Stopping Bird Flu by Spreading Knowledge About Protective Steps

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Third in a series of reports on deadling with the threat from avian influenza. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

Health officials in Kuwait bury hundreds of chickens earlier this year after several cases of bird flu were confirmed

And I’m Bob Doughty. Today we present the third in a series of reports about the disease bird flu. In this report, we will tell how people can protect themselves and their families from the disease.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The World Health Organization says the world is closer to a pandemic of the influenza virus than at any time since nineteen sixty-eight. In a pandemic, the flu virus would spread quickly to large numbers of people in many countries. Right now, a deadly bird flu virus is not spreading among people very easily. But that could change. The W.H.O. and other health organizations believe people can help stop the spread of bird flu if they have more information about the disease.

VOICE TWO:

By the end of March, one hundred seventy people had died of bird flu in twelve countries. Vietnam had a very high number of deaths at first. But the country has had no human cases of bird flu since late two thousand five.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says animal health officials in Vietnam have been able to prevent the virus in farm birds from spreading to people. Part of the reason is better communication at all levels about the causes and prevention of bird flu.

VOICE ONE:

Most bird flu cases in human beings have resulted from people touching infected farm birds, such as chickens, ducks or turkeys. Last year, for example, bird flu killed three members of a family in Egypt. They lived in the same house. All three persons had helped to kill and clean infected ducks.

The Egyptian government has offered important advice for people who work with live birds. The government says protection from bird flu comes partly from knowing how to recognize the disease and strong prevention efforts. It says protection also results from stopping the spread of the virus, and informing health officials when you suspect bird flu.

VOICE TWO:

In many countries, chicken and other farm birds are an important part of the diet. Farm bird sales are important to the economies in these countries. So some governments have organized campaigns to tell people to continue eating well-cooked chicken.

Some health officials and governments have had problems when they attempt to give advice about bird flu. When bird flu is reported in a country, the government usually announces how people can prevent the disease in their own families. Other announcements say it is safe to eat chicken and eggs as long as they are completely cooked. Yet people often do not follow the rules about preventing bird flu. For example, they may stop eating chicken and eggs. A writer in The Scientist magazine noted recently that people’s feelings sometimes are stronger than the facts.

VOICE ONE:

In Africa, many families keep chickens and other birds near their homes. Many people buy live chickens from markets. So everyone could be at risk.

Here is the best information about ways to protect yourself and your family from bird flu. First, children and women who are pregnant should stay away from farm birds. Children like to play with birds and other animals, but they are not careful about what they touch. Children should not play with birds or gather their eggs.

Do not swim in or use water that may have been used by birds. Heat any of this water to a very high temperature before drinking it or using it for cooking.

Wear protective clothing on your body and hands when working with farm birds. Remember to clean your shoes or feet before going in the house. Keep birds away from areas where people eat or sleep. In fact, it is best not to bring farm birds into the house at all.

VOICE TWO:

It is also important to follow rules of good health and cleanliness when preparing and eating meat or eggs from farm birds. Keep the meat of birds that have not been cooked away from other foods. After cutting uncooked meat, use soap and water to wash hands, knives and cutting surfaces. If possible, use a strong cleaning agent like bleach.

Be sure that meat and eggs from farm birds are completely cooked before eating them. The yellow and white parts of the egg must be cooked until they are solid. Freezing or keeping meat cold will not kill the bird flu virus. Only complete cooking will kill the virus.

VOICE ONE:

You can also protect farm birds from bird flu. When buying chickens, keep them away from the birds you already have for at least two weeks. Cover the water your birds drink so that it is not used by wild birds. Clean the areas where farm birds stay. As soon as a bird looks sick, remove it from the area. If you take birds to the market and bring some of them home, temporarily keep them away from your other birds.

Owners of farms also can take preventative steps. They should not borrow equipment from other farms. If vehicles enter your farm, wash the wheels so they cannot bring in dirt that might contain the bird flu virus. When you return from a market, wash the boxes or containers that were used to carry farm birds.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

You need to know the signs of bird flu in a chicken or duck. Birds will appear tired and refuse to eat. The skin around a bird’s head may become blue. The head and legs may become larger. Birds infected with bird flu may produce more waste than usual. They usually make very few eggs and may die suddenly. The shells of their eggs may be very soft.

Prevent the spread of bird flu by putting dead farm birds into closed containers or bags. Do not throw dead birds into lakes, rivers or other waterways. Do not eat or sell any part of a bird that has died from disease. Bury dead farm birds or their body parts far away from homes and farms.

It is important to report dead birds to animal health officials as soon as possible. If there is bird flu in your area, do not visit other farms or let visitors come to your farm.

VOICE ONE:

There are also rules for hunters and people who work with birds for sport. Wash your hands completely when touching birds used for sport or wild birds. Do not touch any of the bird’s blood or body fluids. Cover your nose and mouth when cleaning areas where birds have been fighting.

If you hunt birds, do not use dogs. Dogs can become infected with the bird flu virus when they carry infected birds. Do not hunt wild birds in areas where there have been cases of bird flu. When you are cleaning birds you have killed, cover your nose, mouth and hands. Be sure to wash your hands and all your tools after you are finished.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

What happens if you follow all these rules and someone in your family gets sick? How will you know if it is bird flu? People who could be infected with the bird flu virus will have difficulty breathing. They may have a very high body temperature, an eye infection and pain in their throat or muscles.

If someone you know has these problems, care for the person without touching him anymore than you need to. Do not sleep in the same room with a person who may have bird flu. Take the person to a doctor as soon as possible.

VOICE ONE:

There are medicines that can help make the bird flu sickness less severe. Scientists are working to make a medicine to protect against bird flu. There are some such vaccines for farm birds. Last month, American health officials approved a vaccine that offers some people protection against bird flu. But scientists are working to develop a more effective vaccine.

VOICE TWO:

Finally, it is important to find good ways to share information about bird flu. For example, a group of parents in Indonesia started their own campaign to educate other parents. A leader of the group said too many families do not have televisions to see announcements from the government. So the group organized a four-hour program in a local school. One parent said she wanted to share the information she learned so that there would be no more bird flu deaths in Indonesia.

Another leader said the group wants to educate workers who collect waste and people who sell goods on city streets. She said these people could talk to other people and help spread information about the disease. As one school official has noted, more people will die if public knowledge about bird flu is lacking.

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Karen Leggett. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

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

(MUSIC)

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Seed Collection Effort Aims to Safeguard 21 Food Crops

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Many of the crops included in a new $37.5 million project are important to feeding the poor in developing countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

A boy carries cassava in the Democratic Republic of Congo

A new project will try to protect twenty-one of the world's most important food crops by securing their seeds. Organizers say the project will "rescue" seed collections in developing countries where many gene banks are in poor condition.

This is a joint project of two organizations, the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the United Nations Foundation. Cary Fowler, the director of the trust based in Rome, says it will be the largest such effort ever made.

The aim is to collect seeds or reproductive material from one hundred sixty-five thousand varieties of the crops. Organizers say the effort will secure more than ninety-five percent of the endangered crop diversity represented in gene banks in developing countries.

They say the fight against hunger cannot be won without securing crops that are in danger of being lost. Many of the crops are known as "orphan crops." Orphan crops do not get much attention from modern plant breeders but are especially important in poor countries. These include cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, taro and coconut.

Some orphan crops cannot be grown from seeds. Instead, cuttings, roots and cell cultures will be gathered from gene banks. And the project will finance research into lower-cost ways to protect these crops.

The project will also finance an information system for plant breeders to search gene banks worldwide. They will be able to look for plants with the right qualities to resist new diseases and the effects of climate change.

