Great Arches, Hoodoos and an Island in the Sky -- All in Utah

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we explore some national parks of great beauty in the American West.

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VOICE ONE:

Zion National Park

Millions of people from all over the world visit the state of Utah every year. One reason is the many national parks. These are areas of great natural beauty that are protected by the United States government. More than three hundred fifty national parks can be found in the United States. Today we will visit four of them -- all in the state of Utah. These parks include huge colored rock formations, rivers, waterfalls, beautiful trees, other plants and many different kinds of wild animals.

VOICE TWO:

The first area we will visit is Arches National Park, near the town of Moab, in eastern Utah. Experts say this park has the greatest number of arches of any similar geographic area in the world. Arches are formations that look like half a circle above an opening or hole in a rock. Arches can also appear as curved bridges between two large rocks.

Scientists say the area began forming almost two thousand million years ago. As time passed, the area filled with material left by rivers. Other rocks buried the area. Then great pressure deep in the Earth created huge mountains.

A soft rock called sandstone began moving under this pressure. The sandstone moved upwards when it met other, harder rocks. These sandstone structures continued to grow for about one hundred fifty million years.

Arches National Park

Arches developed from thin rock walls. They resulted when pieces of sandstone fell away from the formations. Scientists say water is the most important element in creating arches. Water destroys the chemicals that keep rock particles together. The rock breaks as the water freezes and expands. Then the wind blows away the loose rock particles.

VOICE ONE:

Scientists say that most arches seen today developed within the past million years. But they say the land formation continues to change slowly over time. New arches form. Older ones fall away. The National Park Service has counted more than two thousand arches in Arches National Park. The smallest of these is an opening of less than one meter; the longest measures more than ninety-three meters.

The rock formations in Arches National Park are mostly a deep red color. Rocks get their color from minerals. The red color is the result of iron oxide or rust. Scientists say the presence of iron in the rock shows that the weather was hot and dry when the rock was first formed.

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VOICE TWO:

Arches National Park is not the only place in Utah where visitors can see arches and other beautiful rock formations. They are also found in the nearby national park named Canyonlands.

Canyonlands National Park is a wild, lonely area of rocks, rivers and desert plants. Only Native Americans, cowboys, and explorers entered this area before the park was established in nineteen sixty-four. Even today, it is difficult to walk or ride through the park. The roads are still made of dirt. Driving requires a special vehicle. The National Park Service says Canyonlands National Park is wild America.

VOICE ONE:

Rivers created the area as they cut rock into many different formations. At the center of the park are two deep canyons carved by the Green and Colorado Rivers. Three areas that surround these rivers are included in the park.

One of these areas is called the Maze District. This area includes rock art made by people who lived there more than two thousand years ago. Yet many people today cannot see the Maze District because it is so difficult to reach. The area is one of the loneliest and wildest in the United States.

Another area of the park is called the Needles. It includes long, thin, red and white rocks that reach high into the air like fingers on a hand.

VOICE TWO:

A good way to see all the areas of Canyonlands National Park is to fly over it. A one-hour trip in a small airplane makes it possible to see the park’s red rocks, arches and flat areas where ancient Indian people once lived.

Island in the Sky in Canyonlands National Park

From high in the air, visitors can clearly see the third area of the park -- a high broad flat rock known as the Island in the Sky. The island was formed between the two rivers.

Another interesting formation is called the Upheaval Dome. This is a huge hole about four hundred fifty meters deep and one and one half kilometers wide. It is considered to be the most unusual geologic structure in the area.

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VOICE ONE:

Two other national parks in Utah are included on our trip. The first is Bryce Canyon National Park, in southern Utah. The rock formations there are the result of deposits made by ancient lakes and rivers over a period of about twenty million years. The walls and cliffs of Bryce Canyon once were completely covered with water.

About two million people visit Bryce Canyon National Park each year. The park reaches a height of more than three thousand meters. It includes more than eighty kilometers of trails for walking. Or visitors can drive a twenty-nine kilometer long road, stopping off at different points to enjoy the colorful formations.

Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon

These rock formations at Bryce National Park are extremely beautiful. Sunlight makes many of them appear to be the color of fire. Some of the most unusual kinds of rocks in the park are called hoodoos. They are tall and thin, and seem to grow from the canyon floor. Their colors are bright red, orange and yellow. Some of the hoodoos have interesting shapes and names, like Thor’s Hammer, the Hunter, and the Wall of Windows. One hoodoo known as the Poodle looks like a poodle dog sitting on top of a long narrow rock.

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VOICE TWO:

The fourth and final park we will visit today is Zion National Park. It is not far from Bryce. But it is very different. About three million people visit the park each year. Zion National Park is an area of huge rocks that were cut through by a river. The area is really a desert, receiving only about thirty-five centimeters of rain a year.

Visitors to Zion National Park are surprised by the huge mountain structures of red, pink and white. Driving is restricted in much of the park. Instead, visitors travel in small buses that take them to areas where they can walk on paths into the wild areas.

One easy walk is almost two kilometers. It takes hikers to a clear pool of water and waterfalls. One of the more difficult walks is an eight-kilometer hike that is not for anyone afraid of high places. That is because the path ends at the top of a rock high above Zion Canyon. Another hike is a twenty-two kilometer walk that ends at an unusual rock formation. Experts say it could be the world’s largest free-standing arch.

VOICE ONE:

Visitors who choose not to take long walks can leave the small bus at different stops. At each stop, they can walk a short path to a viewing area where they can see a different part of the park. Some of the huge mountains have interesting names. One of the park’s largest sandstone formations is known as the Sentinel. Another area includes three mountains next to each other. They are called the Three Patriarchs -- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were given the names by a visiting Christian church leader in nineteen sixteen.

VOICE TWO:

Visitors to Zion National Park can sleep under the stars in a camping area. Or they can stay at the hotel in the park. Many people stay in the nearby town of Springdale and travel into the park each day.

Of course, visiting these parks includes time to watch local wildlife. Visitors can see all kinds of birds, deer, foxes, and even mountain lions, elk, moose and bears. But they must be careful not to get too close. Many wild animals can be dangerous if they feel threatened.

Most people who visit America’s national parks bring a camera and take many pictures. They want to enjoy again and again the natural beauty of the rocks, plants and wild animals. But many who have seen the parks we have described today say that such pictures cannot really capture the huge, beautiful areas of land. These visitors say that they will never forget the beauty of the four national parks in Utah.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Mario Ritter. You can read this report online and download audio at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

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

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When Fear Takes Control of the Mind

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An explanation of panic disorder and how it can be treated. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

A panic attack is a sudden feeling of terror. Usually it does not last long, but it may feel like forever.

Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Bridge is known for scaring drivers

The cause can be something as normally uneventful as driving over a bridge or flying in an airplane. And it can happen even if the person has driven over many bridges or flown many times before.

A fast heartbeat. Sweaty hands. Difficulty breathing. A lightheaded feeling. At first a person may have no idea what is wrong. But these can all be signs of what is known as panic disorder.

The first appearance usually is between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. In some cases it develops after a tragedy, like the death of a loved one, or some other difficult situation.

In the United States, the National Institute of Mental Health says more than two million people are affected in any one-year period.

The American Psychological Association says panic disorder is two times more likely in women than men. And it can last anywhere from a few months to a lifetime.

Panic attacks can be dangerous -- for example, if a person is driving at the time. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge in the state of Maryland is so long and so high over the water, it is famous for scaring motorists. There is even a driver assistance program to help people get across.

Some people who suffer a panic attack develop a phobia, a deep fear of ever repeating the activity that brought on the attack.

But experts say panic disorder can be treated. Doctors might suggest anti-anxiety or antidepressant medicines. Talking to a counselor could help a person learn to deal with or avoid a panic attack. There are breathing methods, for example, that might help a person calm down.

