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2010-08-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

"The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving

2010-08-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

Our story today is, "The Devil and Tom Walker. " It was written by Washington Irving. Here is Shep O'Neal with our story.

(MUSIC)

Storyteller: Before we begin our story, let us go back three hundred years to the late sixteen hundreds. In those years, one of the most famous men in the world was Captain William Kidd. Captain Kidd was a pirate. He sailed the seas, capturing any ships he found. He and his men took money from these ships. Captain Kidd hid this money in different places.

Captain Kidd was captured by the English in Boston, Massachusetts and executed in the year seventeen-oh-one.

From that time on, people all over the world searched in many places for Captain Kidd's stolen money.

The people who lived in Massachusetts in the seventeen hundreds believed Captain Kidd buried some of his treasure near Boston. Not far from Boston was a small river which ran into the Atlantic Ocean. An old story said that Captain Kidd had come up this river from the ocean. Then he buried his gold and silver and jewels under a big tree.

The story said that this treasure was protected by the devil himself, who was a good friend of Captain Kidd.

In the year seventeen twenty-seven, a man named Tom Walker lived near this place. Tom Walker was not a pleasant man. He loved only one thing -- money. There was only one person worse than Tom. That was his wife. She also loved money. These two were so hungry for money that they even stole things from each other.

One day, Tom Walker was returning home through a dark forest. He walked slowly and carefully, so that he would not fall into a pool of mud.

At last, he reached a piece of dry ground. Tom sat down on a tree that had fallen. As he rested, he dug into the earth with a stick. He knew the story that Indians had killed prisoners here as sacrifices to the Devil. But this did not trouble him. The only devil Tom was afraid of was his wife.

Toms stick hit something hard. He dug it out of the earth. It was a human skull. In the skull was an Indian ax.

Suddenly, Tom Walker heard an angry voice: "Don't touch that skull!"

Tom looked up. He saw a giant sitting on a broken tree. Tom had never seen such a man. He wore the clothes of an Indian. His skin was almost black and covered with ashes. His eyes were big and red. His black hair stood up from his head. He carried a large ax.

The giant asked, "What are you doing on my land?" But Tom Walker was not afraid. He answered, "What do you mean? This land belongs to Mr. Peabody."

The strange man laughed and pointed to the tall trees. Tom saw that one of the trees had been cut by an ax. He looked more closely and saw that the name Peabody had been cut into the tree. Mr. Peabody was a man who got rich by stealing from Indians.

Tom looked at the other trees. Every one had the name of some rich, important man from Massachusetts. Tom looked at the tree on which he was sitting. It also had a name cut into it -- the name of Absalom Crowninshield. Tom remembered that Mr. Crowninshield was a very rich man. People said he got his money as Captain Kidd did -- by stealing ships.

Suddenly, the giant shouted: "Crowninshield is ready to be burned! I'm going to burn many trees this winter!"

Tom told the man that he had no right to cut Mr. Peabody's trees. The stranger laughed and said, "I have every right to cut these trees. This land belonged to me a long time before Englishmen came to Massachusetts. The Indians were here. Then you Englishmen killed the Indians. Now I show Englishmen how to buy and sell slaves. And I teach their women how to be witches."

Tom Walker now knew that the giant was the Devil himself. But Tom Walker was still not afraid.

The giant said Captain Kidd had buried great treasures under the trees, but nobody could have them unless the giant permitted it. He said Tom could have these treasures. But Tom had to agree to give the giant what he demanded.

Tom Walker loved money as much as he loved life. But he asked for time to think.

Tom went home. He told his wife what had happened. She wanted Captain Kidd's treasure. She urged him to give the Devil what he wanted. Tom said no.

At last, Misses Walker decided to do what Tom refused to do. She put all her silver in a large piece of cloth and went to see the dark giant. Two days passed. She did not return home. She was never seen again.

People said later that Tom went to the place where he had met the giant. He saw his wife's cloth hanging in a tree. He was happy, because he wanted to get her silver. But when he opened the cloth, there was no silver in it -- only a human heart.

Tom was sorry he lost the silver, but not sorry he lost his wife. He wanted to thank the giant for this. And so, every day he looked for the giant. Tom finally decided that he would give the giant what he wanted in exchange for Captain Kidd's treasure.

One night, Tom Walker met the giant and offered his soul in exchange for Captain Kidd's treasure. The Devil now wanted more than that. He said that Tom would have to use the treasure to do the Devil's work. He wanted Tom to buy a ship and bring slaves to America.

As we have said, Tom Walker was a hard man who loved nothing but money. But even he could not agree to buy and sell human beings as slaves. He refused to do this.

The Devil then said that his second most important work was lending money. The men who did this work for the Devil forced poor people who borrowed money to pay back much more than they had received.

Tom said he would like this kind of work. So the Devil gave him Captain Kidd's treasure.

A few days later, Tom Walker was a lender of money in Boston. Everyone who needed help -- and there were many who did -- came to him. Tom Walker became the richest man in Boston. When people were not able to pay him, he took away their farms, their horses, and their houses.

As he got older and richer, Tom began to worry. What would happen when he died? He had promised his soul to the Devil. Maybe. . .maybe. . . he could break that promise.

Tom then became very religious. He went to church every week. He thought that if he prayed enough, he could escape from the Devil.

One day, Tom took the land of a man who had borrowed money. The poor man asked for more time to pay. "Please do not destroy me!" he said. "You have already taken all my money!"

Tom got angry and started to shout, "Let the Devil take me if I have taken any money from you!"

That was the end of Tom Walker. For just then, he heard a noise. He opened the door. There was the black giant, holding a black horse. The giant said, "Tom, I have come for you." He picked up Tom and put him on the horse. Then he hit the horse, which ran off, carrying Tom.

Nobody ever saw Tom Walker again. A farmer said that he saw the black horse, with a man on it, running wildly into the forest.

After Tom Walker disappeared, the government decided to take Tom's property. But there was nothing to take. All the papers which showed that Tom owned land and houses were burned to ashes. His boxes of gold and silver had nothing in them but small pieces of wood. The wood came from newly cut trees. Tom's horses died, and his house suddenly burned to ashes.

(MUSIC)

Announcer: You have heard the story, "The Devil and Tom Walker." It was written by Washington Irving. Our storyteller was Shep ONeal. Listen again next week at this same time for another AMERICAN STORY told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Shirley Griffith.

"Johnny Appleseed" from Voice of America

2010-08-12T22:42:00.001-07:00

I’m Faith Lapidus. And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about a man known as Johnny Appleseed. Many people considered him a hero.

(MUSIC)

Johnny Appleseed was the name given to John Chapman. He planted large numbers of apple trees in what was the American wilderness two hundred years ago. Chapman grew trees and supplied apple seeds to settlers in the middle western Great Lakes area. Two centuries later, some of those trees still produce fruit.

As a result of stories and poems about Chapman’s actions, Johnny Appleseed became an American hero. However, some of the stories told about Johnny Appleseed over the years may not have been really true.

John Chapman was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, in seventeen seventy-four. His father, Nathaniel Chapman, served in America’s war for independence. He fought British troops in the battle of Concord in seventeen seventy-five.

John was the second of three children. Little is known about his childhood. His mother Elizabeth became sick with tuberculosis and died a short time after the birth of her third child. In seventeen eighty, Nathaniel Chapman married Lucy Cooley of Longmeadow, Massachusetts. John and his older sister moved to Longmeadow with their father and his new wife. This new marriage produced ten more children.

When John Chapman was old enough to leave home, he asked his half-brother, Nathaniel, to come with him. They slowly traveled south and west from Massachusetts to the state of Pennsylvania. At that time, much of western Pennsylvania was undeveloped.

Government records show that John lived in the Allegheny Mountains in seventeen ninety-seven. He is said to have cleared land and planted apple seeds near a waterway. In a short time, the seeds grew to become trees that produced fruit.

Pennsylvania was the first stop in what would become a life-long effort to plant apple trees. The reason for John Chapman’s life’s work is unknown. Some people said he loved to watch the flowers on apple trees grow and change into tasty fruit.

Apples were an important food for the early settlers of North America. Apples offered something different in daily meals. They were easy to grow and store for use throughout the year. They could be eaten raw, cooked or dried for eating during the winter. And they could be made into other products, like apple butter and apple juice.

(MUSIC)

After a few years, Chapman left the hills of western Pennsylvania and traveled west into the Ohio Valley. He transported sixteen bushels of apple seeds down the Ohio River in eighteen-oh-one. He planted apple seeds in several areas near a place called Licking Creek. Some of the seeds were planted on land owned by a farmer named Isaac Stedden.

Chapman was careful about where he planted apple seeds. He did not leave them just anywhere. First, he would find rich, fertile land in an open area. Then, he cleared the land, carefully removing unwanted plants. Then, he planted his seeds in a straight line and built a fence around them. The fence helped to keep the young trees safe from animals. As the trees grew, he returned to repair the fence and care for the land.

Chapman planted with thoughts about future markets for his crops. His trees often grew in land near settlements. He often sold his apple seeds to settlers. Sometimes, he gave away trees to needy settlers. When low on seeds, he returned east to Pennsylvania to get more. He got the seeds from apple presses -- machines used to make apples into a drink called apple cider.

Before long, Chapman’s trees were growing in fields across Ohio. People began calling him Johnny Appleseed.

(MUSIC)

Johnny Appleseed was a small man with lots of energy. He had long dark hair. His eyes were black and bright. He never married. He lived very simply. For years, he traveled alone in the wilderness, without a gun or knife. He slept in the open air and did not wear shoes on his feet.

Some people gave him clothing as payment for his apple trees. But sometimes he wore a large cloth bag or sack as clothing. The sack had holes for his head and arms. On his head, he wore a metal container for a hat. He also used this pot for cooking his food. People said he lived this way because he wanted to. He had enough money for shelter and clothes if he had wanted to buy these things.

Johnny Appleseed looked like someone who was poor and had no home. Yet he was a successful businessman. He used his money to improve his apple business and help other people. He was famous for his gentleness and bravery. Both settlers and native Americans liked him. Everywhere he traveled, he was welcomed. Reports from that period suggest that some native Americans believed he was “touched by God.” Others called him a great medicine man.

During his travels, some families asked Johnny to join them for a meal. He would never sit down until he was sure that their children had enough to eat. His diet was as simple as his clothing. He believed that it was wrong to kill and eat any creature for food. He believed that the soil produced everything necessary for humans. He also criticized people who wasted food.

(MUSIC)

There are a number of other stories about Johnny Appleseed. Once a rattlesnake attempted to bite him while he slept. Johnny struck the creature, killing it. This was an action he said he always regretted.

Another time, he was trapped in the wilderness during a severe snowstorm. He found shelter in an old tree that had fallen to the ground. In the tree, he discovered a mother bear and her cubs. He did not interfere with the animals, and left before they knew he was there.

As the years passed, Johnny Appleseed decided to leave Ohio. He moved west into wilderness areas in what is now the state of Indiana. The woods were filled with bears, wolves and other wild animals. Yet he never hurt these creatures.

Johnny Appleseed has sometimes been called the American Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint Francis established a Roman Catholic group that cares for the poor and the sick. Saint Francis also is remembered for his love of animals and for honoring nature.

John Chapman was a very religious man. He liked to read from the Christian holy book, the Bible. He was strongly influenced by the Swedish scientist and Christian thinker, Emanuel Swedenborg. Chapman belonged to the Church of New Jerusalem, a religious group based on Swedenborg’s teachings.

(MUSIC)

In about eighteen thirty, John Chapman got some land in Fort Wayne, Indiana. There, he planted apple seedlings that grew and produced crops. He sold, traded and planted in other areas. Some reports said he also traveled to the nearby states of Kentucky and Illinois. His travels lasted more than forty years.

It is estimated that, during his lifetime, he planted enough trees to cover an area of about two hundred sixty thousand square kilometers. Over time, some adults said they remembered receiving presents from Johnny Appleseed when they were children.

In eighteen forty-five, John Chapman became sick and developed pneumonia during a visit to Fort Wayne. He died in the home of a friend, William Worth. Chapman was seventy years old. He was buried near Fort Wayne. The marker over his burial place reads, “He lived for others.”

When word of Chapman’s death reached Washington, DC, Senator Sam Houston of Texas made a speech honoring him. Houston praised Chapman’s work as a labor of love. He said people in the future would remember his life and work.

