck. The pig dies quickly, and the cat begins to eat. Almost an hour passes before the cat is finished. When it attempts to leave, like the pig, it finds it cannot move. The more the big cat struggles, the deeper it sinks into the black substance.

Before morning, the cat is dead. Its body, and the bones of the pig, slowly sink into the sticky black hole.

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VOICE TWO:

Scientists say the story we have told you happened again and again over a period of many thousands of years. The black substance that trapped the animals came out of the Earth as oil.

The oil dried, leaving behind a partly solid substance called asphalt. In the heat of the sun, the asphalt softened. Whatever touched it would often become trapped forever.

In seventeen sixty-nine, a group of Spanish explorers visited the area. They were led by Gaspar de Portola, governor of Lower California.

The group stopped to examine the sticky black substance that covered the Earth. They called the area “La Brea” the Spanish words for “tar.”

Many years later, settlers used the tar, or asphalt, on the tops of their houses to keep water out. They found animal bones in the asphalt, but threw them away. In nineteen-oh-six, scientists began to study the bones found in La Brea. Ten years later, the owner of the land, George Allan Hancock, gave it to the government of Los Angeles. His gift carried one condition. He said La Brea could only be used for scientific work.

VOICE ONE:

Today, the La Brea Tar Pits are known to scientists around the world. The area is considered one of the richest areas of fossil bones in the world. It is an extremely valuable place to study ancient animals. Scientists have recovered more than one million fossil bones from the La Brea Tar Pits. They have identified more than six hundred fifty different kinds of animals and plants. The fossils are from creatures as small as insects to those that were bigger than a modern elephant. These creatures became trapped as long ago as forty thousand years. It is still happening today. Small birds and animals still become trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits.

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VOICE TWO:

Rancho La Brea is now the home of a modern research center and museum. Visitors can see the ancient fossil bones of creatures like the imperial mammoth and the American mastodon. Both look something like the modern day elephant, but bigger.

The museum has many fossil remains of the huge cats that once lived in the area. They are called saber-toothed cats because of their long, fierce teeth. Scientists have found more than two thousand examples of the huge cats. The museum also has many ground sloths and thousands of fossil remains of an ancient kind of wolf. Scientists believe large groups of wolves became stuck when they came to feed on animals already trapped in the asphalt.

VOICE ONE:

Since nineteen sixty-nine, scientists have been digging at one area of La Brea called Pit Ninety-one. They have found more than forty thousand fossils in Pit Ninety-one. More than ninety-five percent of the mammal bones are from just seven different animals. Three were plant-eaters. They were the western horse, the ancient bison and a two-meter tall animal called the Harlan’s ground sloth.

Four of the animals were meat-eating hunters. These were the saber-tooth cat, the North American lion, the dire wolf and the coyote. All these animals, except the dog-like coyote, have disappeared from the Earth.

VOICE TWO:

Researchers say eighty percent of the fossils found are those of meat-eating animals. They say this is a surprise because there have always been more plant- eaters in the world. The researchers say each plant-eater that became trapped caused many meat-eaters to come to the place to feed. They, too, became trapped.

Researches say the number of large animals caught in the tar pits represents only about three every ten years. Many more escaped. However, this represents many large animals over a period of several thousand years.

Visitors often ask if the bones of any dinosaurs have been found at La Brea. The answer is no. Dinosaurs disappeared about sixty-five- million years before animals first became trapped at La Brea. The La Brea area and much of California was part of the Pacific Ocean when dinosaurs were alive in North America.

VOICE ONE:

Rancho La Brea has also been a trap for many different kinds of insects. Scientists free these dead insects by washing the asphalt away with special chemicals. The La Brea insects give scientists a close look at the history of insects in southern California.

The La Brea Tar Pits have also provided science with interesting information about the plants that grew in the area. For many thousands of years, plant seeds landed in the sticky asphalt. The seeds have been saved for research. Scientists also have found pollen from many different kinds of plants.