Panic disorder is included among what mental health professionals call anxiety disorders. A study published last week reported a link between anxiety disorders and several physical diseases. It says these include thyroid disease, lung and stomach problems, arthritis, migraine headaches and allergic conditions.

Researchers at the University of Manitoba in Canada say that in most cases the physical condition followed the anxiety disorder. But, they say, exactly how the two are connected remains unknown.

The report in the Archives of Internal Medicine came from a German health study of more than four thousand adults.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Mario Ritter.

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Saving Historic Barns

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American farmers are urged to repair what they have and not tear it down. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the Special English Agriculture Report.

A big red barn is probably one of the first things most Americans would think of if you asked them to imagine a farm. And not a modern metal barn, but a building made of wood like the ones in the old days.

A barn is where farmers keep animals and equipment. Over time, as fewer and fewer people worked the land, more and more barns were torn down to make way for developers. Others that remained might have fallen into poor condition.

Or perhaps they just no longer satisfy the needs of a modern farmer. Keeping an old barn in good condition might not be seen as worth the cost if it does not serve much purpose. But Americans with historic barns are being urged to save them.

The magazine Successful Farming and the National Trust for Historic Preservation are working together on a program called Barn Again! The National Trust is a nonprofit organization that works to protect places of historic importance in America.

The Barn Again! program advises hundreds of barn owners every year. Awards are given for the projects that best succeed at restoring a barn for continued farm use. Winning buildings are used to demonstrate methods of preservation.

The organization suggests how problems with things like stone and concrete block foundations can be fixed. With many old barns, the foundation they are built on is falling apart. Barn Again! also offers advice for other repairs, like how to replace siding and how to use a power washer to remove loose paint. And farmers are given suggestions about how to estimate costs.

Leo Fitzpatrick of Beaverton, Michigan, won the two thousand four Barn Again! Award. He made one improvement at a time. The work took more than nine years. He did it himself, even though for a while he held another job in addition to farming. He says it cost him fourteen thousand dollars, much less than a new barn of similar size.

The improvements included strengthening the barn. There are no structural supports inside the building; instead, its sides hold it up. Today the barn holds fourteen thousand bales of hay.

Leo Fitzpatrick says the barn is a lot stronger than when it was new. His grandfather built it in nineteen fourteen. And Mister Fitzpatrick says his farm would not be the same without it.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. To learn more about the Barn Again! program, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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'Very Light Jets' Are About to Shake Up Air Travel

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Also: A study finds that Tsavo lions do not need a full mane to have a social life ... And why autumn leaves change color. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week: A big idea in small planes.

VOICE ONE:

Scientists find that even on a bad hair day, the famous male lions of Tsavo still look good to the females.

VOICE TWO:

And the science of autumn leaves.

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VOICE ONE:

Make room for some new arrivals in the market for small aircraft. The new airplanes are called very light jets. They are also known by other names including mini jets, microjets and air taxis. The Federal Aviation Administration in the United States expects nearly five thousand to be in service by two thousand seventeen.

The new planes will cost up to fifty percent less than business jets now on the market.

VOICE TWO:

An Eclipse 500 at the EAA AirVenture Convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in July

Eclipse Aviation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, proudly calls itself the manufacturer of the world’s first very light jet. The plane is called the Eclipse Five Hundred. It can carry as many as six people. The cost? Just over one and one-half million dollars.

Eclipse has just produced the first plane for the first buyer, businessman David Crowe. And the company says it already has more than two thousand five hundred orders to meet over the next few years.

The Eclipse Five Hundred can fly at a top speed of six hundred eighty kilometers an hour. And it can travel one thousand six hundred kilometers without the need for more fuel.

The company says a top flight level of almost twelve thousand five hundred meters will avoid most severe weather.

VOICE ONE:

Another very light jet, the A-Seven Hundred AdamJet, is currently under flight testing by Adam Aircraft of Englewood, Colorado. The AdamJet is twelve meters long and can carry up to eight people.

With bigger planes, travelers often have to fly into big cities, then get a car and drive to smaller towns. The mini jets will be able to use smaller airports. In many cases the new aircraft are expected to be used as air taxis for short flights.

Very light jets are designed to be easier to fly than other jet planes. And some versions even include a bathroom for long flights.

VOICE TWO:

Other companies have also entered the market for very light jets -- including one of Japan's top carmakers. Honda Motor has developed the HondaJet.

Honda expects to produce seventy jets a year. It hopes to have them on the market in two thousand ten.

Michimasa Fujino, HondaJet project leader, answers questions at the same Wisconsin air show

In August, Honda established the Honda Aircraft Company, with headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina. Honda appointed HondaJet chief engineer Michimasa Fujino to lead the new business. He spent the past twenty years working to develop a Honda aircraft.

The HondaJet can carry up to eight people. And, like the Eclipse Five Hundred and the AdamJet, it has two engines. But Honda officials say their plane will fly faster than other light jets of its kind. They say it will be able to reach speeds of almost seven hundred eighty kilometers per hour.

VOICE ONE:

Honda began sales of the HondaJet on October seventeenth. The price is more than three and one-half million dollars.

Very light jets are expected to be popular not just with air taxi companies and businesses whose employees travel a lot. They are also expected to appeal to wealthy people who want something a little sportier than a sports car.

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VOICE TWO:

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

In eighteen ninety-eight, two male lions attacked railway workers in the Tsavo [pronounced SAH-voh] area of what is now Kenya. It is said that the lions, over a period of nine months, ate more than one hundred thirty people.

A British military officer finally killed the two animals. He observed that they had no manes. Male lions are known for the thick hair along the top and sides of their necks. Yet other lions that the officer saw also had no manes.

The lions of Tsavo captured people's imaginations. They became the subject of scientific papers and books. The story was also told in the nineteen ninety-six motion picture "The Ghost and the Darkness."

VOICE ONE:

Researchers, however, now report that most fully grown Tsavo lions do have manes. They found that this was true of eighty-seven percent of the ones they observed. But the Tsavo lions do not develop their manes as fast as other lions they were compared with.

The Journal of Zoology recently published the results of a study by a team from the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.

VOICE TWO:

A maneless male lion in Kenya's Tsavo National Park

The scientists followed the development of lions living in different parts of East Africa during a period of about seven years. They observed the lions in the hot Tsavo valley area of Kenya. They also studied lions in the cooler Serengeti mountains of Tanzania. The team reported that the difference in mane growth appears most closely linked to climate.

The Tsavo lions took eight years to fully develop their manes. The team observed that the lions began to develop their manes later and at a slower rate than the Serengeti lions. The Serengeti lions had longer, thicker manes that were fully grown by age four or five.

VOICE ONE:

The Serengeti lions reached sexual maturity about the same time their manes were fully developed. The Tsavo lions did not have full manes until after their most sexually active years. But the researchers say even fully grown Tsavo lions with poor manes still mated actively.

The findings suggest that a delay in mane development does not compromise the ability to reproduce. These findings conflict with other recent studies of lions. Some research found that female lions like to mate with males that have darker and more developed manes.

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VOICE TWO:

Leaves on many trees change color in autumn. But why?

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The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sun-burned hands I used to hold

VOICE ONE:

OK, more of Nat King Cole later. Here is how scientists explain why leaves change color in the fall.

In the spring and summer, leaves produce a green substance called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll changes sunlight, water and carbon dioxide in the air into food energy. Chlorophyll is also what makes leaves green.

Other chemicals in trees produce other colors. Carotenoids are orange, xanthophylls are yellow and anthocyanins are red.

Scientists say chlorophyll, carotenoids and xanthophylls are present in leaf cells all through the spring and summer. But the green chlorophyll blocks the yellow and orange colors.