Strangely, stories about Johnny Appleseed continued to spread to other areas, long after John Chapman died. Some people claimed they had seen Johnny Appleseed as far south as Texas. Others were sure that he planted trees as far west as California. Even today, some people still claim they are Johnny Appleseed.

(MUSIC)

This Special English program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Faith Lapidus. And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

"The Statue of Liberty" from Voice of America.

2010-07-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

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

Later this week, Americans will celebrate the nation's Independence Day. On July 4, 1776, colonial leaders approved the final Declaration of Independence for the United States.

This year, the city of New York will also celebrate the opening of part of an important symbol of America that has been closed to the public for the past eight years.

(MUSIC)

The Statue of Liberty has stood in New York Harbor for more than 100 years. It was a gift from the people of France in 1884. Its full name is "Liberty Enlightening the World".

The Statue of Liberty is 46 meters tall from its base. It is made mostly of copper. Throughout history, images of liberty have been represented as a woman. The statue is sometimes called "Lady Liberty."

The Statue of Liberty's face was created to look like the sculptor's mother. Her right arm holds a torch with a flame high in the air. Her left arm holds a tablet with the date of the Declaration of Independence -- July 4, 1776. On her head she wears a crown of seven points. Each is meant to represent the light of freedom as it shines on the seven seas and seven continents of the world. Twenty-five windows in the crown represent gemstones found on Earth. A chain that represents oppression lies broken at her feet.

In 1903, a bronze plaque was placed on the inner wall of the statue's support structure or pedestal. On it are words from the poem "The New Colossus" written by Emma Lazarus in 1883. The plaque represents the statue's message of hope for people seeking freedom. These are some of its best known words:

READER:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

(MUSIC)

The United States and France have been friends and allies since the time of the American Revolution. France helped the American colonial armies defeat the British. The war officially ended in 1783. A few years later, the French rebelled against their king.

A French historian and political leader, Edouard-Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, had the idea for the statue. In 1865, he suggested that the French and the Americans build a monument together to celebrate freedom. Artist Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi immediately agreed to design it.

In 1875, the French established an organization to raise money for Bartholdi's creation. Two years later, an American group was formed to raise money to pay for a pedestal to support the statue. American architect Richard Morris Hunt was chosen to design this support structure. It would stand 47 meters high.

In France, Bartholdi designed a very small statue. Then he built a series of larger copies. Workers created a wooden form covered with plaster for each part. Then they placed 300 pieces of copper on the forms. This copper skin was less than three centimeters thick.

The statue also needed a structure that could hold its weight of more than 200 tons. French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel created this new technology. Later, he would build the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Eiffel and others worked in Paris to produce a strong iron support system for the statue. The design also needed to permit the statue to move a little in strong winds.

France had wanted to give the statue to the United States on the one hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence -- July 4, 1876. But technical problems and lack of money delayed the project. France finally presented the statue to the United States in Paris in 1884. But the pedestal, being built in New York, was not finished. Not enough money had been given to complete the project.

The publisher of the New York World newspaper came to the rescue. Joseph Pulitzer used his newspaper to urge Americans to give more money to finish the pedestal. His efforts brought in another 100,000 dollars. And the pedestal was finished.

In France, workers separated the statue into 350 pieces, put them on a ship and sent them across the ocean. The statue arrived in New York in more than 200 wooden boxes. It took workers four months to put together the statue on the new pedestal. President Grover Cleveland officially accepted the statue in a ceremony on October 28, 1886. He said: "We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected."

(MUSIC)

The Statue of Liberty became a symbol of hope for immigrants coming to the United States by ship from Europe. More than 12 million people passed the statue between 1892 and 1954 on their way to the immigration center on nearby Ellis Island.

More than 40% of Americans have an ancestor who passed through Ellis Island. Through the years, millions of people continued to visit the Statue of Liberty. A trip to New York City did not seem complete without it.

Still, the statue was old and becoming dangerous for visitors. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan asked businessman Lee Iacocca to lead a campaign to repair it. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation raised about 100 million dollars in private money to do the work. The repairs included replacing the torch and covering it with 24 carat gold. On July 4, 1986, New York City celebrated a restored and re-opened Statue of Liberty.

Officials closed the Statue of Liberty following the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2001. It remained closed until August, 2004. When it re-opened, visitors could only go onto the statue's pedestal. But the Statue continued to attract visitors—more than three million a year.

This year, on July 4th, visitors once again will be able to climb inside the statue all the way to the top. It is not an easy thing to do. More than 350 steps lead to Lady Liberty's crown. The National Park Service says it will limit the number of climbers to about 200 a day. No more than ten people will be able to go up at one time. At that rate, officials estimate that more than 100,000 people will be able to climb to the top each year.

But if you want to visit the newly opened Statue of Liberty, you must do it within the next two years. That is because the National Park Service plans to close it again for more repairs. Officials say the improvements could take as long as two years. But they say the work will make it possible to safely double the number of visitors permitted inside.

(MUSIC)

The Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island is one of America's national parks. It includes both Liberty Island, where the statue stands, and nearby Ellis Island, the former federal immigration processing center.

Officials at the center examined many of the immigrants who arrived by ship before they were permitted to enter the United States. The main building was restored and opened as a museum in 1990. The museum includes pictures, videos, interactive displays and recordings of immigrants who went through Ellis Island until it was closed in 1954.

One popular exhibit is the Immigrant Wall of Honor outside the main building. It honors all immigrants to the United States no matter where they entered the country. It now lists the names of more than 700,000 people. A new area of wall is being prepared for more names to be added.

An immigration history center on the island contains the ship records of passengers who entered through New York from 1892 through 1924. Those were the years of the great wave of European immigration, before the United States passed restrictive immigration laws.

One recent visitor said the Ellis Island immigration hall feels alive with the stories of people who left their native lands long ago to start a new life in a new country.

(MUSIC)

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. And I'm Steve Ember. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

"The Statue of Liberty" Comprehension Check One

"The Statue of Liberty" Comprehension Check Two:

1. The Statue of Liberty has been in New York harbor for _____ .
a. more than 200 years
b. more than 100 years
c. less than 80 years
d. since 1932

2. This statue was a gift from ____ .
a. England
b. Germany
c. California
d. France

3. The broken chain at her feet represents ______ .
a. poverty
b. wealth
c. oppression
d. hunger

4. The Statue of Liberty's skin is made of _______ .
a. copper
b. iron
c. brass
d. steel

5. The pedestal for the Statue of Liberty was made in _____ .
a. France
b. England
c. America
d. Argentina

6. The engineer who designed the support structure also designed The _____ .
a. Statue of Liberty
b. Mona Lisa
c. Eiffel Tower
d. Golden Gate Bridge

7. After necessary repairs, the Statue of Liberty was reopened in _____ .
a. 1876
b. 1986
c. 1884
d. 1776

8. Many immigrants have seen the Statue of Liberty on their way to _______ .
a. California
b. Ellis Island
c. Manhattan Island
d. France

9. Another name for this story could be "_________ ".
a. The Pedestal
b. Ellis Island Stories
c. The History of a Famous Statue
d. Large Monuments

10. This article is mainly about _______ .
a. French-American relations
b. moving 200 ton structures
c. the history of America sculpture
d. the symbol of liberty

The Statue of Liberty in Wikipedia.

A tour of The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on Youtube:

"Jimmy Stewart: One of America's Greatest Film Actors"

2010-07-18T17:01:00.000-07:00

I'm Shirley Griffith. And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of actor James Stewart. His movies were loved by people around the world.

(MUSIC)

James Maitland Stewart was born in the small eastern town of Indiana, Pennsylvania in nineteen-oh-eight. His father had a hardware store that had been owned by the Stewart family since the eighteen fifties.

During high school, Jimmy played football, and acted in plays. He also learned to play the accordion. He took the accordion with him to college at Princeton University, where he joined a musical group called the Triangle Club. Through the club, he met students interested in performing.

Jimmy studied architecture at Princeton. He graduated in nineteen thirty-two. Just before graduation, a friend asked him to join an acting group for the summer. Jimmy agreed because he thought it would be a good way to meet girls.

Jimmy Stewart said later that if his friend had not asked him to join the summer theater group, he would never have been an actor. He would have returned home to help his father in the store. Instead, he met a number of good young actors while performing that summer in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. One was Henry Fonda, who would be a friend throughout his life.

Jimmy Stewart performed in Broadway plays in New York City until the Metro Goldwyn Mayer movie company gave him an acting job. He moved to California in nineteen thirty-five. He acted in more than twenty-four movies over the next six years. He appeared in all kinds of movies: funny ones, sad ones and musical ones. He even sang a song in the movie "Born to Dance. " It is called "Easy to Love":

(MUSIC)

The movie that made Jimmy Stewart a real Hollywood star was "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. " It was released in nineteen thirty-nine.

JIMMY STEWART:

“It's a funny thing about men, you know. They all start life being boys. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some of these Senators were boys once. And that's why it seemed like a pretty good idea to me to get boys out of crowded cities and stuffy basements for a couple of months out of the year and build their bodies and minds for a man-sized job, because those boys are gonna be behind these desks some of these days.”

The next year, he won an Academy Award for best actor in "The Philadelphia Story. "

The night he won the Academy Award, his father called him on the telephone from Pennsylvania. "I hear you won some kind of an award," Alex Stewart said. "You had better bring it back here and we'll put it in the window of the store. " Jimmy Stewart's Oscar statue stayed in the window of Stewart's hardware store in Indiana, Pennsylvania for twenty-five years.

Jimmy Stewart was already an established and successful actor when World War Two started in Europe. Early in nineteen forty-one, he tried to join the Army. But he was rejected because he did not weigh enough. So he started eating high fat foods and tried again. This time, he was accepted for military service.

The Army put him in the Air Corps because he already knew how to pilot a plane. In nineteen forty-three, he went to Europe as commander of an Air Force bomber group. He flew more than twenty combat missions, leading as many as one thousand planes at a time over Germany. He returned to the United States in nineteen forty-five as a colonel.

Jimmy Stewart won several military awards for excellent performance under very dangerous conditions. He remained in the Air Force Reserve after the war. In nineteen fifty-nine he was made a general. Each year, he took part in two weeks of active military duty. In nineteen sixty-six, he requested combat duty and took part in a bombing strike over Vietnam.

(MUSIC)

After World War Two, Jimmy Stewart returned to Hollywood. He found that his new movies were not as popular as his earlier ones had been. One example was "It's a Wonderful Life." It was released in nineteen forty-six. The movie was not a success at first. But over time it has become one of the best loved American movies.

JIMMY STEWART:

“Can't you understand what's happening here? Don't you see what's happening? Potter isn't selling. Potter's buying! And why? Because we're panicky and he's not. That's why. He's pickin' up some bargain. Now, we can get through this thing all right. We've, we've got to stick together, though. We've got to have faith in each other.”

Jimmy Stewart said in later years that "It's a Wonderful Life" was the movie he liked best. It tells the story of a small town man who feels the world would have been better if he had never lived. An angel comes to him and shows him that this is not true. The movie celebrated values like loyalty and love of family.

(MUSIC)

Jimmy Stewart decided to play other kinds of parts after what seemed to be the failure of "It's a Wonderful Life. " He was a reporter in "Call Northside Seven Seven Seven" the next year. He was a suspicious head of a school in the murder movie "Rope" in nineteen forty-eight. In the nineteen fifties, he appeared in many western movies such as "Winchester Seventy-Three" and "Broken Arrow. "

Jimmy Stewart enjoyed his greatest popularity in the nineteen fifties. In nineteen fifty-nine, he won awards from the Venice Film Festival, the New York film critics and the Film Daily writers. The awards honored him for his performance in the movie "Anatomy of a Murder. " He was the defense attorney for an army officer accused of murder. He was nominated for an Academy Award for that movie. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for playing a man who has an imaginary rabbit friend, in the movie "Harvey. "

Jimmy Stewart is well known for his work with the famous director of mystery movies, Alfred Hitchcock. These movies included "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "Rear Window" and "Vertigo. " Mr. Stewart also played real heroes in several movies. He was band leader Glenn Miller in "The Glenn Miller Story. " And he was pilot Charles Lindbergh in "The Spirit of Saint Louis. "

Jimmy Stewart appeared in fewer films in the nineteen sixties. He was a senator in the Old West in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” In "The Shootist" he was a doctor in a small town. He also appeared on television. But his two television shows were not successful.

Mr. Stewart began experiencing health problems as he aged. He had heart disease, skin cancer and hearing loss. But he found time to travel. And he published a book of poetry in nineteen eighty-nine. It sold more than three hundred thousand copies.

