Too Few Women in Science

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Two new studies look at reasons women are underrepresented in science professions in the United States.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Two new studies have investigated why fewer females, compared to males, study and work in the so called STEM subjects in the United States. Those subjects are science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The American Association of University Women examined existing research. Its report, called “Why So Few?,” also suggested ways to interest more girls and women in the STEM fields. The researchers found that cultural and environmental factors make a difference.

Researcher Christianne Corbett says more boys than girls score very high on math tests in most countries. She says Iceland and Thailand are exceptions.

CHRISTIANNE CORBETT: “In those countries, more girls than boys actually scored above the ninety-ninth percentile in math. This is something that we point out in our report just says further evidence that cultural factors and societal factors can make a difference in who achieves at the very high levels and if girls are achieving or not.”

The other study was carried out by the Campos company for the Bayer Corporation in the United States. It asked more than one thousand women and minority members of the American Chemical Society about their experiences. Seventy-seven percent said not enough women and minorities are working in STEM professions today. This is because they were not identified or urged to study those subjects in school. Bayer USA Executive Director Rebecca Lucore says its study produced results similar to the AAUW research.

REBECCA LUCORE: “I think that what our recent survey showed is there’s still a lot of work to be done. We see that you know from everyone, they say their interest in science begins before the age of eleven. So we need programs that really, and from industry's perspective too, get in front of kids while they’re young in elementary school.”

Why is it so important for girls and women to be involved in science? Christianne Corbett has one answer.

CHRISTIANNE CORBETT: “Increasing diversity in professions leads to better products, better science, just generally. And expanding and developing this science and engineering workforce is critical to the nation’s economic innovation and productivity and competitiveness.”

Rebecca Lucore says scientific professions need more and better workers.

REBECCA LUCORE: “It’s just about having scientifically literate citizens. It’s really important no matter what career you go into if it’s accounting or human resources or science career that you can think critically and creatively, you can work in teams, you can adapt to change and that’s important for everybody.”

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Is science a popular field of study for girls in your country? You can comment at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein.

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American History Series: Indian Wars

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Native Americans Went to War to Protect Their Lands

BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.

The United States began to expand west during the middle eighteen hundreds. People settled in the great open areas of the Dakotas, Utah, Wyoming, and California. The movement forced the nation to deal with great tribes of Native American Indians. The Indians had lived in the western territories for hundreds of years.

Settlers and cattle ranchers pushed the Indians out of their homelands. The result was a series of wars between the tribes and the federal government.

This week in our series, Steve Ember and Sarah Long tell about some of these conflicts.

STEVE EMBER: At first, the United States government had just one policy to deal with the Indians. It was brutal. Whenever white men wanted Indian land, the tribes were pushed farther west. If the Indians protested, or tried to defend their land, they were destroyed with crushing force.

By the middle eighteen-hundreds, almost all the eastern Indians had been moved west of the Mississippi River. They were given land in Indian territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma. The government described these Indians as "civilized." This meant they were too weak to cause more trouble. Many agreed to follow the ways of the white men.

SARAH LONG: The Indians of the western grasslands were different. They refused to give up their way of life. These plains Indians were always on the move, because they hunted buffalo -- the American bison. They followed great groups of the animals across the grassy plains. At that time, there were millions of these animals in the American west.

The Indians of the plains depended on the buffalo for almost everything they needed. Many of them were fierce fighters. The plains Indians did not want white men crossing their hunting lands. They often tried to destroy the wagon trains carrying settlers to California and Oregon.

STEVE EMBER: The United States army was given the job of keeping peace. Soldiers were sent to build roads and forts in the western plains. They tried to protect the wagon trains from Indian attacks. They tried to keep white settlers from invading Indian lands. There were many fights between the soldiers and the plains Indians. The soldiers had more powerful weapons. They usually won.

SARAH LONG: Some plains Indians tried to live peacefully with the white men. One such group was part of the Sioux tribe, called Santee Sioux. It was the largest and most powerful group in the west.

The Santee Sioux lived along the northeastern edge of the Great Plains in what is now the state of Minnesota. They signed treaties with the government giving up ninety percent of their land. The Santee agreed to live in a small area. In exchange, the United States agreed to make yearly payments to the tribe. This made it possible for the Indians to buy food and other things from white traders.

STEVE EMBER: Trouble started, however, in the summer of eighteen sixty-two. The government was late giving the Indians their yearly payment. As a result, the Indians lacked the money to buy food. The white traders refused to give the Indians credit to buy food. One trader said: "If they are hungry, let them eat grass."

The Indians were hungry. Soon, their hunger turned to anger. Finally, the local Indian chief called his men together. He gave the orders for war.

Early the next morning, the tribe attacked the trading stores. Most of the traders were killed, including the man who had insulted the Indians. He was found with his mouth filled with grass.

The governor of Minnesota sent a force of state soldiers to stop the Indian revolt. The soldiers had artillery. They killed several hundred Indians in battle. They hanged several others. Soon, the revolt was over.

SARAH LONG: Trouble came next to parts of Colorado and Wyoming. This is where the Sioux Indians and the Cheyenne Indians lived. The chief of the Lakota Sioux tribe was named Red Cloud. The Indians fought bitterly to keep white men out of their hunting grounds. After two years of fighting, with many deaths on both sides, the government decided the struggle was too costly. It asked for peace.

The Sioux and the Cheyenne agreed. They were given a large area of land north of Wyoming in the Dakota territory. They also were given the right to use their old hunting lands farther north. The government agreed to close a road used by whites to cross the hunting grounds. And all soldiers were withdrawn from Sioux country.

STEVE EMBER: The war ended and peace came to the Sioux and the Cheyenne. With peace came a new United States policy toward other Indians of the West. The government decided to put aside an area of land for each tribe. The land was called a "reservation." Each tribe would live on its own reservation.

Most of the reservations were in Indian territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma. Other reservations were in Dakota near the land of the Sioux.

SARAH LONG: The government believed it would cost less money and fewer lives to keep Indians on reservations. The Indians would be away from possible trouble with white settlers. Instead of moving freely over the plains to hunt buffalo, the Indians would live in one place. They would receive food and money from the government.

Officials came from Washington to explain this new policy to the Indians. A big meeting was held. Chiefs representing many tribes attended. The chiefs spoke, one after another, to the government officials.

STEVE EMBER: All of the chiefs said they, too, wished to live in peace with the white men. But many questioned the decision to move to reservations. One who did so was Chief Ten Bears of the Comanche tribe. He said:

"There are things which you have said to me that I do not like. You said you wanted to put us on a reservation. You said you would build houses for us. I do not want your houses. I was born on the plains where the wind blows free, and there is nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where everything breathed a free breath. I want to die there...not within walls."

SARAH LONG: So the government and the Indians reached a compromise. The tribes were given reservations in Indian territory. But they were also given permission to hunt buffalo in a wide area south of the reservations. The Indians agreed to give up all their old lands. They agreed to live in peace on the reservations.

In exchange, the United States promised to give the Indians all the food, clothing, and other things they needed. It also promised to give them schools and medical care.

STEVE EMBER: The Indians were not happy with this agreement. They did not want to give up their old ways of living. However, they saw they had no choice. The government was too strong.

They waited weeks, then months, for help to move to the new reservations. They could not understand the delay in carrying out the agreement. The delay was in Washington, D.C. Congress could not agree on how much money to spend on the Indians. So the lawmakers refused to approve the agreement. They left the situation unsettled.

Again, Indians were forced to watch angrily as white settlers began moving onto lands they had agreed to give up. As the whites moved in, the buffalo and other animals left. The Indians had difficulty finding food.

SARAH LONG: Soldiers shared their food with the Indians. It was not enough. Western officials sent urgent messages to Washington asking for supplies for the Indians. No supplies could be sent until Congress approved the money to buy them.

As before, some of the Indians became angry and refused to wait any longer. Their anger led to new fighting. In the end, it was a fight that failed to win back their land.

That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION.

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BOB DOUGHTY: Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The narrators were Steve Ember and Sarah Long. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are online, along with historical images, 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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Ear Care: Do-It-Yourself Wax Removal

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Advice from experts about what to do -- and not to do -- when your ear is blocked with wax.

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Some people's ears produce wax like busy little bees. This can be a problem even though earwax appears to serve an important purpose.

Experts say it protects and cleans the ear. It traps dirt and other matter and keeps insects out. Doctors think it might also help protect against infections. And the waxy oil keeps ears from getting too dry.

