Scientists Seek a Better Understanding of How Babies Learn

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A look at recent findings about babies and intelligence. 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. On our program this week, we discuss scientific findings about how intelligence develops in babies.

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VOICE ONE:

Not long ago, many people believed that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry. Some people thought babies were not able to learn things until they were five or six months old.

Yet doctors in the United States say babies begin learning on their first day of life. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is a federal government agency. Its goal is to identify which experiences can influence healthy development in human beings.

Research scientists at the institute note that babies are strongly influenced by their environment. They say a baby will smile if her mother does something the baby likes. A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver. This is how babies learn to connect and communicate with other human beings.

VOICE TWO:

The American researchers say this ability to learn exists in a baby even before birth. They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they heard while they were still developing in their mothers.

One study shows that babies can learn before they are born. The researchers placed a tape recorder on the stomach of a pregnant woman. Then, they played a recording of a short story.

On the day the baby was born, the researchers attempted to find if he knew the sounds of the story repeated while in his mother. They did this by placing a device in the mouth of the newborn baby.

The baby would hear the story if he moved his mouth one way. If the baby moved his mouth the other way, he would hear a different story. The researchers say the baby clearly liked the story he heard before he was born. They say the baby would move his mouth so he could hear the story again and again.

VOICE ONE:

Many experts say the first years of a child’s life are important for all later development. An American study shows how mothers can strongly influence social development and language skills in their children.

The study involved more than one thousand two hundred mothers and children. Researchers studied the children from the age of one month to three years. They observed the mothers playing with their children four times during this period.

VOICE TWO:

The researchers attempted to measure the sensitivity of the mothers. The women were considered sensitive if they supported their children’s activities and did not interfere unnecessarily. They tested the children for thinking and language development when they were three years old. Also, the researchers observed the women for signs of depression.

The children of depressed women did not do as well on tests as the children of women who did not suffer from depression. The children of depressed women did poorly on tests of language skills and understanding what they hear.

These children also were less cooperative and had more problems dealing with other people. The researchers noted that the sensitivity of the mothers was important to the general health of their children. Children did better when their mothers were caring, even when the women suffered from depression.

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VOICE ONE:

Another study suggests that low-birth weight babies with no evidence of disability may be more likely than other children to have physical and mental problems.

American researchers studied nearly five hundred boys and girls. They were born in, or admitted to, one of three hospitals in New Jersey between nineteen eighty-four and nineteen eighty-seven. At birth, each child weighed less than two thousand grams.

The boys and girls had an average age of sixteen years at the time of the study. They were asked to complete intelligence and motor skill tests in their homes. Their test results were compared with those of other children their age.

The study found that the young people with low birth weight often had more problems with motor skills than others. A motor skill is a skill that requires a living thing to use its skeletal muscles effectively. Motor problems were more common among males, those with injured nerve tissue in the brain, and those who had been connected to oxygen supplies for days as a baby.

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VOICE TWO:

The first three years of a child's life is the most intensive period of language and speech development. This is the time when the brain is developing. Language and communication skills are believed to develop best in an environment that is rich with sounds and sights. Also, the child should repeatedly hear the speech and language of other people.

America's National Institutes of Health says evidence suggests there are important periods of speech and language development in children. This means the brain is best able to learn a language during this period. Officials say the ability to learn a language will be more difficult if these periods pass without early contact with a language.

VOICE ONE:

The first signs of communication happen during the first few days of life when a baby learns that crying will bring food and attention. Research shows that most children recognize the general sounds of their native language by six months of age. At that time, a baby also usually begins to make sounds. These sounds become a kind of nonsense speech over time.

By the end of the first year, most children are able to say a few simple words. But they may not understand the meaning of their words. By eighteen months of age, most children can say eight to ten words. By two years, most children are able to form simple statements, or sentences. By ages three, four and five, the number of words a child can understand quickly increases. It is at this age that children begin to understand the rules of language.

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VOICE TWO:

A long-term American study shows the effect of early education on future learning abilities. The study followed more than one thousand three hundred children from birth through the ages of ten or eleven years. It found that children who received higher quality care before starting school had better language skills by those ages than children who had lower quality care.

The study is known as the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. It is said to be the largest, longest lasting and most complete study of child care in the United States.

VOICE ONE:

The children included in the study were born around nineteen ninety-one in ten areas of the country. Researchers examined the quality and amount of child care the children received until they were fifty-four months old. Child care included any care provided by people other than the child’s mother that lasted at least ten hours a week. This included any care given by fathers or other family members.

The researchers then examined each child’s performance in school and social development. They also measured other influences, such as the quality of classroom education and parenting.

VOICE TWO:

Recently, the researchers examined whether the developmental qualities that had been observed in young children were still present a few years later. They found that the older children who had received higher quality child care continued to show better ability in measures of language skills.

The children’s understanding was observed using a method which shows their ability to name objects shown in a series of pictures. The study confirmed a link between high quality child care and better test results continued as the children grew older. It also found that the children’s ability was not dependent on the amount of time they had spent in child care.

VOICE ONE:

Interestingly, children who had been in child care before entering school were also more likely to have shown aggression or disobedience in their early school years. However, the researchers said the children's behavior was considered normal.

James Griffith was the science officer for the study. He says the findings add to the growing research that shows the quality and kind of child care a person experiences early in life can have lasting effects.

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VOICE TWO:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

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

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Study Shows Flies Can Pass Salmonella to Chickens

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Scientists say the common house fly is a threat to safety of poultry products. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Scientists say flies can spread bacteria in hen houses

The common housefly is unwelcome around food because flies can carry disease-causing germs. Now, scientists have shown that the insects can also spread food poisoning bacteria to chickens in poultry houses. As a result, they say flies are a threat to the safety of poultry products.

Peter Holt and Christopher Geden of the United States Department of Agriculture did a study with Salmonella bacteria. Chickens infected with Salmonella do not get sick, but they can pass the infection to humans through undercooked meat or eggs.

Cases can be mild or severe, or even deadly. The greatest risk is to the old and very young and to people with weak immune systems.

The researchers investigated whether infected hens could pass the infection to flies. They also investigated whether those flies could then infect healthy chickens. The research was described last month in the Agriculture Department magazine Agricultural Research.

Peter Holt put uninfected chickens in individual laying cages next to each other in a room. Then Christopher Geden brought in young flies two days away from becoming flying adults. He placed them in an open box in the room with the chickens.

Three days later, the chickens were given Salmonella in their drinking water and became infected. Soon, about half the house flies had Salmonella in and on their bodies. The scientists used a dissecting microscope to cut the insects apart for study. The number of flies with Salmonella stayed at fifty percent or more for several days.

Next, the researchers placed the newly infected flies near healthy, uninfected hens. The scientists observed that just being near the infected flies did not infect the hens. But many of the hens did get infected when they ate the flies.

The bacteria grew in the intestines of close to forty percent of the birds. The crop, a small part in the digestive system that stores predigested food, was mostly free of Salmonella.

Peter Holt says there is much more to learn about the relationship between Salmonella, flies and poultry. But he says the study shows that growers need to be especially careful to control flies.

The findings show that Salmonella bacteria may not spread around the henhouse by simple physical contact. Instead, eating infected flies seems to be the main way for Salmonella to pass from flies to birds.

And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and MP3s of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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Want to Be a Foreign Exchange Student? First Do Some Homework

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''You should not leave your country thinking 'Oh, wow, cool, a year of holiday,' because it's also hard. But at the same time it's so cool,'' says an Italian teen studying in the U.S. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week on our program, we talk about foreign exchange students in the United States.

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VOICE ONE:

More than twenty-nine thousand foreign exchange students attended American high schools last year. The State Department says the teenagers came from one hundred nine countries.