In nineteen eighty, Jimmy Stewart was honored by the American Film Institute with an award for his lifetime work. Three years later, he received a Kennedy Center Honor for his work. And in nineteen eighty-five, President Ronald Reagan gave him the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

People who knew Jimmy Stewart did not praise him just because he was a good actor and a war hero. They said Jimmy Stewart was one of the nicest people they had ever met. He was a man who lived by the values he was taught as a child in that small town in Pennsylvania.

He went back to Indiana, Pennsylvania, in nineteen eighty-three, for his seventieth birthday. The town held a huge celebration in his honor. President Reagan sent planes to fly over the court house. Parades were held. And a statue of him was placed in the town center.

Jimmy Stewart married Gloria Hatrick McLean in nineteen forty-nine. She had two sons from an earlier marriage. Jimmy raised them as his own. One of the boys was killed during the Vietnam War while serving in the Marine Corps. Jimmy and Gloria also had twin daughters.

Gloria Stewart died in nineteen ninety-four. Friends said Jimmy Stewart was never the same after that. They said he withdrew into his house because he did not know what to do without her. His health got worse. He died on July the second, nineteen ninety-seven.

Jimmy Stewart's daughter Kelly Harcourt spoke at his funeral in Beverly Hills. She reminded mourners of the message of her father's favorite movie, "It's a Wonderful Life:" No man is poor who has friends.

"Here's to our father," she said, "the richest man in town."

(MUSIC)

This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA.

"The History of the Pueblo People" from Voice of America

2010-07-10T11:09:00.001-07:00

VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein. This week we visit two special places in the state of New Mexico. They are important in the history of the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest United States.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In eighteen eighty, a scientist was traveling in the Southwest United States. Adolph Bandelier was researching the history and social organization of the American Indians who had lived there for centuries.

When he was in northern New Mexico, men from Cochiti Pueblo took him to a place where their ancestors had lived in Frijoles Canyon. Mister Bandelier saw the ruins of the ancient pueblo or village and said "This is the grandest thing I ever saw."

VOICE TWO:

Today, many visitors to what is now known as Bandelier National Monument feel the same way. They lift their eyes to the tall rock walls that rise hundreds of meters up from the floor of the valley. They climb ladders to enter some of the caves that were homes centuries ago.

They walk along the Frijoles stream lined with green trees that once was the only water supply for the valley. They wonder at the beauty of the area and imagine what it felt like to live there hundreds of years ago.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Bandelier National Monument is near the city of Los Alamos and not far from Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico. It is on the Pajarito Plateau. This was formed by two explosions of the Jemez volcano more than one million years ago.

Ash up to three hundred meters thick covered more than six hundred square kilometers around the volcano. Slowly the area became what visitors see today -- a dry land of high flat mesa tops and deep canyons formed through thousands of years by flowing rivers.

People moved into the American Southwest more than ten thousand years ago as the last ice age was ending. These early people hunted large animals for food. They did not build permanent structures to live in because they followed the movement of the animals.

Archeologists have found evidence of these early people in the Bandelier area. The hunters left spear points shaped out of stone that they used as weapons.

VOICE TWO:

The climate of the Southwest became drier and warmer. By seven thousand years ago, many large animals no longer existed. Instead, people hunted smaller animals and gathered wild plants for food.

About two thousand five hundred years ago the first houses appeared on the flat tops of mesas in what is now northern New Mexico. They were pit houses, dug partly underground.

Soon after that more permanent houses were built above ground. These early homes were made of a mixture of wet dirt, wood and rocks. Small family groups lived in these homes. They grew crops of corn, beans and squash.

VOICE ONE:

More people moved into the Pajarito Plateau area about eight hundred years ago. They began living together in larger groups. Many people moved from the mesa tops to the bottom of Frijoles Canyon. They built pueblos, or villages, some of them large. They had a good water supply in Frijoles Creek and fertile land for growing crops.

The traditional stories of American Indians who now live in the pueblos near Bandelier tell of links to the people who lived in Frijoles Canyon long ago. Yet no written record of the area exists until after the Spanish arrived in fifteen forty.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Now you are at the visitor center at Bandelier National Monument. A long path follows along the floor of Frijoles Canyon through an area of wildflowers and trees. From a distance you can see the tall wall of the canyon ahead.

The path leads to the ruins of a large village, named Tyuonyi. It had about four hundred small rooms built around a central open plaza. About one hundred people lived in the pueblo. It is one of several large pueblos whose ruins have been found in Bandelier National Monument.

The people who lived here were ancestors of some of today’s Pueblo Indians. Archeologists think they spent much of their time outside. They used the rooms for sleeping and keeping food. Both men and women grew crops. The women ground corn for bread, cooked and made pottery. The men built new rooms, hunted animals for food, and wove cloth. Children played games and took care of small animals.

VOICE ONE:

The path continues past the ruins of the old pueblo up toward the reddish brown wall of Frijoles Canyon. There are many openings in the rock wall. The canyon walls are made of a soft rock called tuff.

Tuff is made of ash from the explosions of the Jemez volcano. After thousands of years the ash became a soft rock. Through the years rain and wind made cracks and openings in it. The ancestral Pueblo people used stone tools to widen the small natural openings in the face of the canyon walls.

Visitors can climb up wood ladders to see the inside of several of the cave homes. The ceilings are black from smoke. From a cave room you can see far up and down the canyon and imagine what life was like there seven hundred years ago. Farther up the path are more cave homes with ruins of small stone rooms next to the wall of the canyon. Along the walls and in the caves are designs or symbols carved into the rock or painted on it.

VOICE TWO:

You can see many other ruins by following the more than one hundred kilometers of trails in Bandelier. Archeologists know that the ancestors of today’s Pueblo Indians lived in the Frijoles Canyon for more than four hundred years.

They also know that by the middle fifteen hundreds people left their villages and cave homes and moved south and east toward the Rio Grande River. No one is sure why. Modern Pueblo Indians say they feel a strong link to the spirit of their ancestors in Bandelier National Monument.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Taos Pueblo is near the city of Taos. It is the farthest north of the nineteen present-day Pueblos in New Mexico. It is very high up -- about two thousand two hundred meters.

Taos Pueblo is considered to be the oldest community in the United States that has always had people living in it. The Tiwa language spoken by the Taos Indians has never been written. However, their spoken history tells of their ancestors living in the area for about one thousand years.

VOICE TWO:

The present Taos Pueblo buildings are made of adobe, a mixture of wet dirt and straw. They were finished almost six hundred years ago. They have many rooms built on top of each other. Centuries ago hundreds of people lived there. Today only about one hundred fifty people live in them all the time. These Taos Indians live in the ancient adobe rooms as their ancestors did centuries ago -- without any running water or electric power for lights.

Almost two thousand Taos Indians live nearby on land the tribe owns. They live in modern houses with electricity and running water. During the year they return to the Pueblo to take part in the many ceremonies and dances that are held in the ancient plazas.

VOICE ONE:

The Taos Pueblo you see today looks almost as it did to the Spanish when they arrived almost five centuries ago. Many first time visitors recognize it because artists have been painting the beauty of Taos Pueblo for years.

Tall green mountains rise behind the Pueblo. Two large brown adobe buildings containing many rooms are on the north and south side of a stream. The water in the stream flows down from Blue Mountain Lake, a sacred place for the Taos Indians. It provides water for drinking and cooking for the people who live in Taos Pueblo today, just as it has for centuries.

VOICE TWO:

Much of Taos Pueblo is not open to visitors. Taos Indians keep their history and ceremonies secret. They expect people to honor their privacy and their traditions. But visitors are welcome in small stores that are around the large open plaza areas. You can buy bread baked outside in traditional circular ovens. And you can buy jewelry, drums made of leather, and wood carvings made by members of the tribe.

The United Nations has named Taos Pueblo a World Heritage Site, one of the most important historical and cultural places in the world. For the Taos Indians, it will always be the center of their cultural and spiritual world.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Caty Weaver. You can read transcripts of our programs and download audio at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

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

"The Lewis and Clark Expedition, Early 1800s"

2010-06-22T16:02:00.001-07:00

(MUSIC)

This is Steve Ember. And this is Shirley Griffith, with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we continue our story of Lewis and Clark. Their exploration in the early 1800s led to the opening of the American West.

(MUSIC)

Last week we told how President Thomas Jefferson suggested the trip to his private secretary Meriwether Lewis. The president said Lewis and a group of men should travel northwest up the Missouri River as far as possible and then continue west to the Pacific Ocean. The explorers were to report about the land, people, animals and plants they found.

Lewis asked his friend William Clark to join the group. Clark accepted and the two men agreed to act as equal leaders of the group they named the Corps of Discovery. Their trip began on May fourteenth, 1804.

(MUSIC)

It was one hundred sixty-four days into the trip. Lewis and Clark had traveled about 2,420 kilometers when they were stopped by the cold winter weather. They named their winter home Fort Mandan. Mandan was the name of an Indian tribe that lived nearby.

At Fort Mandan, Lewis and Clark met French Canadian hunter Toussaint Charbonneau. He was living with the Indians. He asked to join the Corps of Discovery. He also asked if his Indian wife could come too. Her name was Sacagawea. She was pregnant. Lewis and Clark agreed to let them join their group for two reasons. The first was that Charbonneau spoke several Indian languages. The second concerned Sacagawea. She came from the Shoshoni tribe that lived near the Rocky Mountains in the far West.

She had been captured as a young girl by another Indian tribe. Lewis and Clark knew that no Indian war group ever traveled with women. They knew that Sacagawea's presence with them would show Indians that the Corps of Discovery did not want to fight. Sacagawea gave birth to her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, on February eleventh, 1805. The baby, too, would make the long trip to the Pacific Ocean. He was the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery.

In early April, the Corps of Discovery prepared to travel west. The smaller group of soldiers that had aided them during their trip to Fort Mandan prepared to return south to Saint Louis. The soldiers took the larger of the three boats the group had used to follow the Missouri River. They also took Lewis and Clark's first maps, animals, plants and reports to President Jefferson. These reports provided much detail about the land and what was on it. For example, Lewis used more than one thousand words to tell about one bird.

Today, visitors to President Jefferson's home in the southeastern state of Virginia can see many things collected by Lewis and Clark. Animal heads and weapons made by the Mandan Indian tribe are among them.

(((MUSIC BRIDGE)))

The Corps of Discovery again moved up the Missouri River as soon as the warm weather of spring began to return. Lewis wrote of seeing thousands of animals: American bison, deer, huge elk and very fast antelope. Lewis saw thousands of animals all feeding together.

Lewis and Clark soon decided to leave behind important information, plants and things collected from Indians. They were having problems carrying everything they were gathering. They also decided to leave extra food behind. They did this by digging a deep hole and burying everything to protect it from animals. They would do this again and again on their way west. They would collect everything on their return trip.

The explorers soon reached an area where a series of waterfalls blocked passage on the river. This area is near the modern city of Great Falls, Montana. Here, the Corps of Discovery pulled the boats from the water and took them over land to the river. They carried the boats almost thirty kilometers. To make the trip easier, they made wooden wheels for their boats. Later they buried the wheels with more food and things they had collected.

On July twenty-fifth, 1805, Meriwether Lewis and two other men saw a small river that was flowing to the west. All rivers before had flowed east or southeast. Lewis correctly guessed he had reached the line that divides the North American continent. Rain falling to the west of the imaginary line becomes rivers that flow to the Pacific Ocean.

Rain that falls to the east of the line forms rivers that flow to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. Meriwether Lewis became the first American to cross this continental line. At that point, Lewis could tell from the huge mountains he saw ahead that they would find no waterway across the continent. A lot of the trip would have to be over land.

Meriwether Lewis met two Shoshoni Indian women in this same area. About sixty men from the tribe quickly arrived riding horses. They were dressed and painted for war. It was something that few white men ever saw -- a Shoshoni war party prepared to fight. Lewis made peace signs. There was no trouble.

Two days later, Clark arrived with the main group. The Corps of Discovery met with the Indians. At the meeting, Sacagawea began to cry as she looked at the Shoshoni chief, Cameahwait. Cameahwait was her brother. She had not seen him since she was kidnapped many years before.

Lewis and Clark could communicate with the Shoshoni Indians.

But it was not easy. Sacagawea would listen to the Shoshoni. She would then speak to her husband, Charbonneau, in the Hidatsa language. He would speak in French to a soldier in the group, Francis Labiche, who then spoke in English to Lewis. It took a long time, but it worked.