Still another goal is to improve communications between farmers and plant breeders. The organizers say they look forward to a time when breeders in Africa can find the same crop genetic information as those in Europe and North America.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has agreed to provide thirty million dollars for the project. Norway will provide seven and one-half million dollars.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust says at least four hundred fifty thousand seed samples will go into the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The trust and the government of Norway are building this in the side of a mountain on an island near the North Pole.

Seeds from around the world will be stored there in case the planet suffers a terrible disaster. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is expected to open in March of two thousand eight.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember.

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Clearing a PATH to Better Health in Developing Countries

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The Seattle-based Program for Appropriate Technology in Health is 30 years old and has programs in 65 countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

This year is the thirtieth anniversary of the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, or PATH. PATH is a nonprofit organization based in Seattle, Washington.

A Young HIV positive orphan lies in his cot at the Nyumbani children home, a hospice for AIDS orphans in Nairobi, Kenya

It was created to deal with technology needs for world health, especially reproductive health. Since then, it has expanded into other areas including vaccine research and prevention of AIDS and malaria.

It has programs in sixty-five countries. PATH works with local partners to design and test new technologies. It also works with companies to manufacture and sell them.

One of its products is called the BIRTHweigh scale. This is used to identify babies who have a dangerously low birthweight, less than two and one-half kilograms.

The scale was designed for health workers with low reading skills. At first it used colors to show different weight levels. But tests in Indonesia found that it also had to be readable in low-light situations, like at night in a house without electric power. The handheld scale was redesigned so a person could feel a button sink into the handle if a baby is a healthy weight.

Now the scale is being designed to provide a guide to the right amount of nevirapine to give a baby. Nevirapine is a drug that can prevent the spread of H.I.V. from an infected mother to her child. H.I.V. is the virus that causes AIDS.

Teresa Guillien at PATH says the group will spend about one hundred sixty million dollars on its programs this year. PATH gets money from the United States government and other countries and international agencies. Donations also come from companies, individuals and foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Last Wednesday, on Africa Malaria Day, PATH marked the first year of an expanded campaign to prevent malaria in Zambia. The aim is to provide protective bed nets to about eighty percent of the population.

PATH has also developed a nutritionally enriched grain called Ultra Rice. Ultra Rice is being used in Colombia, Brazil and India.

Among other projects, PATH is trying to make sure the new cervical cancer vaccine is available in developing countries. And, in the future, Teresa Guillien says PATH hopes to work more on strengthening health systems in those countries.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To learn about other groups working in the developing world, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal.

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Queen to Return to Jamestown to Mark 'America's 400th Anniversary'

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Queen Elizabeth's visit this week is part of an 18-month effort in Virginia to show how England's first permanent settlement in the New World changed the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Next month is the four hundredth anniversary of Britain's first permanent settlement in America. Today, we tell the story of Jamestown.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Copies of the Susan Constant, center, Godspeed, left, and Discovery take part in the Jamestown observance events

In sixteen-oh-seven, three ships loaded with explorers and supplies crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. On May fourteenth the men landed at a small island at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay.

In all, there were one hundred four men and boys. They immediately began work on a settlement on the shores of the James River. They named it Jamestown.

King James the First in England had agreed to let the explorers from the Virginia Company establish a settlement in North America. They were told to find gold and a way to sail to the Orient.

The four hundredth anniversary of Jamestown is being honored with eighteen months of cultural and educational programs around Virginia. They began in May of last year and are meant to show how a struggle for survival changed the world. Many parts of the Jamestown story are being retold to mark what the organizers call "America's 400th Anniversary."

VOICE TWO:

The Jamestown Settlement that people visit today is a re-creation of the colony and a nearby Powhatan Indian village. The state of Virginia built the Jamestown Settlement in nineteen fifty-seven to celebrate the three hundred fiftieth anniversary.

Visitors can stop at the Jamestown Settlement, or drive down the road to a place called Historic Jamestowne on Jamestown Island. The National Park Service and a Virginia historical group jointly operate the island.

Historic Jamestowne is where the English built their colony. But fifty years ago there was not much to see.

VOICE ONE:

Site of settlers' fort

Several months after arriving in America, the colonists built a three-sided fort along the edge of the island. For years, researchers believed that the structure had worn away into the James River.

But in nineteen ninety-four, archeologists began a project called Jamestown Rediscovery. They discovered part of the fort. Since then, they have located the positions of all three sides, along with several deep wells.

Artifacts in the new Archaearium

More than one million objects dating back to the first colonists have come out of the ground. These include tobacco seeds and plant remains. Many of the artifacts can be seen in a new museum called the Archaearium on the grounds of Historic Jamestowne.

VOICE TWO:

Past where the fort was built is the old colonial church on Jamestown Island. The first representative legislature in America met at the Jamestown Church in sixteen nineteen. During this meeting, a plan of self-government was established for all future colonies in America.

Jamestown Church

The colonists built the church out of wood in sixteen seventeen. Then, in sixteen thirty-nine, they replaced it with a church made of stone.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Britain's Queen Elizabeth the Second came to Jamestown for the three hundred fiftieth anniversary in nineteen fifty-seven. It was her first visit to the United States as queen.

A memorial cross was raised on the eastern coast of Jamestown Island. It marked the difficult first few years of life at Jamestown. The colonists did not have enough food. They suffered from diseases. They also fought with the Native Americans who lived in the area.

VOICE TWO:

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip pass two ''prisoners'' in stocks at Jamestown during visit in October 1957

Now, fifty years later, Queen Elizabeth will return to the former colony to observe the four hundredth anniversary of Jamestown.

Kevin Crossett works for a Virginia agency that is helping organize Jamestown events with local, state and national groups. He says officials have taken special care to include all the cultures involved in the earliest years of the settlement.

Past anniversaries at Jamestown have mainly centered on the European experience. But with this anniversary, Kevin Crossett says, each culture gets to tell its own story in its own words.

American Indian groups are involved in the anniversary events. But, as Kevin Crossett notes, they do not consider the observance a celebration. After all, the Native Americans lost land and people when the English arrived.

The idea of a "celebration" might not appeal much to black Americans either. The first black people to arrive in Jamestown were slaves from Africa.

VOICE ONE:

The Jamestown observance began last May when a copy of the ship Godspeed sailed up the East Coast. This is a modern version of one of the three ships that carried the first settlers to Jamestown Island. The other two, which have also been re-created, were the Susan Constant and the Discovery.

Last week, a historical re-creation called "Journey Up the James" began at Virginia Beach. When the three ships first arrived in America, they landed at Virginia Beach before heading farther up the James River.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, plan to be in Virginia on May third and fourth. This will be the queen's first visit to the United States in sixteen years.

But the main event of the Jamestown observance, a three-day anniversary weekend, begins Friday, May eleventh. Organizers have invited President Bush to speak. The honorary chairwoman for the events is former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

The weekend will include music and cultural performances. Artists will demonstrate glass-making from the seventeenth century.

Earlier events for the Jamestown anniversary have included Indian and African-American cultural programs. There was also an educational program called "Jamestown Live." This was a one-hour Internet broadcast in November involving history experts and others. Organizers say more than one million students around the world took part in the program.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The first settlers at Jamestown imagined that it would become a great city. In fact, after less than a century, it burned to the ground in a rebellion led by a colonist named Nathaniel Bacon. The colony never recovered and the capital of Virginia at that time moved to Williamsburg. Still, England had established a permanent presence in North America.