The seeds and pollen, or the lack of them, can show severe weather changes over thousands of years. Scientists say these provide information that has helped them understand the history of the environment. The seeds and pollen have left a forty thousand year record of the environment and weather for this area of California.

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VOICE TWO:

Thousands of visitors come each year to see fossils that have been found at Rancho La Brea. They visit the George C. Page Museum. Mister Page was a wealthy man who became very interested in the scientific work being done at the tar pits. He gave the money to build the museum and research center.

At the museum, visitors can watch scientists dig bones from La Brea’s Pit Ninety-one. The scientists dig very slowly, using small tools similar to those used by a doctor to examine teeth. They also use toothbrushes and cleaning fluids to help soften and clean away the asphalt.

VOICE ONE:

Visitors to the museum can also see the “fish bowl,” a laboratory surrounded by glass. Here, they can watch scientists do their research. Visitors can watch the scientists clean, examine, repair and identify fossils that are still being discovered. Through this process, scientists are able to answer questions and solve puzzles about animals and their environment from thousands of years ago.

It is exciting to stand only a few meters away and watch scientists clean the asphalt off a fossil that is thousands of years old. Visitors quickly learn why researchers consider Rancho La Brea a very special place.

If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can visit the Rancho La Brea Page Museum. Have your computer search for the Spanish words La Brea, L-A B-R-E-A, and look for the Page Museum link.

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VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English.

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Water on Saturn Moon? | New Dinosaur | iPods and Hearing

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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 Pat Bodnar. This week: Evidence of water on one of the moons of Saturn ...

VOICE ONE:

Meet Erketu ellisoni, a newly identified dinosaur ...

VOICE TWO:

And warnings about the danger of hearing loss from personal music players.

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VOICE ONE:

Saturn and Cassini, an artist's version

Life on Earth requires water. When scientists look for life in other places, they look for signs of water. And they now say they have found them on a moon of Saturn.

The American spacecraft Cassini passed close to Enceladus [en-SELL-ah-dus] in February of two thousand five. Cassini captured images of what appears to be material shooting away from the moon.

The leader of the team studying the pictures of Enceladus is Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. She says the finding could change the way scientists look at conditions for life in the solar system.

Scientists considered several possible causes for the jet of material seen in the pictures from Cassini. But they found the most likely was that water was shooting out of Enceladus. They describe these jets as geysers, just like the boiling water that shoots out of the ground in places like Yellowstone National Park.

VOICE TWO:

The main difference between Yellowstone’s geysers and those of Enceladus is temperature. Geysers on Earth are caused by heat below the ground. Ground water enters these areas, begins to heat and shoots through openings in the ground.

Scientists believe the geysers on Enceladus are only about zero degrees Celsius -- just above freezing. This may seem cold to us. But on Saturn’s icy moon, zero degrees is very hot.

Scientific measurements show that Enceladus is very cold -- about two hundred degrees below the freezing point of water. But measurements by Cassini have shown that some parts of Enceladus are much warmer -- only one hundred sixty-degrees below freezing.

Scientists suggest that even warmer temperatures may exist below the surface of the moon. If there is liquid water, it would be much warmer than the surrounding ice. This could cause the liquid water to explode out of openings in the surface, causing the picture that Cassini captured.

VOICE ONE:

How could water exist on such a cold world? Planetary scientists have developed theories that liquid oceans exist on several icy worlds. Two moons orbiting the planet Jupiter, Callisto and Europa, are good candidates.

Information gathered by the Voyager and Galileo space vehicles suggests that powerful forces are at work under the surfaces of these moons. The strong force of gravity from Jupiter may make underground temperatures on Callisto and Europa warm enough to melt water.

But there is a closer example of liquid water hidden under ice right here on Earth. Ten years ago, Russian and British scientists confirmed the existence of a lake in the coldest part of the world -- Antarctica. It is called Lake Vostok. It lies under four thousand meters of ice.

VOICE TWO:

There are several theories for why water in the lake remains liquid. One is that warmth from the Earth has melted the ice. Another is that pressure from the huge weight above the ice caused it to melt. Whatever the reason, Lake Vostok has led some scientists to believe some moons of Jupiter and now Saturn could have whole oceans hidden under their icy surface.