The Corps of Discovery decided to leave the boats and continue west on horses. Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark trade for horses. She also helped them find an Indian guide to lead them. His name was Toby. It was already the month of September when they reached the high mountains. It was also extremely cold. The explorers began to suffer from a severe lack of food. They were forced to kill and eat several of their horses.

In October they found the huge Columbia River. High winds and rain slowed the group's progress. On November seventh, they reached the Pacific Ocean. Clark recorded that five hundred fifty-four days had passed since they left their camp at Wood River near Saint Louis. They had traveled six thousand six hundred forty-eight kilometers.

For several days the Corps of Discovery camped in an area that is now the extreme southern part of the state of Washington. But the hunting was poor. Indians told them the hunting would be better across the Columbia River. Lewis and Clark decided to hold a vote and let the Corps of Discovery decide. The Corps of Discovery voted to move south across the river into what is now the state of Oregon.

William Clark's black slave York and the Indian guide Sacagawea were included in the vote. History experts say this was the first free, democratic election west of the Rocky Mountains. And they say it was the first time in American history that a black slave and a woman voted in a free election.

The explorers quickly built a camp of wooden buildings on the Columbia River. They would stay there during the winter months between 1805 and 1806. They named the buildings Fort Clatsop. "Clatsop" was the name of a nearby group of friendly Indians. The area of Fort Clatsop is very near the present city of Astoria, Oregon. Visitors to that area today can walk through a copy of Fort Clatsop that was built in 1955.

The group stayed at Fort Clatsop for four months. It rained all but twelve days. During the long winter months, the explorers hunted and preserved food. They used animal skins to make new clothes and shoes. They also studied the Indians, fish, animals and lands near the area of the fort. Clark made extremely good maps of the area. Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the other members of the Corps of Discovery were prepared for their return trip to Saint Louis. That
will be our story next time.

You have been listening to the Special English program, Explorations. This is Steve Ember. And this is Shirley Griffith. Our program today was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Join us again next week on the Voice of America as we finish our story of Lewis and Clark and the land they explored.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. Toussaint Charbonneau ___________________ .
a: disliked The Corps of Discovery
b: was a French Canadian Soldier
c: was married to an Indian woman
d: spoke only a little of the Hidatsa language

2. The youngest member of The Corps of Discovery was ____________________________ .
a: William Clark
b: Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
c: Meriwether Lewis
d: Sacagawea

3. The Columbia River flows _____________________________ .
a: to The Pacific Ocean
b: to The Gulf of Mexico
c: to The Atlantic Ocean
d: to The Great Lakes

4. Sacagawea _____________________ .
a: slowed down the expedition
b: took the expedition in the wrong direction
c: learned to speak fluent English
d: was very important to the expedition

5. At Fort Mandan, a group of soldiers returned to Saint Louis because ____________________.
a: they were exhausted and not strong enough to continue
b: they had a conflict with Lewis and Clark
c: they had to take reports, plants, and maps back to President Jefferson
d: they were needed in order to fight a war with the English

6. When Meriwether Lewis saw huge mountains west of the falls, he realized that ________________________ .
a: the rest of the journey would be impossible
b: he would find no waterway across the continent
c: he would need to build stronger and larger boats
d: he would have to take a long detour south using other rivers

7. Sacagewea's presence in the expedition made wars with different Indian tribes __________________ .
a: more likely
b: less likely
c: neither more likely nor less likely
d: almost certain

8. Cameahwait was _________________ .
a: able to speak fluent French
b: a member of the Mandan tribe
c: Jean Baptiste Charbonneau's uncle
d: a member of the Corps of Discovery

9. Another name for this article could be "________________".
a: "Sacagawea Leads The Corps of Discovery"
b: "The Discovery of The Continental Divide"
c: "Lewis and Clark Expedition: Fort Mandan to Oregon"
d: " Meeting Sacagawea's Long Lost Relatives"

10. This article is mainly about _________________ .
a: The Corps of Discovery's journey to the Pacific Ocean
b: the search for a waterway extending across the continent
c: the rich culture and scenery along the Columbia River
d: Sacagawea's invaluable contribution to the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition

Sacagawea Story from Youtube:

Lewis and Clark: From the winter with the Mandan to the Shoshoni Land.

Lewis and Clark: From the Shoshoni Land to The Coast: No subtitles here. Check you aural comprehension. Listen to it again if you can't understand it the first time. The narrative here is slow enough, you should be able to understand it.

Lewis and Clark: Introduction
Lewis and Clark Expedition: Part Two

"Project Mercury: The Space Program Begins" from VOA.

2010-06-08T15:12:00.000-07:00

EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

(SOUND) "... 12, 11, 10, 9, ..., 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. ..."

That announcement was made May 5, 1961. It was the first manned flight of project Mercury. Today, Tony Riggs and Larry West tell about the beginning of the United States space program that carried humans into space.

The United States entered the Space Age in 1945, at the end of World War Two. German rocket scientists, with the support of the German government, had spent fifteen years developing rockets as weapons. Near the end of the war, Germany began firing huge rocket bombs at Britain.

Called V-2 rockets, the German weapons carried a ton of explosives three hundred twenty kilometers. They flew as high as eighty kilometers.

When the war ended, American forces found the parts for about one hundred V-2 rockets. They brought the German rockets to America and launched sixty-six of them.

The army opened the V-2 launch program to American scientists at several universities. Civilian scientists used the V-2 rockets to study the Earth's atmosphere. They gathered much new information and learned much about designing instruments for scientific rockets and satellites.

Many of Germany's top rocket scientists came to the United States after the war. They worked with American scientists and engineers to develop and test new rockets for military and scientific use. In 1956, the United States launched a Jupiter military rocket that flew more than five thousand kilometers.

Military officials immediately offered to use the Jupiter to put a scientific satellite into orbit around the Earth. But the American government said no. Officials decided not to mix military and civilian rocket programs. The United States said it would not launch a scientific satellite until a non-military rocket -- the Vanguard -- could be completed to carry it into space.

Navy scientists were building the Vanguard for scientific purposes. They planned to launch it in 1958.

The twenty-two meter long rocket would put a little scientific satellite into orbit as one of the events of the international geophysical year. The satellite itself would weigh less than two kilograms. But it would contain many tiny electronic instruments for scientific research.

(MUSIC)

Soviet scientists also were working on rockets and satellites.

In 1957, a Soviet military rocket carried a small satellite into Earth orbit. The eighty-three kilogram satellite, called Sputnik, had two radios that sent signals as it circled the world. One month later, a larger Sputnik was launched with a dog inside. The dog survived the launch. But there was no way to return it to Earth. So it died in space.

A few months later, the Soviet Union put a one thousand three hundred sixty kilogram satellite into space.

The Soviet successes with its Sputnik satellites caused the United States to change its space plans. Officials decided to launch the Vanguard as soon as possible.

The attempt was made on December sixth, soon after the first two Sputnik launches. The attempt failed. The rocket exploded during the launch. Less than two months later, however, the United States put its first satellite into orbit.

The rocket was an army Jupiter. The satellite was Explorer One. It weighed only fourteen kilograms. But it carried a great many electronic instruments for scientific research.

(SOUND)

The instruments reported much new information about conditions in space. The most important was the discovery of a belt of radiation around the Earth. It was what we now call the Van Allen Belt.

Support was growing, in Congress and among scientists, for a United States civilian space agency. Soon, Congress passed a bill creating NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. President Eisenhower signed the bill into law.

Its job: the scientific exploration of space. Its major goal: sending the first Americans into space.

The new space agency was given a lot of money and thousands of engineers and technicians from military and civilian agencies. Within three months, the man-in-space program had a name: Project Mercury. The name came from the ancient Greeks. Mercury was the speedy messenger of the Greek gods.

Much work had to be done before Project Mercury could put an American astronaut into space. Dependable rockets needed to be built and tested. A spacecraft had to be designed and built. A worldwide radio system was needed to communicate with orbiting astronauts. And astronauts had to be chosen and trained.

(MUSIC)

To save time, NASA decided to work on all parts of the program at the same time. It placed orders for four different kinds of military rockets for Mercury flights. It chose the McDonnell Aircraft Company to design and build the Mercury spacecraft. And it began to look for men who would be astronauts.

NASA said its astronaut candidates had to be between twenty-five and forty years old and in excellent health. They could be no taller than one hundred eighty centimeters. Candidates had to be highly intelligent, with an education in science or engineering.

NASA also said the first astronauts had to be military pilots with experience in test flying airplanes. Test pilots already were trained to make quick, correct decisions in dangerous situations.

One observer said in a joking way that the space agency was just looking for a group of "normal, everyday supermen." But it was not a joke. NASA found seven normal, everyday supermen in a group of five hundred candidates.

On April 7, 1959, the space agency introduced the first American astronauts. They were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.

All were married and had children. All were from small towns or cities. All were about the same height, weight and age. And all were experienced military test pilots.

Each of the new astronauts, however, brought his own special knowledge and skills to the Mercury project.

Navy pilot Scott Carpenter, for example, was well trained in communications and navigation. So he helped with Mercury's communications and navigation systems. Walter Schirra, another Navy flier, was an expert on the pressure suits worn by navy divers. He helped design the space suits that would protect the Mercury astronauts in space.

Air Force pilot Gordon Cooper became an expert on the Redstone Rocket that would launch Mercury astronauts on short training flights. Donald Slayton, another Air Force flier, worked on the long-range Atlas Rocket. Marine John Glenn was an expert on airplane instruments. So he helped design easy-to-use instruments for the Mercury spacecraft.

Navy pilot Alan Shepard helped plan Mercury's worldwide communication system. And Virgil Grissom, of the Air Force, worked on Mercury's electrical systems.

(MUSIC)

NASA made its first unmanned test flight of the Mercury spacecraft nine months after the project started. The launch was made from the space center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The flight tested the heat shield. The shield protected the spacecraft from the great heat produced when it returned through the Earth's atmosphere.

Many other unmanned test flights followed in the next two years.

The final test flight was made at the end of January, 1961. It carried a chimpanzee named Ham on a seven hundred kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Several problems developed. But Ham survived the launch and the landing in the ocean. However, he never wanted to get close to a space capsule again.

Space officials announced that astronaut Alan Shepard would become the first American in space. He would be launched early in May, 1961, on a short, fifteen minute flight. That will be our story next week.

(MUSIC)

You have been listening to EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. It was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and Frank Beardsley. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Larry West. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week to the second part of the story of the Mercury program that took the first American astronauts into space.

Project Mercury: Part Two

"Buckminster Fuller: Engineer, Designer, Thinker" from VOA.

2010-05-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

PHOEBE ZIMMERMANN: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about an unusual man who had many abilities, Richard Buckminster Fuller.

(MUSIC)

PHOEBE ZIMMERMANN: Building designer. Engineer. Inventor. Thinker. Poet. Not five people. Just one: Richard Buckminster Fuller. "Bucky" Fuller, as he was known, was one of the most unusual thinkers of the twentieth century. His aim in life was to make the human race a success in the universe.

Bucky Fuller spent most of his life searching for new ideas. He also searched for unusual connections between existing ideas. He described himself in these words: "A complete, future-thinking design-science explorer."

Fuller believed deeply in technology. Through technology, he said, people can do anything they need to do.

STEVE EMBER: R. Buckminster Fuller died in nineteen eighty-three at the age of eighty-seven. During his long life, he discussed his idea about technology and human survival. He called his idea "dymaxion." It came from three words. Dynamic, meaning a force. Maximum, meaning the most. And ion, which is an atom or group of atoms with an electrical charge.

Fuller explained the word dymaxion as a method of doing more with less. Everything he did was guided by this idea. He designed a dymaxion car, a dymaxion house, and a dymaxion map of the world. But he probably is known best for another invention -- the geodesic dome. A geodesic dome is a round building made of many straight-sided pieces.

Talking about R. Buckminster Fuller means using strange words. This is because Fuller himself invented words to describe his ideas and designs. His designs were way ahead of his time. They still are.

(MUSIC)

PHOEBE ZIMMERMANN: R. Buckminster Fuller was born in Milton, Massachusetts, in eighteen ninety-five. Bucky could not see clearly, because his eyes did not point straight ahead. So, his world was filled with masses of color without clear shapes.

When he was four years old, he got eyeglasses to correct the problem. Suddenly, he could see the shapes of people's faces. He could see stars in the sky and leaves on the trees. He never lost his joy at the beauty he discovered in the world.