VOICE TWO:

As part of the Jamestown observance, a special program will take place in September in Williamsburg. The gathering will examine the role of democracy in world politics. Leaders and students from around the world have been invited to discuss the future of democracy in the developing world.

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. For a link to the Jamestown anniversary Web site, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts and audio archives of our programs. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959: A Building Designer Ahead of His Time

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He was the greatest American architect of the 20th century. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

I’m Phoebe Zimmerman.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about the life and work of the greatest American building designer of the twentieth century, Frank Lloyd Wright.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings for more than seventy years. He did most of his

Frank Lloyd Wright

work from nineteen hundred through the nineteen fifties. He designed houses, schools, churches, public buildings, and office buildings.

Critics say Frank Lloyd Wright was one of America's most creative architects. One critic said his ideas were fifty years ahead of the time in which he lived.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in eighteen­ sixty‑seven in the middle western state of Wisconsin. He studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin. In eighteen eighty‑seven, he went to the city of Chicago. He got a job in the office of the famous architects, Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler.

Several years later, Wright established his own building design business. He began by designing homes for people living in and near Chicago. These homes were called "prairie houses."

VOICE ONE:

Prairie houses were long and low. They seemed to grow out of the ground. They were built of wood and other natural materials. The indoors expanded to the outdoors by extending the floor. This created what seemed like a room without walls or a roof.

In nineteen-oh-two, Wright designed one prairie house, called the Willits House, in the town of Highland Park. The house was shaped like a cross. It was built around a huge fireplace. The rooms were designed so they seemed to flow into each other.

VOICE TWO:

Robie House

Visitors to Chicago can see another of Wright's prairie houses. It is called the Robie House. It looks like a series of long, low rooms on different levels. The rooms seem to float over the ground. Wright designed everything in the house, including the furniture and floor coverings.

Wright's prairie houses had a great influence on home design in America. Even today, one hundred years later, his prairie houses appear very modern.

VOICE ONE:

In the nineteen thirties, Wright developed what he called "Usonian" houses. Usonia was his name for a perfect, democratic United States of America. Usonian houses were planned to be low cost. Wright designed them for the American middle class. These are the majority of Americans who are neither very rich nor very poor.

Frank Lloyd Wright believed that all middle class families in America should be able to own a house that was designed well. He believed that the United States could not be a true democracy if people did not own their own house on their own piece of land.

VOICE TWO:

Usonian houses were built on a flat base of concrete. The base was level with the ground. Wright believed that was better and less costly than the common method of digging a hole in the ground for the base. Low‑cost houses based on the Usonian idea became very popular in America in the nineteen fifties. Visitors can see one of Wright's Usonian homes near Washington, D. C. It is the Pope-Leighy House in Alexandria, Virginia.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Frank Lloyd Wright believed in spreading his ideas to young building designers. In nineteen thirty‑two, he established a school called the Taliesin Fellowship. Architectural students paid to live and work with him.

During the summer, they worked at his home near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Wright called this house "Taliesin." That is a Welsh name meaning "shining brow." It was built of stone and wood into the top of a hill.

During the winter, they worked at Taliesin West. This was Wright’s home and architecture office near Phoenix, Arizona. Wright and his students started building it in nineteen thirty-seven in the Sonoran Desert.

VOICE TWO:

Taliesin West is an example of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas of organic architecture taking

Taliesin West

root in the desert. He believed that architecture should have life and spirit. He said a building should appear to grow naturally and easily from its base into its surroundings. Selecting the best place to put a building became a most important first step in the design process.

Frank Lloyd Wright had discovered the beauty of the desert in nineteen twenty-seven when he was asked to help with the design of the Arizona Biltmore hotel. He continued to return to the desert with his students to escape the harsh winters in Wisconsin.

Ten years later he found a perfect place for his winter home and school. He bought about three hundred hectares of desert land at the foot of the McDowell Mountains near Scottsdale, Arizona.

Wright said: “ I was struck by the beauty of the desert, by the dry, clear sun-filled air, by the stark geometry of the mountains.” He wanted everyone who visited Taliesin West to feel this same sense of place.

VOICE ONE:

His architecture students helped him gather rocks and sand from the desert floor to use as building materials. They began a series of buildings that became home, office and school. Wright kept working on and changing what he called a building made of many buildings for twenty years.

Today, Taliesin West has many low stone buildings linked together by walkways and courtyards. It is still very much alive with activity. About seventy people live, work and study there. Guides take visitors through what is one of America’s most important cultural treasures.

VOICE TWO:

Falling Water

In nineteen thirty‑seven, Wright designed a house near the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a fine example of his idea of organic architecture. The house is called "Fallingwater." It sits on huge rocks next to a small river. It extends over a waterfall. From one part of the house, a person can step down a stairway over the water.

"Fallingwater" is so unusual and so beautiful that it came to represent modern American architecture. One critic calls it the greatest house of the twentieth century. Like Taliesin West, "Fallingwater" is open to the public.

VOICE ONE:

Frank Lloyd Wright also is famous for designing imaginative public buildings. In nineteen‑oh‑four, he designed an office building for the Larkin Soap Company in Buffalo, New York. The offices were organized around a tall open space. At the top was a glass roof to let sunlight into the center.

In the late nineteen thirties, Wright designed an office building for the Johnson Wax Company in Racine, Wisconsin. It also had one great room without traditional walls or windows. The outside of the building was made of smooth, curved brick and glass.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen forty‑three, Frank Lloyd Wright designed one of his most famous projects: the Guggenheim Museum of Art in New York City. The building was completed in nineteen sixty, the year following his death.

The Guggenheim is unusual because it is a circle. Inside the museum, a walkway rises

The Guggenheim Museum in New York

in a circle from the lowest floor almost to the top. Visitors move along this walkway to see the artwork on the walls.

The Guggenheim museum was very different from Wright's other designs. It even violated one of his own rules of design: the Guggenheim's shape is completely different from any of the buildings around it.

VOICE ONE:

When Wright was a very old man, he designed the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California, near San Francisco. The Civic Center project was one of his most imaginative designs. It is a series of long buildings between two hills.

Frank Lloyd Wright believed that architecture is life itself taking form. “Therefore,” he said, “it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today, or ever will be lived.”

Frank Lloyd Wright died in nineteen fifty-nine, in Phoenix, Arizona. He was ninety‑one years old. His buildings remain a record of the best of American Twentieth Century culture.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Max Carroll. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.

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Yeltsin: Russia's First Freely Elected Leader, but a Mixed Record

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Experts say history will remember Boris Yeltsin as a democratic leader in some ways but not in others. They also say his Russia was more open than it is now. Transcript of radio broadcast：

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

This week, Russia buried its former president with full honors in Moscow. Boris Yeltsin died Monday at age seventy-six. He served from nineteen ninety-one to nineteen ninety-nine. He will always be remembered as Russia's first democratically elected leader. But his record is seen as a mix of good and bad for the country.

A farewell ceremony in Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow

Boris Yeltsin rose within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. But in nineteen eighty-seven he rebelled against the Soviet system. He called for more reform. Within a month, he was dismissed as party chief in Moscow.

He became a leader of Russia's political opposition. In nineteen eighty-nine, he was elected to the Soviet parliament. Two years later he was elected president of the Russian republic -- at that time, the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic. Mikhail Gorbachev was president of the Soviet Union.

That same year, nineteen ninety-one, a group of plotters from the military, Communist Party and KGB secret police tried to seize power. Leaders of the attempted overthrow detained Mister Gorbachev. But Mister Yeltsin climbed onto an army tank in Moscow to urge people to resist. The coup attempt failed.

Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev

Four months later, in December, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned and the Soviet Union collapsed.