Cassini will get another close look at Enceladus in two thousand eight.

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You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington.

VOICE ONE:

Scientists say they recently identified a new kind of dinosaur. The dinosaur belongs to the group of plant-eating creatures called sauropods. These creatures were among the largest land animals that ever lived.

The scientists have named the dinosaur Erketu [er-KEE-tu] ellisoni. They say its neck was more than seven meters long. But what makes Erketu ellisoni so special is the length of the neck when compared to its body. The scientists estimate the body was about three and one-half meters tall. That means the neck was probably more than two times as long as the rest of the body.

VOICE TWO:

The dinosaur’s remains were found four years ago in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Two research scientists from the American Museum of Natural History in New York made the discovery. They described the remains in a report published in Novitates, the museum magazine.

In total, the researchers found a chest bone, two leg bones, an anklebone and several neck bones. Mark Norell said the dinosaur’s secret to moving with such a long neck is found in its unusual bones. He said the bones within the neck were large but full of air holes. This made the bones very strong, while at the same time, very light.

VOICE ONE:

The researchers believe the ancient animal did not hold its neck up high in the air. Instead, they believe the neck was held out in front of the body and level with the ground.

Erketa ellisoni appears to be similar to other members of the sauropod group Titanosauria. These creatures spread throughout the world and survived until the end of the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs died off. The Cretaceous Period ended about sixty-five million years ago.

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VOICE TWO:

How loud do you listen to music?

Researchers from Zogby International did a study for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. It involved three hundred high school students and one thousand adults. They were asked about their use of portable music players like the Apple iPod. Other popular devices are CD players and laptop computers.

Forty percent of students and adults said they set the sound levels, or volume, at high on their iPods. But students were two times more likely to play the music at a very loud volume. More than half of the students said they would probably not limit their listening time. And about a third said they were not likely to reduce the volume.

VOICE ONE:

The study found that more than half of the students and less than forty percent of the adults had at least one kind of hearing loss. Some reported difficulty hearing parts of a discussion between two people. Others said they had to raise volume controls on a television or radio to hear it better. And, some experienced ringing in their ears or other noises.

Hearing experts say part of the problem is the listening equipment people are using. They say large earphones that cover the whole ear are probably safer than the smaller earbuds that come with most music players. Earbuds are thought to be less effective than earphones in blocking out foreign noises.

VOICE TWO:

Hearing loss may not be apparent for years. But once it happens, it is permanent. About thirty million Americans have some hearing loss. One third of them lost their hearing as a result of loud noises.

Experts at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota say any sound above ninety decibels for long periods may cause some hearing loss. But most portable music players can produce sounds up to one hundred twenty decibels.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is working with manufacturers and government officials on setting rules for use of portable music devices. The group says the best way to protect your hearing is to reduce the volume, limit listening time and using earphones that block out foreign noises.

VOICE ONE:

On March twenty-ninth Apple Computer announced a way for users to set a personal volume limit on the iPod Nano and fifth-generation iPod. It requires a free download of a software update from the company's Web site. Parents can also use the software to enforce a volume limit on their children's iPod with a secret combination code.

The iPod came on the market in October of two thousand one. Apple has sold more than forty million.

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VOICE TWO:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter, Brianna Blake and Cynthia Kirk, who also produced our program. I'm Pat Bodnar.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Bob Doughty. You can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And we hope you listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America.

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Going Biotech: A Spanish Farmer Discusses His Experience

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

The Biotechnology Industry Organization, or BIO, held its two thousand six international convention earlier this month in Chicago. It says attendance set a record with more than nineteen thousand people from sixty-two countries.

BIO represents more than one thousand companies and other organizations. Its members genetically engineer products in health care, agriculture and other areas.

The convention included former President Bill Clinton and what the organizers called the world's largest indoor cornfield.

Jose Manuel Pomar is a farmer from the Aragon area of Spain who attended the convention. Mister Pomar grows Bt maize. Bt maize contains a gene from a bacterium that produces a poison. This poison helps the plants resist insects, especially the maize borer.