Foreign exchange students get the chance to learn more about a culture and its people. They make new friends and experience new places. But they can also experience problems being far from home, among people they do not know and may not understand.

The way many describe it, the experience is exciting and frightening at the same time.

VOICE TWO:

In the past, exchange students usually had limited contact with their host families before meeting them. But times have changed. Today, exchange students may know a lot about their host family before they ever leave home. E-mails go back and forth; pictures of families, homes and pets are shared.

E-mail and cell phones also make it easier for the students to keep in contact with their own families back home.

VOICE ONE:

Some exchange students attending high schools in Virginia

Exchange groups are supposed to provide a contact person, or liaison, to help students in case they have any problems.

This is what happened with a boy from Argentina we'll call Juan Carlos.

Juan Carlos liked sports; his American host family did not. He liked to go out with friends; his host parents did not approve. And they did not think he was doing well enough in school: he was getting average grades. The host parents discussed these issues with his liaison.

And the solution? A new family was found for Juan Carlos. The new family included two boys who played soccer on local teams. Juan Carlos joined those teams and was much happier with his new family. Not only that, his grades improved.

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VOICE TWO:

Exchange students have to speak English well enough to attend an American high school. But some students find it takes weeks or months for them to understand everything they read or hear.

One girl from Switzerland told her exchange group that some students at her American high school made fun of her accent. An exchange volunteer asked how many languages she spoke. The girl said her native language was Swiss-German and she also spoke Italian, French, English and Spanish.

The volunteer had this advice: Tell those students that you have an accent in four of the five languages you speak. And then ask them how many languages they speak. The majority of Americans speak only English.

VOICE ONE:

Seventeen-year-old Nadia Gerstgrasser is from Italy. Nadia says being a foreign exchange student is not always easy.

Nadia Gerstgrasser of Italy

NADIA GERSTGRASSER: "Like the language, you think it's going to be hard, but you don't know how it is in real life when people don't understand you and how hard it can be even to order a hamburger. When a waiter asked me the first time how I wanted it done, I said 'cooked' and he was like 'yeah, I know, but how,' and I said 'on my plate,' and everybody started laughing. Stuff like that. It can embarrass you, but that's just the way you learn English. Now I laugh about it, but back then I was really embarrassed."

VOICE TWO:

Nadia is living with a family in Alexandria, Virginia, through the end of June. She is attending a Fairfax County high school with more than one thousand seven hundred students. Nineteen percent of them are limited English speakers. She says that surprised her -- finding so many different ethnic groups.

NADIA GERSTGRASSER: " You know, I was expecting all Americans ... like, I knew there was black people, white people, but I didn't know there was a lot of Hispanics, Asian kids at my school. And, yeah, it was surprising but positive."

VOICE ONE:

American high schools come in small, medium, large and extra large. They can have three, four, even five thousand students. It is easy to feel lost at first in a huge building and moving from class to class.

Changing classrooms might also be a new experience for exchange students. Some students come from countries where the teachers move from room to room, not the students.

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VOICE TWO:

More than one hundred organizations are involved in the State Department's Exchange Visitor Program for secondary school students. These groups are responsible for choosing, placing and supervising exchange students.

In many cases, families pay an organization to place their child with an American family and supervise their time in the United States.

In the case of Rotary International, local Rotary clubs pay some of the expenses of exchange students. The clubs place students with three different families during the school year.

VOICE ONE:

As of last year there were twelve schools and school districts involved in the State Department program. Schools often want foreign exchange students as a way to increase the diversity of their student population. These programs may be true exchanges. A student from the school goes to a foreign country for a school year while a foreign student comes to the United States.

VOICE TWO:

Secondary-school exchange students normally come to the United States with J-One visas provided by the State Department. Some, however, come with an F-One study visa from the Department of Homeland Security. But an F-One visa does not provide the same protections as a J-One visa.

These protections include making sure all adults in host families have been checked for criminal records. Another protection is making sure exchange students have placements waiting for them in American schools.

VOICE ONE:

The Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students is a nonprofit organization in California. It works to strengthen protections for exchange students in the United States and around the world.

Sally Smith is a family law attorney who works with the committee. She says exchange students should know how to report any cases of sexual abuse or other crimes. In the United States, the number to call for police or other emergency services is nine-one-one.

Sally Smith advises parents of teens who are considering an exchange program to discuss the possible dangers with the sponsoring group. Exchange students should never leave home without knowing who their host family will be, and that the family has been investigated.

Sally Smith notes that the rules in the United States do not say how a criminal background check must be carried out. The Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students wants the government to require criminal checks based on fingerprint records.

A State Department representative tells us that officials are now studying the possibility of strengthening the requirements for background checks. But she says the details are not known at this time.

VOICE TWO:

The State Department has programs to bring exchange students to the United States from different areas of the world. One program, for example, is for German teenagers. Another is for students from countries of the former Soviet Union. Other programs offer exchanges for students in Serbia and Montenegro and countries with large Muslim populations.

VOICE ONE:

Gauri Noolkar from India is in Virginia as part of the State Department's Youth Exchange and Study, or YES, program. We'll let her explain it:

Gauri Noolkar of India

GAURI NOOLKAR: "The students in the YES program, their expenses are basically covered by the State Department of this country, and it is for fostering friendship between America and Middle East and Asian counties. It is based on merit and talent, and they cover all our expenses and in return we are expected to teach people over here about our cultures and then go back and teach our people about American culture."

Seventeen-year-old Gauri is also attending a public high school in Fairfax County. And like Nadia from Italy, Gauri says she, too, was surprised by the ethnic diversity she has seen in the United States.

GAURI NOOLKAR: "Another surprising thing was even though it is a very individualistic society, there is a notion that Americans just live for themselves. But I realize that over here they are very helpful and nobody turns you down. If you ask for help, you do get it."

VOICE TWO:

To become an exchange student at an American high school, students must have completed no more than eleven years of school, and done well. They must be between the ages of fifteen and eighteen and a half. They must also speak English well. And they must agree to accept the rules of the exchange program and their host families.

Host families are supposed to receive training in hosting an exchange student. Host families do not get paid, but they get a fifty dollar tax deduction for each month the student lives in their home.

VOICE ONE:

Nadia Gerstgrasser has this advice for students considering a foreign exchange:

NADIA GERSTGRASSER: "You should not leave your country thinking 'Oh, wow, cool, a year of holiday, I'm not going to do anything, it's going to be fun, everything is just going to be exciting,' because it's also hard. But at the same time it's so cool. You're gonna start liking it. It's worth it. You should try."

Going to a foreign country to live with complete strangers is not for everyone. But many who have done it say the experience taught them a lot about the world and about themselves.

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VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Bob Doughty. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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AIDS: The Future of a Vaccine, and New Warnings for Asia

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A study says the number of Asians with H.I.V. could double to 10 million by 2020 unless prevention efforts expand. And scientists meet in the U.S. to discuss the latest setbacks in developing an AIDS vaccine. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

A new study says Asia must do more to prevent AIDS, or the number of people infected with H.I.V. could double by two thousand twenty.

Seven-year-old AIDS patient in Bangkok, Thailand

Today about five million people in Asia are living with the virus that causes AIDS.

An estimated three hundred thousand people died of H.I.V.-related diseases in Asia last year. At current rates, that number could rise to almost five hundred thousand.

The United Nations program on H.I.V./AIDS requested the study, led by Indian economist Chakravarthi Rangarajan.

The report says three main groups are driving the spread of AIDS in Asia. One group is sex workers and the men who use them. Another is injection drug users who share needles. And the third group are men who have unprotected sex with other men.