In autumn, those colors can be seen because the leaves produce less and less chlorophyll, until the production stops.

VOICE TWO:

Red leaves are the result of anthocyanin production in autumn. Yet scientists are not sure about the purpose of anthocyanins. Some believe they protect the leaves from too much of the sun’s radiation and protect cells from freezing during the cool autumn nights.

Others think anthocyanins may help leaves stay on a tree longer. They say the chemicals may make it possible for the tree to receive more growth chemicals from the leaves before the leaves fall off. The anthocyanins then stay inside the tree and its roots until they are needed again in the spring.

VOICE ONE:

Leaves fall off many kinds of trees when the weather cools. The leaves slowly close the veins that carry the growth chemicals. And special cells form where the leaves attach to the branches of the tree. These cells cause the leaves to separate from the tissues that connected them to the tree.

The color of autumn leaves may not be the same each year. The colors are affected by the amount of rain that a tree receives. Lack of rain can delay the appearance of the colors.

Warm, wet weather in the autumn will reduce the brightness of the colors that do appear. And extremely cold weather will kill the leaves and cause them to drop early in the season.

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Since you went away the days grow long
And soon Ill hear old winters song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall

VOICE TWO:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Jerilyn Watson and Nancy Steinbach. And special thanks to Kevin Tunison at the National Arboretum in Washington. I’m Bob Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Learn more about science, and download MP3 files of our programs, at voaspecialenglish.com And be sure to listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

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Designs: a Water-Purifying Straw, a Firewood-Saving Cookstove

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The LifeStraw removes bacteria that cause many waterborne diseases; the stove was tested in Darfur, Sudan. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Today we tell you about the LifeStraw water-purifying device. Then learn about a wood-burning cookstove that scientists hope will reduce the loss of forests in poor countries.

The LifeStraw is a thick plastic tube twenty-five centimeters long. You place one end into water and drink from the other. The water passes through a series of filters to catch extremely small particles. Iodine and active carbon are also used in the cleaning process. It all takes about eight minutes for one liter.

The maker of the LifeStraw says it kills organisms that spread diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid and cholera. The device filters most bacteria and parasites. But it has limits, including against viruses. Also, it does not remove arsenic or other heavy metals from water.

The Vestergaard Frandsen Group, a Danish company with headquarters in Switzerland, invented the LifeStraw last year. The company makes disease-control textiles including malaria nets treated to kill mosquitoes.

The LifeStraw costs about three dollars. It can be worn on a string around the neck. It has a lifetime of up to seven hundred liters, or about one year. The first large shipments went to Pakistan after the earthquake last year.

The company notes that each day, worldwide, more than six thousand children and adults die from unsafe drinking water.

Another problem in many poor areas is finding enough firewood to cook with. Forests can disappear as more and more trees are cut down.

Scientists have developed a cookstove that was tested in refugee camps in Darfur, Sudan. The scientists are from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley.

Christina Galitsky observes cooking methods used by the women of Darfur

Two of them, Ashok Gadgil and Christina Galitsky, went to Darfur late last year. They found that many refugee families were missing meals for lack of fuel.

The light metal stove needs much less fuel than the traditional cooking methods used in the camps. This would mean less need for women to leave the camps to search for firewood and risk being attacked in violence-torn Darfur.

Since the visit, the researchers have improved the stove. Now they are trying to set up production. They estimate that the stoves could be built locally in Darfur for about fifteen dollars each. They say about three hundred thousand are needed. The hope is to begin producing five thousand stoves by the end of the year.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember.

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Election Day Will Bring Struggle for Power, Direction of US

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Democrats are hoping that unhappiness with the Iraq war will help them end Republican control of Congress in the November 7 vote. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Our subject this week is American politics. National elections are one week away.

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VOICE ONE:

The United States holds national elections every two years. This year, Election Day is Tuesday, November seventh. Americans will vote in local, state and congressional elections.

Voters will choose all four hundred thirty-five members of the House of Representatives. Voters will also choose thirty-three of the one hundred senators.

Each state has two senators and at least one representative -- the number depends on the population of each state. House members serve two-year terms. A Senate term is six years.

But these are called midterm elections because they come halfway through the president's term. Midterm elections are often seen as a measure of how Americans feel about the policies of the president and Congress.

The Constitution limits presidents to two terms. President Bush, a Republican, won a second four-year term in two thousand four.

VOICE TWO:

The Republican Party has controlled the House since the elections of nineteen ninety-four. Republicans have also led the Senate since that time, except for a period between two thousand one and two thousand two.

The party of the president generally loses some seats in Congress in midterm elections. But this year the opposition Democrats hope to gain enough seats to win back the House and possibly also the Senate. Yet, as hopeful as the Democrats might be, something else is also true. Once elected to Congress, lawmakers usually get re-elected again and again.

The Democrats need to gain fifteen seats to retake control of the House. In the Senate, they would need to capture six of the fifteen seats on the ballot that are now held by Republicans. At the same time, the Democrats would have to keep all eighteen seats that their own party will be defending on Election Day.

VOICE ONE:

Opinion studies show that two issues are helping the Democrats build support: unhappiness with the Iraq war and the economy. In some cases, the same is also true of another issue: the handling of the war on terrorism.

The war on terror is a top campaign issue for Republican candidates. And political commentators say the economy is in better condition than many people are giving the Republicans credit for.

VOICE TWO:

Mark Foley

In recent weeks there has been much discussion of the Mark Foley issue. Mister Foley was a Republican representative from the southeastern state of Florida. He resigned from Congress on September twenty-ninth. His resignation followed news that he sent sexual messages by e-mail and instant messaging to teenage boys.

The young men had been chosen as pages. Pages are high school students who act as messengers and helpers for members of Congress. The Justice Department, the House ethics committee and Florida officials have all opened investigations.

VOICE ONE:

The Republican Party is known for its defense of traditional family values. But there are disputed accusations that Republican leaders knew about Mark Foley's actions for some time and did not do enough to stop them.

Some opinion studies have suggested that this issue might not have much effect on many voters. But there is talk that it could decrease the number of social conservatives who plan to vote. Social conservatives are traditionally among the most loyal voting groups for Republicans.

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VOICE TWO:

The Democrats have proposed a legislative program they call "A New Direction for America." One goal is to raise the federal minimum wage for the lowest paid workers for the first time in ten years. Another goal is to end what the Democrats call tax giveaways to large oil companies.

The Democrats also say their plan will provide what they call real security at home and overseas. They say they will reshape what they describe as failed Bush administration policies in Iraq, the Middle East and around the world.

VOICE ONE:

President Bush says Republican leadership has improved the economy and kept America safe. Mister Bush says he believes these are the most important issues to voters. The president says the Democrats would raise taxes, while the Republicans would keep taxes low.

Mister Bush says the nation is safer now than it was before the September eleventh attacks five years ago, but still under threat.

The president has called Iraq the central front in the war on terror. But a majority of those questioned in recent opinion studies said they disapprove of the president's handling of the war. Even so, measures of public opinion suggest that most Americans do not support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

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VOICE TWO:

With Americans closely divided politically, the balance of power in Congress could rest with independent voters. Will they choose Democrats or Republicans?

A Republican congressman from Illinois, Ray LaHood, was on a television news program a month before the coming elections. He said this was going to be the most difficult thirty days in the last twelve years that Republicans have been in the majority.

Many political scientists say the Democrats are in a good position to win the fifteen additional seats they need to retake the House. But the experts believe it will be more difficult to gain the six seats needed to win back the Senate.

VOICE ONE:

There are intense battles over some of those seats. In Tennessee, Democrat Harold Ford faces Republican Bob Corker for the seat of retiring Senator Bill Frist. Mister Ford, if he wins, would be the first African-American senator elected by a southern state since the late eighteen hundreds. He currently serves in the House of Representatives.