Some things do not change with biotech crops. Mister Pomar says he uses the same amount of fertilizer with Bt maize as he does with conventional corn.

The main difference, he says, is in the use of insecticide. Mister Pomar says he sprays his conventional maize with insect poisons three to four times a season. With Bt maize, he says, he might spray once if maize borers are present in large numbers.

Chemicals are costly. The savings help pay for the higher cost of the biotech seeds.

Mister Pomar says his profit on Bt corn is fifteen to twenty percent higher than his conventional maize. He also says he harvests more.

He grows about two hundred hectares of Bt maize for animal food. This is only a part of his cropland. He also grows three hundred fifty hectares of non-Bt maize. And he grows alfalfa, soybean and other crops.

In all, Mister Pomar has one thousand two hundred hectares of farmland. Most of his crops are not biotech. But some people do not like that he uses genetically engineered crops at all. He says people have complained to him. And he worries about possible legal issues in the future.

Still, he says many other farmers in his area grow some biotech crops. The Spanish farmer says he is pleased with his results. He says the added profits could be important if the European Union cuts farm aid in the coming years.

Next week, we talk to two American farmers who grow biotech maize and cotton.

This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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Mae West: The Wild Woman of Film and Stage

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about film actress Mae West. She was also a writer, producer and businesswoman. The sexual nature of her life and art represented her liberal and often disputed ideas. Her funny jokes have become part of the language of American popular culture.

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VOICE ONE:

Mae West was born in Brooklyn, New York in eighteen ninety-three. Her father, John West, had several jobs but started his career as a competitive fighter. Mae’s mother, Matilda, played an important role in developing her daughter’s career as an entertainer.

Mae started to perform in local theater groups as a young child. By nineteen oh seven she was part of a national vaudeville tour that performed across the country. Vaudeville was a theatrical show with several entertainers performing songs, dances and jokes. Vaudeville was very popular in the United States during the early nineteen hundreds.

When Mae West was about eighteen years old she started performing on Broadway, the famous theater area of New York City. She appeared in many musical shows such as “Hello, Paris” and “A la Broadway.” For the next fifteen years she sang and danced in both Broadway and vaudeville shows.

VOICE TWO:

In the middle nineteen twenties, Mae West started to write, produce and act in her own plays. She also started to create the sexual jokes that would make her famous -- and also get her into trouble. Her first Broadway play was called “Sex.”

The play was very popular, but soon closed temporarily. City officials put Mae West in jail for more than a week. The police arrested her because they said the play was not moral. Mae West knew that this incident would make her a national success --- and it did.

Serving time in jail did not stop West from writing more plays or causing new disputes over their sexually suggestive subject matter. In fact, she said that she learned from her jail experience. She said the people she met in jail influenced the characters she later created.

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VOICE ONE:

Mae West wrote many kinds of theatrical productions, but some details remained the same. Her humor was often sexual. But her jokes had two meanings. Her statements were humorous and intelligent because they could be understood in two different ways. She was also funny because she greatly overstated her sexy nature and love for men. Mae West always played the role of a young and strong woman. She also made sure that she always had the biggest role. She wanted everyone to know she was the star and she was in charge.

VOICE TWO:

One of her most famous plays was called “Diamond Lil.” Mae West made careful choices when writing this play so that it would be popular with a wide audience. She set the play in a famous New York City area called the Bowery. Audiences knew the history of this dangerous area. West also had the story take place in the late nineteenth century. She knew that the clothing from this period looked good on her large and curvy body. She thought that older people would like the time period. Female audiences would like her rich clothing. And younger people would like the play’s action and sexy style.

West plays a singer named Lil who works in a saloon, a public drinking place. She walks around in very tight, shiny dresses. She has shiny, golden, wavy hair. She wears diamond jewels and large hats. She has many lovers and adventures.

VOICE ONE:

“Diamond Lil” was a big success. It was performed more than three hundred times on Broadway. Then it was performed all over the country. Lil became the most representative example of Mae West’s characters. It was a role she would play many times in her life.