Researchers estimate that as many as ten million women in Asia sell sex. At least seventy-five million men buy on a regular basis. In many Asian countries, these men, and their female partners, represent the largest group of people living with H.I.V.

The study found that AIDS is the most likely cause of death and lost work days for people in Asia between the ages of fifteen and forty-four.

The report says prevention programs can be effective if governments invest at least thirty cents a year per person.

For more than twenty years, scientists have been trying to develop a vaccine to prevent H.I.V. infection. The latest failures came last September. Researchers halted two studies of an experimental AIDS vaccine from the drug company Merck.

Early results showed that the vaccine not only failed to protect, it appeared to put some people at higher risk of infection.

Last Tuesday, several hundred researchers and activists met in Bethesda, Maryland, for a Summit on H.I.V. Vaccine Research and Development. They debated what to do now.

Many of the scientists agreed that experimental vaccines should continue to be tested on humans. But many said there should be less dependence on human trials.

Anthony Fauci is head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which called the meeting. He and others said there should be more tests on animals, to add to discoveries from human studies.

There also were calls for a return to more basic science, first identifying and answering major scientific questions. But Doctor Fauci said the search for an AIDS vaccine will not stop.

And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss.

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Hands: She is Making Money Hand-Over-Fist

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Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

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The hand has been a symbol through the ages and in many cultures.

There are hundreds of expressions and combinations of words using hand in the English language. Let us examine some of the expressions that use hand.

We will get a hand in this way. To get a hand in is to begin a job, to begin to know something about it. When we learn the job completely, it will be easy for us. We will be able to do it hands down.

If we do the job well, we may end up with the upper hand. And that means to be in control, or to have gained complete understanding of a situation.

On the other hand, if the situation gets out of hand, then it is out of control. We must act quickly to regain the upper hand over these expressions.

But, wait. We still do not have the upper hand in this business.

We must consider another way of expressing praise, to hand it to someone. For example: I must hand it to you for understanding what we have discussed this far.

You can also lend a hand to someone, but without really giving up your hand. You lend a hand when you help someone. You offer them a helping hand.

If someone is kind enough to lend us a hand, then we surely do not want to bite the hand that feeds us. We do not want to repay his kindness by treating him badly.

Now, with that out of the way, we have a free hand to continue examining other hand expressions. To have a free hand in a situation is good. It means you are free to act without getting permission from someone else.

If we continue moving along, we will make progress hand over fist, or very rapidly. This expression began in the early seventeen hundreds. It reportedly comes from a sailing expression hand over hand, the way of quickly raising or lowering a sail.

Maybe you can find a friend who wants to take a hand in our project. It would have to be someone who is interested in these expressions.

Your friend may want to work hand in glove with us. That is good, because that means he wants to work as closely with us as a glove covers the hand. Of course there is a danger that he may look at our project and decide to take it in hand. That means he wants to take it over.

If that happens, we may throw up our hands because the situation seems hopeless. In fact, we may decide that it is time for us to end this project, to wash our hands of hand expressions.

(MUSIC)

This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I'm Shirley Griffith.

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Lou Gehrig, 1903-1941: The Great Baseball Player Considered Himself 'The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth'

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He played in 2,130 games without missing one. Transcript of radio broadcast:

ANNOUNCER:

Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA.

A North American Major League baseball record was established in nineteen thirty-nine. The man who set it played in two thousand one hundred thirty games without missing one. In nineteen ninety-five, the record was broken by Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles. But there is not much chance that the man who set the first record will be forgotten.

Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Lou Gehrig whose record lasted for fifty-six years.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Lou Gehrig

Lou Gehrig was born on June nineteenth, nineteen-oh-three. He was a huge baby. He weighed six-and-one-third kilograms. His parents, Heinrich and Christina Gehrig, had come to America from Germany. They worked hard. But they always had trouble earning enough money.

Lou loved to play baseball games on the streets of New York City, where he grew up. Yet he did not try to play on any sports teams when he entered high school. He thought of himself as a ball player only for informal games with friends.

Then one of Lou's high school teachers heard that he could hit the ball very hard. The teacher ordered Lou to come to one of the school games.

VOICE TWO:

Years later, Lou said: "When I saw so many people and heard all the noise at the game, I was so scared I went home." The teacher threatened to fail Lou in school if he did not attend the next game.

So Lou Gehrig went to that game. He became a valued member of the high school team. He also played other sports. The boy who feared noise and people was on his way to becoming a star baseball player.

VOICE ONE:

A representative of a major league team, the New York Giants, came to watch him. He got Lou a chance to play for the manager of the Giants' team, John McGraw. McGraw thought Gehrig needed more experience before becoming a major league player. It was suggested that Lou get that experience on a minor league team in the city of Hartford, Connecticut.

Lou played in Hartford that summer after completing high school. He earned money to help his parents. His father was often sick and without a job.

VOICE TWO:

The money Lou earned also helped him attend Columbia University in New York City. The university had offered him financial help if he would play baseball on the Columbia team.

But, the fact that Gehrig had accepted money for playing professional baseball got him into trouble. Officials of teams in Columbia's baseball league learned that Lou had played for the professional team in Hartford. The other teams got him banned from playing for Columbia during his first year at the college.

Gehrig was permitted to play during his second year, though. He often hit the ball so far that people walking in the streets near the baseball field were in danger of being hit.

VOICE ONE:

Lou's mother earned money as a cook and house cleaner. But she became very sick. The family could not make their monthly payments for their home.

The New York Yankees major league baseball organization came to the rescue. The Yankees offered Lou three thousand five hundred dollars to finish the nineteen twenty-three baseball season.

That was a great deal of money in those days. Gehrig happily accepted the offer. His parents were sad that he was leaving Columbia. Yet his decision ended their financial problems.

VOICE TWO:

The Yankees recognized that Gehrig was a good hitter. They wanted him to add to the team's hitting power provided by its star player, Babe Ruth. But Gehrig had trouble throwing and catching the ball. So they sent him back to the minor league team in Hartford. While playing there he improved his fielding. He also had sixty-nine hits in fifty-nine games.

VOICE ONE:

The next spring Gehrig went to spring training camp with the Yankees. Again he was sent to Hartford to get more experience. And again, the Yankees called him back in September. He hit six hits in twelve times at the bat before that baseball season ended.

Lou Gehrig began to play first base for the Yankees regularly in early June of nineteen twenty-five. He played well that day and for the two weeks that followed.

Then Gehrig was hit in the head by a throw to second base. He should have left the game. But he refused to. He thought that if he left, he never again would have a chance to play regularly.

VOICE TWO:

Babe Ruth

Gehrig continued to improve as a player. By Nineteen twenty-seven, pitchers for opposing teams were having bad dreams about Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. Ruth hit sixty home runs that year. Gehrig hit forty-seven and won the American League's Most Valuable Player Award. Nobody was surprised when the Yankees won the World Series.

Gehrig, however, almost did not play. His mother had to have an operation. He felt he should be with her. Missus Gehrig and the Yankees' manager urged him to play in the World Series. His mother recovered.

More major threats to Gehrig's record of continuous games played took place in nineteen twenty-nine. His back, legs and hands were injured. He was hit on the head by a throw one day as he tried to reach home plate. Another Yankee player said: "Every time he played, it hurt him."

VOICE ONE:

Gehrig felt good in nineteen thirty. He said his secret was getting ten hours of sleep each night and drinking a large amount of water.

Lou Gehrig now was becoming one of the greatest players in baseball history. He hit three home runs in the World Series of nineteen thirty-two. His batting average was five-twenty-nine. The manager of an opposing team, the Chicago Cubs, said of Gehrig: "I did not think a player could be that good."

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen thirty-three, Gehrig married Eleanor Twitchell. Eleanor helped him take his place as one of baseball's most famous players. The younger Lou Gehrig had stayed away from strangers when he could. The married Lou Gehrig was much more friendly.