VOICE TWO:

This year’s elections could be especially important for the two largest minority groups in the United States – Latinos and blacks. Latinos historically do not vote in large numbers. But this year may be different. Earlier this year Latinos held big demonstrations to demand immigration reform. They also denounced proposals to increase punishments for illegal immigrants.

The recent debate over immigration could lead greater numbers of Latinos to vote in the elections next week. If that happens, it could affect the results in some states.

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VOICE ONE:

More African-American candidates are competing this year than ever before. A record six black candidates are running for either governor or senator.

Ken Blackwell, a Republican, is one of the six: he hopes to become governor of Ohio. Another Republican, Michael Steele, is running for senator from Maryland.

Barack Obama

The House of Representatives currently has forty black members. The Senate has one. Barack Obama is a popular young Democrat who was elected in Illinois in two thousand four. He is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas.

This Election Day, voters in thirty-six of the fifty states will choose governors. The first black governor elected in more than a century was Douglas Wilder in Virginia in nineteen eighty-nine. On November seventh, in Massachusetts, Democrat Deval Patrick could become the second.

VOICE TWO:

Candidates and interest groups spend lots of money to campaign by television, radio, telephone and, increasingly, the Internet. But the Internet can help or hurt a candidate.

In August, Senator George Allen of Virginia was speaking at a campaign event. He saw he was being videotaped by a worker from his opponent's campaign. The senator made fun of him and used a term that many people considered a racial insult. The young man with the camera was of South Asian ancestry.

Soon the world could see the video on the video-sharing Web site YouTube. The senator, seen as a possible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in two years, apologized. But that incident helped smash the big lead he had in his race against Democrat Jim Webb.

Technology is an issue not just for candidates but also for voters. Many people are not sure they trust the electronic voting machines that are replacing older equipment. They worry about security and, in many cases, the lack of a paper record of ballots in case any recounts are needed this Election Day.

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VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Brianna Blake and produced by Caty Weaver. You can find MP3 files and transcripts of our programs, and learn more about American issues, at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA. And be sure to listen to VOA Special English on the radio or the Web for results of the November seventh elections. You can also hear special coverage on VOA News Now.

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It Will Not Wash: Does It Work, or Not?

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Will your idea be a good one? Transcript of radio broadcast:

I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program, Words and Their Stories.

Young Mister Smith had an idea for his employer. It was an idea for saving money for the company by increasing prices. At the same time, Smith suggested that the company sell goods of less value.

If his employer liked the idea, Smith might be given more pay. Perhaps he might even get a better job with the company.

Business had been very slow. So Mister Smith's employer thought a few minutes about the idea. But then she shook her head. "I am sorry, Smith," his employer said. "It just will not wash."

Now, the meaning of these English words should be, "It will not get clean." Yet Smith's idea did not have anything to do with making something clean. So why did his employer say, "It will not wash?"

Most word experts agree that "it will not wash" means it will not work. Eric Partridge wrote that the saying probably developed in Britain in the eighteen hundreds. Charlotte Bronte used it in a story published in eighteen forty-nine. She wrote, "That wiln't wash, miss." Mizz Bronte seems to have meant that the dyes used to color a piece of clothing were not good. The colors could not be depended on to stay in the material.

In nineteenth century England, the expression came to mean an undependable statement. It was used mainly to describe an idea. But sometimes it was used about a person.

A critic once said of the poet Robert Browning, "He won't wash." The critic did not mean that the poet was not a clean person. He meant that Browning's poems could not be depended on to last.

Today, we know that judgment was wrong. Robert Browning still is considered a major poet. But very few people remember the man who said Browning would not wash.

Happily for the young employee Smith, his employer wanted him to do well in the company. So the employer "talked turkey" to him. She said, "Your idea would be unfair to our buyers. Think of another way to save money."

A century ago, to talk turkey meant to talk pleasantly. Turkeys in the barnyard were thought to be speaking pleasantly to one another. In recent years, the saying has come to mean an attempt to teach something important.

Word expert Charles Funk tells how he believes this change took place.

He says two men were shooting turkeys together. One of them was a white man. The other was an American Indian. The white man began stating reasons why he should get all the turkeys for himself. But the American Indian stopped him. He told the white man, "Now, I talk turkey to you."

Mister Smith thought of a better idea after his employer talked turkey to him. He was given an increase in pay. So if your idea "will not wash," try "talking turkey" to yourself and come up with a better idea.

(MUSIC)

This Words and Their Stories program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark.

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Edward Weston, 1886-1958: Influenced How Photography Was Seen

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His art is known as "straight photography" -- no effects were used to change the image. Transcript of radio broadcast:

Correction attached

VOICE ONE:

I’m Mary Tillotson.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about the American photographer Edward Weston.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Edward Weston

Edward Weston is one of the most recognized of all American photographers. He is probably most responsible for helping people to see photography as an art form.

Today, art experts consider photographers who took pictures like Mister Weston’s to be part of the art movement called Modernism. The kind of photographs Mister Weston took are called “straight photography.” No unusual effects were used to change the image of the subject. The photographs appear to show reality in a pure and clear way.

Yet, Mister Weston did not always use his camera to take pictures that way. At first, he took pictures influenced by the popular photographs of his time. Photographers, then, made pictures that did not appear sharp and clear. Instead, they appeared “soft.” They were similar to painted pictures that tried to be beautiful, not realistic.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Edward Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois, in eighteen eighty-six. When he was sixteen, his father gave him one of the early cameras made by the Kodak Company. Edward soon showed some of his photographs at the Chicago Art Institute.

In nineteen-oh-six, Edward Weston decided to move west where he worked for a railroad company. He briefly returned to Chicago to study at the Illinois College of Photography. But, he soon returned to California. He married Flora Chandler in nineteen-oh-nine. They later had four sons.

VOICE ONE:

Edward Weston owned a store in the area of Glendale, California. He made and sold pictures of people. He also had some of his writing on photography published.

Several important photographers he met in southern California influenced him. Imogen Cunningham and Margrethe Mather were two of them. Miz Mather worked with Mister Weston on several pictures. Miz Cunningham praised Mister Weston’s work. She gave moral support that led Mister Weston to seek out other photographic influences.

"Dunes, Oceano," 1936

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Edward Weston decided to travel to New York City in nineteen twenty-two. He wanted to meet the most influential American photographers in the East. He expected to be praised by members of the artistic community there.

Alfred Stieglitz was the most influential photographer in the United States at the time. He was the reason for Mister Weston’s trip to New York City. He was responsible for a magazine called Camera Works. Mister Stieglitz helped many of the photographers whose work he liked, including Paul Strand and Ansel Adams.

Alfred Stieglitz met with Edward Weston two times. He did not say that he liked Mister Weston’s work. Mister Stieglitz would point to some parts of the pictures he liked. Then he would point to something he did not like.

VOICE ONE:

Edward Weston discovered an art community in New York that he had never imagined before. He met many people who, today, are recognized as important American photographers and artists. One of them was Georgia O’Keeffe.

Miz O’Keeffe became one of America’s most famous woman painters. Mister Weston saw some of her work in New York. He wrote that he would remember it for many years to come.

Edward Weston felt good about his visit to New York, although he was criticized there. He wrote to a friend saying that his artistic sense was changing. He said Alfred Stieglitz had not changed him—only intensified him.

VOICE TWO:

The photographer Ansel Adams said that in the early nineteen twenties Mister Weston had a growing business taking pictures of people. Yet, he gave up his business and left his family to travel to a foreign land. In February of nineteen twenty-three, Mister Weston wrote, “I leave for Mexico City in late March to start life anew.”

Mister Weston traveled to Mexico with Tina Modotti. The two had developed a relationship in Los Angeles. Both were active in the artistic community of southern California. They spent most of three years in Mexico. At the time, many artists and writers were gathering in the Latin American country.