Yet in the years that followed Boris Yeltsin's heroic moment, his popularity fell. In October of nineteen ninety-three, he ordered the army to shell the parliament building to end an occupation by his opponents.

The next year, he ordered troops into Chechnya to crush a separatist rebellion. The war that followed resulted in more than seventy-five thousand deaths, mostly civilians.

Yet Mister Yeltsin's presidency also led to open elections in Russia. It led to private property rights and the right to free speech. He pushed for economic reforms. But critics said those policies went too far, leaving millions of Russians in poverty. They said the restructuring gave too much economic power to a small number of very wealthy business people, known as oligarchs.

Boris Yeltsin had a history of heart problems and heavy drinking. He suffered a heart attack between the first and second rounds of balloting in the nineteen ninety-six presidential election. His condition, though, was kept hidden. In nineteen ninety-nine, six months before the end of his second term, Mister Yeltsin resigned.

To take his place, he chose his prime minister, Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy. Mister Putin was then elected president in two thousand and re-elected four years later. This week he remembered Mister Yeltsin as a man thanks to whom "a new democratic Russia was born."

Political scientists say history will remember Boris Yeltsin as a leader who was democratic in some ways but not in others. They say Russia under Mister Yeltsin was a far more open place than it was during Soviet times -- and more open than it is now.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember.

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Not Enough Room for a Tiger in Your Home? A Toyger May Be Answer

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Also: A question from Pakistan about cowboys. And Cajun music by the Pine Leaf Boys. 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 cowboys ...

Play music by the Pine Leaf Boys ...

And tell about a new kind of cat.

Toyger Cats

Breeder Judy Sugden with Warwhoop, a top toyger

Have you ever seen a tiger and wished you could have one as a pet? Well, the largest member of the cat family now comes in a smaller version. American cat breeders have worked for years to develop the toyger. This new kind of house cat looks just like a toy tiger. Faith Lapidus has more.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

A professional breeder named Judy Sugden developed the toyger cat by selecting and mating other cats. Toygers are large-boned cats with orange-gold colored fur and black markings. A perfect toyger also has small rounded ears and a white stomach. A toyger is usually a very playful and intelligent pet that behaves more like a dog than a cat.

Miz Sugden’s mother is a cat breeder as well. Jean Mill studied genetics in college and put her skills to work in creating the Bengal cat. This cat looks just like a small leopard. Judy Sugden decided that she would create a tiger look-alike to go with her mother’s leopard breed cat.

To do this, she mated a Bengal cat with a tabby cat that had special marks on its fur. Over many years she worked to mate cats that had the size and appearance that she was looking for. In two thousand, the International Cat Association accepted the toyger as a new breed of cat.

Over time, toyger breeders may try to change the current appearance of the cat. They may work to bring out qualities such as its round ears and a straighter nose.

But owning this small cat can come at a high price. Baby cats that have the right qualities to be prize-winning toygers can cost thousands of dollars. Kittens that are sold just to be pets can still cost from five hundred to one thousand dollars.

Also, purebred cats often have genetic health problems. And some animal doctors question the morality of creating new cat species. Many homeless cats are put to death in animal shelters because of overpopulation.

Still, it is hard not to like these energetic and beautiful toyger cats. Judy Sugden says that in breeding toygers she is helping to save the spirit of wild tigers. These larger cats may be disappearing from the wild. But it is still possible to have a smaller version to play with at home.

Cowboys

HOST:

Bull riding is a rodeo event

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Pakistan. Tayyab Ajmal asks about the American cowboy.

History experts say the traditional American cowboy became important after the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties. People who owned cattle ranches hired these men to control large groups of cattle over large areas of land. For twenty years, thousands of cowboys drove millions of longhorn cattle from Texas to the new railroads in Kansas and Colorado.

Experts say that men came from all over the United States to work as cowboys in the West. Cowboys were excellent horse riders. They trained wild horses. They used rope to catch and tie runaway animals. The work that cowboys did was difficult and dangerous. The pay was low. And their lives were lonely. Cowboys were brave and independent. They wore special clothing for the needs of the job. The cowboy became the symbol of the American West.

After about nineteen hundred, the need for cowboys decreased. Many books, movies and television shows continued to tell stories about cowboy heroes.

The rodeo was invented to prevent the cowboy lifestyle from disappearing. Rodeos today include most of the same skills used by cowboys one hundred years ago. These include riding wild horses and bulls. Pulling steers to the ground by their horns. And using ropes to catch and tie the legs of a cow.

Cowgirls also take part in rodeo competitions. One event for women is called barrel racing. The cowgirl must ride her horse around each of three large containers, then ride back to the starting area.

The winners of these rodeo events receive money as prizes. Rodeos are big business, earning hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Some take place in large indoor centers. Many of the rodeo performers are professional rodeo cowboys. They may enter as many as one hundred or more rodeos a year to earn a living. They travel from one rodeo to another to take part in a dangerous sport.

A cowboy can earn thousands of dollars for an eight-second ride on a wild horse. Or he might break his neck.

The Pine Leaf Boys

The Pine Leaf Boys are five musicians who are bringing new energy and life to the old traditions of Cajun and Creole music. These young men live in the southern state of Louisiana. Their skillful performances and deep love of music shine in their two albums. Barbara Klein has more.

BARBARA KLEIN:

Cajun music is the sound invented by French people who settled in southern Louisiana in the eighteenth century. Many of these traditional songs are in a version of French spoken in Louisiana. The Pine Leaf Boys all grew up listening to this music. Here is the fast beat of the "Pine Leaf Boy Two-Step." It is sure to make you want to start dancing.

(MUSIC)

Wilson Savoy is one of the band's members. He sings and plays the fiddle and accordion. Wilson grew up in a family with a rich musical history. His father, Marc Savoy, is well known across America for his finely made button accordion music instruments. His mother, Ann Savoy, sings and plays the guitar. She recently released the album "Adieu False Heart" which we told about in a story last September.

Wilson says that one reason Cajun music has survived is because it is dance music. He says Cajuns need to go out dancing and have a good time. Here is "La Belle Josette" sung by Cedric Watson.

(MUSIC)

The Pine Leaf Boys perform often in Louisiana and all around the United States. Wilson Savoy says that if they were not performing on stage they would be at home playing for themselves and their friends. This summer they will perform in England and France.

Their performances are filled with great energy. It is not unusual for them to trade instruments in the middle of a concert. We leave you with "Ma Petite Femme" from their newest album "Blues de Musicien."

(MUSIC)

HOST:

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

It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the 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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Teaching the Student Loan Industry a Lesson

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Conflicts of interest between lenders and colleges are investigated in US. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Imagine this: An official in a position of trust helps you choose a company for a service important to your future. You expect that the advice will be in your best interest.

What you do not know is that the person's office has a financial relationship with that company. The official may have received gifts like trips or stock options, or money for professional advice.

Would you wonder, then, just whose interest was being served?

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo

This is what some American states are investigating in connection with the student loan industry. They are examining possible conflicts of interest when schools direct students to lists of so-called preferred lenders.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says colleges and universities often fail to tell about their ties to banks and other finance companies. His office has already settled cases including with two big lenders.

Sallie Mae, the nation's biggest education lender, agreed to pay two million dollars. And Education Finance Partners agreed to pay two and one-half million. Neither of them admitted any wrongdoing. The money will go to educate students about loans.

In some cases, when students call a school for loan advice, they talk to a lending company employee. But they are not always told that.

Andrew Cuomo wants financial aid offices and lenders to follow a set of rules, a College Loan Code of Conduct. These would end financial ties between lenders and schools, including gifts and trips.