As time went on, Gehrig played in game after game. He appeared not to have thought about his record number of continuous games played until a newspaper reporter talked to him about it.

An accident during a special game played in Virginia almost broke the record. Gehrig was taken to a hospital after being hit in the head with a pitch. He played the next day, though. He just wore a bigger hat so people could not see his injury.

VOICE ONE:

Lou Gehrig batting

Gehrig completed his two-thousandth game on May thirty-first, Nineteen thirty-eight. That was almost two times as many continuous games as anyone ever had played before.

Gehrig finished that season with a batting average of almost three hundred. He scored one hundred fifteen runs. He batted in almost as many runs.

But the Lou Gehrig of that year was not the Lou Gehrig of earlier years. He walked and ran like an old man. He had trouble with easy catches and throws. Yet his manager commented: "Everybody is asking what is wrong with Gehrig. I wish I had more players on this club doing as poorly as he is doing."

VOICE TWO:

Gehrig thought his problems were temporary. Then he fell several times the next winter while ice skating with Eleanor. He had trouble holding onto things. And he failed to hit in three games as the next season opened. In May, nineteen thirty-nine, he finally told his manager he could not play.

Lou Gehrig had played in two thousand one hundred thirty games without missing any that his team played.

Gehrig observed his thirty-sixth birthday on June nineteenth. That same day, doctors told him he had a deadly disease that attacks the muscles in the body. The disease is called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Today, it is known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

VOICE ONE:

Gehrig did not act like a dying man, though. He refused to act frightened or sad.

On July fourth, nineteen thirty-nine, more than sixty thousand people went to Yankee Stadium to honor one of America's greatest baseball players. Gehrig told the crowd he still felt he was lucky. His words echoed throughout the stadium.

LOU GEHRIG:

"I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."

VOICE TWO:

Gehrig fought his sickness. But he became weaker and weaker. He died on June second, nineteen forty-one. He was thirty-seven years old.

America mourned the loss of a great baseball hero. Those who knew him best - family, friends, baseball players -- mourned the loss of a gentle man.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER:

This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

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Wyclef Jean Mixes Hip-Hop, Reggae and World Music in New 'Carnival'

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Also: A question from Laos about the national anthem. And a report on award-winning writer Junot Diaz. Transcript of radio broadcast:

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

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

New music from Wyclef Jean …

A question from Laos about the national anthem …

And a report on the award-winning fiction writer Junot Diaz.

(MUSIC)

Junot Diaz

HOST:

Junot Diaz is an American writer who was born in the Dominican Republic. He immigrated to the United States with his family when he was six years old. Several critics listed his latest book, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” as one of the best books of last year. This month it won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. The book tells the story of Oscar de Leon, his family, and their Dominican roots. But the book is also about language, popular culture and the role of history in a family’s life. Faith Lapidus has more.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Junot Diaz

The hero of “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” is a fat, smart and lonely young man who spends his time writing science fiction stories. Oscar’s sister Lola and her boyfriend tell the story of Oscar and his family. You learn about Abelard Cabral, Oscar’s grandfather whose life is destroyed because he opposed the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. You learn about Oscar’s mother Belicia who moves to the United States after a painful love affair. And you learn about the life of Oscar and Lola as they grow up in the Hispanic neighborhoods near New York City.

One critic said this book establishes Junot Diaz as one of the most important voices in current literature. Diaz's writing is funny, intense and imaginative. It is also informative because he describes historic events in the Dominican Republic. He includes many Spanish words in the book to express the cultural ties of his characters. Here is a recording of Junot Diaz talking about the effect of using a language that some readers will not understand. He spoke at the Key West Literary Seminar in Florida in January.

JUNOT DIAZ: “There’s always a part of every message that gets lost and misinterpreted and not heard. The dream of perfect communication is a wonderful dream. It doesn’t exist. And unintelligibility is not a misfire of language, it’s a very vital and important component of it. And I always thought that in real life we have no problems with unintelligibility. You know, we’re more than happy not to hear ten, to fifteen or twenty percent of conversations and we sort of accept it. But in a book it becomes a different matter, right?”

Junot Diaz teaches writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. His first book, “Drown,” was published in nineteen ninety-six. In this collection of stories, Diaz tells about the experiences of Dominican Americans like himself. He has said that even though he has lived in the United States most of his life, he still feels like an outsider. He says his children might feel American. But he says he is an immigrant and will stay an immigrant forever.

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Star-Spangled Banner

HOST:

Our question this week comes from Laos. A VOA listener named Davanh wants to know more about the national anthem.

Francis Scott Key

We begin our explanation in eighteen fourteen, during the second war between America and Britain. A young American lawyer and poet, Francis Scott Key, was being held on a British ship in the Chesapeake Bay. He had gone aboard the ship to negotiate the release of a doctor from Maryland who had been arrested by British forces.

But during the negotiations, Francis Scott Key had learned of some British military plans. So the British refused to free him until after they carried out their plan to attack Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.

The attack began the morning of September thirteenth. Francis Scott Key watched the shells and rockets fall on Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor.

The American doctor detained on the ship also watched the fighting. He kept asking Francis Scott Key if the Stars and Stripes, the American flag, still flew over the fort. The doctor had difficulty seeing it for himself. The lawyer and poet could see the flag, until darkness fell. The attack went on through the night.

At sunrise the next morning, Francis Scott Key saw the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry. That sight, and the battle that came before it, led him to take an old letter from his pocket. On it he wrote a poem about what he had seen. He called it "The Defence of Fort McHenry."

After his release on September sixteenth, Francis Scott Key worked on the poem some more. His final version was published a short time later. Key had called for it to be sung to the tune of the "Anacreontic Song." The Anacreontic Society was a group of amateur musicians in London.

Later a music store published the words and music under the name “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Congress passed a bill declaring it the national anthem in nineteen thirty-one. President Herbert Hoover signed the bill into law.

The Library of Congress says there is strong evidence that the members of the Anacreontic Society liked to drink. But it says there is little basis to the belief that the national anthem was an old English drinking song.

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Wyclef Jean

HOST:

Wyclef Jean is a singer, musician, producer and activist who has been making music for twenty years. His latest album is called "Carnival Volume II: Memoirs of an Immigrant." The first album, "The Carnival," came out ten years ago. "Carnival II" combines hip-hop, reggae and world music, and also includes guest performers. Mario Ritter has more.

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MARIO RITTER:

Wyclef Jean

That was "Hollywood Meets Bollywood," Wyclef Jean with the rapper Chamillionaire. The song is a good example of how Wyclef Jean likes to mix musical styles from different cultures.

He started singing at the age of three in his father’s church in Haiti. An album his father gave him by the Christian groups Petra and Stryper was Wyclef’s introduction to rock music.

Twenty years ago he joined the Fugees. The band became popular in the nineteen nineties with hits like their remake of “Killing Me Softly.” In nineteen ninety-seven, Wyclef Jean left the Fugees to make records on his own.

One singer he has worked with is the Colombian-born Shakira. Here is their latest song, “King and Queen.”

(MUSIC)

Wyclef Jean is also known for his social activism. In two thousand five he formed Yele Haiti. This group works to bring the arts to poor communities there, and to provide food, medicine and educational programs.

We leave you with Wyclef Jean and Mary J. Blige, and a song about the struggles of a divorced father who wants to see his daughter. From "Carnival Volume II," here is "What About the Baby."

(MUSIC)

HOST:

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

It was written by Dana Demange and Caty Weaver, who was also the producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

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Sales Down for New US Homes, but Up for Existing Ones

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Falling prices lead to unexpected piece of good news for the housing market. Also, J.P. Morgan raises its offer for Bear Stearns. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

This week, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes in the United States increased almost three percent in February. It was the first increase since last July.