“Diamond Lil” shows the way Mae West appeared in many of her productions, and even in real life. Mae West once said: ''It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it.”

VOICE TWO:

After the stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine, Mae West faced a difficult period. Many theaters could no longer remain open in this time of economic depression. She also had to deal with legal battles over the disputed subjects of her plays. Her latest musical was a failure on Broadway. And, in nineteen thirty her mother died. It was soon time for Mae West to make a change.

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VOICE ONE:

In nineteen thirty-two Mae West moved to Hollywood, California to start her film career. Her first film was called “Night After Night.” At first, Mae West had refused to be in the film because she was not satisfied with her character. But the producer allowed her to rewrite parts of the story. West helped give the film a special humor and excitement.

The next year she starred in the movie “She Done Him Wrong.” This was the film version of her successful play, “Diamond Lil”. But making this movie was not easy. The Hays Office had forbidden several of Mae West’s plays such as “Diamond Lil” from being made into movies. The Hays Office was in charge of enforcing a severe production code. This code controlled what was considered morally acceptable subject matter for American movies.

VOICE TWO:

To make this movie, the producers changed the name of the play and its characters. And Mae West brought her intelligence to the film. She created sexy statements that the Hays Office had to accept. Instead of direct sexual comments, she perfected her sexually suggestive jokes.

In this film, Cary Grant plays the role of Mae West’s main love interest, Captain Cummings. This is one of Cary Grant’s earliest roles. He soon became a big Hollywood star. In this scene from the movie, Mae West makes her most famous statement. Her character, Lady Lou, is in love with Captain Cummings. She is trying to get him to “come up and see her.”

(SOUND)

Lady Lou: You know, I always did like a man in a uniform. That one fits you grand. Why don’t you come up sometime and see me…I’m home every evening.

Captain Cummings: I’m busy every evening.

Lady Lou: Busy? So what are you trying to do, insult me?

Captain Cummings: Why no! Not at all. I’m just busy, that’s all. You see, we’re holding meetings in Jacobsen’s Hall every evening. Anytime you have a moment to spare, I’d be glad to have you drop in. You’re more than welcome.

Lady Lou: I heard you. But you ain’t kidding me any. You know, I’ve met your kind before. Why don’t you come up sometime, huh?

Captain Cummings: Well, I…

Lady Lou: Don’t be afraid, I won’t tell. Come up, I’ll tell your fortune.

VOICE ONE:

This movie made Mae West a great success. “Why don’t you come up and see me sometime” became one of the most famous statements in film history. For a period, she was one of the highest paid female entertainers in America. Some experts say her movies helped save the production company Paramount Pictures from financial ruin. Audiences all over the world either loved or hated this wild woman.

Mae West both starred in and wrote her next film, “I’m No Angel.” She played a circus performer. As always, her character drives men crazy with desire. When the film opened, it broke records for attendance and profits. Here is Mae West performing the theme song of this movie.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Mae West continued to make films – and trouble -- throughout the nineteen thirties and early forties. Critics say this was the most exciting part of her career. They say that after this period, she only repeated herself. While she had offers for films, she refused to play the role of an older or weak woman. West continued to act on stage, wrote books and appeared on television.

At the age of eighty-five she starred in a film called “Sextette.” Not surprisingly, Mae West played a sexy woman that men could not resist. Some critics dismissed the film. Others praised her spirit for never surrendering to old age on film. Two years later, Mae West died at her home in California. She was eighty-seven.

VOICE ONE:

Mae West remains one of the most famous and liberated actresses in American film and stage history. She used her yellow hair, playful voice, and shapely body to create a whole new kind of Hollywood star. She was a strong woman who kept careful artistic control over her work. Her independence, humor and sexy nature continue to influence performers today.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

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

VOICE ONE:

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

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Number of Refugees in the World at Lowest Level in 25 Years

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

The number of refugees in the world is at its lowest in twenty-five years. The United Nations refugee agency estimates the current number at a little more than nine million.