At the same time, lawmakers are seeking changes in the student loan system. Mister Cuomo was at a hearing Wednesday in the House of Representatives. He criticized the Department of Education for not doing enough to control the student loan industry.

A day earlier, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced a committee to study federal student loan programs. And last week, her department temporarily restricted the use of a national system of financial records on millions of students. She said officials were concerned about an increase in usage of that government database by lenders and other companies.

In another development, Sallie Mae, officially the SLM Corporation, has agreed to a buyout offer. Two banks and two private equity companies are offering shareholders twenty-five billion dollars. The deal is unusual. Loan companies generally do not produce enough profit to finance a sale based largely on borrowed money.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

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US History: The '60s Become a Time of Social Revolution and Unrest

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After Kennedy's murder, a time of innocence and hope began to look like a time of anger and violence. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

(MUSIC)

Today, we tell about life in the United States during the nineteen sixties.

VOICE ONE:

The nineteen sixties began with the election of the first president born in the twentieth century -- John Kennedy. For many Americans, the young president was the symbol of a spirit of hope for the nation. When Kennedy was murdered in nineteen sixty-three, many felt that their hopes died, too. This was especially true of young people, and members and supporters of minority groups.

VOICE TWO:

College students protest the Vietnam War in the 1960s

A time of innocence and hope soon began to look like a time of anger and violence. More Americans protested to demand an end to the unfair treatment of black citizens. More protested to demand an end to the war in Vietnam. And more protested to demand full equality for women.

By the middle of the nineteen sixties, it had become almost impossible for President Lyndon Johnson to leave the White House without facing protesters against the war in Vietnam. In March of nineteen sixty-eight, he announced that he would not run for another term.

VOICE ONE:

In addition to President John Kennedy, two other influential leaders were murdered during the nineteen sixties. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior was shot in Memphis, Tennessee in nineteen sixty-eight. Several weeks later, Robert Kennedy--John Kennedy's brother--was shot in Los Angeles, California. He was campaigning to win his party's nomination for president. Their deaths resulted in riots in cities across the country.

VOICE TWO:

The unrest and violence affected many young Americans. The effect seemed especially bad because of the time in which they had grown up. By the middle nineteen fifties, most of their parents had jobs that paid well. They expressed satisfaction with their lives. They taught their children what were called "middle class" values. These included a belief in God, hard work, and service to their country.

VOICE ONE:

Later, many young Americans began to question these beliefs. They felt that their parents' values were not enough to help them deal with the social and racial difficulties of the nineteen sixties. They rebelled by letting their hair grow long and by wearing strange clothes. Their dissatisfaction was strongly expressed in music.

Rock-and-roll music had become very popular in America in the nineteen fifties. Some people, however, did not approve of it. They thought it was too sexual. These people disliked the rock-and-roll of the nineteen sixties even more. They found the words especially unpleasant.

VOICE TWO:

Bob Dylan

The musicians themselves thought the words were extremely important. As singer and song writer Bob Dylan said, "There would be no music without the words," Bob Dylan produced many songs of social protest. He wrote anti-war songs before the war in Vietnam became a violent issue. One was called Blowin' in the Wind.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In addition to songs of social protest, rock-and-roll music continued to be popular in America during the nineteen sixties. The most popular group, however, was not American. It was British -- the Beatles -- four rock-and-roll musicians from Liverpool.

(MUSIC)

That was the Beatles' song I Want to Hold Your Hand. It went on sale in the United States at the end of nineteen sixty-three. Within five weeks, it was the biggest-selling record in America.

VOICE TWO:

The Beatles

Other songs, including some by the Beatles, sounded more revolutionary. They spoke about drugs and sex, although not always openly. "Do your own thing" became a common expression. It meant to do whatever you wanted, without feeling guilty.

Five hundred thousand young Americans "did their own thing" at the Woodstock music festival in nineteen sixty-nine. They gathered at a farm in New York State. They listened to musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez, and to groups such as The Who and Jefferson Airplane. Woodstock became a symbol of the young peoples' rebellion against traditional values. The young people themselves were called "hippies." Hippies believed there should be more love and personal freedom in America.

VOICE ONE:

Allen Ginsberg

In nineteen sixty-seven, poet Allen Ginsberg helped lead a gathering of hippies in San Francisco. No one knows exactly how many people considered themselves hippies. But twenty thousand attended the gathering.

Another leader of the event was Timothy Leary. He was a former university professor and researcher. Leary urged the crowd in San Francisco to "tune in and drop out". This meant they should use drugs and leave school or their job. One drug that was used in the nineteen sixties was lysergic acid diethylamide, or L-S-D. L-S-D causes the brain to see strange, colorful images. It also can cause brain damage. Some people say the Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was about L-S-D.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

As many Americans were listening to songs about drugs and sex, many others were watching television programs with traditional family values. These included The Andy Griffith Show and The Beverly Hillbillies. At the movies, some films captured the rebellious spirit of the times. These included Doctor Strangelove and The Graduate. Others offered escape through spy adventures, like the James Bond films.

VOICE ONE:

Many Americans refused to tune in and drop out in the nineteen sixties. They took no part in the social revolution. Instead, they continued leading normal lives of work, family, and home. Others, the activists of American society, were busy fighting for peace, and racial and social justice. Women's groups, for example, were seeking equality with men. They wanted the same chances as men to get a good education and a good job. They also demanded equal pay for equal work.

VOICE TWO:

A widely popular book on women in modern America was called The Feminine Mystique. It was written by Betty Friedan and published in nineteen sixty-three. The idea known as the feminine mystique was the traditional idea that women have only one part to play in society. They are to have children and stay at home to raise them. In her book, Mizz Friedan urged women to establish professional lives of their own.

VOICE ONE:

That same year, a committee was appointed to investigate the condition of women. It was led by Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a former first lady. The committee's findings helped lead to new rules and laws. The nineteen sixty-four civil rights act guaranteed equal treatment for all groups. This included women. After the law went into effect, however, many activists said it was not being enforced. The National Organization for Women -- NOW -- was started in an effort to correct the problem.

VOICE TWO:

The movement for women's equality was known as the women's liberation movement. Activists were called "women's libbers." They called each other "sisters." Early activists were usually rich, liberal, white women. Later activists included women of all ages, women of color, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. They acted together to win recognition for the work done by all women in America.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

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Virginia Tech: 'As Strong a Place as It Has Always Been'

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University officials say they have seen no sign that foreign students are rejecting admission offers because of the killings. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A moment of silence was observed Monday for each of the 32 shooting victims at Virginia Tech

Classes began again at Virginia Tech on Monday, one week after the shootings by a student. Seung-Hui Cho, an English major in his final year of college, killed thirty-two people. He also took his own life.

University officials were criticized for not acting more quickly to warn of the danger of a gunman. School administrators across the country are re-examining their security policies and communications systems. But they say privacy laws restrict how they can deal with mentally troubled people, even if there are warning signs of possible violence.

Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, is a public university that has gained greater recognition in recent years. Its engineering and computer science programs, for example, are known internationally.

Seven percent of the students at Virginia Tech are international students. The Cranwell International Center at the university says there are about two thousand foreign students this year. They come from more than one hundred countries. But most are graduate students from India, China and South Korea.

Jacqueline Nottingham is the Graduate School director of admissions and academic progress. She says more than four thousand foreign students applied to the Graduate School for the term beginning in August. More than three thousand of those applications were for the College of Engineering.

She says she has not seen any evidence that foreign students are rejecting admission offers because of the tragedy. She says Virginia Tech is, in her words, "as strong a place as it has always been."