A home for sale in Denver, Colorado

But fueling that increase was a drop in prices. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of twenty major markets showed that home prices fell almost two and a half percent in January. Prices were down almost eleven percent from a year before.

And still another report this week showed that sales of new single-family houses fell in February. Sales were down almost two percent from January, to a thirteen-year low. The Commerce Department estimated there was a ten-month supply of newly built houses waiting to be sold.

Experts say prices in many markets will have to fall further before more people are willing or able to buy.

Prices went up and up in recent years, before the housing bubble burst. Many buyers now struggling to make payments took out loans that were too big. They thought prices would keep rising and they could sell their home for a nice profit.

Rising values meant that people could also take out home equity loans and lines of credit. They used their home as a cash machine by borrowing against its value.

Now, as those values fall, some people owe more than their home is worth. Many buyers, often with risky credit histories, took out adjustable-rate mortgages, which started out low but later reset to higher rates.

About two percent of all home loans are in foreclosure. Of course, that means ninety-eight percent of homes are not being reclaimed by lenders. Still, this is the highest rate since the Mortgage Bankers Association began keeping records in nineteen seventy-nine.

The weak housing market is largely responsible for an economic crisis that is leading to new government steps in the financial system.

Last week, the Federal Reserve pushed through a deal for J.P. Morgan Chase to buy Bear Stearns for two dollars a share. Bear, the nation's fifth-largest investment bank, was near collapse after big losses on its mortgage-backed securities. To help make the deal, the Fed agreed to take responsibility for up to thirty billion dollars in those securities.

But J.P. Morgan faced a rebellion by Bear shareholders, so this week it increased its offer to ten dollars a share. It also agreed to take responsibility for one billion dollars of Bear's hard-to-sell securities.

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

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American History Series: The Heart and Spirit of the Constitution

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When the Constitution was written, a majority of the states already had their own bills of rights. So some delegates questioned the need for a national one. Transcript of radio broadcast:

ANNOUNCER:

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.

George Washington

Last week in our series, we described how the Constitution became law once nine of America's first thirteen states ratified it. The Continental Congress set a date for the new plan of government to take effect. The first Wednesday in March, seventeen eighty-nine. Now, here are Richard Rael and Shep O’Neal to continue our story.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In seventeen eighty-nine, the population of the United States was about four million. The thirteen states had been loosely united for a short time, only about ten years. Before that, they were separate colonies of Britain.

Because the colonies were separate, their people developed different ways of life. Their economies and traditions were different. As a result, Americans were fiercely independent. An emergency -- the crisis of the revolution -- brought them together.

Together, they celebrated the Fourth of July, the day America declared its independence from Britain. Together, they fought British troops to make that declaration a political reality. Together, they joined under the Latin phrase 'E Pluribus Unum' -- one out of many.

Yet when the war ended, the soldiers returned to their home states. They still thought of themselves as New Yorkers, or Virginians, or Marylanders. They did not consider themselves a national people.

VOICE ONE:

Americans of seventeen eighty-nine were sharply divided on the need for a national government. Many were afraid the new government would not survive. They feared the anarchy that would result if it failed. Others hoped it would fail. They wanted strong state governments, not a strong central government.

For those who supported the national government, there were good reasons to hope for success. The country had great natural resources. And its people were honest and hard-working.

Also, in seventeen eighty-nine, the American economy was improving after the destruction of the Revolutionary War. Agriculture, trade, and shipbuilding were coming back to life. Roads, bridges, and canals were being built to improve travel and communication.

The country's economy had many problems, however. Two major issues had to be settled. One was repayment of loans made to support the Revolutionary Army. The other was creation of a national money system. Both issues needed quick action.

VOICE TWO:

But before the new government could act, the old government had work to do. It had to decide where the capital city of the new nation would be. It also had to hold elections for president and Congress. First, the question of a capital.

At the time the states ratified the new Constitution, the Continental Congress was meeting in New York City. And that is where it decided to place the new government. Later, the capital would be moved to Philadelphia for a while. Finally, it would be established at Washington, D.C.

Next, the Continental Congress had to decide when the states would choose a president. It agreed on March fourth, seventeen eighty-nine. That was when the new Constitution would go into effect.

VOICE ONE:

The eleven states that ratified the Constitution chose electors to vote for a president. The result was not a surprise. They chose the hero of the Revolutionary War: George Washington. No one opposed the choice.

Although not required by the Constitution, George Washington presented the first presidential inaugural address on April 30, 1789

Washington learned of his election while at his home in Virginia, Mount Vernon. He left for New York and was inaugurated there on April thirtieth.

Members of the new Congress also were elected on March fourth.

Now, for the first time, Americans had something many of them had talked about for years -- a working national government. There was much work to be done. The machinery of government was new, untested. Quick decisions were needed to keep the new nation alive and healthy.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

One of the first things the Congress did was to re-open debate on the Constitution itself. Several states had set a condition for approving the document. They said a Bill of Rights must be added to the Constitution, listing the rights of all citizens.

When the Constitution was written, a majority of the states already had their own bills of rights. So some delegates to the convention said a national bill was unnecessary. Others argued that the Constitution would be the highest law of the land, higher than state laws. So a national bill of rights was needed to guarantee the rights of the citizens of the new nation.

Time proved this to be a wise decision. The Bill of Rights gave the Constitution a special strength. Many Americans consider the Bill of Rights to be the heart and spirit of the Constitution.

VOICE ONE:

Twelve amendments were proposed; the 10 that were ratified became the Bill of Rights in 1791

What is this Bill of Rights that is so important to the citizens of the United States? It is contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

The First Amendment is the basic statement of American freedoms. It protects freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

The First Amendment guarantees that religion and government will be separate in America. It says Congress will make no law establishing an official religion. Nor will Congress interfere in the peoples' right to worship as they choose. The First Amendment also says Congress will not make laws restricting the peoples' right to gather peacefully and to make demands on the government.

The Second Amendment guarantees the peoples' right to keep weapons as part of an organized militia. The Third Amendment says people may not be forced to let soldiers stay in their homes during peacetime.

VOICE TWO:

The Fourth through the Eighth Amendments all protect the peoples' rights in the criminal justice system.

The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. If police want to search a suspect's house or papers, they must get special permission from a judge. The document from the judge must say exactly what police are looking for. And it must describe the place to be searched.

VOICE ONE:

The Fifth Amendment says no one can be put on trial for a serious crime unless a grand jury has first examined the evidence and agreed that a trial is needed. No one can be put on trial more than once on the same criminal charge. And no one can be forced to give evidence against himself in court.

The Fifth Amendment also says no one can lose their freedom, property, or life except by the rules of law. And the government cannot take people's property for public use without paying them a fair price.

VOICE TWO:

The Sixth Amendment says all persons accused of crimes have the right to a fair and speedy public trial by a jury. This guarantees that people cannot be kept in prison for a long time unless a jury has found them guilty of a crime.

The Sixth Amendment also guarantees the right of accused persons to be defended by a lawyer. It says they must be informed of the nature and cause of the charges against them. And it says they have the right to face and question their accusers.

The Seventh Amendment guarantees a person's right to have a jury decide his legal dispute with another person. The Eighth Amendment bars all cruel and unusual punishments.

The Ninth Amendment provides protection for other rights not stated directly in the Constitution. And the Tenth Amendment says any powers which the Constitution does not give to the national government belong to the states or to the people themselves.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

A majority of the states approved the Bill of Rights by the end of seventeen ninety-one. As we have seen, these amendments limited the powers of the national government. As a result, many anti-Federalists ended their opposition. They accepted the new government. Many agreed to help with the job of building the new nation.