So earwax is good. It even has a medical name: cerumen. And there are two kinds. Most people of European or African ancestry have the "wet" kind: thick and sticky. East Asians commonly have "dry" earwax.

But you can have too much of a good thing.

The glands in the ear canal that produce the wax make too much in some people. Earwax is normally expelled; it falls out of the ear or gets washed away. But extra wax can harden and form a blockage that interferes with sound waves and reduces hearing.

People can also cause a blockage when they try to clean out their ears, but only push the wax deeper inside. Earwax removal is sometimes necessary. But you have to use a safe method or you could do a lot of damage.

Experts at N.I.H., the National Institutes of Health, suggest some ways to treat excessive earwax yourself. They say the wax can be softened with mineral oil, glycerin or ear drops. They say hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide may also help.

Another way to remove wax is known as irrigation. With the head upright, take hold of the outer part of the ear. Gently pull upward to straighten the ear canal. Use a syringe device to gently direct water against the wall of the ear canal. Then turn the head to the side to let the water out.

The experts at N.I.H. say you may have to repeat this process a few times. Use water that is body temperature. If the water is cooler or warmer, it could make you feel dizzy. Never try irrigation if the eardrum is broken. It could lead to infection and other problems.

After the earwax is gone, gently dry the ear. But if irrigation fails, the best thing to do is to go to a health care provider for professional assistance.

You should never put a cotton swab or other object into the ear canal. But you can use a swab or cloth to clean the outer part of the ear. The experts agree with the old saying that you should never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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The Sky Is No Limit for the Tallest Buildings in the World

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The Burj Khalifa now holds the title of tallest building.

BOB DOUGHTY: I’m Bob Doughty.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we look up into the skies to explore the past and present of the tallest buildings in the world. Skyscrapers were first built in the late nineteenth century. Engineers then probably would not believe the soaring heights of today’s tallest buildings.

Skyscrapers represent modernity, power, and the expanding boundaries of human invention and new technology.

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BOB DOUGHTY: Skyscrapers were invented in the United States. As early as the eighteen eighties, two new technical developments made these taller buildings possible. One development was the mechanical elevator. It meant that people would not have to climb many steps to reach the upper floors of tall buildings. The development of steel building technology also helped make taller buildings possible.

Many experts consider the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois to be the first skyscraper. Built in eighteen eighty-five and later expanded, this tower was about fifty-five meters tall.

STEVE EMBER: Today this would not be considered much of a skyscraper. But at the time, this height was striking. The structure was built using a steel frame. This frame was load-bearing, meaning that the steel skeleton would support the building’s weight, not its walls. Before this technology, a taller building required creating thicker stone walls to support its weight. Thick walls are extremely heavy, and allow less room for windows and light.

William Jenney was the engineer who helped build the Home Insurance Building. He realized the possibilities that steel frames could offer. Some people consider him the father of the skyscraper.

Soon after his building was finished, builders in Chicago and New York City began copying and improving on the idea of building up. Builders in these cities and others would also begin competing for the title of “tallest building.”

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BOB DOUGHTY: The Empire State Building in New York City is probably one of the most famous skyscrapers in the world. It held the title of tallest building for over forty years. It was completed in nineteen thirty-one and stands three hundred eighty-one meters tall.

The next building to hold the record no longer exists. One World Trade Center tower in New York City was completed in nineteen seventy-two. It measured four hundred seventeen meters. It was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one. Chicago’s Sears Tower is now called the Willis Tower. It became the world’s tallest building in nineteen seventy-four, at four hundred forty-two meters.

The next records for tallest buildings are in other countries. The two Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia measure four hundred fifty-two meters. They were followed by the Taipei 101 building in Taiwan, which is five hundred eight meters tall.

STEVE EMBER: The most recent addition to this list is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. This building measures eight hundred twenty-eight meters in height. It cost an estimated one and a half billion dollars to create. It contains space for apartments, offices, a restaurant, hotel and Muslim religious center. The building’s footprint is shaped like a “Y”, with three wings extending from its center. This design was influenced by the shape of a desert flower that grows in the area.The building’s Web site says that as many as twelve thousand people were working on the building at the same time.

The Burj Khalifa was built as a major attraction for travelers and business people. But the timing of its opening in January has been difficult. In December, Dubai entered a major debt crisis. And in February, the Burj Khalifa closed its observation deck, reportedly because of electrical problems.

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BOB DOUGHTY: You might be wondering how the height of a building is officially measured. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is in Chicago, Illinois. The group is supported by building designers and experts connected to the operation of tall buildings. The Council helps decide on the official heights of buildings. The Council also sets rules about what defines a building. For example, the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada is not included in the tallest building category because it is a communication tower. To be a building, half of a structure’s height must have usable floor space.

STEVE EMBER: Calculating building height was not a complex measurement in the late nineteenth century with early skyscrapers like the Home Insurance Building in Chicago. The Council explains on its Web site that early tall buildings were generally measured from the ground floor to the top of the building, not including flagpoles. By the nineteen thirties, some of the possible record-making skyscrapers were being designed with spires. Spires are the thin, pointy tops of buildings. These spires were considered an architectural part of the building, so their length was included in the building’s height measurement.

BOB DOUGHTY: Sometimes measurements can lead to debates and disputes. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat decided in nineteen ninety-six to include the height of the spires of the Petronas Towers. This led to its surpassing the height of the Sears Tower in Chicago by about ten meters. Many people felt this was unfair, because the Sears Tower’s tall antenna was not included in the official height measurement.

As a result, the Council now considers other height categories, such as highest occupied floor and highest antenna. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is not only the world’s tallest building architecturally. It is also the tallest building when measuring height to tip, and highest occupied floors. But this record will probably not last for long. Builders in Dubai and China have already started plans for surpassing the Burj Khalifa’s height.

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STEVE EMBER: So far, we have discussed the reality of skyscrapers. But what would tall buildings look like if your imagination was the only limit? A building design magazine called eVolo has been published for about two years. A group of architecture students at Columbia University in New York started eVolo. The magazine also holds a yearly skyscraper competition for the best ideas for redefining the role of skyscrapers.

BOB DOUGHTY: Carlo Aiello is the editor of the magazine. He says that skyscrapers are clearly popular around the world because they provide a huge amount of shelter and use less land space. But he says they also act as representations of a country’s wealth and geopolitical power. He wanted the eVolo skyscraper competition to be less about the height of the buildings, and more about supporting environmental and community responsibility. The aim of the award is also to bring attention to the ideas of young designers.

STEVE EMBER: Judges for this contest studied how each design looks and how it uses new technologies and materials. This year there were four hundred thirty entries from forty-two countries. The judges chose three winners and gave special recognition to twenty-seven others.

eVolo.com

The first place eVolo design by Chow Khoon Toong, Ong Tien Yee, and Beh Ssi Cze from Malaysia.

First place went to a design for a skyscraper jail made by architecture students in Malaysia. Their aim was to create a prison city in the sky. It was designed to permit prisoners to live free and productive lives that would help people in the city below. The jail would contain fields and factories so that the prisoners could work to provide services to the larger community. The idea was to make it easier for prisoners to rejoin their communities after they served their jail sentences.

BOB DOUGHTY: Second place went to a team in Indonesia. They designed a large building that would clean a polluted river in Jakarta.

And, third place went to a team in the United States for their “Nested Skyscraper.” Built like a robot, this building can change, based on the conditions of the climate and city around it. The designers wanted to rethink the fixed and boxy skyscraper. Their building can bend, move, and change to be more useful in its setting in Tokyo, Japan.

These interesting buildings are helping to show what skyscrapers and our cities might look like in the future.

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

BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. You can comment on this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also see pictures of the winning eVolo skyscraper design. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

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What Doctors Are Doing About Headaches, and What You Can Do

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There are different kinds of headaches, from the mildly unpleasant to the extremely painful, but almost all can now be treated..

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

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Today we tell about headaches, the pain that strikes almost everyone at some time.

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BOB DOUGHTY: Have you had a headache recently? If your answer is yes, you are like many millions of people worldwide who experience pain in the head. The pain can be temporary, mild and cured by a simple painkiller like aspirin. Or it can be severe.

The National Headache Foundation says more than forty five million people in the United States suffer chronic headaches. Such a headache causes severe pain that goes away but returns later.

Some headaches may prove difficult and require time to treat. But many experts today are working toward cures or major help for chronic headaches.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The US Headache Consortium is a group with seven member organizations. They are attempting to improve treatment of one kind of headache -- the migraine. Some people experience this kind of pain as often as two weeks every month. The National Headache Foundation says about seventy percent of migraine sufferers are women.