As a child, Bucky Fuller questioned everything. He was a very independent thinker at an early age. His refusal to accept other people’s ideas and rules continued as he grew older. One result was that he never completed his university studies. He was expelled two times from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He thought his time was better spent having fun than studying.

Yet Bucky Fuller was very serious about learning. He proved this when he joined the American navy during World War One.

STEVE EMBER: In the navy, he learned all about navigation, mathematics, mechanics, communications and electronics engineering. He loved this world of modern technology. Soon after he joined the navy, he designed new rescue equipment. It helped save the lives of some pilots during training. Fuller's good navy record won him a short-term appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was there he first developed two ideas that were important for the rest of his life.

While studying warships, Fuller realized that they weighed much less than buildings, yet were able to do much more. He decided better designs could also help humans do more, using fewer materials.

PHOEBE ZIMMERMANN: In nineteen seventeen, Bucky Fuller married Anne Hewlett. Their daughter, Alexandra, was born about a year later. Bucky was a very emotional man, as well as an intellectual one. He loved his little daughter. She was the wonder of his world. Then Alexandra became very sick. The medicine to cure her had not been invented yet. She died at the age of four.

Bucky Fuller blamed himself, although he had done everything he could to save her. His sorrow overcame him. He began to drink too much alcohol. Yet he continued to work hard.

Fuller was head of a company that made a light-weight building material. He was not a successful businessman, however. And the company began to fail. He was dismissed by the owners. It was nineteen twenty-seven. His wife had just given birth to another baby girl. They were living in Chicago, Illinois. He had no job and no money. He felt he was a complete failure.

STEVE EMBER: Bucky Fuller walked through the streets of Chicago along Lake Michigan. He stood silently on the shore. He considered killing himself. Then, as he explained later, he realized he did not have the right to kill himself. He said he had felt something inside him that day. He called it the Greater Intelligence or God. It told him he belonged to the universe. So Bucky Fuller decided to live. And he would live the way he thought best. He promised to spend his remaining years in search of designs that could make human existence on Earth easier. This began his great creative period.

(MUSIC)

PHOEBE ZIMMERMANN: Fuller's first design was the dymaxion house. It was not built at the place it would stand. It was built in a factory, then moved. It did not cost much to build. And it did not look like a traditional house in America. Its roof hung from a huge stick in the center. Its walls were made of glass. It contained everything needed for people to live. Power came from the sun. Water was cleaned and re-used.

Fuller then designed and built the dymaxion car. It looked a little like the body of an airplane. It had three wheels instead of four. It could go as fast as one hundred eighty kilometers an hour. It carried up to twelve passengers. Several companies were interested in building and selling Fuller's house and car. But his designs were so different, so extreme, that banks were not willing to lend money for the projects. So the dymaxion house -- which could have provided low-cost housing for everyone -- was never built. And the dymaxion car -- which could have provided safe, pollution-free transportation using little gasoline -- was never produced.

STEVE EMBER: Bucky Fuller did not give up his idea of doing more with less. He had an idea for another building design. It would provide the most strength with the least amount of material. He began looking for the perfect shape.

Fuller found it in nature. It appeared in the shapes of organic compounds and metals. The main part of his design is a four-sided pyramid. To create a building, many pyramids are connected to each other. The connecting piece has eight sides. Together, these two shapes create a very strong, light-weight rounded structure. The structure can be covered with any kind of material. And it can stand without any supports inside. Fuller named this structure the geodesic dome. It covers more space with less material than any other building ever designed.

PHOEBE ZIMMERMANN: After a number of experimental geodesic domes were built, industry began to understand the value of the design. Today, there are about one hundred thousand different large and small geodesic domes in use around the world. However, no one yet has acted on one of Fuller's ideas for the geodesic dome. There are no limits to the size of a geodesic dome. So Fuller proposed using them over cities or over areas that had severe weather. A geodesic dome that size would make it possible to have complete control over the environment inside it.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Most of Bucky Fuller's inventions did not earn him much money. A lot of what he did earn he spent traveling around the world. He told anyone who would listen about his ideas for human life on this planet. He called the planet "Spaceship Earth." Humans, he said, are astronauts on Spaceship Earth. They are traveling one hundred thousand kilometers an hour around the sun. He said the Earth is like a large mechanical device that will survive only if people living on it know how to operate it correctly.

People must live on Earth just as astronauts live in a spaceship. They must use their supplies wisely, and re-use them.

Buckminster Fuller said humans are able, through planning and wise use of natural supplies, to feed and house themselves forever.

(MUSIC)

PHOEBE ZIMMERMANN: This VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA, was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman.

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

"Visit an Aquarium" by Voice of America.

2010-05-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

For thousands of years, people have wanted to explore the world under the sea. Such activity was not possible until modern times. Today, divers can survive for hours underwater and photograph fish and other sea creatures.

Not everyone can swim with fish in the ocean. But they can enjoy underwater life in another way -- by visiting an aquarium.

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Experts do not really know when people began keeping fish as pets. But they say that people have been interested in fish for thousands of years. Some say the ancient Sumerians were the first civilization to keep fish in ponds more than 4,000 years ago. The Chinese kept and studied carp and goldfish more than 1,000 years ago. The ancient Romans kept eels as pets. And the Greek philosopher Aristotle made what is believed to be the first known study of sea life, including sharks and dolphins.

Experts say that keeping fish at home in small water tanks called aquariums is extremely popular today. And everyone seems to enjoy visiting huge public aquariums that have opened around the world.

By the middle of the 1800s, science had shown that plants, fish and other sea creatures could survive together under water. So it was no longer necessary to change the water in a tank for fish to live there. This led to the building of the first public aquariums.

The first one opened in London, England in 1853. In the next 15 years, other aquariums opened in Europe and the United States. By 1928, there were about 45 public aquariums.

Today, millions of people visit aquariums in more than 30 countries. Steve Feldman is an official with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in Silver Spring, Maryland. He says his organization has recognized and approved 41 aquariums in the United States. About 58 million people visit these places each year.

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One of the most famous aquariums is in Monterey, California. Officials say the Monterey Bay Aquarium has been recognized as the finest aquarium in the United States. It is in a building that used to be a kind of factory called a cannery. This was where workers prepared fish and placed them in cans to be sold.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium shows visitors the underwater life in the bay. Scientists at the aquarium also study the animals and work to help many survive.

For example, the Monterey Bay Aquarium cared for 19 penguins from New Orleans, Louisiana. They were rescued after hurricane Katrina struck the area in 2005. These penguins were kept until they were ready to be returned to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium also works to save the sea otter. Aquarium workers rescue lost or hurt young sea otters and prepare them to survive in the wild. The ones that cannot be released are kept in the aquarium and entertain visitors by swimming quickly and playing tricks in the water.

Visitors especially enjoy watching them play with objects in the water. When sea otters find new objects, they smell them, hold them, play with them and hit them against other hard objects. The otters hit their toys against the walls of the tank in front of the happy visitors.

At the center of the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a huge tank more than eight meters high. It is one of the tallest aquarium exhibits in the world.

The tank holds more than one million liters of seawater and many different kinds of fish. It also holds more than 100 kinds of plants. Officials say the tank was built in the center of the aquarium because it would get the most sunlight each day. All this sun helps the plants grow -- about ten centimeters every day. An official says the Monterey Bay Aquarium was the first aquarium in the world to show a living kelp forest.

A kelp forest is a kind of ecosystem established around colonies of a seaweed plant called kelp. Kelp can extend between two and thirty meters or more from the sea floor to the surface of the water. These plants provide homes to many fish and other sea animals.

The aquarium is also an education center. Workers help visitors and especially children understand sea creatures and their importance in the world. Children and adults can see many sea creatures being fed and watch a movie about underwater life. They can even touch some of these creatures in small tide pools. Workers make sure visitors touch the rays, crabs and sea stars very carefully.

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One extremely large public aquarium opened in Atlanta, Georgia in 2005. The Georgia Aquarium says it is the largest in the world. It has more than 100,000 sea animals in 30 million liters of water. These include two whale sharks -- the world's largest fish.

The Georgia Aquarium is divided into 60 different environments called habitats. The largest holds more than 22 million liters of water. It was especially designed for the whale sharks and the thousands of other animals that live in the ocean. The second largest habitat was designed to copy the natural environment of beluga whales.

Building large public aquariums is very costly. Most of the money to build the Georgia Aquarium was provided by businessman Bernard Marcus. He and his wife gave 250 million dollars to help pay for the building. The total cost was 290 million dollars. Reports said that more than one million people visited the Georgia Aquarium in the first six months that it was open.

(MUSIC)

Another aquarium re-opened in 2005 in Camden, New Jersey. The Adventure Aquarium first opened in 1992. It spent about 50 million dollars to expand its building and improve its exhibits.

Visitors can watch a hippopotamus in the West African River Experience area of the Adventure Aquarium. Reports say the Adventure Aquarium is the only one in the country that has two hippos.

One exciting area of the aquarium is the shark tunnel. Visitors can watch 26 dangerous creatures up close without fear. The tunnel is suspended in the middle of the shark tank.

Even more exciting for visitors is the chance to get in the water and swim with the sharks! Swimmers wear special clothes and must follow a few rules. For example, they must not make the sharks angry or make any quick movements. Swimming with the sharks costs more than 100 dollars.

(MUSIC)

Another aquarium that provides education and adventures with sharks is the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore Aquarium has more than 10,000 sea animals. It opened in 1981.

Its shark adventure includes a tour with an expert to learn about these ancient creatures and how the aquarium workers feed and care for them. Children can even sleep near the sharks overnight. Children sleep in the viewing area as sharks sleep nearby, behind protective glass.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore also presents a dolphin show. It shows how young dolphins learn and develop the skills they need to survive.

Aquariums provide the public with many chances to experience life under the sea. These fun and educational places can be found in most areas of the world. Visiting an aquarium is a good way for children to learn about sea creatures. They might even want to start an aquarium at home and join the millions of people around the world who keep fish as pets.

(MUSIC)

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Barbara Klein. And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. The first people to keep fish as pets were the ________________ .

2. A seaweed plant called kelp provides ________________ .
a: homes for fish and other sea creatures
b: food for dolphins and sharks
c: floating nests for sea birds
d: seasoning for many restaurant delicacies

3. The first aquarium opened in _________________ in 1853.
a: Paris, France
b: New York, U.S.A.
c: London, English
d: Monterey, California

4. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is in a building that was at one time a ______________ .
a: theater
b: soap factory
c: school
d: cannery

5. Two whale sharks, the world’s largest fish, are found at _______________ .
a: The Monterey Bay Aquarium
b: The Georgia Aquarium
c: The Adventure Aquarium in New Jersey
d: The National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland

6. The study of the world under the sea was not possible until ___________ could survive under water.
a: whale sharks
b: photographers
c: divers
d: scientists

7. Scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium cared for ________________ who were rescued after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans.
a: 30 sea otters
b: 15 whale sharks
c: 19 penguins
d: 100 children

8. A huge tank is placed in the center of the Monterey Bay Aquarium so that it would get _________________ .
a: the most sunlight
b: the largest number of visitors
c: the most number of tips
d: the most water

9. Another name for this article could be “________________ .”
a: The Monterey Bay Aquarium
b: The History of the Aquarium
c: Aquariums on the East Coast
d: Keeping Fish as Pets

10. This story is mainly about ___________________ .
a: the amazing popularity of aquariums
b: the human fascination for the world under the sea
c: the growth of the marvelous aquarium
d: aquariums of the East Coast

There's a great aquarium in Golden Gate Park at the:

California Academy of Sciences

A Youtube video visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in HD. It's nice:

How to get to the Monterey Bay Aquarium:

View Larger Map

"George Catlin" An important American artist, from Voice of America.

2010-05-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

"A Native American Village" by George Catlin, 1827

This is Mary Tillotson. And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. A new exhibit of paintings is being shown at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Today, we tell about the man who painted them. His name was George Catlin. And in this first part of two programs, we tell how he became one of the most important artists in American history.

(MUSIC)

George Catlin loved people. He loved their faces. He loved to paint faces expressing feelings. He understood how to paint feelings. You can look at one of his paintings of a person and see pride, honor, respect, intelligence and humor. George Catlin is most famous for painting Native Americans.

In the eighteen thirties, George Catlin traveled into areas of the American West to paint and record the history of Native Americans. He learned more about the culture of Native Americans than most other white people of his time. George Catlin spent a good part of his life trying to show these people to the world.