More than half are people who have been in exile for at least five years. The agency says no solutions to their cases can be seen. But it notes progress in efforts to return millions of others to their home countries.

For example, more than four million have returned to Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have returned to Angola, Sierra Leone, Burundi and Liberia.

Antonio Guterres is the U.N. High Commissioner or Refugees. He says that although the numbers of refugees are down, their well-being remains a concern. A report from his office last week says immigrants and asylum-seekers face greater barriers than ever. These include fears of terrorism, stronger immigration limits and growing rejection of foreigners.

Mister Guterres says there is a growing intolerance happening everywhere. In his words: "This is creating a difficult environment in which the foreigner, the one that is different, is sometimes hated, sometimes feared.”

The high commissioner says the world also faces problems with how it deals with people displaced by conflict. Refugees are defined as people who flee their country because of violence, natural events or political disputes. Internally displaced persons, I.D.P.'s, leave their homes for the same reasons. But the difference is that they remain within their country.

Today conflicts within nations are more common than conflicts between nations. As a result, the report says, fewer people are crossing international borders.

The I.D.P. situation is described as especially bad in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United Nations estimates that seven-and-one-half million people in those two countries were forced from their homes last year.

A nineteen fifty-one document called the United Nations Refugee Convention defines what refugees are and demands their protection. There is no similar document for internally displaced people. Their number is estimated at twenty-five million worldwide.

Antonio Guterres says I.D.P.’s urgently need help. “Internal displacement,” he says, “is the world’s biggest failure in humanitarian action.”

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

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From Donald Duck to Biting Commentary, Cartoons in America

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(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. This week: how cartoons can tell a story or send a message. Or both.

(SOUND)

VOICE ONE:

The new family movie “Ice Age: The Meltdown” is written for laughs. But some people might also see it as a serious message about the dangers of climate warming.

The film brings back the animated animals from the two thousand two hit movie "Ice Age." The main characters are a wooly mammoth named Manny, a sloth named Sid and a saber-toothed tiger named Diego.

VOICE TWO:

In the first movie, Manny, Sid and Diego faced the dangers of the coming prehistoric freeze. This time they are threatened by floods from the melting of the Ice Age.

At first, the animals love the water. Later, when they discover the threat, they must warn everyone else and find a way to save their valley.

MOVIE SOUND: "It's all part of my 'Accu-weather' forecast. The five-day outlook is calling for intense flooding followed by ... THE END OF THE WORLD!"

VOICE ONE:

The world of cartooning has changed a lot since the days when Walt Disney drew his characters by hand. Animated cartoons are especially labor-intensive. Animators create a sense of movement through a progression of many images. Each image is a little different than the one before it. Today many animators, including the ones who made the "Ice Age" movies, get help from computers.

But Walt Disney's work still influences modern cartooning. He started his company in nineteen twenty-three. He had his first big success five years later. He combined animation with sound in the nineteen twenty-eight film “Steamboat Willie.”

(SOUND)

Steamboat Willie

VOICE TWO:"Steamboat Willie" was the first movie to star Mickey Mouse. Later came other famous Disney characters, including Donald Duck.

Donald Duck is over seventy years old now, but you could never tell by looking at him. To animate something means to give it life. Animated characters can live forever -- or at least as long as they stay popular.

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VOICE ONE:

Another form of cartooning is the comic strip. Comic strips are a drawing or a series of drawings that present a situation or tell a little story. Comic strips are usually good for a laugh or at least a smile.

American newspapers commonly publish a page or more of them each day. These are usually black-and-white drawings. Sunday funnies are often published in color.

Readers of all ages enjoy the comics in the newspaper.

On television, cartoons used to be thought of as mainly for children. But times have changed. For example, Cartoon Network says one-third of the people who watch its programs are over the age of eighteen. So it offers special late-night programming called "Adult Swim." These cartoons are meant to appeal to what it calls "a grown-up sense of humor and other adult sensibilities."

One of the shows, "The Boondocks," is based on a newspaper comic strip.