Some people describe the pain as throbbing, causing pressure in the head. Others compare it to someone driving a sharp object into the head. Migraine headaches cause Americans to miss at least one hundred fifty million workdays each year. A migraine can be mild. But it also can be so severe that a person cannot live a normal life.

BOB DOUGHTY: One migraine sufferer lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. Video producer Curtis Croley had head pain as a child. He does not know what kind of headaches they were. But when he suffered severe headaches as an adult, doctors identified the problem as migraine.

Today, Mister Croley says months can pass without a headache. But then he will have three migraines within a month. If he takes the medicine his doctor ordered early in his headache, it controls the pain. If not, the pain in his head becomes extremely bad. Sometimes he has had to be treated with a combination of drugs in a hospital.

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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Some people take medicine every day to prevent or ease migraine headaches. Others use medicine to control pain already developed. Doctors treating migraine sufferers often order medicines from a group of drugs known as triptans.

Most migraines react at least partly to existing medicine. And most people can use existing medicine without experiencing bad effects. Doctors sometimes use caffeine to treat migraine headaches. Interestingly, caffeine also can cause some migraines.

BOB DOUGHTY: Medical experts have long recognized the work of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The Mayo Clinic says several foods are suspected of causing migraines. Cheese and alcoholic drinks are among them. Food additives like salt and monosodium glutamate also are suspected causes.

The Mayo Clinic tells patients to avoid strong smells that have seemingly started migraines in the past. Some people react badly to products like perfume, even if they have a pleasant smell.

The clinic's experts say aerobic exercise can help migraine sufferers. Aerobic exercise increases a person's heart rate. It can include walking, swimming or riding a bicycle. But a sudden start to hard exercise can cause headaches.

The experts advise that people should plan to exercise, eat and sleep at the same times each day.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Mayo Clinic has advice about estrogen for women who suffer from migraines. The female body makes estrogen. Drugs like birth control pills contain a version of this chemical.

Such medicines may produce headaches or cause them to worsen, the clinic says. The same is true for estrogen replacement drugs for women. Doctors sometimes order estrogen replacement for women who no longer able to have children.

BOB DOUGHTY: The clinic also says hypnotherapy might help suppress headaches. It says the method could reduce the number and severity of a patient’s headaches. In hypnotherapy, willing people are placed in a condition that lets them receive suggestions. They look like they are sleeping. The suggestions they receive may be able to direct their whole mental energy against pain.

The Mayo Clinic says the hypnotizer can never control the person under hypnosis. It also says the hypnotized person will remember what happened during the treatment.

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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: More people suffer tension headaches than migraines. But most tension headaches are not as powerful.

Events that start tension headaches may include emotional pressure and the deeper than normal sadness called depression. Other tension headaches can start from something as simple as tiredness. Common changes in atmospheric conditions also can be responsible.

The Mayo Clinic says you may feel a tension headache as tightness in the skin around your eyes. Or, you may feel pressure around your head. Episodic tension headaches strike from time to time. Chronic tension headaches happen more often. A tension headache can last from a half hour to a whole week.

BOB DOUGHTY: The Mayo Clinic says the pain may come very early in the day. Other signs can include pain in the neck or the lower part of the head. Scientists are not sure what causes tension headaches. For years, researchers blamed muscle tension from tightening in the face, neck and the skin on top of the head. They believed emotional tension caused these movements.

But that belief has been disputed. A test called an electromyogram shows that muscle tension does not increase in people with a tension headache. The test records electrical currents caused by muscle activity. Such research caused the International Headache Society to re-name the tension headache. The group now calls it a tension-type headache.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Some scientists now believe that tension headaches may result from changes among brain chemicals such as serotonin. The changes may start sending pain messages to the brain. These changes may interfere with brain activity that suppresses pain.

Medicines for tension headache can be as simple as aspirin or other painkillers. But if your pain is too severe, you will need a doctor's advice.

BOB DOUGHTY: A web site called Family Doctor dot org provides information from the American Academy of Family Physicians. The group suggests steps to ease or end a tension headache.

For example, it says putting heat or ice on your head or neck can help. So can standing under hot water while you are getting washed. The group also advises exercising often. Another idea is taking a holiday from work. But you had better ask your employer first.

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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Ask anyone with a cluster headache, and they will tell you that the pain is terrible. The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio says the cluster headache can be many times more intense than a migraine.

Cluster headaches usually strike young people. Smokers and persons who drink alcohol often get these headaches. Men are about six times more likely than women to have them. The Cleveland Clinic says this is especially true of younger men. Doctors say cluster headaches often strike during changes of season.

Cluster headache patients describe the pain as burning. The pain is almost always felt on one side of the face. It can last for up to ninety minutes. Then it stops. But it often starts again later the same day. Eighty to ninety percent of cluster headache patients have pain over a number of days to a whole year. Pain-free periods separate these periods.

BOB DOUGHTY: The Cleveland Clinic says the cause of cluster headaches is in a brain area known as a trigeminal-autonomic reflex pathway. When the nerve is made active, it starts pain linked to cluster headaches. The nerve starts a process that makes one eye watery and red.

Studies have shown that activation of the trigeminal nerve may come from a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The Cleveland Clinic says injections of the drug sumatriptan can help. Many other drugs could be used. For example, doctors say breathing oxygen also can help.

Thankfully, modern medicine has ways to treat almost all of our headaches.

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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Shirley Griffith.

BOB DOUGHTY: 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 Documents Effects of Market Policy Changes on Three West African Countries

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Mali suffered less than Gambia and Ivory Coast during the food crisis of 2008.

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Today we continue telling about a report by three geography experts from American colleges. They studied food security in Gambia, Ivory Coast and Mali over thirty years.

In the nineteen eighties, governments and lenders like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund changed market policies. They launched free markets designed to improve agriculture. The report, however, suggests that the changes caused loss of important support systems for farmers.

Private investment in agriculture largely replaced government help. In some places, roads and mills built to help farmers fell into ruin. Protectionist import taxes and farm supports were cut.

Farmers planted more of their best crops, or “cash crops,” for export. They planted fewer food crops for local use. Less costly rice came into the ports of Gambia and Ivory Coast. Many city people in those countries liked the cheap rice more than rice grown locally.

Researcher Judith Carney works at the University of California at Los Angeles. She said buying the cheaper imported rice worked well until the worldwide food crisis of two thousand eight. Then, many people could not pay for an important part of their diet.

Researcher Laurence Becker of Oregon State University said some local farmers stopped farming. Food production fell and unemployment rose.

The researchers said people in Mali were able to deal better with the food crisis. Mali’s farmers supplied more of their nation’s rice needs than the other two countries studied. And the poorest people in Malian cities ate sorghum instead of rice.

William Moseley of Macalester College in Minnesota led the report. Professor Moseley said Malian farmers had planted more sorghum because the price of their cotton, a cash crop, had dropped.

Unlike Ivory Coast and Gambia, Mali has no seaports. He said this is often seen as a problem for Mali. But it caused them to depend less on imported rice.

Based on their research, the experts suggest that farmers plant a variety of crops and not just depend on rice. They also say governments could place some trade barriers. And, they urge that mills and roads be built or rebuilt to process and carry grains to market.

And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. To comment on our reports, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

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For Many, NCAA Means Championships

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The NCAA Holds 88 championships in 23 sports each year.

STEVE EMBER:

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

FAITH LAPIDUS:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week on our program, we tell about the largest college sports organization in the United States. The National Collegiate Athletic Association includes colleges and universities, athletic conferences and non-profit organizations. It has over one thousand members. The NCAA sets rules for student athletes and their schools.

It links academic studies, sports, rules and big business. But most Americans think about one thing when they hear NCAA: championships.

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STEVE EMBER:

This month, many Americans are caught up in the yearly tradition of “March Madness.” It describes the excitement over the Men’s and Women’s NCAA National Basketball Championships. The first games began March sixteenth. People join “office pools” in work places around the country — usually to bet on the men’s championship.

Fans in office pools try to predict the winners of each of the sixty-three games and the college basketball champion. They fill out forms called brackets with their choices of which team they think will win. Usually, people bet five or ten dollars. Quang Lam, a Web producer from Virginia, says he is in three pools this year: two for money and one for fun. First prize in one pool is one thousand dollars. Fans used to fill in their brackets on paper. Today, office pools are mostly done on-line. People bet tens of millions of dollars on NCAA tournament games in Las Vegas, Nevada, where gambling is legal. But Americans bet much more in office pools nationwide.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Everyone in office pools wants to pick the Final Four. Those are the last four winning teams remaining from a field of sixty-five in the men’s competition. This year’s NCAA Men’s Final Four competition takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana starting April third. The top women’s teams play in San Antonio, Texas beginning April fourth.