George Catlin showed his paintings in Washington, D.C; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City. Thousands of people came to see them. Thousands more came to see them in London, England and in the famous Louvre Museum in Paris, France. George Catlin probably did more than any other person to educate the public about the great people who lived in North America before Europeans arrived.

We begin our story just a few years after George Catlin was born, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was born in seventeen ninety-six. His family soon moved to New York State near the great Susquehanna River.

(MUSIC)

George Catlin always said his early years were fun. He said he had to have a book in one hand because he was in school. In the other hand he most often had a fishing pole. When he was not reading or fishing, he was drawing the natural world he saw outside each day. George Catlin had little training in art. He mostly taught himself. However, his father made sure that he had a good education.

His father was a lawyer and he wanted George to be a lawyer too. George did as his father wished and became a lawyer. However he was not happy.

As a young man George Catlin was only happy when he was painting. He truly loved to paint. He decided to stop being a lawyer and become an artist. He moved into a small building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began to paint pictures of people.

He was good at this and he loved the work. He painted very small pictures of people. The pictures are called miniatures. Women often wore this kind of painting tied to a ribbon around their necks. Soon, he moved to New York City. He painted miniatures and larger pictures. He was becoming a well-known artist. He began painting pictures of important people. One was the governor of the state of New York, DeWitt Clinton.

Life seemed good for the young artist. George Catlin was doing what he loved and he was making a living as an artist. However, he thought something was missing from his life and his work. He wanted very much to paint something that was important.

He wanted to give something to the world of art that would be different. But he had no idea what this could possibly be.

In the eighteen twenties, George Catlin saw something that would change his life forever. It was a delegation of Native Americans. About fifteen representatives from several tribes were passing through Philadelphia. They were on their way to Washington, D.C. to meet with the president of the United States.

George Catlin had never seen anything like these Native Americans. Their skin was the color of the metal copper. Their hair and eyes were dark black. They wore clothes made of animal skins. They seemed fierce and dangerous.

Within a few days, George Catlin made an important decision. He told his family and friends he would study and paint Native Americans. His family was opposed to the idea. They told him it was extremely dangerous. They told him he might be killed. George Catlin answered his friends and family. He said, “Nothing but the loss of my life will prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian.”

(MUSIC)

In eighteen thirty, George Catlin traveled to the city of Saint Louis, Missouri, near the Mississippi River. At that time Saint Louis was one of the last cities or towns you would find if you were traveling west. There was not much beyond Saint Louis but the Great Plains. There was nothing but wild, unexplored country. The country beyond Saint Louis could be extremely dangerous. Few white people had ever been further than Saint Louis.

However, George Catlin met someone who knew about the lands of the far West and had been there. He also knew many of the Native American tribes that George Catlin wanted to visit. That man was William Clark.

Twenty-six years before, William Clark was part of the famous team of Lewis and Clark who were the first white Americans to explore the far West. They had traveled from Saint Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back.

George Catlin immediately had a friend in William Clark. Mr. Clark liked his idea of painting and learning about Native Americans.

He did not think George Catlin’s idea was dangerous. He did his best to help. General William Clark was the United States Superintendent of Indian Affairs. He immediately took Mr. Catlin along on a trip up the Mississippi River to a place called Prairie du Chien.

Here George Catlin saw a gathering of Native American tribes. He saw their clothes. He watched them and learned about their culture. He listened to their language. This trip was important to George Catlin because it strengthened his idea and plans to learn about and paint pictures of Native Americans.

George Catlin quickly returned home to Philadelphia to raise money for his project. Within a year he traveled west again. This time he went north to Fort Union in an area called the Dakotas. Here he set up his painting equipment and began to paint.

He said of this experience: “I have this day been painting a picture of the head chief of the Blackfoot Nation. He is surrounded by his own warriors. He is an important man.”

The man George Catlin painted that day was named Stu-mick-o-sucks. He was chief of the Blood Tribe of the Kainai Blackfoot. George Catlin said the Blackfoot were a fierce and war-like tribe. They lived in the area that is now the border between the United States and Canada.

The beautiful painting of Stu-mick-o-sucks shows this fierce chief at the height of his powers. The chief of the Blood Tribe was about thirty years old when George Catlin painted his picture.

His face is a deep copper color. He has red paint on his jaw. His eyes are intelligent and watchful. His black hair hangs down to his shoulders. Part of his hair falls down between his eyes and is cut straight across. A head covering made of small feathers surrounds his hair. One large feather is worn to the right side of his head.

Stu-mick-o-sucks is dressed in his best clothing for this painting. It is clothing that he would wear for special ceremonies. On his chest is a round design made with several colors. The shoulders of his shirt are covered with pieces of cloth and hair to form other designs.

George Catlin captured in paint a man of honor and courage, a leader of his people. The artist had wanted to go west to paint Native Americans. With this painting and the many that were to follow, George Catlin succeeded. He had found his life’s work.

(MUSIC)

Join us again next week when we continue the story of George Catlin and his efforts to paint the people of the American West. If you have a computer that can link to the Internet, you can see Mr. Catlin’s famous painting of Blackfoot Chief Stu-mick-o-sucks and many others.

Use a search engine and type the name Renwick Gallery, R-E-N-W-I-C-K.

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.

Here's a short video about the careful art of conservation and restoration applied to George Catlin's work. His work is almost two hundred years old, and much of it has been damaged. The conservator tries to repair the painting by showing a great deal of respect for the artist's original intention.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. George Catlin probably wouldn’t be interested in painting ______________ .
a: a portrait of a famous person
b: a new kind of boat
c: a Native American dance
d: a Native American princess

2. George Catlin was born ________________ .
a: in Saint Louis
b: near the Susquehanna River
c: in Pennsylvania
d: in London, England

3. In his childhood, George Catlin enjoyed _______________ .
a: studying law
b: painting miniatures
c: traveling to Paris, France
d: reading and fishing

4. George Catlin’s father was _______________ .
a: a lawyer
b: a famous artist
c: a museum curator
d: a friend of Native Americans

5. The word “Miniatures” refers to _________________ .
a: very small portraits
b: very small fish
c: the ribbons women wore when they were posing for portraits
d: a tribe of short Native Americans

6. George Catlin was born _________________ .
a: at the end of the 19th Century
b: at the beginning of the 19th Century
c: in the middle of the 18th Century
d: just before the end of the 18th Century

7. As professional painter in New York City, George Catlin ________________ .
a: was a total failure
b: was very successful and satisfied with his life
c: was successful, but felt that there was something missing from his life
d: was successful, but not enough to make a living at painting

8. George Catlin found his life’s work painting Native Americans. He was encouraged in this choice by _________________ .
a: his parents
b: the governor of New York, Dewitt Clinton
c: William Clark who had been part of the Lewis and Clark expedition
d: the leader of the Blackfoot Nation

9. Another name for this story could be “ _______________” .
a: Warlike Tribes in the Far Western United States
b: The Boyhood of George Catlin
c: A Famous Artist Finds an Exciting New Challenge
d: How Prairie du Chien Influenced George Catlin

10. This article is mainly about _________________ .
a: the important turn in the career of the artist, George Catlin
b: the difficulty of painting portraits of Native Americans
c: the influence of William Clark on the style of the young artist
d: how George Catlin persuaded Stu-mick-o-sucks to pose for him

George Catlin, Part Two.

"George Catlin Painted Native Americans" from Voice of America

2010-05-15T09:47:00.001-07:00

"Crow Lodge of 25 Buffalo Skins" by George Catlin, 1830

(MUSIC)

This is Mary Tillotson. And this is Steve Ember with the Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we present the second part of our program about American artist George Catlin and his paintings of Native Americans.

(MUSIC)

Last week, we told how George Catlin had begun his working life as a lawyer. However, he was not happy with this work. He gave up the law and began painting, first in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and later in New York City.

He became a successful painter. He painted large and small paintings of people. But he still felt that he needed to paint something that was important.

George Catlin decided to paint Native Americans after he saw a delegation of Indians on their way to Washington, D.C.

By the year eighteen thirty, he had traveled to Saint Louis, Missouri. From there he traveled north into lands that few white Americans had ever seen. It was here that he met the first of the many American Indians he would paint.

George Catlin left many letters telling about his travels. He wrote that he often traveled alone, with only his horse Charlie. He carried his painting supplies and enough food for a few days.

He also carried a rifle for hunting. Between eighteen thirty and eighteen thirty-six, Mr. Catlin made five trips into areas of the West that were considered unexplored Indian country. He traveled many thousands of kilometers and visited fifty different tribes.

George Catlin painted almost everything he saw. He painted pictures of unusual land that no white person had ever seen before. He painted Native American men, women, and children. He painted their clothes, weapons and villages. He painted the people taking part in religious ceremonies, dances and the hunting of buffalo. He often painted three pictures in one day.

George Catlin tried to capture in paint the Native American people and their culture. For example, he painted many pictures of Indians playing a ball game. The game is played with a stick that has a small net at one end. The net is used to control the ball. This Native American game is still played in the United States and other countries today. It is called by the name the French gave it – lacrosse.

George Catlin also kept exact records of the people, places and events. Most of his paintings include the names of the people and when they were painted.

George Catlin began to have deep feelings about the people that he painted. He learned a great deal about them. He learned that they were honest. They were intelligent. They represented different cultures that had great value. George Catlin believed that many of the men he painted were great leaders in their own culture and would have been great leaders in any culture.

He believed the Native American Indians were people of great worth. He also understood that the Indians could not block or stop the westward movement of white PEOPLE IN AMERICA. He believed that the American Indian would quickly disappear.

(MUSIC)

"Buffalo Hunt in Wolf Masks"
George Catlin put together a collection of his many paintings. He called the display George Catlin’s Indian Gallery. He began showing the paintings in many cities in the United States. He also gave long speeches about the Indians he lived with.

He told those who came to his talks that he had never felt afraid while living in Native American villages. He said no one ever threatened him or stole anything from him. He tried to make people understand what a great people Native Americans were. He said huge areas of the country should be left for Native Americans to enjoy life as they always had.

Many people criticized George Catlin. Some said the people in his pictures did not really look as intelligent and brave as he had painted them. They said the religious ceremonies he painted were false and that Indians did not really have ball games. Some critics said George Catlin had invented these people.

The critics made George Catlin angry. He began to seek white Americans who had traveled in Indian country. He asked army officers, fur traders and others to sign documents that said the people and events he painted were real. The critics stopped saying his paintings were a lie.

"Choctaw Ball Sticks"
George Catlin took his collection of paintings to Europe. He also took many objects made by American Indians. The George Catlin Indian Gallery was popular in London, England and in Paris, France. French art experts praised his paintings. His paintings and speeches were popular. Many people paid money to visit his Indian Gallery, but he did not earn enough money. He soon had financial problems.

Mr. Catlin returned to the United States. There were about five hundred paintings in his Indian Gallery. He offered to sell them to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Several people worked to have the United States government buy the paintings for the Smithsonian. However, Congress never approved a measure needed for the sale.

George Catlin found a buyer for his Indian Gallery. It was Joseph Harrison, a businessman in Philadelphia. Mr. Harrison bought the paintings but did nothing with them. For many years they were left in a room in his factory. Mr. Catlin was able to pay most of his debts from the money he earned by selling his paintings. He began painting again.

His new paintings were displayed at the Smithsonian Institution’s famous building called The Castle. For the last year of his life, he worked in a room in that building provided by the museum. George Catlin died in eighteen seventy-two. His famous Indian Gallery paintings were still in a room in Mr. Harrison’s factory. A fire at the factory almost destroyed them.

(MUSIC)

In eighteen seventy-nine, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution was Spencer Baird. Mr. Baird knew the historic value of George Catlin’s paintings. The owner of the paintings, Joseph Harrison, had died. So Mr. Baird began to negotiate with Joseph Harrison’s wife, Sarah. He asked her to give the collection to the Smithsonian.

Mrs. Harrison agreed. She gave George Catlin’s famous Indian Gallery to the Smithsonian. The gift also included many Indian objects that Catlin had collected. These included maps, books, letters and other papers that told George Catlin’s story.

Sarah Harrison’s gift was one of the most important ever received by the Smithsonian. For more than one hundred twenty-five years, the public has been able to see George Catlin’s paintings. Art critics, art students and western history experts have studied and examined them.

Today, George Catlin’s Indian Gallery is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. The paintings have been carefully cleaned for this event. They look new and fresh, as if they were painted recently.