Graduate applications are accepted until May fifteenth. As of Wednesday, Jacqueline Nottingham said six hundred sixty-nine international students had been offered admission. Just over forty percent of them have already accepted the offers.

Norrine Bailey Spencer is the associate provost and director of undergraduate admissions. She says she has received e-mails and notes from some students who say they want to be part of Virginia Tech now more than ever.

More than three hundred international students have been offered undergraduate admission this coming fall. In the United States, undergraduates traditionally have until May first to accept or reject an offer from a college.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. This and other reports in our Foreign Student Series can be found online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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The Tuskegee Airmen: First African-Americans Trained As Fighter Pilots

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The excellent work of the Tuskegee Airmen during the Second World War led to changes in the American military policy of racial separation. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the Tuskegee Airmen who served in World War Two. They were the first group of

The first class of Tuskegee cadets

African-Americans ever trained as fighter pilots.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

It was July second, nineteen forty-three. It was foggy near the ground. But the sky was clear. The airplanes flew upward, over the Mediterranean Sea. The water was calm and very blue. The planes were part of the United States Army Air Forces, the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. They were responsible for guarding bomber airplanes flying to Italy.

The pilots tested their guns. When they were satisfied that their weapons were in firing condition, they flew the planes into position to guard the bombers. The bombers began to unload their cargo at the target area. Clouds of smoke rose from the explosions on the ground.

VOICE TWO:

A group of enemy fighter planes immediately appeared. The pilots of the Ninety-Ninth attacked them. In the battle that followed, Lieutenant Charles Hall shot down a German plane. It was the first time a pilot from the Ninety-Ninth defeated an enemy aircraft. He was the first African-American fighter pilot in the United States armed forces to shoot down an enemy plane. Charles Hall and the other pilots of the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron had come a long way from Tuskegee, Alabama to fight for their country during World War Two.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen forty, African-Americans made up about one and one-half percent of the United States army and navy. But they were not permitted to join the Army Air Forces and fly planes. They had begun campaigning for the right to be accepted into military pilot training during World War One. In nineteen seventeen, African-Americans who requested acceptance into military pilot training were told that black air groups were not being formed at the time.

Civil rights leaders denounced the belief expressed by many white people that black people could not fight. In nineteen thirty-one, Walter White and Robert Moton requested that the War Department accept blacks in the Army Air Corps for pilot training. Mister White was an official of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization. Mister Moton was president of a respected college for black students, the Tuskegee Institute.

The War Department refused. It said the Air Corps chose men with technical experience. The department also said that blacks were not interested in flying. And it said that so many educated white men wanted to enter the Air Corps that many of them had to be refused acceptance.

VOICE TWO:

The War Department’s refusal led many to feel that blacks would only be guaranteed acceptance into the Air Corps through legislation by Congress. Black leaders used the United States’ preparation for entry into World War Two to pressure Congress. They criticized the unfair treatment of African-Americans in the armed services.

In nineteen thirty-nine, Congress approved a bill guaranteeing blacks the right to be trained as military air pilots. It was proposed that a pilot training camp for blacks be established in Tuskegee, Alabama.

VOICE ONE:

Black leaders praised the signs of change within the military. Yet they continued to work against the military policy of racial separation. The War Department answered these critics by making plans to form several new black fighting groups.

It also promoted a black colonel, Benjamin O. Davis, Senior, to Brigadier General. And the War Department appointed a black judge, William Hastie, as civilian aide on African-American affairs. Judge Hastie was the head of Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C.

Judge Hastie first opposed the establishment of a flight training school in Tuskegee. He wanted blacks to be trained along with whites, not separated from them. The Air Corps said there was no space in other programs. And it said establishing a school at Tuskegee would be the fastest way to start the training. So Judge Hastie withdrew his formal opposition, although he was not satisfied with the plan.

Fred Patterson was the president of the Tuskegee Institute. He also objected to separate training of black pilots. He said it was necessary to denounce forced racial separation. But he finally accepted the program at Tuskegee. He recognized that blacks would be trained separately from whites any place in the United States. He saw Tuskegee as a beginning. At least blacks would now become military pilots.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee trained black pilots for difficult and dangerous flying. The first group of African-Americans completed the training as fighter pilots in March, nineteen forty-two.

General Davis’s son, Benjamin O. Davis, Junior, was among the first graduates. Blacks finally had won the right to fly with the Army Air Corps, now known as the Army Air Forces. After the war, the Army Air Forces would become the United States Air Force.

Many of the men trained at Tuskegee served in Europe with the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. It was organized in October, nineteen forty-two. Its commander was Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Junior.

VOICE ONE:

The Ninety-Ninth was sent to the Mediterranean area in April, nineteen forty-three. The pilots gained fighting experience flying over Sicily and Italy. In June of that year, the fighter pilots successfully attacked the Sicilian island of Pantelleria. It was the first time air power alone completely destroyed all enemy resistance.

The Tuskegee Airmen took part in the most famous battles in Italy. These included the battles over the Monte Cassino monastery between Rome and Naples and the invasions of Salerno and Anzio. At Anzio, in the first months of nineteen forty-four, the pilots of the Ninety-Ninth shot down eighteen enemy airplanes. Later, in July, they shot down thirty-six enemy planes. Their record led the Army Air Forces to decide to use more black pilots in the war.

VOICE TWO:

Pilots with the 332nd Fighter Group in Ramitelli, Italy

In September, nineteen forty-three, Colonel Davis became commander of the Three Hundred Thirty-Second Fighter Group. The Ninety-Ninth Squadron became a part of that group. Four hundred fifty black pilots were in the group. They flew more than fifteen thousand five hundred flights in Europe.

The Tuskegee Airmen guarded bomber airplanes. They destroyed more than one hundred enemy airplanes in the air, including German fighter planes. And two of the Tuskegee Airmen each shot down four enemy planes.

VOICE ONE:

Nine hundred ninety-six black pilots were trained at Tuskegee Airfield before World War Two ended. For black Americans during World War Two, the Tuskegee Airmen represented both honor and inequality. Members of the group received almost one thousand military awards during the war. Yet their separation from white troops was a powerful sign of the military’s racial policy.

History experts say the Tuskegee airmen proved that black men could fly military airplanes in highly successful combat operations. And the group’s success helped end the separate racial policy of the American military. In nineteen forty-eight, President Harry Truman ordered the armed forces to provide equal treatment for black servicemen. The next year, the Air Force announced that black and white airmen no longer would be separated.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In civilian life, many of the Tuskegee airmen became lawyers, doctors, judges, congressmen and mayors. Their fighting spirit had helped them survive battles and unequal treatment. At home, their spirit helped lead the way to civil rights progress in the United States.

In March, two thousand seven, the United States Congress honored the Tuskegee Airmen at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. The group received the country's highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.

President Bush with Tuskegee airmen Roscoe Brown, center, and Alexander Jefferson during the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony

President Bush spoke to the surviving airmen and their families. He praised their bravery to fight in the face of the unequal treatment they suffered at home. Retired Army general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell also spoke to the group. He thanked them for leading the way to equal racial treatment in the United States. He said the Tuskegee Airmen showed America that there was nothing a black person could not do.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

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Think 'Uh Huh' and 'Unh Unh' Sound Alike? Then You'll Be Saying 'Oops!'

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AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we talk with English teacher Nina Weinstein about some expressions in spoken American English that you might not find in a dictionary.

RS: But if you are a good listener, you'll hear them. They give people time to think while helping connect one thought to the next.