There are always surprises during March Madness. This year’s top men’s team, the University of Kansas, lost in the second round to ninth seeded Northern Iowa University. But evenly matched teams often play to exciting finishes like Michigan State University’s last second victory over the University of Maryland.

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STEVE EMBER:

In some ways, the NCAA really is about championships. The first was held in nineteen twenty-one. Sixty-two teams competed in the National Collegiate Track and Field Championship held at the University of Chicago. Today, the NCAA holds eighty-eight championships in twenty-three sports every year. Since nineteen seventy-three, colleges and universities have competed in three divisions. The largest schools compete in Division One.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

This year, the NCAA is marking its one hundred fourth year. But it is only the twenty-ninth year that women’s championships have been part of NCAA sports.

Before the early nineteen seventies, women did compete in sports clubs at America’s colleges and universities. But these activities were not organized as they are now. Women’s competitions were organized through health associations or other groups. And they received little attention compared to men’s sports.

But in nineteen seventy-two, Congress passed the federal law known as Title Nine. It bars discrimination based on sex at educational institutions that receive federal money. Title Nine changed college sports forever. Joni Comstock is a top official for championships with the NCAA.

JONI COMSTOCK: “Women’s programs began to ramp up and get more support and resources and attention post nineteen seventy-two. And by nineteen eighty-one men’s and women’s programs were joined together under the umbrella of the NCAA.”

STEVE EMBER: More than four hundred thousand students take part in sports organized by the NCAA. Women and men still do not take part in athletics in equal numbers. But Joni Comstock says NCAA women’s participation has grown a lot.

JONI COMSTOCK: “In nineteen eighty-one, we had approximately sixty-four thousand women who are participating in NCAA intercollegiate athletics across this country. And today we have approximately a hundred and seventy-seven thousand female participants in our NCAA institutions.”

College teams may have both men and women in three sports: skiing, rifle shooting and fencing. Only in rifle do women compete directly against men. This year’s champion was Texas Christian University. In rifle, women competitors are so strong that TCU became the first all-female team to win the NCAA championship.

As senior vice-president for championships, Joni Comstock knows how hard it is to coordinate big sports events. She says the NCAA spends about seventy million dollars a year to organize championships. Fifty-seven thousand student-athletes take part. Joni Comstock says championships are held in rounds at different places around the country.

JONI COMSTOCK: “If you take the eighty-eight championships and then you count each of the rounds within those championships and then all of the sites, we run seven hundred and fifty-six events all over the country.”

The NCAA has more than three hundred eighty professional employees working mainly at its headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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FAITH LAPIDUS:

AP

Boston University players celebrate after defeating Miami of Ohio for the championship in the final of the NCAA men's college hockey tournament Frozen Four in 2009

The Men’s and Women’s Final Four basketball championship receives a lot of attention at NCAA headquarters. But they are not even the last of the winter season championships. The division one hockey championship, called the Men’s Frozen Four, finishes on April tenth.

Still, it is hard to overstate the importance of the men’s and women’s division one basketball championships to the NCAA. The University of Oregon won the first men’s tournament in nineteen thirty-nine. That event was held at Northwestern University near Chicago. It lost money.

Today, money is not a problem. The NCAA has a contract with CBS Television to broadcast the men’s tournament. It is worth about six hundred seventeen million dollars this year. A contract with ESPN is worth seventy-three million dollars over the next four years. It includes broadcasting rights for the women’s championship games.

Television and marketing money from these events make up about eighty-five percent of the NCAA’s income. Much of that, however, is returned to the colleges and universities. Sixty percent of the NCAA’s expenses are payments to its division one schools.

STEVE EMBER:

People have criticized the NCAA for placing too much importance on the business side of college sports. Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently urged banning teams with low graduation rates from play in the NCAA basketball tournament.Some men’s basketball teams have graduation rates well below forty percent. But the NCAA says that graduation rates among all student athletes are higher than the general student population.

Joni Comstock says the NCAA does a lot of research on the effect of sports on student-athletes. She says ninety percent of student-athletes say they believe they have developed strong skills of leadership and teamwork. And over ninety percent of college athletes say their experience has helped them in their current jobs.

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FAITH LAPIDUS:

The roots of the NCAA date back to the need to control one sport—American football. In fact, a former NCAA worker Kay Hawes wrote that the NCAA’s “father was football and its mother was higher education.” In the early nineteen hundreds, football was wildly popular. The sport had fewer rules, was extremely violent and provided little protection for players. Serious injuries and deaths were common.

In nineteen-oh-five, President Theodore Roosevelt called together representatives from Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities. His idea was to change the rules of football to make it safer. The message was that the game must be reformed or it would be banned.

Sixty-four colleges and universities gathered to create a new rule-making group that year. It was called the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States. In nineteen-oh-nine, it renamed itself the National Collegiate Athletic Association. But the NCAA does not hold a football championship for the biggest universities, although it does for division two and three schools. The Bowl Championship Series is managed by officials of major athletic conferences, bowl game representatives and a few schools. It is not linked to the NCAA and divides its own income of one hundred forty-eight million dollars separately.

STEVE EMBER:

In over a century, the NCAA has struggled with the same issues that it faces today. They are questions of sportsmanship, pay for players and influence from sports agents. Academic requirements and rules limiting the time students spend on sports are also subjects for reform and debate.

But the NCAA has built a tradition of sports competition. It has taught hundreds of thousands of talented young people about teamwork and leadership. Sports and teaching have a long history together.

(SOUND-THEME)

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Our program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus.

STEVE EMBER:

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

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Protecting Children Against Pneumonia

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Two leading drug companies will supply vaccines to the world’s poorest countries at a reduced price.

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Millions of babies and children could soon be protected against the deadly disease pneumonia. Two leading drug companies have agreed to supply vaccines against pneumococcal disease to the world's poorest countries at a reduced price. Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline signed the historic Advance Market Commitment agreement last week. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, or GAVI, helped negotiate the deal. The group says the low cost vaccines could save as many as seven million lives by the year twenty thirty.

The World Health Organization says pneumonia kills almost two million children each year. This is more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. It is the leading cause of death among young children. And, more than ninety percent of those deaths happen in the developing world.

These are all reasons why GAVI chose the pneumococcal vaccine for its first Advance Market Commitment project. The private-public partnerships are designed to increase the availability of low cost vaccines in poor areas.

Last year, the governments of Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and Norway joined with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They provided one and a half billion dollars to launch the pneumococcal vaccine project. Jeffrey Rowland is with the GAVI alliance. He says the money helps to persuade drug makers to take part in the project.

JEFFREY ROWLAND: "The biggest challenge of getting life saving vaccines to poor countries is that there's no market. People can't afford them. That's why we don't really have a malaria vaccine yet, because no one in rich countries really suffers from malaria. What we did for the pneumococcal vaccine was we said we will pay one point five billion dollars if you develop the right vaccines, and the right volumes that we need and at the right price. And it was a gamble."

That gamble paid off. GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer have agreed to provide thirty million doses of the vaccine each year for ten years. The first twenty percent of the vaccines will sell for seven dollars a dose. The remaining eighty percent will cost three dollars and fifty cents per dose. That is ninety per cent less than current prices in the United States.

Mister Rowland says the agreement is a huge achievement for the developing world.

JEFFREY ROWLAND: "Vaccination, which we tend to take for granted in countries like the United States or in Western Europe, in fact a lot of us don't even know which diseases we've been vaccinated against. That's not the case in poor countries. Vaccination is a life or death question for poor people and if you can vaccinate a child to prevent a disease from happening it is a lot more cost effective than it is to treat that disease afterwards."

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. I'm Steve Ember.

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Words and Their Stories: From Couch Potato to Cabin Fever

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American terms to describe active and inactive lifestyles.


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

Some unusual words describe how a person spends his or her time. For example, someone who likes to spend a lot of time sitting or lying down while watching television is sometimes called a couch potato. A couch is a piece of furniture that people sit on while watching television.

Robert Armstrong, an artist from California, developed the term couch potato in nineteen seventy-six. Several years later, he listed the term as a trademark with the United States government. Mister Armstrong also helped write a funny book about life as a full-time television watcher. It is called the “Official Couch Potato Handbook.”