President Washington wanted the best men -- Federalist or anti-Federalist -- to be in his administration. The new nation needed strong leadership. George Washington provided it. General Washington's work as the first president will be our story next week.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER:

Our program was written by Christine Johnson and Carolyn Weaver. The narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O’Neal. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION, an American history series in VOA Special English.
__

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In Some Schools, Learning Is Not Enough of Its Own Reward

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A look at the debate in the U.S. over programs that pay students. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Some American schools pay teachers more if their students improve on tests. Now, there is a growing movement to pay the students -- in some cases, even just for coming to class.

Students at one school in New Mexico can earn up to three hundred dollars a year for good attendance. A program in New York City pays up to five hundred dollars for good attendance and high test scores.

In Baltimore, Maryland, high scores on state graduation tests can be worth more than one hundred dollars. And a New Jersey school system plans to pay students fifty dollars a week to attend after-school tutoring programs.

Schools that pay students can be found in more than one-fourth of the fifty states. Other schools pay students with food or other rewards.

Robert Schaefer is public education director for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, an activist group. He says paying may improve performance in the short term, but students develop false expectations for the future. He sees a lack of long-term planning in these programs because of pressure on schools to raise test scores.

Public schools need to show improvement under the education reform law signed by President Bush six years ago. Low-performing schools may lose their federal money; teachers and administrators may lose their jobs. Often these schools are in poor neighborhoods where getting students to go to school can be a continual problem.

Critics say paying students sends a message that money is the only valuable reward. But some students say it makes school more exciting. And some teachers have reported getting more requests for extra help.

In two thousand four, the city schools in Coshocton, Ohio, launched a program. They wanted to see if paying elementary school students as much as one hundred dollars would help in passing state exams.

Now, Eric Bettinger of Case Western Reserve University has reported mixed results. Math scores increased, but only while students were able to get paid. And there was no evidence of higher scores in reading, social studies and science. Officials will decide later this year whether to continue the program.

Yet adults get paid for their work. And if teachers can be rewarded for their students' work, then why not the students themselves? This is what some people say. What do you think? Write to special@voanews.com, and please include your name and country.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

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Searching for Answers About What Harms Coral Reefs, and What May Protect Them

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A look at recent studies of coral reefs. Some scientists say rising temperatures have damaged almost half around the world. Yet many reefs stay colorful and healthy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

A blue parrotfish swims by a coral on one of the reefs near Midway Atoll

And I'm Barbara Klein. This week, we will tell about recent studies of coral reefs. Corals are groups of small organisms called polyps. They are found in warm seawaters. Millions of corals grow together to form coral reefs. The reefs support many kinds of sea life.

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VOICE ONE:

A group from the United States was looking forward to diving in coastal waters near the Netherlands Antilles. The Americans wanted to take underwater pictures of a colorful coral reef during their visit to the islands. But they did not get their wish. The coral reef they wanted to see had died.

Some scientists say rising temperatures have damaged almost half the world’s coral reefs. They say the heating of Earth’s atmosphere has helped kill many reefs. But climate change is not responsible for all damage to the reefs. Many stay colorful and healthy.

VOICE TWO:

Scientists are searching for answers about what harms coral reefs and what may protect them.

American scientist Joan Kleypas and her team recently studied an area called the Western Pacific Warm Pool. It is northeast of Australia. Their study suggests that natural processes in seawater may protect some coral reefs from harm.
But other scientists have reported less hopeful news about coral reefs. A team from Australia and Indonesia recently observed many destroyed reefs in Indonesian waters. A member of the team is warning that coral reefs might die off within fifty years if changes are not made.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Joan Kleypas is an oceans expert with America's National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her study of coral reefs included scientists from the Australian National Institute of Marine Science.

Miz Kleypas says some reefs seem protected from harm. But others suffer serious damage. Many activities can threaten coral reefs. They include coastal development and too much fishing. Pollution is another problem. But Miz Kleypas says the worst threat is climate change.

VOICE TWO:

The joint American and Australian team studied warm, open seas. The scientists examined records for many years, beginning more than fifty years ago. They learned that warm water coral reefs may be less threatened than reefs in cooler water. They say natural processes may protect some reefs. But the processes are not understood.

A report on their study appeared in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

VOICE ONE:

The team used records kept by ships, satellites and markers in the water to measure sea-surface temperatures. The records showed only a small temperature increase.

The sea-surface temperatures in the Western Pacific Warm Pool are some of the world’s highest. The average temperature is about twenty-nine degrees Celsius. But the temperatures has increased little since nineteen eighty. The Western Pacific Warm Pool has warmed only half as much as cooler ocean areas.

Computer studies of the area also confirm slowly rising temperatures. By comparison, sea-surface temperatures worldwide have risen faster. They have risen about three-tenths to four-tenths of a degree over the past twenty or thirty years. Some have increased even more.

VOICE TWO:

Miz Klepas says something in the Western Pacific Warm Pool may prevent the water from getting too hot. Her study seems to help confirm a scientific theory. It states that natural activity prevents sea-surface temperatures from rising above thirty-one degrees in open waters.

Damage to the Warm Pool coral reefs has not increased much in recent years. Most reefs appear not to have bleached. In that process, reefs lose their color and may die.

The study found bleaching in the Western Pacific Warm Pool only four times over twenty-five years. Bleaching happens when corals expel the algae that feed them. The algae provide the bright colors of healthy coral reefs. The reefs die if the water does not cool and the algae fail to return.

VOICE ONE:

The Warm Pool scientists have considered several processes that might influence water temperatures. For example, more water changes into a gas and rises when surface water temperatures rise. Such evaporation can add wind and clouds. Evaporation can also remove heat. Winds and clouds can make water cooler. Warming in some places can change water currents that bring in colder waters. But Miz Klepas says these are only untested theories.

She says the theory that water can somehow limit its own temperature needs more investigation. And she is urging other scientists to work to save coral reefs.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Part of the Western Pacific Warm Pool extends into an area called the Coral Triangle. The area covers almost six million square kilometers.
The Coral Triangle contains up to six hundred or more coral reefs. That is more than half the world’s reefs. The Triangle also has larger mangrove forests than other areas. About three thousand fish swim in its waters.
Coral reefs protect coastal communities from severe storms. They also are important to some economies. Reports say the Coral Triangle directly supports the lives of more than one hundred twenty million people. Many people visit the area to see its reefs. They buy colorful jewelry and other objects made from coral. Coral also is used in making medicines and in building materials.
VOICE ONE:
Recently, Australian and Indonesian scientists reported finding many dead coral reefs at Halmahera, Indonesia. They noted the dead coral and many crown of thorns starfish on a trip in December. But the scientists say the reefs can recover.

Andrew Baird of Australia’s James Cook University was a member of the team. He says the crown of thorns starfish killed the corals. The starfish are small animals that look like sharp sticks. They kill reefs by spreading their stomachs over the corals. Then they destroy the coral tissues with enzymes.

VOICE TWO:

Crown of thorns starfish are among several threats to the Coral Triangle. The Australian scientist says he did not yet see effects of climate change on the coral reefs. Water currents have helped the area resist coral bleaching. But he is calling for less human activity on many of the reefs.

Mister Baird works with the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies of the Australia Research Council, or A.R.C. It and the Wildlife Conservation Society organized the study.

VOICE ONE:

Mister Baird says agricultural fertilizers and wastes from coastal development pollute the water. And, crown of thorns starfish spread in polluted water. He urged that the water be cleared of pollution.

The scientist is proposing a ban on use of explosives in fishing. He has also called for an end to overfishing -- the near-removal of all fish from an area. He says few healthy reefs will be left in thirty to fifty years if conditions do not improve.