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VOICE TWO:

"The Boondocks" is the story of Huey and Riley, two young African-American boys. They come from a rough part of Chicago, Illinois. Now they live with their grandfather in a mainly white community. The characters are known for their sharp observations about life there, and life in general. Huey speaks his mind like a revolutionary.

(SOUND)

"The Boondocks" often deals with issues of race and social justice. The strip is more political than most comic strip readers are used to. Some think it is great; others think it goes too far.

"The Boondocks" appears in about three hundred fifty newspapers. Aaron McGruder is the cartoonist who created it. He has been taking a break from the print version since March, and does not plan to have new ones until October. "Every well needs refreshing," he says.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Charlie Brown and Snoopy

“Peanuts” is an example of a more traditional comic strip. Charles Schulz is the artist who created Charlie Brown and Snoopy the dog and all their friends. Charles Schulz died in two thousand. But the cartoons he drew are still being repeated. The humor is timeless.

Many readers also enjoy comics like “Garfield and Friends." Garfield is a fat cat who likes thinking of food and making fun of his owner.

And some readers never miss “Dennis the Menace.” This single-drawing cartoon is about a five-year-old boy. Dennis is always causing trouble for his parents and a retired neighbor, Mister Wilson. But to his fans since the nineteen fifties, Dennis is always likeable.

VOICE TWO:

Another form of cartooning is the editorial cartoon. These express the opinion of the artist or the artist’s publication.

Nineteenth century cartoonist Thomas Nast drew for Harper’s Weekly and the humor magazine Puck. In his political cartoons he drew an elephant to represent Republicans and a donkey for Democrats. Today these animals are still used to represent the two major parties in America.

VOICE ONE:

In the twentieth century, cartoonists like Peter Arno, James Thurber and Charles Addams drew for the New Yorker magazine. The New Yorker has a tradition of publishing cartoons as social commentary.

Peter Arno liked to make fun of people of wealth and social position and self-importance. He drew his subjects with heavy lines.

James Thurber's cartoons pointed out human weaknesses. He drew his subjects with a light touch.

VOICE TWO:

James Thurber also wrote many humor books. He created the character of Walter Mitty. Walter Mitty is a mild little man who daydreams of doing exciting things.

Cartoonist Charles Addams created the Addams Family. They looked like a scary family out of a horror movie. But Addams made funny situations from these strange characters. Somehow his artistry made normal people seem strange.

VOICE ONE:

Today, New Yorker cartoons are still known for their sharp humor. For example, a lawyer advises a man that the best defense in his situation is to lie.

New Yorker cartoonists can find humor in almost any situation. A well-known cartoon that appeared in nineteen ninety-three was drawn by Peter Steiner. Two dogs are at a computer. One says to the other, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."

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VOICE TWO:

One of America’s most influential political cartoonists worked at the Washington Post for fifty-five years. His name was Herbert Block. But readers knew him better as Herblock, the name he used to sign his work.

During the nineteen fifties, Herblock was known for his cartoons against Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy accused many people of being communists. Finally, the Senate condemned McCarthy for his actions.

Over the years, Herblock won three Pulitzer prizes and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. He continued drawing until shortly before his death in two thousand one, at the age of ninety-one.

VOICE ONE:

Cartoons can make powerful statements about events. In nineteen sixty-three, President John F. Kennedy was shot. That led cartoonist Bill Mauldin to draw another president who died that way. He drew the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Washington. In the cartoon, President Lincoln is crying.

Almost forty years later, in two thousand one, cartoonists drew the Statue of Liberty crying in New York Harbor. That was after the September eleventh attack on the nearby World Trade Center.

VOICE TWO:

Cartoons can make people sad. They can also make them angry. Last September a newspaper in Denmark published cartoons that insulted Muslims. Other newspapers later republished these cartoons. Protests and deadly riots took place in a number of countries earlier this year. The cartoons and the reaction led to international debate about responsibility and freedom of speech.

VOICE ONE:

Cartoons can make us think, they can make us laugh, they can make us cry. Cartoons can make a difference in how we look at life.

(MUSIC)

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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