Couch potatoes enjoy watching television just as mouse potatoes enjoy working on computers. A computer mouse is the device that moves the pointer, or cursor, on a computer screen. The description of mouse potato became popular in nineteen ninety-three. American writer Alice Kahn is said to have invented the term to describe young people who spend a lot of time using computers.

Too much time inside the house using a computer or watching television can cause someone to get cabin fever. A cabin is a simple house usually built far away from the city. People go to a cabin to relax and enjoy quiet time.

Cabin fever is not really a disease. However, people can experience boredom and restlessness if they spend too much time inside their homes. This is especially true during the winter when it is too cold or snowy to do things outside. Often children get cabin fever if they cannot go outside to play. So do their parents. This happens when there is so much snow that schools and even offices and stores are closed.

Some people enjoy spending a lot of time in their homes to make them nice places to live. This is called nesting or cocooning. Birds build nests out of sticks to hold their eggs and baby birds. Some insects build cocoons around themselves for protection while they grow and change. Nests and cocoons provide security for wildlife. So people like the idea of nests and cocoons, too.

The terms cocooning and nesting became popular more than twenty years ago. They describe people buying their first homes and filling them with many things. These people then had children.

Now these children are grown and have left the nest. They are in college. Or they are married and starting families of their own far away. Now these parents are living alone without children in their empty nest. They have become empty nesters.

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This VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus.

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Madam C.J. Walker, 1867-1919: Developed Hair-Care Products for Black Women

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Her products helped women have a better sense of their beauty.


SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:I'm Shirley Griffith.

RICH KLEINFELDT: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Madam C. J.Walker. She was a businesswoman, the first female African American to become very rich.

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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In the early nineteen hundreds, life for most African-Americans was very difficult. Mobs of white people attacked and killed black people. It was legal to separate groups of people by race. Women, both black and white, did not have the same rights as men.

Black women worked very long hours for little wages. They worked mostly as servants or farm workers. Or they washed clothes. Madam C. J. Walker worked as a washerwoman for twenty years. She then started her own business of developing and selling hair-care products for black women.

Madam Walker, however, did more than build a successful business. Her products helped women have a better sense of their own beauty. Her business also gave work to many black women. And, she helped other people, especially black artists and civil rights supporters. She said: "My object in life is not simply to make money for myself or to spend it on myself. I love to use a part of what I make in trying to help others. "

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RICH KLEINFELDT: Madam C. J. Walker was very poor for most of her life.

She was born Sarah Breedlove in the southern state of Louisiana in eighteen sixty-seven. Her parents were former slaves. The family lived and worked on a cotton farm along the Mississippi River. Cotton was a crop that grew well in the rich, dark soil near the river.

Most children of slaves did not go to school. They had to work. By the time Sarah was five years old, she was picking cotton in the fields with her family. She also helped her mother and sister earn money by washing clothes for white people.

There was no water or machine to wash clothes in their home. The water from the Mississippi River was too dirty. So, they used rainwater. Sarah helped her mother and sister carry water to fill big wooden containers. They heated the water over the fire. Then they rubbed the clothes on flat pieces of wood, squeezed out the water and hung each piece to dry. It was hard work. The wet clothes were heavy, and the soap had lye in it. Lye is a strong substance that cleaned the clothes well. But it hurt people's skin.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: When Sarah was seven years old, her parents died of the disease yellow fever. She and her sister moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi. At the age of fourteen, Sarah married Moses McWilliams. They had a daughter after they were married for three years. They named their daughter Lelia. Two years later, Moses McWilliams died in an accident.

Sarah was alone with her baby. She decided to move to Saint Louis, Missouri. She had heard that washerwomen earned more money there. Sarah washed clothes all day. At night, she went to school to get the education she had missed as a child. She also made sure that her daughter Lelia went to school. Sarah saved enough money to send Lelia to college.

Sarah began to think about how she was going to continue to earn money in the future. What was she going to do when she grew old and her back grew weak?

She also worried about her hair. It was dry and broken. Her hair was falling out in some places on her head. Sarah tried different products to improve her hair but nothing worked. Then she got an idea. If she could create a hair product that worked for her, she could start her own business.

(MUSIC)

A'Lelia Bundles/Walker Family Archives/madamcjwalker.com

RICH KLEINFELDT: At the age of thirty-seven, Sarah invented a mixture that helped her hair and made curly hair straight. Some people believe that Sarah studied the hair product she used and added her own "secret" substance. But Sarah said she invented the mixture with God's help. By solving her hair problem, she had found a way to improve her life.

Sarah decided to move west to Denver, Colorado. She did not want to compete with companies in Saint Louis that made hair-care products. For the first time in her life, Sarah left the area along the Mississippi River where she was born.

Sarah found a job in Denver as a cook. She cooked and washed clothes during the day. At night she worked on her hair products. She tested them on herself and on her friends. The products helped their hair. Sarah began selling her products from house to house.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In nineteen-oh-six, she married Charles Joseph Walker. He was a newspaperman who had become her friend and adviser. From then on, Sarah used the name Madam C. J. Walker.

Madam Walker organized women to sell her hair treatment. She established Walker schools of beauty culture throughout the country to train the saleswomen. The saleswomen became known as "Walker Agents. " They became popular in black communities throughout the United States.

Madam Walker worked hard at her business. She traveled to many American cities to help sell her products. She also traveled to the Caribbean countries of Jamaica, Panama, and Cuba. Her products had become popular there, too.

RICH KLEINFELDT: Madam Walker's business grew quickly. It soon was employing three thousand people. Black women who could not attend her schools could learn the Walker hair care method through a course by mail. Hundreds, and later thousands, of black women learned her hair-care methods. Madam Walker's products helped these women earn money to educate their children, build homes and start businesses.

Madam Walker was very proud of what she had done. She said that she had made it possible "for many colored women to abandon the washtub for more pleasant and profitable occupations. "

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In nineteen-oh-eight, Madam Walker moved her business east to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was closer to cities on the Atlantic coast with large black populations, cities such as New York, Washington, D. C. and Baltimore. Two years later, she established a laboratory and a factory in Indianapolis, Indiana. There, her products were developed and made.

Some people criticized Madam Walker's products. They accused her of straightening black women's hair to make it look like white women's hair.

Some black clergymen said that if black people were supposed to have straight hair, God would have given it to them. But Madam Walker said her purpose was to help women have healthy hair. She also said cleanliness was important. She established rules for cleanliness for her employees. Her rules later led to state laws covering jobs involving beauty treatment.

RICH KLEINFELDT: Madam C. J. Walker became very rich and famous. She enjoyed her new life. She also shared her money. She became one of the few black people at the time wealthy enough to give huge amounts of money to help people and organizations. She gave money to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to churches and to cultural centers.

Madam Walker also supported many black artists and writers. And, she worked hard to end violations against the rights of black people. In nineteen seventeen, she was part of a group that went to Washington, D. C. to meet with President Woodrow Wilson. The group urged him and Congress to make mob violence a federal crime.

In nineteen eighteen, Madam Walker finally settled in a town near New York City where she built a large, beautiful house. She continued her work, but her health began to weaken. Her doctors advised her to slow down. But she would not listen. She died the next year. She was fifty-one years old.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Madam C. J. Walker never forgot where she came from. Nor did she stop dreaming of how life could be. At a meeting of the National Negro Business League, Madam Walker explained that she was a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. "I was promoted from there to the washtub," she said. "Then I was promoted to the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground. "

She not only improved her own life, but that of other women in similar situations. Madam C. J. Walker explained it this way: "If I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard. "

(MUSIC)

RICH KLEINFELDT: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

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'Luck' by Mark Twain

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Does a celebrated military man deserve his fame? Or was it all luck?

SUSAN CLARK: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES.

(MUSIC)

Our story today is called "Luck." It was written by Mark Twain. Here is Shep O’Neal with the story.

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SHEP O'NEAL: I was at a dinner in London given in honor of one of the most celebrated English military men of his time. I do not want to tell you his real name and titles. I will just call him Lieutenant General Lord Arthur Scoresby.

I cannot describe my excitement when I saw this great and famous man. There he sat, the man himself, in person, all covered with medals. I could not take my eyes off him. He seemed to show the true mark of greatness. His fame had no effect on him. The hundreds of eyes watching him, the worship of so many people did not seem to make any difference to him.

Next to me sat a clergyman, who was an old friend of mine. He was not always a clergyman. During the first half of his life he was a teacher in the military school at Woolwich. There was a strange look in his eye as he leaned toward me and whispered – “Privately – he is a complete fool.” He meant, of course, the hero of our dinner.