VOICE TWO:

The Australian and Indonesian team noted that crown of thorns starfish have spread in another major reef area. That happened three times since the nineteen sixties in the Great Barrier Reef, near Australia. Each time, the coral reef recovered.

Mister Baird says fish were responsible for the recovery. He believes the Coral Triangle will also recover if fish are present. He says fish are necessary for the health of coral reefs.

Wildlife expert Stuart Campbell said the fish are in good condition. Mister Campbell leads the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Marine Program in Indonesia.

VOICE ONE:

Late last year, six nations in the Coral Triangle agreed to an action plan to help the area and its people. The plan resulted from the Climate Change Conference on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The program is called the Coral Triangle Initiative in the East Asian/Pacific area. The goal is to develop fisheries, protect the environment, and build food security.

But some scientists have expressed concern about the Coral Triangle Initiative. They say it does not propose enough scientific research. Mister Campbell says more studies are needed to find ways to fight loss of some of the world’s most beautiful and useful places.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

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Tenement Museum Recreates Old Immigrant Life in New York City

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A visit to the apartments of the Gumpertz family, the Baldizzis, the Rogarshevskys, the Levines and the Confinos. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

I’m Gwen Outen.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a museum in New York City. It explores and celebrates the stories of people from different nations who came to the United States to live.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The front of 97 Orchard Street

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is one of the smaller museums in New York City. It lets visitors experience how early immigrants to the United States lived. The museum is a building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street. It was built in eighteen sixty-three. It was one of the first tenements in New York City.

The word “tenement” comes from a Latin word meaning “to hold.” A tenement building holds many rooms where different families lived.

The word is not used much anymore in the United States. When people use the word today, they mean an old crowded building where poor families live in terrible, unhealthy conditions. But in the eighteen hundreds, the word “tenement” simply meant a building in which many families lived.

Later, many immigrant families improved their living conditions by moving from the lower east side to other areas of New York City. Some lived in the same kinds of buildings, but the living areas were cleaner and larger. They did not want to call them tenements, so they called them apartment buildings instead.

VOICE TWO:

History experts say more than half the people in New York City lived in tenements in eighteen sixty-three. To get one of these living areas, a family had to pay one month’s rent to the owner, usually about ten dollars. This money gave the family the use of about one hundred square meters of living space, often divided into three rooms.

The building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street shows the kind of spaces where families lived. The front room was the largest. It was the only one with a window. Behind it were a kitchen for cooking and a small bedroom for sleeping. The apartment had no running water, no bathroom, toilet or shower. There were six places where people left their body wastes in the back yard, next to the only place to get drinking water. Such unhealthy conditions led to the spread of disease.

Over the years, New York City officials passed laws to improve conditions in the tenements. The owners of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street placed gas lighting in the building in the eighteen nineties. They added water and indoor toilets in nineteen-oh-five, and electric power in nineteen twenty-four. Then they refused to make any more improvements. They closed the building in nineteen thirty-five.

In nineteen ninety-eight, the federal government declared the building a protected National Historic Place.

VOICE ONE:

Museum officials researched the history of the building and its twenty apartments. They found more than one thousand objects that belonged to people who lived there. These include kitchen devices, medicine bottles, letters, newspapers, money and pieces of cloth. They also learned the histories of many of the seven thousand people from more than twenty countries who lived there. And they spoke with and recorded memories of people who lived at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street as children.

Museum officials used this information to re-create some of the apartments as they would have looked during different time periods in the building’s history. These apartments are what people see when they visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Let us join one of the guided visits. First we climb several flights of worn stairs. It is a very hot day and we feel the heat in the dark, narrow hallway.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Now we enter the apartment of the Gumpertz family. They were Jews from Germany who lived here in the eighteen seventies.

Nathalie Gumpertz

On October seventh, eighteen seventy-four, Julius Gumpertz dressed for work, left the building and never returned. He left his wife Nathalie and their four children, ages eight months to seven years. Nathalie was forced to support her children by making clothing in the apartment. She earned about eight dollars a week, enough to pay for the apartment each month and send her children to school.

The Gumpertz apartment has a sewing machine and other tools similar to those Nathalie used in her work. She made the largest room into her workspace. That was where she saw people who wanted clothes made or repaired. It was also where she did the sewing.

VOICE ONE:

The next apartment we visit belonged to the Baldizzi family. They came from Italy and were Catholic. Adolfo Baldizzi, his wife Rosaria and their two children moved to Orchard Street in nineteen twenty-eight. They became friends with other families in the building. Their daughter Josephine liked to help other people. Every Friday night she would turn on the lights in the nearby apartment of the Rosenthal family. The Rosenthals could not turn on the lights themselves because it was the start of the Jewish holy day and no work was permitted.

Josephine Baldizzi remembered those long ago days. Here is a recording of her. She tells how she felt each week after when she saw Missus Rosenthal in the window motioning for her to come and turn on the lights:

JOSEPHINE BALDIZZI:

"It made me very proud to have to do that. I used to feel good that she chose me to do that job for her. And I can still see her till today—the vision of her in that window. It has never left my memory."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Fanny Rogarshevsky

Now we visit the apartment that belonged to the Rogarshevsky family of Lithuania. They moved to Ninety-Seven Orchard Street between nineteen-oh-seven and nineteen ten. Abraham and Fannie Rogarshevsky had six children. Abraham developed the disease tuberculosis. We can see some of the things used to fight the disease. But the efforts did not cure him. Abraham Rogarshevsky died in nineteen eighteen.

On the table we see the kinds of foods that family and friends would have eaten after Abraham’s funeral. They include hard-boiled eggs and round bread. Both represent the circle of life, from birth to death.

Fannie Rogarshevsky was faced with the same problem as Nathalie Gumpertz. What could she do to support her family and continue to live in the apartment? She got the building owner to let her clean apartments and do other work in exchange for rent.

VOICE ONE:

Now we enter the apartment of the Levine family. They were Jews from Poland. Jennie and Harris Levine moved into the building in the early eighteen nineties. They lived there for more than ten years. During that time, Jennie gave birth to four children. Her husband and his workers produced clothing in the front room.

We see Jennie in the bedroom awaiting the birth of her third child. We also see the clothing shop as it looked after the workers had gone home at the end of the day. We hear stories about the many immigrants who have worked in the clothing industry in New York City.

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VOICE TWO:

Still another apartment is an example of living history. We can visit it on a special tour. It belonged to the Confino family in nineteen sixteen. Abraham and Rachel Confino came to New York from Turkey. They were Sephardic Jews, people whose ancestors had been born in Spain, North Africa or Middle Eastern countries.

An actress who plays thirteen-year-old Victoria Confino welcomes us. She tells about Victoria’s experience living in the building. Here, she explains the language of Sephardic Jews, called Ladino, and sings part of a sad Ladino song:

VICTORIA CONFINO:

“Oh, it’s a very mixed up language. It’s like a little bit Spanish...we call it Judeo Espagnol...and it’s a little bit Turkish, a little bit Hebrew...a lot of languages mixed up all together.”

VOICE ONE:

Officials say one of the purposes of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is to use history to explore modern social issues. For example, what kinds of problems do recent immigrants face while trying to build new lives in America?

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum cooperates with other international historic places around the world. These places are part of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience.

They include the District Six Museum in South Africa, the Gulag Museum in Russia, and Project To Remember in Argentina. Others are the Terezin Memorial in the Czech Republic, the Workhouse in England and the Slave House in Senegal. Officials of these historic places are working together to help explore and solve modern problems in their own societies.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

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

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Step One to a Personal Statement for College: Make Sure It's Personal

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AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: writing a personal statement for college.