NINA WEINSTEIN: "One of the useful links, I think, is the expression 'let's see,' which means 'let me think.' Often my students will use a kind of word like that from their own language. And so they'll be speaking Japanese or Spanish or whatever with their linking word and THEN they'll continue the rest of the sentence in English. And so I give them 'let's see' as a way to bridge their thoughts and also give them time to think."

AA: "'Let's see' also has a meaning in itself, though, too, doesn't it? Where, for example, you're not sure which way you've decided on something so you'll say 'OK, let's see' -- let's see what happens. 'Let's see.'"

NINA WEINSTEIN: "I think you're right. I think it could indicate that you're not sure of the answer. It has a lot of meanings. And a lot of these have dual meanings, like the simple expression 'uh huh.' Uh huh can mean that we're listening to what the person is saying, so this is a way of keeping them talking. It can also mean yes, or it can be pronounced 'um hmm.'"

RS: "What about no?"

NINA WEINSTEIN: "'Unh unh.' And my students often have a problem distinguishing between uh huh and unh unh."

AA: "Give us an example of how to use them correctly."

NINA WEINSTEIN: "'Do you want to go to the movie?' 'Uh huh.' Do you think that the movie will start after nine?' 'Unh unh.'"

RS: "You say your students have trouble distinguishing between the two?"

NINA WEINSTEIN: "Right."

RS: "Now, do you reinforce them with facial expressions or shaking your head, or nodding your head [yes] or shaking your head no?"

NINA WEINSTEIN: "I talk about the beat. If you listen to 'uh huh,' the accent is on the second syllable. If you listen to 'unh unh,' it's equal. So 'unh unh' is more staccato. And I tap my hand on the desk to kind of reinforce this. And then I usually asked them if they sing karaoke or something like that, so they get the idea of the beat. But I don't sing for them!"

AA: "Unh unh."

RS: "So you give them a couple of examples and they're tapping out on their desk whether it's yes or no?"

NINA WEINSTEIN: "Exactly."

RS: "I want to go back to unh unh, uh huh and a third one, 'uh oh.'"

NINA WEINSTEIN: "Uh oh."

RS: "They sound very similar. We have three here and if you could go over them again for us, I think that would be very useful because they sound so similar, but they're used in such different contexts."

NINA WEINSTEIN: "Well, I think if we look at the rest of the sentence or listen to the rest of the sentence, that gives us a big clue. If someone asks a question and the answer is uh huh, then it has to be either yes or no, so that pretty much narrows it. If there's a situation -- for instance, if a person spills some coffee or something like that, and the person says 'uh oh,' I think there's a kind of feeling that the situation gives us that something bad has happened, and uh oh means 'oh no,' there's a problem, something bad has happened, there's trouble or something like that. So often the situation will give us the idea."

AA: "It's a synonym for 'oops,' right?"

NINA WEINSTEIN: "It can be oops. We also say 'whoops.'"

AA: "What about a word like 'hey'?"

NINA WEINSTEIN: "Hey is actually a conversational strategy and it's used to draw attention to what you're talking about: 'Hey, did you see the movie on Channel 3 last week?' So I can delete the hey and still have a good sentence, but hey adds a kind of attention focus to the sentence."

RS: "What would you suggest to do to teach these things? Is it just to listen a lot?"

NINA WEINSTEIN: "I think that often what I read in the literature is a kind of lumping together of all of these strategies. But just in what we've spoken about today, you can see that they're very complicated, or they can have multi-purposes, each one. So I think that we need to give students systematic practice in hearing them and in distinguishing when the differences can be confusing, such as uh huh/unh unh."

AA: Nina Weinstein is an English teacher in Southern California and author of the book "Whaddaya Say? Guided Practice in Relaxed Speech." She's put together a list of conversational strategies including the ones we talked about today, which we'll post on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster.

RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

MUSIC: "Uh Huh Oh Yeh"/Paul Weller

---

Conversational Strategies
By Nina Weinstein

Vocabulary or techniques used in spoken English, but not in written:

Uh huh shows the speaker you’re listening; can mean “yes”; can be pronounced “um hmm” (mouth closed)

Unh unh means “no”; can be pronounced “mm mm” (mouth closed)

Uh, um give the speaker time to think. (Don’t use these too much.)

Hmm means “I’m thinking” or “That’s interesting.” Can be pronounced “Mmm.” (“Mmm” can also mean “I like it" – food, an idea, etc.)

Uh oh means “Oh no, there’s trouble.”

You know establishes understanding between the speaker and listener ("The restaurant is on the street; you know, the one just before you get to the mall.") It also gives the speaker time to think.

Huh? is informal for “what?” Can be pronounced “hmm?”

Hey is a casual way to draw attention to what you’re saying. Often begins a sentence.

In other words can begin a sentence. Can be used to check that the listener understood the speaker (very useful for second language learners)

Oops or whoops is used when someone makes a mistake or drops something.

Let’s see means “let me think” or “I’m thinking.” Often begins a sentence.

Tsk tsk tsk expresses disapproval

Aha means “I’ve discovered something.” Usually said with a lot of emphasis.

Other conversational strategies include:

Irregular pacing. Natural English isn’t spoken at one speed; native speakers can speed up or slow down within a speech, sentence, or even a phrase.

Repetition of words. Words and phrases are often repeated spontaneously.

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Breast Cancer in US Stayed Down in '04 for Second Year

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Authors of a new study see the most likely reason as a drop in users of hormone replacement therapy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Last year, researchers reported that breast cancer rates in the United States dropped in two thousand three. That was after about twenty years of rising. Many experts linked the drop to a sharp reduction in the use of hormone replacement therapy for older women.

The researchers found that breast cancer rates dropped by almost seven percent between two thousand two and two thousand three. Now, they have just reported that the decreased rates were also present in two thousand four.

Breast cancer rates were at their lowest level since about nineteen eighty-seven, they say. But they also say that in two thousand four there was little additional decrease.

The study found that the drop was mostly in women age fifty to sixty-nine. And it was mostly in the kind of breast cancer fed by estrogen. Estrogen is one of the hormones given to women in hormone replacement therapy, or HRT.

The use of HRT began to drop soon after a major study appeared in two thousand two. The Women's Health Initiative study found that the therapy did not protect against heart disease, as had been thought. Instead, it found that hormone replacement increased the risk for some kinds of cancer, as well as heart attacks and other problems.

The use of hormone replacement therapy dropped almost forty percent soon after that report appeared.

The latest findings about breast cancer rates appeared last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers used information gathered by the National Cancer Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health.

Peter Radvin and Donald Berry of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center led the research. Doctor Radvin notes that the kind of study they did cannot prove that hormone replacement therapy causes breast cancer.

And both researchers say they are not suggesting that all women stop the therapy. Doctor Radvin says he will continue to advise his patients to use the lowest strength of hormones for the shortest time possible.

Critics of the study include Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a maker of hormone replacements. One question, it says, is why breast cancer rates leveled off in two thousand four even though use of the therapy continued to drop. The company says the reduction in breast cancer rates could have been the result of something unrelated to the drugs.

And that’s the Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein.

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Officials Hunt for an Explanation of Pet Food Scare

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One theory is that ingredients contained a chemical to create appearance of higher protein levels. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Melamine is an industrial chemical. So how and why did it get into pet food that caused kidney failure in cats and dogs? And what might be the risk to the human food supply? These are questions that food safety investigators in the United States are trying to answer.

Larry Klimes of Idaho holds a photo of his dog, Joey, who died after eating pet food

Tests found melamine in wheat gluten imported from China and used in pet foods. The United States Food and Drug Administration says Chinese officials said the wheat gluten was not meant for pet food. They said it was meant for industrial use.