Mister Weston depended on Miz Modotti a great deal. With her help, Mister Weston was able to experience a cultural life that was completely foreign to him. He could not speak Spanish, so she helped him communicate.

For a time, the two had both a working and personal relationship. Mister Weston agreed to teach Miz Modotti photography. In return, she ran his photography business and helped organize shows.

VOICE ONE:

Soon, Miz Modotti became a well-known photographer on her own. The two photographers met many famous Mexican artists during their stay. Painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo were among them. Miz Modotti photographed many of Mister Rivera’s wall paintings. Mister Weston made one of his best-known pictures by capturing the intense expression of another Mexican painter, Jose Clemente Orozco.

"Half Shell Nautilus," 1927

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In Mexico, Edward Weston started to sharpen the straight photography way of taking pictures that he had begun to develop before his trip to New York. He took pictures of people he met and of objects and buildings. His pictures appeared to represent the true nature of his subjects. He also took many photographs of cultural objects called folk art. At that time, many artists were reconsidering the importance of folk art. They began to realize that traditional forms of art are as important to culture as the art that normally is shown in museums.

Mister Weston’s experience in Mexico changed his ideas about photography. He returned to California permanently in nineteen twenty-six to continue his own work. Miz Modotti became involved in political activism. She traveled to Europe to photograph the rise of Fascism there before she died mysteriously in nineteen forty-two.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

After Edward Weston returned from Mexico he began producing fully developed work. He now made simple photographs that were sharp representations of their subjects.

A sea shell and a vegetable called a green pepper were the subjects of two of his most famous photographs. The idea he presented was that simple objects are, in fact, beautiful forms. He would often take pictures of rocks, coastlines, vegetable life and even the unclothed human body. Mister Weston’s goal was to celebrate the beauty of shapes.

VOICE TWO:

Edward Weston’s life began to change. His marriage to Flora Chandler ended and he married Charis Wilson. They moved to Carmel, California. Mister Weston spent a lot of time at a nearby place on the coast called Point Lobos. Many of his best-known pictures show the beauty of the rocky coastline of northern California. His pictures often were of unusual rock formations. His new wife, Charis, was his most important model during this time.

In nineteen thirty-seven, Mister Weston received the highest honor of his lifetime. He was given the first Guggenheim Fellowship ever presented to a photographer. The award signaled that photographers were now considered “serious artists.”

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Edward Weston continued to work through the nineteen thirties and forties. Yet, he never earned much money. He lived in a small house that his sons built for him in Carmel, California. In nineteen forty-five, his second wife, Charis, left him.

Mister Weston had to stop work three years later. The effects of Parkinson’s disease ended his ability to take photographs and process them. His sons took care of him until he died ten years later in nineteen fifty-eight.

VOICE TWO:

Experts say that Edward Weston helped change the way Americans understood photography. Photography had been thought of mainly as a way to record information. Edward Weston showed that photographers worked to capture the same forms that other artists did in their search for beauty.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

---

Correction: An earlier version of this page included a photograph that was misidentified as an image of Edward Weston.

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Women Journalists From Lebanon, China and U.S. Are Honored

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The International Women's Media Foundation presents its 2006 Courage in Journalism Awards. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

From left: Gao Yu, May Chidiac and Elena Poniatowska

The International Women's Media Foundation presented three Courage in Journalism Awards this week at a ceremony in New York. One went to May Chidiac, a Lebanese broadcaster who survived a bomb attack last year.

Another went to Gao Yu, a Chinese journalist who was jailed for six years. And the third went to American reporter Jill Carroll who was held by kidnappers in Iraq.

Each year the foundation honors women journalists whose work has made them champions of a free press. The Courage in Journalism Award is for reporting the news under dangerous or difficult conditions.

Jill Carroll

Jill Carroll was reporting for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper when she was kidnapped on January seventh. Her interpreter, Alan Eniwya, was killed.

Miz Carroll was held hostage for eighty-two days. She was released on March thirtieth and, a few days later, she returned to the United States. She had reported from Iraq for three years before her kidnapping.

May Chidiac of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation is one of the best known faces on Lebanese television. In September of two thousand five, a bomb exploded under the driver's seat of her car. She lost her left hand and left leg in the explosion.

She had just completed a show about the suspected involvement of Syria in the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. May Chidiac required nine months of treatment and twenty-six operations. In May, she won the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize. She returned to her job in July.

Chinese economic and political reporter Gao Yu also won the Courage in Journalism Award in nineteen ninety-five. But she was not able to accept the award the first time because she was being held in prison.

Gao Yu was sentenced to six years in prison in nineteen ninety-three. She was found guilty of leaking state secrets through a Hong Kong newspaper. She received a medical release in March of nineteen ninety-nine.

She was also arrested in connection with the nineteen eighty-nine pro-democracy movement in China.

The foundation also gave Elena Poniatowska of Mexico a Lifetime Achievement Award for her work as a newspaper reporter and author. She is well known for fighting against corruption and for the rights of women and the poor.

During the ceremony on Tuesday, a moment of silence was observed in memory of Russian investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya. She was murdered in Moscow on October seventh. She won the Courage in Journalism Award in two thousand two.

Anna Politkovskaya wrote for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper. She was a strong critic of Russia's human rights record in Chechnya. The International Women's Media Foundation is leading a campaign to call on the Russian government to fully investigate her murder.

IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. You can find MP3 files and transcripts of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

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Poet Jack Prelutsky: Writing About the Little Things in Life

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America's first children's poet laureate is chosen. Also: a question about Halloween, and the music of Mindy Smith, a Northerner with a Southern sound. Transcript of radio broadcast:

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

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

We answer a question about the American holiday Halloween …

Play some music from Mindy Smith …

And report about the new children’s poet laureate.

Jack Prelutsky

The Poetry Foundation recently named American poet Jack Prelutsky as the nation’s first children’s poet laureate. The group created the award as a way to increase Americans’ love of poetry from an early age. Faith Lapidus has more.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

As children’s poet laureate, Jack Prelutsky will give two public readings in the next two years. He will also advise the Poetry Foundation about children’s literature and take part in projects concerning children and poetry.

Jack Prelutsky has been writing poetry for children for almost forty years. He has written more than thirty-five books of poems. His first book was called "A Gopher in the Garden." It was published in nineteen sixty-seven. His latest is called "Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems."

Jack Prelutsky is well known for creating new words by combining two words to create a new kind of creature. For example, he combined "radish" with "shark" to get "radishark." "Lion" and "broccoli" became a "broccolion." Listen now as Jack Prelutsky reads his description of an "umbrellaphant," a mixture of the words "umbrella" and "elephant."

Behold The Bold Umbrellaphant
That's Not the Least Afraid
To Forage In the Broiling Sun
For it is in the Shade.

The pachyderm's uncanny trunk
Is probably unique.
It ends in an umbrella
That has yet to spring a leak.

And so the bold umbrellaphant
Is ever at its ease
No matter if the temperature
Is ninety-nine degrees.

And when a sudden thunderstorm
Sends oceans from the sky
That fortunate umbrellaphant
Remains entirely dry.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Jack Prelutsky says children like his poems because he writes about things they care about. Poetry experts say Jack Prelutsky's poems recognize children’s feelings. An example of this is the poem "My Sister is a Werewolf" which is about how it feels to be different.

Jack Prelutsky also writes poems about American holidays. We leave you now with Jack Prelutsky reading part of his poem "It’s Halloween," about the holiday celebrated at the end of October.

It's Halloween, it's Halloween
The moon is full and bright.
And we shall see what can't be seen
On any other night.

Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,
Grinning goblins fighting duels,
Werewolves rising from their tombs,
Witches on their magic brooms.