This came as a shock to me. I looked hard at him. I could not have been more surprised if he has said the same thing about Nepoleon, or Socrates, or Solomon. But I was sure of two things about the clergyman. He always spoke the truth. And, his judgment of men was good. Therefore, I wanted to find out more about our hero as soon as I could.

Some days later I got a chance to talk with the clergyman, and he told me more. These are his exact words:

About forty years ago, I was an instructor in the military academy at Woolwich, when young Scoresby was given his first examination. I felt extremely sorry for him. Everybody answered the questions well, intelligently, while he – why, dear me – he did not know anything, so to speak. He was a nice, pleasant young man. It was painful to see him stand there and give answers that were miracles of stupidity.

I knew of course that when examined again he would fail and be thrown out. So, I said to myself, it would be a simple, harmless act to help him as much as I could.

I took him aside and found he knew a little about Julius Ceasar’s history. But, he did not know anything else. So, I went to work and tested him and worked him like a slave. I made him work, over and over again, on a few questions about Ceasar, which I knew he would be asked.

If you will believe me, he came through very well on the day of the examination. He got high praise too, while others who knew a thousand times more than he were sharply criticized. By some strange, lucky accident, he was asked no questions but those I made him study. Such an accident does not happen more than once in a hundred years.

Well, all through his studies, I stood by him, with the feeling a mother has for a disabled child. And he always saved himself by some miracle.

I thought that what in the end would destroy him would be the mathematics examination. I decided to make his end as painless as possible. So, I pushed facts into his stupid head for hours. Finally, I let him go to the examination to experience what I was sure would be his dismissal from school. Well, sir, try to imagine the result. I was shocked out of my mind. He took first prize! And he got the highest praise.

I felt guilty day and night – what I was doing was not right. But I only wanted to make his dismissal a little less painful for him. I never dreamed it would lead to such strange, laughable results.

I thought that sooner or later one thing was sure to happen: The first real test once he was through school would ruin him.

Then, the Crimean War broke out. I felt that sad for him that there had to be a war. Peace would have given this donkey a chance to escape from ever being found out as being so stupid. Nervously, I waited for the worst to happen. It did. He was appointed an officer. A captain, of all things! Who could have dreamed that they would place such a responsibility on such weak shoulders as his.

I said to myself that I was responsible to the country for this. I must go with him and protect the nation against him as far as I could. So, I joined up with him. And anyway we went to the field.

And there – oh dear, it was terrible. Mistakes, fearful mistakes – why, he never did anything that was right – nothing but mistakes. But, you see, nobody knew the secret of how stupid he really was. Everybody misunderstood his actions. They saw his stupid mistakes as works of great intelligence. They did, honestly!

His smallest mistakes made a man in his right mind cry, and shout and scream too – to himself, of course. And what kept me in a continual fear was the fact that every mistake he made increased his glory and fame. I kept saying to myself that when at last they found out about him, it will be like the sun falling out of the sky.

He continued to climb up, over the dead bodies of his superiors. Then, in the hottest moment of one battle down went our colonel. My heart jumped into my mouth, for Scoresby was the next in line to take his place. Now, we are in for it, I said…

The battle grew hotter. The English and their allies were steadily retreating all over the field. Our regiment occupied a position that was extremely important. One mistake now would bring total disaster. And what did Scoresby do this time – he just mistook his left hand for his right hand…that was all. An order came for him to fall back and support our right. Instead, he moved forward and went over the hill to the left. We were over the hill before this insane movement could be discovered and stopped. And what did we find? A large and unsuspected Russian army waiting! And what happened – were we all killed? That is exactly what would have happened in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. But no – those surprised Russians thought that no one regiment by itself would come around there at such a time.

It must be the whole British army, they thought. They turned tail, away they went over the hill and down into the field in wild disorder, and we after them. In no time, there was the greatest turn around you ever saw. The allies turned defeat into a sweeping and shining victory.

The allied commander looked on, his head spinning with wonder, surprise and joy. He sent right off for Scoresby, and put his arms around him and hugged him on the field in front of all the armies. Scoresby became famous that day as a great military leader – honored throughout the world. That honor will never disappear while history books last.

He is just as nice and pleasant as ever, but he still does not know enough to come in out of the rain. He is the stupidest man in the universe.

Until now, nobody knew it but Scoresby and myself. He has been followed, day by day, year by year, by a strange luck. He has been a shining soldier in all our wars for years. He has filled his whole military life with mistakes. Every one of them brought him another honorary title. Look at his chest, flooded with British and foreign medals. Well, sir, every one of them is the record of some great stupidity or other. They are proof that the best thing that can happen to a man is to be born lucky. I say again, as I did at the dinner, Scoresby’s a complete fool.

(MUSIC)

SUSAN CLARK: You have just heard the story "Luck." It was written by Mark Twain and adapted for Special English by Harold Berman. Your narrator was Shep O’Neal. Listen again next week at this same time for another American Story told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Susan Clark.

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Obama’s Heath Care Victory Also a Political Risk

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Opposition Republicans plan to fight back against health care legislation and take back congressional seats in November.

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Earlier this week, President Obama won a major political victory with congressional passage of his health care reform plan. He and congressional Democrats made history with the reform legislation. Among other things, it will extend health insurance coverage to thirty-two million Americans now without it.

Mister Obama had made health care his top goal after his election in two thousand eight. The president and his Democratic allies in Congress finally won the battle after more than a year.

BARACK OBAMA: “We did not avoid our responsibility, we embraced it. We did not fear our future, we shaped it.”

How big a win this was for President Obama? Many political experts see passage of the health care reform bill as historic. Ross Baker is at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

ROSS BAKER:" This is something, after all, that first came to the attention of the American public one hundred years ago when a national health insurance program was proposed by President Theodore Roosevelt, and successive presidents, mostly Democrats but not all, have favored it."

Stephen Hess is a Presidential Scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

STEPHEN HESS:"It's a big deal. How big a deal you have to measure piece by piece but clearly it is the first major change in our health care system since nineteen sixty-five so that's a long time coming."

Mister Hess says the success of Barack Obama's presidency largely depended upon this vote.

STEPHEN HESS:"This is a very great victory for President Obama. This was his first year in office and in many ways he really staked his whole four-year presidency on the success in this vote on healthcare."

However, the new law is also considered a political risk. Most Democrats in Congress supported the measure. But all the Republicans opposed it. Opinion studies in recent days show the public is generally divided on the new law. A USA Today-Gallup poll shows a small majority believe the new health care plan is a good thing.

The health care debate also fueled the rise of the so-called Tea Party movement. The loosely organized group of activists opposed the health care plan as too much government involvement in the economy.

Congressional Democrats have been the targets of threats and destructive acts following the health care vote. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says at least ten members of Congress have received threats to themselves or their family members in recent days.

Republicans have promised to make the health care reform law a major issue in mid-term Congressional elections in November. Their goal is to defeat Democrats who supported the measure and then repeal, or cancel, the law. Republican Senator John McCain spoke to ABC News.

JOHN MCCAIN: “The American people are very angry. And they do not like it and we are going to try to repeal this, and we are going to have a very spirited campaign coming up between now and November and there will be a very heavy price to pay for it.”

In addition, officials in more than ten states plan to fight the health care law in court. They say the law violates the United States Constitution.

And that’s IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. You can read, listen and comment on our reports on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

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Washington’s Environmental Film Festival Celebrates its 18th Year

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Also, a listener question from China about the actress Abigail Breslin. And new music by three singer-songwriters.

DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to American Mosaic, in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I’m Doug Johnson. Today we play new music by three singer-songwriters.

And we answer a listener question about a young American actress.

But first, we report on this year’s Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C.

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D.C. Environmental Film Festival

DOUG JOHNSON: For eighteen years, the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C. has been bringing important movies to America’s capital. This thirteen-day event is taking place at fifty-six museums, embassies and movie theaters around the city. Many of the one hundred fifty-five movies explore the connection between food and the environment. Shirley Griffith has more.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The most difficult part about the Environmental Film Festival is deciding which of the movies to go see. Many of this year’s movies discuss food, agriculture, and the ways that we eat.

For example, the Italian movie “Terra Madre” explores the “slow food” movement and people who follow its ideas. This movement works to protect local food culture and traditions.

Another film called “Dirt! The Movie” looks at the health of our planet’s valuable source of fertility, dirt.

The movie explores the environmental, social and economic importance of soil. Another film,

“Seeds of Hunger,” discusses food shortages and the threats created by decreasing food production.