But an F.D.A. official noted that melamine can make products appear to contain more protein than they truly do. So one theory is that it may have been added to the wheat gluten on purpose.

In addition, the agency says melamine has been found in some pet food products in rice protein concentrate from China. Those products have been withdrawn from market.

And, in another development, the Royal Canin operation in South Africa has recalled products made in its factory in Johannesburg. The company acted on reports of animals dying after eating food made with corn gluten that contained melamine. Royal Canin USA has announced it will no longer use Chinese suppliers for any of its vegetable proteins.

In the United States, pet foods marketed under more than one hundred different names have been withdrawn, since March.

Melamine has also been identified in the urine of pigs at a California farm. State health officials say the melamine is believed to have come from rice protein concentrate in pet food added to animal feed.

Operations at the farm have been halted while further testing is done. But officials said the evidence so far suggested no serious health risk to anyone who ate meat from the pigs.

The F.D.A. says it is looking for any threat to the human food supply. The agency says it is now testing samples from all shipments of rice protein concentrate from China. The agency says it is also testing all shipments of wheat gluten from China.

The pet food scare as well as recent cases of people getting sick from bad food led a subcommittee in the House of Representatives to call a hearing Tuesday. The lawmakers have questions about the ability of the Food and Drug Administration to protect the safety and security of the nation's food supply.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are available at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty.

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Tuberculosis Can Be Cured, But It Must Be Treated the Right Way

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If TB is not handled correctly, it can become resistant to drugs -- a serious problem in many countries. Second of two reports. Transcript of radio broadcast

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. On our program this week, we tell about the disease tuberculosis. It is one of the world's leading infectious diseases. We also tell about efforts to fight tuberculosis in several countries.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

A nurse attends to a TB patient at a government hospital in Gauhati, India

The World Health Organization says one-third of the world’s population is infected with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. That is about two billion people. One in ten people infected with the TB bacteria will become sick with tuberculosis at some time during their life. The WHO says almost nine million people became sick with the disease in two thousand five. About one million six hundred thousand people died of the disease that year. However, the WHO also says almost sixty percent of TB cases around the world are discovered. A large majority of them are cured.

VOICE TWO:

Most people infected with the bacteria never develop active TB. However, people with weak body defense systems often develop the disease. TB can damage a person’s lungs or other parts of the body and cause serious sickness.

The disease is spread by people who have active, untreated TB bacteria in their throat or lungs. The bacteria are spread into the air when infected people talk or expel air suddenly.

Most TB cases can be cured with medicines. Successful treatment of TB requires close cooperation among patients, doctors and other health care workers. The World Health Organization has a five-step program to guarantee that TB patients take their medicine correctly. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course, or DOTS. Directly observed means that patients must go to local health centers every day or several times a week to take their medicines. Health care workers watch to make sure patients take their medicine every day. Full treatment usually lasts from six to nine months to destroy all signs of the bacteria.

VOICE ONE:

It is very important for patients to be educated about the disease and its treatment. Sometimes patients fail to finish taking the medicine ordered by their doctors. Experts say this is because some patients feel better after only two to four weeks of treatment and stop taking their medicine. This can lead to the TB bacteria becoming stronger, resistant to drugs, and more difficult to treat.

This kind of TB is called multi-drug resistant tuberculosis or MDR-TB. The World Health Organization says MDR-TB is one hundred times more costly to treat than the other form of the disease.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The World Health Organization says most deaths from tuberculosis are in developing countries. More than half of all deaths from TB are in Asia. And half of all new cases are in six Asian countries. They are Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

More than twenty-five percent of the world's multi-drug resistant tuberculosis cases are in Asia. Patients with MDR-TB must take more powerful and costly drugs for more than two years. Some patients experience side effects from the drugs.

VOICE ONE:

Experts say the fight against TB and drug resistance has been successful in Hong Kong. In the past fifty years, Hong Kong has reduced cases of TB by almost ninety-eight percent. In the nineteen fifties, the British colonial government built TB hospitals and began giving vaccines to children. The government also replaced poor, unclean housing with modern public housing.

Today, the Chinese government gives anti-TB drugs free of cost in public health centers. Health workers visit patients who fail to go to health centers to get their medicines. So Hong Kong has very low levels of drug-resistant TB.

VOICE TWO:

The World Health Organization is improving its efforts against TB in China. Almost one million four hundred thousand people there develop active TB each year. Almost twenty-five percent of the world's multi-drug resistant cases are in China. The WHO says the situation is now improving. It says half of China's provinces have put the DOTS treatment method into effect. This has resulted in about a fifty percent reduction in deaths from TB.

The WHO has also set a goal for nations in the Western Pacific area. They are being urged to cut by half infection rates and deaths from TB within three years. Doctors say this goal may not be possible because the disease AIDS is a serious problem in the Western Pacific. Other problems are poverty and lack of money for public health.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In Africa, more than three million people are living with TB. Five hundred thousand people there die each year from the disease. The number of TB victims is rising quickly in Africa. This is mainly because of the virus that causes AIDS. The virus weakens the body's ability to fight disease.

Drug-resistant TB is a serious problem in South Africa. Sizwe Hospital in the city of Johannesburg treats only people with MDR-TB. Three thousand new cases of MDR-TB were identified in Johannesburg alone last year. People with this kind of TB have only a fifty percent chance of being cured. Patients must take one painful injection of medicine and as many as twenty-four pills each day. Treatment can take up to two years. The drugs have serious side effects.

VOICE TWO:

Few people survive a new kind of TB, called Extreme Drug-Resistant TB. This disease is resistant to just about every drug known to science.

The National Health Laboratory in Johannesburg tests for drug-resistant TB. Its workers test five hundred samples from patients from all over southern Africa every day. The testing often last several weeks because each bacterium must be tested in several ways. Almost one-fourth of the bacteria tested are found to be drug-resistant. These have to be tested again to show which drugs they resist.

During this time, the patient may be infecting other people. So it is important to find ways to test for the disease more quickly. The laboratory is now carrying out experiments with tests that identify drug-resistant bacteria within two days. This helps health workers quickly identify an infected person and begin treatment.

VOICE ONE:

Patients being treated for MDR-TB are separated from their families, sometimes for years. This causes economic and social problems for patients and family members. The head doctor at Sizwe Hospital says most patients accept treatment and separation. Health workers believe patients with drug-resistant TB should be separated to protect their communities. But human rights activists say this would be a violation of their rights.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Tuberculosis is a health emergency in Russia. In February, the Russian parliament approved almost three billion dollars to fight infectious diseases such as TB.

Russian studies show that eighty-three of every one hundred thousand people in Russia are infected with TB. Thirty thousand people die of the disease every year. However, the number of people infected is not fully known because officials say not all cases are reported. The WHO official for TB control in Central Asia says education about tuberculosis is lacking. The population does not know much about the disease or how it is treated.

VOICE ONE:

The United Nations says the highest rates of reported infection in Russia are among men between thirty-five and sixty-four years of age. Many of these men are unemployed and drink too much alcohol. Many are former prisoners who are also homeless. So treating these men is difficult. Health experts say tuberculosis spreads easily in prisons. The infection rate in prisons is about twenty times higher than the general population. Drug-resistant TB is also a problem there.

VOICE TWO:

World Health Organization officials say fighting TB in Russia is not just a medical problem but also one of economics and organization. They say government money is now available for health care workers to visit treatment centers to study the care and progress of the disease. There is also more money to train workers and provide equipment for laboratories. Health officials say there is now hope in the fight against TB.

((THEME))

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Shelley Gollust. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

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

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