In masks and gowns we haunt the street,
And knock on doors for trick or treat.
Tonight we are the king and queen
For oh tonight it's Halloween.

(MUSIC)

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Ha Duy Kim Khuyen asks about the meaning of Halloween.

Halloween is celebrated in the United States every year on October thirty-first. On that night, many people will dress in clothing that makes them look like frightening creatures such as monsters or ghosts.

Such traditions developed from Celtic beliefs in ancient Britain. The Celts believed that spirits of the dead would return to their homes on October thirty-first, the day of the autumn feast. They built huge fires to frighten away evil spirits released with the dead on that night.

People from Scotland and Ireland brought these ideas with them when they came to America. Some believed that spirits played tricks on people on the last night of October.

History experts say many of the Halloween traditions of today developed from those of ancient times. They say that burning a candle inside a hollow pumpkin recalls the fires set many years ago in Britain. And they say that wearing a mask to hide a person’s face is similar to the way ancient villagers covered their faces to force evil spirits away.

On Halloween night, American children put on masks and other special clothing. They go from house to house shouting "Trick or treat!" If the people in the houses do not give them candy, the children may play a trick on them.

Some adults dress in costumes on Halloween and attend parties. They also place pumpkins and frightening objects outside their homes. A National Retail Federation study says that Americans are spending almost five thousand million dollars to celebrate Halloween this year.

The study also listed the most popular costumes Americans will wear on Halloween. The most popular costume among children is the princess. Other popular costumes for children are pirates, witches and characters from popular movies, like Spiderman. The study says more than six million adults plan to dress like a witch for Halloween. The next most popular costumes for adults are pirates and vampires.

Mindy Smith

Mindy Smith is a Northerner with a Southern sound. She grew up on Long Island, New York. But she has made a career in the southern state of Tennessee singing country-influenced music. Smith’s second album, "Long Island Shores," shows off her clear voice and emotion-filled songs. Katherine Cole has more.

KATHERINE COLE:

Mindy Smith was raised by a religious leader and his wife. Sharron Smith was the music director of her husband’s Christian religious center. She taught Mindy to love music and to touch people emotionally with the power of song.

Listen to "Little Devil," a song written and performed by Mindy Smith. She talks about how evil things can sometimes appear to be nice.

(MUSIC)

Mindy Smith's first record, "One Moment More," brought her great success in the world of country music. But she says she does not think of herself as a country artist. She wants to be a singer and songwriter with her own sound. And she wants her music to honestly express her life experiences. Here is "Tennessee," a song about the state that Smith now calls home.

(MUSIC)

We close with music from a different record. The song "Jolene" was first written and sung by the famous country and western singer Dolly Parton. Here, Mindy Smith performs the well-known song. Dolly Parton said that of all the artists who have performed "Jolene" over the years, Mindy Smith's version is her favorite.

(MUSIC)

HOST:

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

This show was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.

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

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Dollar Is World's Most Traded Currency. But Why?

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A question from Brazil about the stability of the US currency. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

A listener in Manaus, Brazil, Luiz Roberto Alves da Costa, has a question about money. He asks why the American dollar is more stable or secure than most currencies in the international monetary system.

Stability in the value of a nation’s currency depends on foreign exchange markets and economic conditions.

The clearest measure of stability is the exchange value of a currency over time. Trading takes place on foreign exchanges around the world.

Since nineteen seventy-six, most major economies have used a system of floating exchange rates to value their currency. This means the value of one currency is always changing in relation to others.

People who travel pay the spot exchange rate when they have to trade currency. If they wait long enough at the exchange office, they might see the rates change a little within hours or even minutes.

Companies and individuals buy and sell an estimated six hundred thousand million dollars on the spot market each day.

The dollar is by far the world's most traded currency. And it is worth more than most. The euro, however, is currently worth about one dollar and twenty-seven cents. And the British pound buys almost two dollars.

A costly currency adds to the price of exports. That can hurt economic growth. Trade deficits can also grow because a strong currency lowers the cost of imports.

Inflation is another influence on the value of money. High inflation cuts the buying power of a currency over time.

The United States currently has a yearly inflation rate of about three percent. The Federal Reserve considers this within acceptable limits.

This week the central bank left interest rates unchanged for the third month, after seventeen increases. Economic growth has slowed this year and inflationary pressures are expected to ease over time.

Even the strongest currencies change in value over time. But there is one basic reason why the market for dollars is mostly stable. The dollar is the currency of the world's biggest economy, worth twelve million million dollars.

Larger markets are generally more stable than smaller ones. And nations that trade with the United States, especially in East Asia, continue to accept dollars for the goods they sell to Americans.

But there are other issues to consider about the dollar and its place in the world, and we will examine these in an upcoming report.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter.

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Cancer Drugs Save Children's Lives But Come With Risks

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Study finds survivors eight times as likely as their siblings to have severe or life-threatening conditions as adults. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

" src="http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/images/ap-child-cancer-25oct06-se_1.jpg" vspace="2" width="165" border="0" height="140" hspace="2">

Doctors say very few children survived cancer before the nineteen seventies. Improved treatments now offer hope of long-term survival for almost eighty percent of young cancer patients. Yet the chemotherapy drugs and radiation used to stop their cancers can lead to other problems later.

A newly reported study looked at more than ten thousand adults who survived childhood cancers. They were treated between nineteen seventy and ninety eighty-six. Their average age at the time of the study was twenty-six.

The study compared their medical histories with those of three thousand of their brothers and sisters.

The researchers found that sixty-two percent of the cancer survivors had at least one long-term health problem. The same was true of only thirty-seven percent of the brothers and sisters.

The cancer survivors were eight times as likely as their siblings to have severe or life-threatening conditions as adults. And many of the survivors had three or more conditions.

The cancer survivors were at higher risk of problems like heart disease and early bone loss. Chemotherapy can damage bone growth during an important period of development. And radiation for some cancers can increase the risk of other cancers later.

Survivors of bone cancers, cancers of the central nervous system and Hodgkin's disease were at highest risk for health problems as adults. The study also found that girls who survived cancer were more likely than boys to have problems later.

Doctors say newer cancer treatments are a little safer but not much. Still, the good news is that many of the conditions linked to cancer treatments can be found when they are still treatable.

Kevin Oeffinger of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York was lead author of the study. He says doctors should watch closely for problems as childhood cancer survivors get older. He says doctors should also be sure to provide information about problems that a child cancer patient might expect in the future. And he says it is especially important for survivors to eat right, exercise and not smoke.

The report is from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. The findings appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. You can get more health news and download MP3 files and transcripts of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Mario Ritter.

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1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor Ends American Effort to Avoid War

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Important changes took place in US politics and life in the years leading up to World War Two. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

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

(MUSIC)

History usually is a process of slow change. Customs and traditions flow slowly from day to day. However, certain single events also can change the course of history. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo was such an event. So was the first airplane flight by the American inventors, the Wright Brothers. Or the meeting between the Spanish explorer Cortez and the Aztec king, Montezuma.

All these events were single moments that changed history. And so it was, too, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty-one.

Pearl Harbor attack

The surprise attack on America's large naval base in Hawaii was a great military success for the government in Tokyo. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor had more than a military meaning. It also represented the passing of a period in American history.

The attack would force Americans to fight in World War Two. More important, it would make them recognize their position as one of the leading and powerful nations of the world.

VOICE TWO:

In future weeks, we will discuss the military and political events of World War Two. But let us take a moment today to look back at the years before the battle.

We already have seen how the attack ended the historic American tradition of avoiding world conflict. However, Pearl Harbor also marked the end of a shorter period in the nation's history. This period began with the end of World War One and ended with Pearl Harbor. It lasted only twenty-three years, from nineteen eighteen to nineteen forty-one. But it was filled with important changes in American politics, culture, and traditions.