RS: Rachel Toor is the author of "Admissions Confidential: An Insider's Account of the Elite College Selection Process." She worked for three years in undergraduate admissions at Duke University in North Carolina. Since then, one thing she's been doing is counseling college applicants on their essays.

Rachel Toor and her rat Iris

RACHEL TOOR: "And I did some work with international students, mostly students from England, who were applying to American colleges and universities. And they tend to write these very formal, treatise-like documents: 'This is who I am and these are the things I've studied and this is what I expect to study at university.'

"And that may be fine for the U.K. system, but at least at American colleges and universities, it's a much more subjective process. The admissions staffs know all those things already. They know what courses they're taking, they know what their academic interests are.

"So, really, the rhetorical task of a document like that is to shed some insight into who the person is and how they think and what they're going to be like in the classroom, what they're going to be like in the dining hall, what kind of a friend they're going to be, how they're going to teach other students about the world."

RS: "Well, how do you go about doing that? What kind of advice would you give to a foreign student who's applying to college in the United States, so that their personal essay doesn't sound typical?"

RACHEL TOOR: "Well, one of the first things to understand is that it has to be personal. Good writing is vivid and specific in its details. What I often encourage students to write about is their families, because everybody has a family and everybody's family is weird in one way or another.

"And I tend to encourage students not to write about the things like -- this is a standard American essay: 'I went to a foreign country and discovered that poor people can be happy.' This is the standard kind of mission-trip essay, where they go into another culture and, bingo, they have this epiphany that there are people who are different from them but in some ways they're similar and they share similar insights and values."

AA: "You saw this when you were at Duke?"

RACHEL TOOR: "I probably read about twelve hundred essays just like that. And the thing is, it's an important experience for students to have. I'm just saying, when they write about it, they tend to be less insightful.

"You know, I had one of my favorite essays was by a student who started out saying: 'My car and I are a lot alike. I drive a nineteen eighty-seven Buick Century. It's brown and red; the red is rust. It goes from zero to sixty -- well, you know, it actually never hits sixty. When it rains, it smells like a wet dog, but I love my car, and here are the reasons why.' And by understanding what he was saying about his car, it gave me a sense of who he was as a person.

"And I think for foreign students, it feels often self-indulgent, it feels boastful, it feels immodest. But really, they don't have to be personal and spilling lots of gory details about things we don't really what to know about, but they have to be specific to the person."

RS: "One of the things that I think that foreign students might be timid about is actually revealing, not the gory details, as you say, but just revealing things about themselves, going personal."

RACHEL TOOR: "Yeah, and it's exactly antithetical to what they're taught in English classes. And even in the United States, you know, the first thing that you do when you start teaching in college is you unteach the five-paragraph essay: there's an introduction, there are three supporting paragraphs and then there's a conclusion.

"And one of the things that we try to do when they get to college is to say: 'You know what? It's more complicated than that.' Sometimes you can do it in three paragraphs, and sometimes you need five pages if it's a more complex idea. So I think that the way they're taught to write in expository writing classes doesn't serve them well when they're asked to do different kinds of writing.

"You know, I worked with a student from China, and she was a very, very smart girl and a very, very good student, but she tended to overreach, and so she would use words that seemed more complex and more complicated and harder and bigger, but that didn't feel like the way she expressed herself. So what I try to encourage students to do is -- and I think it's harder when it's not your first language -- but to be more conversational and less formal in this kind of writing, because, again, that allows voice and personality to come through."

RS: Rachel Toor is now an assistant professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University. More on this topic next week.

AA: And that's WORDMASTER for now. For more help with American English, go to voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

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New Drug Shows Promise Against Worm Disease

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Experts worry that the parasite that causes schistosomiasis could become resistant to an existing treatment. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Schistosoma mansoni, one of three major kinds of worms that cause schistosomiasis

Scientists think they are a step closer to a new drug to treat schistosomiasis. More than two hundred million people suffer from this parasitic worm disease. Most live in developing nations in tropical climates. About ten percent of victims become seriously disabled from internal bleeding, iron loss, organ damage or other effects.

A team in the United States found that chemical compounds known as oxadiazoles can target an enzyme needed for the survival of Schistosoma. This is the group of flatworms that cause schistosomiasis.

The scientists tested oxadiazoles on laboratory mice. They found that one compound killed the parasite at every level of development – from larva to adult. The study also showed that the compound was active against all three major species of Schistosoma worms that infect humans.

The National Institutes of Health supported the research. Scientists from Illinois State University and the Chemical Genomics Center at N.I.H. reported their findings in the journal Nature Medicine.

Biology professor David Williams led the research. He says the Schistosoma parasite needs oxygen to survive. Oxygen use produces oxygen-free radicals that can destroy an organism. The worm has a protective enzyme. But Professor Williams says the experimental drug disables this enzyme, causing the worm to self-destruct.

Since the nineteen eighties, doctors in more than seventy tropical nations have used one main drug to treat schistosomiasis. Public health experts worry that the worms will become resistant to this drug, praziquantel.

Each year, two hundred eighty thousand people die of schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or snail fever. The microscopic worms infect snails, which in turn lay infected eggs. Humans become infected when they enter fresh water where the snails live.

The worms dig through skin to enter the body. They move into blood vessels that supply the intestinal and urinary systems. Then, if worm eggs in human waste enter fresh water, more snails and people become infected.

More studies are needed on the experimental new drug. The scientists say the results in mice were better than all the targets set by the World Health Organization for new schistosomiasis compounds. They hope the drug will be ready for testing in humans in four to five years.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Jill Moss. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

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Parsley: Not Just Another Pretty Green

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Advice for growing parsley. And don't think there are only two kinds. (Heard of Hamburg parsley?) Transcript of radio broadcast:

This the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Parsley is an ancient green and a respected addition to many foods. But other times, its job is just to make a mealtime plate look pretty. Poor parsley, valued for its looks, then thrown away.

Yet parsley is a good source of vitamins and other nutrients. The taste is a little strong for some people, but others chew on parsley to freshen their breath.

Curly parsley is the kind that often ends up being used just for appearance. Many gardeners grow curly parsley as a border for flowerbeds.

Flat-leaf parsley is easier to work with for cooking. This kind is often called Italian or French parsley.

Do you know about a third kind of parsley? Hamburg parsley has flat leaves that can be used for the same purposes as other parsley. But Hamburg parsley has a large root which is used as a vegetable -- for example, to add flavor to soups.

Hamburg parsley is popular, not surprisingly, in Germany, home to the city of Hamburg.

Parsley is used in foods such as tabouli, a traditional Lebanese salad, and is often served with lamb, fish and beef dishes. Parsley is an herb if you use just the greens. If the root is used, then parsley is considered a vegetable.

Some gardeners suggest that to get the best tasting parsley, you should plant new seeds every year. You can get parsley to grow faster by pouring warm water over the seeds. Leave the seeds in the water overnight. Then you can grow them in containers indoors or plant them outside.

Charlie Nardozzi is a writer for the National Gardening Association in the United States. He says parsley grows best when temperatures are under twenty-one degrees Celsius. In colder climates, parsley can go into the ground two to three weeks before the last freeze is likely to happen.

Charlie Nardozzi says parsley likes to grow in sunny places or in partial sun. The seeds need rich, moist soil. Plant the seeds about fifteen to twenty-five centimeters apart. Water regularly during the first month. After that, parsley does not need very much water.

Ron Waldrop is a county extension director for the University of Illinois. He says you can harvest parsley by cutting most of the plant, or leave more of the plant in the ground for a second crop.

To dry parsley, tie the plant stems together and hang them upside down in a warm, dark, airy place. The leaves should be dry in a week or two. After that, store them in a tightly closed container.

And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson.

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