Art experts have praised and criticized George Catlin’s work. Some say he was not a good artist and could not paint the human body well. Others say this is because he painted very quickly. Most critics say his paintings of people’s faces are beautiful. They seem alive and real.

You can see many of George Catlin’s paintings on the Internet by using a search engine. Type the name Renwick Gallery, R-E-N-W-I-C-K.

George Catlin was afraid the American Indian would disappear from the Earth. That was one of the reasons he painted so many different tribes and different people. He wanted a record to leave for history.

George Catlin was wrong. The American Indian did not disappear. But his paintings provide a close look at the people, places, and events from a time that is now long gone.

(MUSIC)

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson.

And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.

1. George Catlin wasn't happy in his __________ career.
a. artistic
b. historian
c. law
d. painting

2. Today, George Catlin's paintings __________ .
a. are locked in a factory
b. are at the Smithsonian Museum
c. are damaged beyond repair
d. have all been sold to collectors

3. Although he was a successful portrait painter, George Catlin _______ .
a. wished he were a lawyer
b. felt something was missing
c. decided to quit painting
d. moved to London, then Paris

4. Mr. Catlin was impressed by a delegation of __________ passing through Philadelphia.
a. Native Americans
b. French diplomats
c. Mountain Men
d. Wild West Gunfighters

5. His most famous portrait was of __________ , chief of the Blood Tribe of the Kainai Blackfoot.
a. William Clark
b. Crazy Horse
c. Dewitt Clinton
d. Stu-mick-o-sucks

6. This remarkable painter created pictures of Native American dances, religious ceremonies, buffalo hunts, and __________ .
a. house construction
b. track meets
c. ball games
d. fashion shows

7. George Catlin could paint up to __________ paintings in three days.
a. four
b. three
c. nine
d. six

8. The starting place for travels into unknown territories during the 1830s was __________ .
a. San Francisco
b. Salt Lake City
c. Saint Louis
d. New York

9. Another name for this article could be " __________ ".
a. Portraits of Easterners
b. Photographs of the West
c. The First Painter of Native Americans
d. Tribes of the Mississippi

10. This article is mainly about a painter who __________ .
a. was very traditional
b. was fascinated by landscapes
c. wanted to document the lives and customs of Native Americans
d. was interested in athletics

Youtube video featuring the paintings of George Catlin:

George Catlin, Part One

George Catlin Virtual Exhibition at the Renwick Museum

"The Mail Must Go Through!!" Voice of America.

2010-04-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

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

BARBARA KLEIN: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we tell you about the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas. We explain its place in the history of the first stagecoaches that carried mail to the American West.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Across the United States, the speed limit on fast roads is generally eighty-eight kilometers an hour. But in the western United States, there are highways where the speed limit is one hundred twenty-five kilometers an hour.

These are usually in areas with little traffic but lots of open country. The roads are good, a driver can see far -- and a trip hundreds of kilometers long can take just a few hours. And if that is not fast enough, then people can drive to another part of the modern transportation system: the airport.

There used to be a time when the quickest way to travel across the western United States was in a stagecoach. A stagecoach was a large, enclosed wagon pulled by teams of horses or mules. The driver tried for a speed of about eight kilometers an hour.

BARBARA KLEIN: Our story really begins in Washington, D.C. Lawmakers in Congress wanted to make it possible to send mail all the way across the United States by land. Mail was usually carried west on ships that sailed around the bottom of South America and then north to California. That could take several months.

So, in eighteen fifty-seven, Congress offered to help any company that would try to deliver mail overland to the West Coast. A man named John Butterfield accepted this offer. He developed plans for a company that would carry the mail -- and passengers, too.

Congress gave John Butterfield six hundred thousand dollars to start his company. In return, he had to promise that the mail would travel from Saint Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, in twenty-five days or less.

BOB DOUGHTY: It was not possible to travel straight through because of the Rocky Mountains and the deep snow that fell in winter. So the stagecoach would travel south from Saint Louis to El Paso, Texas, then over to southern California, then north to San Francisco. The distance was about four thousand five hundred kilometers.

John Butterfield hired more than one thousand men who knew the Southwest. Some carefully planned the way the stagecoach would travel. Others built small structures to house stagecoach workers and animals along the route.

BARBARA KLEIN: Two hundred of these stations were built, each about thirty-two kilometers apart. The workers were to quickly change the horses or mules whenever a stagecoach reached the station. There could be no delay.

Each stagecoach was to travel nearly two hundred kilometers a day. Two-man teams were responsible for the safety of the mail, the passengers and the stagecoach. John Butterfield ordered his men never to let the mail out of their sight.

The Butterfield Overland Mail company operated from eighteen fifty-eight until eighteen sixty-one. It went out of business because of the Civil War, which began that year.

BOB DOUGHTY: One hundred stagecoaches were built specially for the job. Each one was painted red or dark green. These were the most modern coaches that money could buy. They cost one thousand five hundred dollars each.

They were designed to hold as many as nine passengers and twelve thousand pieces of mail. The seats inside could be folded down to make beds. Passengers either slept on them or on the bags of mail.

The cost would be one hundred fifty dollars to travel from Saint Louis to San Francisco. If a passenger was not going all the way, the cost was about ten cents a kilometer. The passengers had to buy their own food at the stations. The stagecoach would stop for forty minutes, two times a day.

But the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach needed to travel as fast as possible. It had to keep moving to reach San Francisco in twenty-five days as required by the government contract.

The company warned passengers about the possible dangers. A poster said: "You will be traveling through Indian country and the safety of your person cannot by vouchsafed by anyone but God."

BARBARA KLEIN: The Butterfield stagecoaches passed through dangerous areas. Some Indians did not want anyone to get too near their settlements.

These lands were home to the Chiricahua, Membreno, White Mountain and Mescalero Apaches. Two of their chiefs became very famous in stories of the American West. They were Cochise and Geronimo.

The Native Americans were experts at surviving in the mountains and deserts of the Southwest. They were also fierce fighters.

Butterfield workers were instructed not to incite the Apaches in any way. Often the company would use mules instead of horses to pull its stagecoaches because the Indians had no interest in mules. But there was still trouble. Workers were killed, animals were stolen and stations were burned.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: The first Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach left Missouri on September sixteenth, eighteen fifty-eight, on its way to California. It made the trip in twenty-three days, twenty-three hours.

The only passenger on that first stage to travel all the way through to San Francisco was a newspaper reporter named Waterman Ormsby. He worked for the New York Herald. He wrote several stories about the trip; later, they were put together in a book, "The Butterfield Overland Mail." Here is part of what he wrote about that trip.

READER: "We finally got under way again and pursued our weary course along the edge of the plain, thumping and bumping at a rate which threatened not to leave a whole bone in my body. What with the dust and the sun pouring directly on our heads … I found that day’s ride quite unpleasant, and at our several camps readily availed myself of the opportunity to plunge into the Pecos, muddy as it was; and I was heartily glad when about 10 p.m. we reached a station fifty-eight miles from our starting point in the morning ... "

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Today people can visit the ruins of one of the Butterfield stagecoach stops, now located in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. To reach the park, visitors drive through the Guadalupe Pass, more than one thousand five hundred meters high.

In his description of that first trip west, Waterman Ormsby explained why the station was called "the Pinery."

READER: " ... on account of the number of pine trees that grow in the gorge of the mountain in which it is situated. As we approached the mountain, the hills and gulleys bore the appearance of having been created by some vast, fierce torrent rushing around the base of the peak, and tearing its way through the loose earth. ... [I]t seems as if nature had saved all her ruggedness to pile it up in this colossal form of the Guadalupe Peak …

"The great peak towers as if ready at any moment to fall, while huge boulders hang as if ready, with the weight of a rain drop, to be loosened from their fastenings and descend with lumbering swiftness to the bottom, carrying destruction in their paths.”

BARBARA KLEIN: The Pinery Station was a series of three connected buildings. The walls were made of local limestone and bricks of sun-dried mud called adobe. The roofs were also mud. A wagon repair shop and blacksmith barn stood nearby.

The Butterfield mail coaches used the buildings until August of eighteen fifty-nine. Then a new road replaced the one through Guadalupe Pass. It was better protected from Indian attacks because it passed by two Army forts. But the buildings at Guadalupe continued to be used by soldiers and others who passed that way.

BOB DOUGHTY: Today, the buildings are no longer there, just the outlines of where they stood, and some of the original bricks. But visitors to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in West Texas can still get a sense of their historic importance. The company is said to have never broken its contract with the government in its two and a half years of operation.

At the end of September two thousand eight, the park celebrated the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the Butterfield Overland Mail. There were stage coach rides, living history programs and demonstrations of shoeing a mule.

It's easy to imagine those long-ago days of cowboys and Indians, and the spirit of adventure that led travelers to ride the stagecoach west.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I'm Bob Doughty. Doug Johnson was our reader. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

"Earth Day" from Voice of America.

2010-04-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

FAITH LAPIDUS: I’m Faith Lapidus.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. April twenty-second marks the fortieth anniversary of Earth Day. Former United States Senator Gaylord Nelson started the observance in nineteen seventy. The aim of this day is to urge local action and increase awareness about the state of the world’s environment. The creation of Earth Day is widely considered the beginning of the modern environmental movement.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Gaylord Nelson was a Democrat from the state of Wisconsin. He had always been interested in environmental issues and worked hard to improve the environment in his state. The American public was also increasingly becoming aware of the huge environmental problems the country faced.

In nineteen sixty-nine two environmental problems caught the nation’s attention. The first was a huge oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. More than eighty thousand barrels of crude oil from the spill severely damaged over sixty kilometers of coastline. The second was increased news reporting about a river so polluted that it caught on fire. This was the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio.

BOB DOUGHTY: Senator Nelson knew there was growing public concern about the country’s polluted air, rivers and land. He had been searching for a way to make the environment a subject of national interest to the country’s politicians and leaders. He had observed that students at colleges across the country had been organizing “teach-in” demonstrations to protest the war in Vietnam. He realized that this “teach-in” method would be a useful way for the public to express concern about the environment to federal and state officials.

FAITH LAPIDUS: In September of nineteen sixty-nine Senator Nelson announced his aim to create a national version of an environmental teach-in. The idea immediately received wide popular support from students, teachers, religious centers and other community groups. It was so popular that his Senate office alone could not deal with the many responses.

So, Senator Nelson created an independent nonprofit group called Environmental Teach-In, Inc to help organize what would become an environmental revolution.

BOB DOUGHTY: Gaylord Nelson hired a student and activist named Denis Hayes to lead this special campaign. The aim was to get people young and old across the United States to act locally in solving environmental problems in their areas. Senator Nelson did not want the campaign to be about the changes and actions he wanted for the environment.

The movement was to be driven by the American public on a “grassroots” or local level. It was to be an event not just supported by students. Women, labor unions, religious groups, political groups, scientists and environmental organizations would also support the event.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The planning for a national protest on the environment soon began to receive national media attention. The Environmental Teach-In group began to educate people about how to take action locally and spread the news of the event. The group stated that the national day for the environment would be “more than a day of fruitless talking.” And, they created a new name for their national teach-in event: Earth Day.

BOB DOUGHTY: The hard work of this grassroots effort resulted in the first Earth Day on April twenty-second, nineteen seventy. An estimated twenty million people took part in this event. In New York City, Fifth Avenue was closed to traffic as people marched through the streets. At demonstrations in Atlanta, Georgia, and Miami, Florida people protested to demand a cleaner environment.

Gaylord Nelson later said that “Earth Day worked because of the immediate response at the grassroots level.” He said that the event organized itself.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Lawmakers in Washington seemed to have understood the public demand for a cleaner environment. In December of nineteen seventy, a new federal agency began its work.

The Environmental Protection Agency aimed to bring together federal research, supervision, and enforcement of environmental matters. By nineteen seventy-four several other environmental laws had been signed. These include the Clean Water Act, the Pesticide Control Act, and the Endangered Species Act.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Earth Day is now a worldwide event. One of its official organizers in the United States is a Washington based nonprofit group called Earth Day Network. Susan Bass is the vice president of programs and operations at Earth Day Network. She says that Earth Day is still very much about activism and fighting for the environment on a local level.

SUSAN BASS: “That’s the wonderful thing about Earth Day is that it really provides a platform, an opportunity for grassroots organizations and community organizations to really focus on what’s happening in their neighborhoods and their homes in their communities, in their businesses and to focus on the priority problems and to engage people maybe for the first time in taking environmental action.”