VOICE ONE:

Let us start our review of these years with politics.

In nineteen twenty, the voters of the United States elected Republican Warren Harding to the presidency. The voters were tired of the progressive policies of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson. They were especially tired of Wilson's desire for the United States to play an active part in the new League of Nations.

Harding was a conservative Republican. And so were the two presidents who followed him, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

VOICE TWO:

All three of these presidents generally followed conservative economic policies. And they did not take an active part in world affairs.

Americans turned away from Republican rule in the election of nineteen thirty-two. They elected the Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin Roosevelt. And they continued to re-elect him. In this way, the conservative Republican policies of the nineteen twenties changed to the more progressive policies of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt in the nineteen thirties.

VOICE ONE:

This change happened mainly because of economic troubles.

The nineteen twenties were a time of growth and business strength. President Calvin Coolidge said during his term that the business of America was business. This generally was the same belief of the other Republican presidents during the period, Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover.

There was a good reason for this. The economy expanded greatly during the nineteen twenties. Many Americans made a great deal of money on the stock market. And wages for workers increased as well.

However, economic growth ended suddenly with the stock market crash of October, nineteen twenty-nine.

In that month, the stocks for many leading companies fell sharply. And they continued to fall in the months that followed. Many Americans lost great amounts of money. And the public at large lost faith in the economy. Soon, the economy was in ruins, and businesses were closing their doors.

VOICE TWO:

President Hoover tried to solve the crisis. But he was not willing to take the strong actions that were needed to end it. As time passed, many Americans began to blame Hoover for the terrible economic depression.

Democrat Franklin Roosevelt was elected mainly because he promised to try new solutions to end the Great Depression. Soon after he was elected, Roosevelt launched a number of imaginative economic policies to solve the crisis.

Roosevelt's policies helped to reduce the amount of human suffering. But the Great Depression finally ended only with America's entry into World War Two.

VOICE ONE:

Roosevelt's victory in nineteen thirty-two also helped change the balance of power in American politics. Roosevelt brought new kinds of Americans to positions of power: labor union leaders. Roman Catholics. Jews. Blacks. Americans from families that had come from such nations as Italy, Ireland, or Russia.

These Americans repaid Roosevelt by giving the Democratic Party their votes.

The Works Progress Administration put millions of people to work during the Great Depression

VOICE TWO:

The nineteen twenties and thirties also brought basic changes in how Americans dealt with many of their social and economic problems.

The nineteen twenties generally were a period of economic growth with little government intervention in the day-to-day lives of the people. But the terrible conditions of the Great Depression during the nineteen thirties forced Roosevelt and the federal government to experiment with new policies.

The government began to take an active role in offering relief to the poor. It started programs to give food and money to poor people. And it created jobs for workers.

The government grew in other ways. It created major programs for farmers. It set regulations for the stock market. It built dams, roads, and airports.

American government looked much different at the end of this period between the world wars than it did at the beginning. Government had become larger and more important. It dealt with many more issues in people's lives than it ever had before.

VOICE ONE:

Social protest increased during the nineteen twenties and thirties. Some black Americans began to speak out more actively about unfair laws and customs. Blacks in great numbers moved from the southern part of the country to northern and central cities.

The nineteen twenties and thirties also were an exciting time of change for women. Women began to wear less traditional kinds of clothes. Washing machines and other inventions allowed them to spend less time doing housework. Women could smoke or drink in public, at least in large cities. And many women held jobs.

Of course, the women's movement was not new. Long years of work by such women's leaders as Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony had helped women win the right to vote in nineteen twenty.

VOICE TWO:

The nineteen twenties and thirties also were important periods in the arts.

Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill, and others made this what many called the "Golden Age" of American writing. Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects designed great buildings. Film actors like Clark Gable, and radio entertainers like Jack Benny, did more than make Americans laugh or cry. They also helped unite the country. Millions of Americans could watch or listen to the same show at the same time.

VOICE ONE:

Politics. The economy. Social traditions. Art. All these changed for Americans during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. And many of these changes also had effects in foreign countries beyond America's borders.

However, the change that had the most meaning for the rest of the world was the change produced by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

America's modern history as a great superpower begins with its reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a sudden event in the flow of history. It was a day on which a young land suddenly became fully grown.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION.

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Getting Into an American College: The Application Process

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Admissions directors advise students to apply to at least three schools -- and give plenty of time. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

This week, we talk about the application process for American colleges and universities. This is part eight in our Foreign Student Series.

Earlier, we explained how to begin a search for schools by going to one of the American educational advising centers around the world. We also discussed the rules for entering in the United States. And we talked about programs that can be completed online.

A student at Prince George's Community College in Maryland

But if your goal is to come to the United States to study, then it is time to make a list of colleges or universities that interest you. Be sure to choose more than one. Directors of foreign student admissions say students should apply to at least three schools.

Some students want to attend a small college. Others want to go to a big university. If a really big university appeals to you, then there are ones like Ohio State. That university in Columbus, Ohio, in the Midwest, has almost fifty-two thousand students. There are students this year from around one hundred fifty countries.

Ohio State provides international students with an application on its Web site. You can pay the application charge online with a credit card. Or you can print the forms and mail them with the payment.

Many colleges and universities have their applications and also their catalogs online. A catalog is the publication in which a school tells about its programs.

You should start on your applications at least two years before you want to begin studies.

Completing a college application can take some time. But answering all the questions is not enough. Another important step is taking admissions tests. The SAT is the college entry test that American high school students most commonly take. Another one is the ACT.

Colleges and universities may also require international students to take the TOEFL -- the Test of English as a Foreign Language.

We will begin discussing these tests next week.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. If you have a general question for our Foreign Student Series, write to special@voanews.com.

You can find our earlier reports, and download MP3 files, at voaspecialenglish.com. Another site you might want to visit is educationusa dot state dot g-o-v. This is a State Department Web site for international students. Again, the address is educationusa dot state dot gov. I’m _______________.

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Experts Call for Continued Efforts to Protect Children From Polio

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Recent campaign attempts to strike back against the disease. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about efforts to defeat the disease polio. Polio is spreading again after almost disappearing.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Experts say hundreds of thousands of people could get polio unless the disease is stopped in areas where it has always been present. They also say political and financial support is needed to fight polio.

Maroufa, 4, receives polio vaccine in Kabul, Afghanistan

Doctors advising the World Health Organization met recently in Geneva, Switzerland. They reported that Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan have endemic polio. That means poliovirus is continually present there. The experts warned that this presence threatens almost two hundred countries now free of the virus. Polio spreads easily from person to person. It easily crosses national borders.

VOICE TWO:

Conference chairman Steve Cochi said the countries with endemic polio can defeat the disease. But Doctor Cochi said political leaders need to help. He noted progress in Afghanistan after Afghan President Hamid Karzai organized a polio advisory group. Conflict in southern Afghanistan has harmed efforts to provide children with anti-polio medicine called a vaccine.

About seventy percent of the world’s polio cases are in Nigeria. Almost nine hundred new cases have been reported there this year. The new cases are mainly in northern Nigeria. Problems there helped delay the goal of ending the threat from polio by two thousand seven.

VOICE ONE:

False reports had been spreading in northern Nigeria. The reports said a campaign to provide polio vaccines was really a plot to harm Muslims. As a result, the vaccinations stopped for about a year. That was in two thousand three and two thousand four. Many new cases then developed.

Polio from Nigeria spread as far as Indonesia. For this reason, a special vaccination program took place in Nigeria last month.

In India, the number of polio cases has increased almost ten times compared to the same period last year. Poor areas of Uttar Pradesh Province are responsible for much of the increase. Pakistan has about the same number of cases this year as it did in the same period last year.