A series of short movies for children were shown at several public libraries in Washington. One animated movie is called “Smart Machine.” It is about a little boy who meets a food-selling machine that suggests he eat healthful food like fruit.

Other movies at the Environmental Film Festival invite viewers to visit different countries. “The Gift of Pachamama” is about a little boy in Bolivia. He travels with his father and a herd of llamas to trade salt. “The Road Ahead: The First Green Long March” takes place in China. It tells about the efforts of two thousand Chinese students as they travel around their country to better understand its environmental problems. The Danish movie “One Degree Matters” is about social and business leaders who travel to Greenland to experience the damaging effects of climate change.

The Environmental Film Festival in Washington helps increase understanding about subjects that are important for people around the world.

(MUSIC)

Abigail Breslin

DOUG JOHNSON: Our question this week comes from a Chinese girl who says she likes movies. He Xing asks for information about the young star Abigail Breslin.

Abigail has already acted in more than fifteen movies although she will turn just fourteen years old next month. She started her career in television advertisements at the age of three. When she was five, she got the part of Bo Hess in the scary movie “Signs.” She said working on the film was the “coolest experience ever.” Critics praised her performance.

Abigail Breslin’s rise to stardom came two years later in the comedy “Little Miss Sunshine.” She played Olive Hoover, a little girl who enters a beauty competition.

OLIVE: “Grandpa, am I pretty?”

GRANDPA: “You are the most beautiful girl in the whole world.”

OLIVE: “You’re just saying that.”

GRANDPA: “No I’m not! I’m madly in love with you! And it’s not because of your brains or your personality.”

Her loving but strange family members come along on the trip to the competition. Alan Arkin played Olive’s grandfather. He won an Academy Award for his work in the movie. Abigail also was nominated for an Academy Award although she did not win the Oscar. She was one of the youngest nominees ever. She is also one of Hollywood’s top earning teen stars.

AP

Abigail Breslin

Abigail Breslin was born in New York City in nineteen ninety-six. She has two older brothers. One of them, Spencer, is also an actor. They worked together in the movie “No Reservations” in two thousand seven.Abigail has also made movies for young audiences. These include “Nim’s Island” and “Kitt Kittredge: An American Girl.”

Last year, she had her first major dramatic role as Anna Fitzgerald in “My Sister’s Keeper.” She played a young girl who seeks the legal right to make her own medical decisions. Also last year, Abigail performed in the movie “Zombieland,” a scary comedy about flesh-eating dead people. She says she loves acting in horror movies and would like to do another one.

Right now Abigail Breslin is starring on Broadway in New York City. She is playing the young Helen Keller in the famous play “The Miracle Worker.”

Her stage reviews have been as good as those she receives from film critics. But Abigail Breslin has a back-up plan if her acting career does not work out. She has said she would like to be an animal doctor or a clothing designer.

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Three Songwriters

DOUG JOHNSON:

Today we tell about three musicians who recently released new albums. Holly Miranda, Allison Moorer and Joanna Newsom are singer-songwriters with very different musical sounds. But these women all have musical skill and creativity in common. Mario Ritter tells us more about these three performers.

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MARIO RITTER: That was the song “High Tide” from Holly Miranda’s album “The Magician’s Private Library.” Her dreamy voice is one of many layers of sounds. The album was produced by Dave Sitek, a member of the popular band TV on the Radio.

Holly Miranda grew up singing at her family’s Christian religious center. She learned to play the piano at the age of six, then learned to play the guitar. She later moved to New York City to have a career in music. Miranda is also the lead singer of the Brooklyn-based band “Jealous Girlfriends.”

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That was “The Broken Girl” by Allison Moorer. Much of her music is heavily influenced by country music, which seems to run in her family. Her husband, Steve Earle, and sister, Shelby Lynne, are also country musicians.

AP

Joanna Newsom

Moorer’s latest album “Crows” combines country songs with other kinds of music. Many of her songs tell about loneliness, love and loss. She has said that to make the album, she set herself free and threw all the rules out the window.

Our last musician sings and plays the harp as well as the piano. Joanna Newsom’s latest album “Have One on Me” is over three hours long. She writes music that is hard to define. Her poetic songs combine the traditional with the unusual. She says much of her new album was influenced by her hometown of Nevada City, California. We leave you with “Good Intentions Paving Company.

(MUSIC)

DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Caty Weaver and Dana Demange, who was also the producer. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also post comments.

Do you have a question about people, places or things in America? Click Contact Us at the bottom of our Web site. Or write to mosaic@voanews.com. We may answer your question on our show.

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

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Historic Measure Expands Health Coverage

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The bill aims to insure 32 million additional Americans. But costs worry health care providers.

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

President Obama has signed legislation to reform the health care system in the United States. The main goal is to insure about thirty-two million additional people. That is about ninety-five percent of Americans who are not already covered by Medicare, the government insurance program for older people.

About sixteen million people will be added to Medicaid, the government health plan for the poor. The law will require Americans to have health insurance, with a few exceptions, or pay a fine starting in four years.

Also, in four years, employers with more than fifty workers will have to offer their employees a health insurance plan. Employers will pay a fine for each uninsured worker. Smaller businesses will receive tax credits to help pay for health plans.

People not covered by employer plans, Medicaid or Medicare could buy health insurance in marketplaces called exchanges. The idea is that competition among plans will drive down costs. States will provide these exchanges by twenty fourteen.

The law is the biggest change in American health care since nineteen sixty-five. But it is not a government operated health care system like the ones in other countries. President Obama says it provides limited reform.

BARACK OBAMA: “So this is not radical reform. But it is major reform. This legislation will not fix everything that ails our health care system. But it moves us decisively in the right direction.”

Barry Arbuckle is chief executive of the non-profit MemorialCare Health System in Fountain Valley, California. He says the new law gets the issue of health reform moving. But he notes it is mainly health insurance reform. He says lawmakers will have to reform the way health care is provided. That means finding ways for hospitals, doctors and other providers to work together more effectively. Mister Arbuckle also would like to see more attention on prevention so fewer people need costly medical treatment.

The law is expected to cost about nine hundred forty billion dollars over ten years. However, the Obama administration says the plan will cut the nation’s budget deficit by more than one hundred billion dollars during that period.

Last year, the United States spent two and a half trillion dollars on health care. This was an increase of almost six percent from the year before.

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

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Considering National Education Standards

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Some say national standards will provide an excellent education for all students. Others fear it is the first step to federal control.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Americans are considering national education standards recently developed by teachers and other education experts. The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers led the effort.

The United States, unlike other nations, has never had the same school standards across the country. The reason? Education is not discussed in the Constitution. That document limits the responsibilities of the federal government. Other responsibilities, like education, fall to the individual states.

Local control of education probably was a good idea two hundred years ago. People stayed in the same place and schools knew what students needed to learn. But today, people move to different cities. And some people work at jobs that did not exist even twenty years ago.

Many American educators say that getting a good education should not depend on where you live. They say that some states have lowered their standards in order to increase student scores on tests required by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Kara Schlosser is communications director for the Council of Chief State School Officers. She says the new standards clearly state what a student should be able to do to be successful in college and work.

The standards deal with language and mathematics in every grade from kindergarten through high school. For example, in first grade, students should be asking and answering questions about something they read.

In mathematics, students should be working with shapes in kindergarten and angles in fourth grade.

Forty-eight states have already shown approval for the standards. Two states reject the idea. Critics say that working toward the same standards in every state will not guarantee excellence for all. Some educators in Massachusetts say adopting the proposal will hurt their students because the state standards are even higher. Others say the change will be too costly, requiring new textbooks and different kinds of training for teachers. Still others fear federal interference or control.

Supporters say the standards are goals and do not tell states or teachers how to teach. They also say the federal government is not forcing acceptance. However, approving the standards will help states qualify for some federal grant money.

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

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American History: Songs Cowboys Sung

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Cowboys of the American West told of their hard, dangerous lives in song.

BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.

Last week, we talked about the growth of the cattle industry. This industry started in Texas during the eighteen seventies. With its growth came a new kind of worker -- the man who watched and took care of the cattle. These men who watched the cows and rode with them as they moved across the wild lands were often young. Just boys. And so they were called "cowboys."

This week in our series, Kay Gallant tells what life was like for the early American cowboy.

KAY GALLANT: People all over the world have seen all sorts of films about the cowboy. And he is often shown in television shows. But the real life of the cowboy is not often shown. His work has been hard, and his life lonely and full of danger.