VOICE TWO:

Yagob Yousef Al-Mazrou is an advisory committee member and represents Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health. He says his nation is concerned about visitors spreading the virus. Millions of people arrive in Saudi Arabia each year for the Islamic religious event called the Hajj.

Doctor Al-Mazrou said his nation now requires evidence of vaccination for visitors from polio-affected countries. Children from those countries are given polio vaccines at the Saudi border. This is true even if they had been vaccinated earlier.

VOICE ONE:

Robert Scott represented the Global Polio Eradication Initiative at the conference. The group has been working against polio for almost twenty years. During that period, the world polio rate has fallen by more than ninety-nine percent.

Doctor Scott placed importance on the need for the international community to provide money for vaccination campaigns. The doctor is an official of Rotary International, a service organization and Initiative member. Rotary has given millions of dollars to fight polio.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In the nineteen nineties, it seemed that modern medicine might soon defeat polio. Health officials set two thousand as a target date for the end of new cases. But before anyone could celebrate, more cases were reported. Officials re-set the date for defeating polio to two thousand five. Then they delayed again, to two thousand seven. Still, the disease keeps spreading.

But polio fighters keep striking back. As part of that effort, the World Health Organization launched a campaign in eastern Africa in September. It was the largest such attempt ever made in several countries at once. More than three million children were protected against the disease within a few days.

VOICE ONE:

Prevention is important because antibiotic drugs cannot help after someone is infected. Antibiotics can kill only bacteria, not viruses.

Poliovirus spreads from person to person. Its victims often are young children. But adults also get polio. Many people are infected without knowing it. They may have just a higher than normal body temperature and pain in the throat. But polio sometimes attacks the central nervous system. In just hours, polio patients may not be able to stand or walk. And, some die.

VOICE TWO:

Children who received vaccines in the recent Africa campaign live along the borders of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Some roads in eastern Africa were not passable. But health workers used horses and other animals to reach the children. The workers provided each child with two drops of the vaccine by mouth.

Almost one million children received the vaccine in Ethiopia. That nation reported thirty-seven polio cases since December of two thousand four. The children live in areas that share borders with Somalia and Kenya.

Finding all the children who needed the vaccine was difficult. Recent flooding in Ethiopia and Somalia displaced many people. Somalia and northern Kenya also have many communities of people who move from place to place.

VOICE ONE:

Until two thousand five, Somalia had not had any polio cases for three years. But then, two hundred fifteen people became sick with the disease. Officials say the virus came from Yemen.

Health workers attempted to reach more than one million five hundred thousand children on the Somali side of the Ethiopian border. Health conditions are poor in Somalia, which has no effective central government. Special efforts were made to include children in areas near the borders with Ethiopia and Kenya.

In northern Kenya, two hundred fifty thousand children were vaccinated. Kenya last week reported its first case of polio in more than twenty years. The patient is a three-year-old Somali girl born in a refugee camp in Kenya. She had received a polio vaccine and had never been in Somalia.

VOICE TWO:

The World Health Organization says many people gave their time so that all the children could be reached. Groups of women and young people helped. Religious leaders and teachers assisted members of governmental and non-governmental agencies.

The campaign was the first of three large campaigns for the Horn of Africa that the W.H.O. hopes to launch this year. At present, however, fifty million dollars is needed to pay for vaccinations in November and December. The organization says without this money, more children will be unable to walk without help. About five to ten percent of those who lose use of their arms or legs also lose their ability to breathe without support and die.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The W.H.O. says the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is the largest public health campaign ever organized. Its main supporters include national governments and UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. Another supporter is America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Even with the recent cases of polio, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has made a big difference. Eighteen years ago, one hundred twenty-five countries reported three hundred fifty thousand polio cases. This year, about one thousand two hundred people have been infected.

Wild poliovirus passes freely from person to person. It spreads through mouth fluids, waste material, and water systems. Another kind of polio is rare. That kind happens when unexpected genetic changes take place in the Oral Polio Vaccine.

VOICE TWO:

The success of the first polio vaccine was announced in nineteen fifty-five. American Jonas Salk and his team proved that a vaccine made from a killed virus could kill poliovirus. The Salk vaccine was given by injection. Polio rates decreased greatly in people who had been vaccinated.

Later, Albert Sabin used a live, but weakened poliovirus to build protection against the disease. That is the kind of vaccine used for years in huge campaigns in Africa and Asia. Experts say recent changes to the vaccine are improving it.

Today, people everywhere hope that anti-polio campaigners armed with vaccine will defeat polio at last.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

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Hey You, in the Next Cube, Is That Document Buzzword-Compliant?

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AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and our guest this week on Wordmaster is writer Paul Dixon, just out with a new version of Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms.

PAUL DIXON: "Most slang dictionaries go A-to-Z and they co-mingle the slang of politics and the slang of baseball and the slang of criminals and the slang of all these other things into one thing. What I realized was that really that's not how people actually operate. So I broke it down into all the components: used-car slang and slang of people outdoors, people who work outdoors, the slang of trades people, the slang of real estate.

"All of these things -- because when you create a group of people, one of the first things they do is they build their own little language to sort of identify them as such. So a person who is a commercial fisher -- fisher, fisher person -- has a vastly different language than, say, somebody who is a computer programmer or somebody who works in a circus. So what I tried to do is break it down into over forty different pieces.

AA: "So, for example, if you use the term 'dancing baloney' -- to me, I've never heard that term before. But I see it here in your dictionary. What is a -- explain dancing baloney."

PAUL DIXON: "Dancing baloney are animated .gif files -- which are, you know, digital images -- and other Web files that are useless and serve simply to impress the client. And so somebody might say in a cube, 'This Web page looks kind of dull, maybe we should throw in some dancing baloney to help it.'"

AA: "So just kind of flash on the page."

PAUL DIXON: "Another of my favorite ones is 'buzzword-compliant.' Buzzword-compliant means that the person who's writing a memo or something that's going through the corporate mechanisms has all the buzzwords, all the hottest terms that upper management wants them to have in the document. So if the buzzword this month is blue-team-red-team-something-or-other, that goes in the document. They might even really not know what it is, but they want to make sure that this is all right, this has got all the buzzwords in it.

"Another one I love is 'catering vulture,' which means that somebody -- people in an office building, let's say there's an executive luncheon or something, these are underlings that basically wait till all the VIPs [very important people] are out of the suite -- "

RS: "And then they eat the food!"

PAUL DIXON: "And then they grab the food. Or there's a party, you know, some special thing -- they come in early in the morning and there's stuff left over from the night before."

RS: "This isn't the first edition of this book."

PAUL DIXON: "No, no -- what happened was, this is the third, the first one came out in nineteen ninety-one and each dictionary changed radically, because my idea was to capture like a snapshot for that moment. So there are things in the first book that are long gone. I mean, the first book came out before the Internet. And so each time -- so all of these things are electric.

"So, so -- one of my favorites is this thing called cube-speak."

RS: "Well, can we talk about that a little bit?"

PAUL DIXON: "Yes. Cube-speak is -- in the United States especially, and probably true all over the world, the modern office building is really a section of cubes. In the old days, people had their own separate little house -- uh, little room inside the office. Now there are all these cubes. They all have a computer and they all have this and they all have that.

"And so it's a very irreverent language of sort of not the corporate executive but the corporate underling. And so, for example, one of my favorites is 'prairie-dogging' and that's when something happens, some loud noise or somebody yells and everybody starts popping up over the edge of their cubicles. They're like prairie dogs popping out of a hole in the desert."

AA: Prolific writer Paul Dixon is the author of Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms. He says the value of slang is often in its ability to communicate complex ideas simply and quickly.

RS: But his advice to English learners is to listen carefully to how others use slang. Because, as everyone knows, a person can sound foolish using slang incorrectly.

AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And, to learn more about American English, go to voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

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