The cowboy has told his own story in many songs and ballads. Hundreds of these have come from cowboys whose names are not known. They just sang these songs as they rode on the saddles of their horses across the cattle lands. Or, as they sat at their campfires at night.

They sang about the things that were close to them. Horses and cows and danger and death. Often, they sang about the long ride to the cattle markets where the cows were sold for beef, as in this song called, "Git Along Little Dogie."

Dogie is another name for a young cow, especially one which wanders away from the herd. The song tells how the young cowboy keeps driving the dogies forward. He feels sorry for them, because they will soon be sold for meat. But that's their hard luck, not his. And he keeps pushing them on while he sings.

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One of the most famous of cowboy ballads is this one, called "The Chisholm Trail."

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Day and night, the horse was at the cowboy's side. A cowboy was as proud of his horse as he was of his skill in riding him. There is this feeling in the song "I Ride an Old Paint." A paint, or pinto, is a horse of three or more different colors.

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The cattle herds were driven a very long way to the cattle markets and had to be kept and watched on the open trail for many weeks. And the trail took the cowboys over rough country in all kinds of weather. The wild prairie lands were not friendly to men or animals. It was a lonely land. And the howling of wolves and winds at night made it more so.

Across this strange land, no man in the early days of the West knew just where death was waiting for him. A listener hears the mournful feeling cowboys had for the prairie in this song called, "The Dying Cowboy."

He does not want to be buried out in these wild lands -- in the lone prairie -- as the song says. Still, the dying cowboy does not get his wish. There is no choice. He can be buried only in the lone prairie in a narrow grave six by three. Six feet deep and three feet wide.

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BOB DOUGHTY:

Our program was written by Harold Braverman. The narrator was Kay Gallant. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are online, along with historical images, 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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Obama Signs Historic Health Care Bill

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

President Obama has signed legislation to make the biggest changes in the health care system in forty-five years.

BARACK OBAMA: "Today, after almost a century of trying; today, after over a year of debate; today, after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America. [Applause]"

Many parts of the plan will fully take effect in four years. But some take effect quickly. For example, in six months the new law will bar insurance companies from denying coverage to children with pre-existing health conditions. Adults with pre-existing conditions will be added in four years.

The government will help millions of people pay for insurance. It will also permit millions more to receive free coverage through the Medicaid program for the poor.

In all, the plan aims to make health insurance available to thirty-two million people now without it. People will be able to buy private policies through marketplaces called exchanges to be administered by the states. Illegal immigrants will not be able to take part.

An estimated eighty-three percent of people under age sixty-five who are in the United States legally now have insurance coverage. The plan is expected to raise that to ninety-five percent within several years.

People over sixty-five are covered by the Medicare insurance program which the government created in nineteen sixty-five.

For the first time, Americans will be required to have health insurance or face a yearly fine starting in four years. The law will also require companies with more than fifty employees to offer coverage. If not, they could face a fine of two thousand dollars a year for every worker.

Also, this year the law will start closing what is known as "the doughnut hole." That is a lack of Medicare coverage for some drug costs for older Americans. President Obama promised senior citizens that the reforms will not cut their guaranteed benefits.

He signed the bill Tuesday at the White House, before Democratic lawmakers and people with stories of health insurance problems.

BARACK OBAMA: “We have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle, that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care."

The president said he expected the Senate to quickly make a last set of legislative fixes needed in the new law. Republicans are promising to fight the Senate bill. And some states have already gone to court the fight the new law.

The changes are expected to cost about nine hundred forty billion dollars over ten years, but also help reduce the federal budget deficit.

And that's the VOA Special English Health report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.

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Ted Nash Plays Jazz Inspired by Art

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His new album “Portrait in Seven Shades” was influenced by seven important painters.

STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Many people may know what the artist Pablo Picasso’s paintings looks like. But what would they sound like if they were turned into music? Jazz musician Ted Nash explores this question in his album “Portrait in Seven Shades.”

Nash studied the works of seven important painters who lived during a one hundred year period, a time frame similar to that of jazz. Then, he created a jazz composition in seven parts influenced by their art.

STEVE EMBER: Wynton Marsalis is the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. He asked Ted Nash to write the hour-long composition “Portrait in Seven Shades.” Nash said one of the hardest parts was limiting his choice to only seven artists. Jazz at Lincoln Center worked with the Museum of Modern Art in New York to give Ted Nash access to its art collection. The music is performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, of which Ted Nash is a member.

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tednash.com

Ted Nash next to a painting by Claude Monet

BARBARA KLEIN: That was Ted Nash’s composition “Monet,” influenced by the French Impressionist painter Claude Monet. He was famous for painting flowers, buildings and the natural environment in a way that explored color and the changing effects of light. Ted Nash was influenced by Monet’s famous series of huge paintings of water lilies. Nash liked how these works express the feeling of nature, lightness and air.

When he looked at the paintings up close, he saw brush strokes, texture and fields of color. But seen from a distance, these elements come together to create a dreamy representation of water lilies. Ted Nash said he wanted his music to be the same way. Up close, it is made up of individual sounds and instruments. But when you step back and listen to the composition, all these elements artfully come together.

STEVE EMBER: Salvador Dali was a Spanish surrealist painter whose works often represent a strange, dream-like world. Ted Nash’s composition “Dali” was influenced by the painting called “The Persistence of Memory.” The painting shows melting clocks, insects, and a dead tree in an empty landscape.

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Ted Nash says that Dali combined everyday objects in a way that creates a feeling of insecurity. Nash did the same thing with music by layering sounds and creating an unusual timing.

BARBARA KLEIN: The French painter Henri Matisse is known for his use of bright colors and expressive forms. His nineteen-oh-nine painting “Dance” shows five women energetically dancing in a circle.

The painting is mostly three colors -- blue, green and pink. Matisse was a master of expressing great beauty using the simplest combinations of colors and forms.

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Ted Nash said his main goal in “Matisse” was to express the painting’s playfulness and feeling of joy. He says Matisse showed a child-like quality in his work. Nash wanted his jazz composition for this artist to be swinging, and make you feel good.

STEVE EMBER: Pablo Picasso was a revolutionary modern artist who painted in many different styles during his long career. He had a very strong influence over several art movements, including cubism. His nineteen-oh-seven painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” turned the art world upside down. This painting of five women went against the traditional values of artistic representation and changed modern art forever.

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Ted Nash explored cubism and the four sides of a square through the idea of fourths in this composition. For example, four musical chords are repeated in this work. The music also has two parts to express different sides of Picasso.

The first part explores the artist’s romantic side and his love of women. The second part is about the emotional effect of Picasso’s paintings.

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tednash.com

Ted Nash with his saxophone near "The Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh

BARBARA KLEIN: The Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh is famous today for his bold works that use thick paint and bright colors. But while he was alive, he received little respect for his art. Vincent Van Gogh’s life was filled with sadness and struggles. Ted Nash chose to express the tragic side of the artist’s life with this composition. One Van Gogh painting that especially influenced him was “The Starry Night”, painted in eighteen eighty-nine. The curving brushstrokes of Van Gogh’s expressive sky look like explosions of blue fire.

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This is the only part of “Portrait in Seven Shades” that includes singing. Ted Nash imagined what Van Gogh might say to his friend, painter Paul Gaugin.

STEVE EMBER: The artist Marc Chagall was born in Russia to a large Jewish family. He spent most of his career in France. Chagall painted colorful works filled with imaginative details such as floating people and dancing animals. His work was also influenced by his interest in theater. Ted Nash wanted his composition about Chagall to express his ties to family and Eastern European culture. He wanted the music to sound like the streets of Chagall’s neighborhood in Russia.

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Ted Nash paid special attention to Chagall’s nineteen eleven work “I and the Village.” It represents the artist’s memories of his childhood village and its farmers, cows and buildings. The work is colorful and playful, just like this music.

BARBARA KLEIN: Of all these artists, Jackson Pollock was the only one who grew up during the age of jazz music. Jackson Pollock helped create the art movement called Abstract Expressionism. His work redefined modern art and brought new attention to American artists.

Pollock’s paintings do not represent objects. They are examples of pure color, action and emotion. Pollock placed the canvas on the floor and threw different colors of paint onto its surface. His works are rivers of paint that are filled with an expressive energy.

Ted Nash wanted to copy the idea of thrown paint musically by creating a composition that sounded big and free. He also wanted the music to express the kind of jazz music that Pollock listened to and enjoyed. We leave you with “Pollock,” the last part of “Portrait in Seven Shades.”

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

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

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