FAITH LAPIDUS: Earth Day Network works on environmental programs around the world.

SUSAN BASS: “We are active now in one hundred ninety countries and it’s estimated that one billion people participate in Earth Day events around the globe now.”

FAITH LAPIDUS: One event in Rabat, Morocco. will celebrate the country’s new Charter for Environment and Sustainable Development. Its aim is to guide the country’s environmental policies and future laws to protect natural resources and ensure safe economic development.

Susan Bass says that this year’s Earth Day will be a busy one in the United States.

SUSAN BASS: “We’re going to be active all over the United States; we have events across the country from Santa Monica to New York, to the heartland of the country.”

BOB DOUGHTY: Susan Bass tells about an important event in Washington.

SUSAN BASS: “And then our flagship event will be on April twenty-fifth. It will be the Climate Rally where we’ll be inviting people from all walks of life to join us on the National Mall to call on you.”

BOB DOUGHTY: The goal of this event is to demand that lawmakers pass new legislation on climate change and clean energy in two thousand ten. The event is expected to include performances by musicians including Sting, John Legend, and the Roots.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Some cities and communities will hold Earth Day activities and celebrations for an entire week, not just on April twenty-second. Events in Novato, California will include an art exhibit called “Where You Are.” The exhibit at the Marin Community Foundation will show artwork influenced by the environment and by Earth Day.

In Irving, Texas people can attend an event called “Earth Day… Naturally.” People can gather to listen to music, eat healthful foods and learn about new green technologies. They can also bring their electronic devices to be recycled instead of thrown away.

And, the Oregon nonprofit SOLV has organized a clean-up day called SOLV IT. People across the state will work together on one hundred twenty-five local projects to clean trash, remove invasive plants and improve water areas.

BOB DOUGHTY: On Earth Day, the artist and building designer Maya Lin will launch a Web site about the Earth’s endangered plants and animals. The project is called “What is Missing?” The Web site, a book and a series of art projects around the world will bring attention to the disappearing biodiversity on our planet. The project will help people understand the many threats to the natural environments where endangered plants and animals live. The goal of the project is to raise awareness about the species that are disappearing and to tell people what can be done to help the situation.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Denis Hayes was the activist who helped organize Earth Day forty years ago. He has spent his career working to support environmental issues. He recently wrote an article about the meaning of Earth Day in two thousand ten.

Denis Hayes said lawmakers in Washington have repeatedly failed to make the environment a central issue. But he says the American public can force Congress to pay more attention to this subject. He says Congress can only act intelligently and boldly on the issue of climate change if the American public gives it no other choice. So, he says Americans must use their votes to elect officials for whom the environment is important.

Denis Hayes also discusses two climate bills currently being proposed by American lawmakers. He says each new version of one bill is weaker and less effective than the one before it. He suggests that lawmakers who ignore climate change should start losing their jobs in the next election.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Bob Doughty.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. What is your country doing to celebrate Earth Day? You can comment at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

"Edward Hopper" a Great American Painter from VOA.

2010-04-18T12:57:00.001-07:00

"Hotel Lobby" by Edward Hopper

VOICE ONE:

I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about artist Edward Hopper. He painted normal objects and people in interesting and mysterious ways.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Edward Hopper's "Cape Cod Morning"

In June of two thousand-six, visitors entered the redesigned Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. for the first time. When these people walked into the building, they saw two simple, colorful paintings. These paintings showed normal scenes from American life. But they looked mysterious and beautiful. American artist Edward Hopper painted both of these famous pictures.

VOICE TWO:

Edward Hopper was born in eighteen eighty-two in Nyack, a small town in New York state. From a young age, Edward knew he wanted to be a painter. His parents were not wealthy people. They thought Edward should learn to paint and make prints to advertise for businesses. This kind of painting is called commercial art. Edward listened to his mother and father. In nineteen hundred, he moved to New York City to study commercial art. However, he also studied more serious and artistic kinds of painting.

VOICE ONE:

One of Hopper’s teachers was Robert Henri, a famous American painter in the early twentieth century. Henri was a leader of a group of artists who called themselves the Ashcan School painters. The Ashcan artists liked to paint normal people and objects in realistic ways. Henri once expressed his ideas about painting this way: “Paint what you feel. Paint what you see. Paint what is real to you.”

Edward Hopper agreed with many of these ideas about art. He told people that Henri was his most important teacher.

VOICE TWO:

Hopper studied with Henri in New York City for six years. During those years, Hopper dreamed of going to Europe. Many painters there were making pictures in ways no one had ever seen before. Many of them had begun to paint pictures they called “abstract.” The artists liked to say these works were about ideas rather than things that existed in the real world. Their paintings did not try to show people and objects that looked like the ones in real life. Most American artists spent time in Europe. Then they returned to the United States to paint in this new way.

VOICE ONE:

With help from his parents, Hopper finally traveled to Europe in nineteen-oh-six. He lived in Paris, France for several months. He returned again in nineteen-oh-nine and nineteen-ten.

Unlike many other people, however, Hopper was not strongly influenced by the new, abstract styles he found there. “Paris had no great or immediate impact on me,” he once said. At the end of these travels, he decided that he liked the realistic methods he had learned from Robert Henri.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

When Edward Hopper returned from Paris for the last time, he moved into a small apartment in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. He took a job making prints and paintings for businesses. However, the paintings he made outside of his job were not helping him earn money or recognition. He had a show of his work at a gallery in New York. However, most people were not interested in his simple, realistic style. Very few people bought his paintings.

VOICE ONE:

Things began to improve in nineteen twenty-three. He began a love relationship with an artist named Jo Nivison. Soon they married. His wife sometimes said that Edward tried to control her thoughts and actions too much. However, most people who knew them said they loved each other very much. They stayed married for the rest of their lives. Also, Jo was the model for all of the women in Hopper’s paintings.

Success in art soon followed this success in love. In nineteen twenty-four, Hopper had the second show of his paintings. This time, he sold many pictures. Finally, at age forty-three, he had enough money to quit his job painting for businesses. He could now paint what he loved. Edward and Jo bought a car and began to travel around the country to find interesting subjects to paint.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

"The House by the Railroad"

Most people say that Hopper’s nineteen twenty-five painting “The House by the Railroad” was his first mature painting. This means that it was the first painting that brought together all of his important techniques and ideas.

“The House by the Railroad” shows a large, white house. The painting does not show the bottom of the house. It is blocked by railroad tracks. Cutting scenes off in surprising ways was an important part of Hopper’s style. He became famous for paintings that are mysterious, that look incomplete or that leave viewers with questions.

Shadows make many parts of the home in “The House by the Railroad” look dark. Some of the windows look like they are open, which makes the viewer wonder what is inside the house. However, only dark, empty space can be seen through the windows. Strange shadows, dark spaces, and areas with light were important parts of many Hopper paintings.

There are no people in the painting, and no evidence of other houses nearby. Hopper was famous for showing loneliness in his art. People often said that, even when there were many people in his paintings, each person seems to be alone in his or her own world.

VOICE ONE:

During the great economic depression of the nineteen thirties, many people saw Hopper’s lonely, mysterious paintings of everyday subjects. They liked the pictures because they seemed to show life honestly, without trying to make it happier or prettier than it really was. As a result, Hopper continued to sell many paintings during those years, even though most Americans were very poor.

VOICE TWO:

'"Nighthawks"'

In nineteen forty-two, Hopper painted his most famous work, “Nighthawks.” The painting shows four people in an eating-place called a diner late at night. They look sad, tired, and lonely. Two of them look like they are in a love relationship. But they do not appear to be talking to each other. The dark night that surrounds them is mysterious and tense. There is no door in the painting, which makes the subjects seem like they might be trapped.

Hopper painted “Nighthawks” soon after the Japanese bomb attack against the United States at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Many people thought the painting showed the fear and unhappiness that most Americans were feeling after the attack. The painting became very famous. Today, most Americans still recognize it. The painting now hangs in a famous museum in Chicago, Illinois.

VOICE ONE:

“Nighthawks” was not Edward Hopper’s only great success. In nineteen fifty, he finished a painting called “Cape Cod Morning.” It shows a brightly colored house in the country. In the middle of the painting, a woman leans on a table and looks out a window. She looks very sad. However, nothing in the painting gives any idea about why she would be sad. Today this painting hangs in a special place in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington. It is one the paintings we noted at the beginning of this program.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Edward Hopper began to struggle with his art during the nineteen fifties and sixties. He had trouble finding interesting subjects. When he did find good things to paint, he struggled to paint them well.

At the same time, the artistic community became less interested in realistic paintings. In the nineteen fifties, the Abstract Expressionist style became very popular. These artists refused to have subjects to paint. They wanted to “paint about painting” and “paint about ideas.” They thought Hopper’s style was no longer modern or important. As a result, the paintings he did complete met less success than during the earlier years.

Edward Hopper died in nineteen sixty-seven. His wife Jo died less than a year later.

Many years after his death, Hopper’s work is still popular in this country and outside America. In two thousand four, the famous Tate Art Gallery in London had a show of his paintings. This show brought the second-largest number of visitors of any show in the history of the museum. Today, people say Edward Hopper was one of the best American artists of the twentieth century.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Sarah Randle and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Doug Johnson. You can read, listen to and download this program at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.

"An Electric Idea" from Edcon Publishing

2010-04-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

Something you will read about: horsepower: a unit of measurement for the power of engines and motors.

A modern version of the early electric engine may be the answer to more efficient and economical cars.

John Santini, a twenty-four year old electrical engineer, disregards convention and dares to be different. What makes him stand out is the fact that he drives between his Centereach home and his Farmingdale job on Long Island each day without ever stopping for gas. There happens to be a simple explanation for this unusual practice. If John were to pull in at a gas station, the attendant would have a difficult time locating the gas tank, since there is none. Upon lifting the car's hood, the curious attendant would be in for another surprise. Instead of an engine,he would find a set of
golf-cart batteries.

John purchased an eight year old Chevrolet Corvette convertible in 1975. He decided to try something he'd always dreamed of - to convert a regular car engine to one that uses electrical energy. Keeping much of the car's original equipment, he got rid of its V -8 engine and some exhaust pipes and replaced them with eighteen golf-cart batteries. He also decided on the installation of a 24
horsepower electric motor.

The last two items, the eighteen batteries and the 24 horsepower motor, were not just lucky guesses. In order to determine how many batteries and how large a motor to use, John used a computer. An instrument on the dashboard shows him how much electricity he is consuming. He can tell very easily how many more miles he can go until the next recharge because he programmed a small computer to determine this information any time he requires it.

The concept of electrically powered cars is not a new one. Motoring history dates from the 1890's, with thousands of automobiles on the road by 1903 and auto shows being held in Europe and America.

The first national auto show, held in New York City in 1900, offered three different kinds of engines - gas, steam and electric. No one seeing these early cars would have guessed that the gas model would turn out to be the most popular. After all, the steam-powered ones were less noisy and less smelly. Of the three, the electric cars were the smoothest, quietest and easiest to operate.

One consequence of these various experiments with engines was that two early makers of buses built gas/electric models. In these Mack and Yellow Coach buses a gas engine drove a direct-current generator. The output of the generator provided electric power for the rear wheels' driving motors. But none of the very early models could have gone very fast,judging by some old laws on record, in addition to their capabilities.

In Great Britain in the 1890's, the driver of a self- propelled vehicle could not disregard the other travelers on a public highway. He had to follow a man on foot who carried a red flag to warn those on the road ahead. Things really moved along, however, and in 1896 the speed limit was raised to 14 miles per hour. By 1904, British motorists were permitted to zoom at the dizzying speed of 20 miles per hour!

As a consequence of design changes, such as putting the engine in front, the speed of gas-powered cars grew. And so did their sales. With their massive hoods and exposed levers, shafts and chains, these models were built to express power and speed: Their looks appealed mainly to young men of the "sporty set" while electric cars were used mostly by women.

In fact, the early electric cars (except for commercial vehicles like delivery vans and milk trucks) were purposely given a feminine look. Curtains were made for the windows and the seats were covered in brocade or other fine fabrics. Still another dainty touch was the installation of flower vases.

As the popularity of gas-powered cars increased, that of electrically powered ones declined. Why have the electrics failed to catch on? In 1972 Jerry Flint, a New York Times reporter wrote, "Engineers have so far been unable to find a relatively inexpensive power source that will give a car the speed and range needed." He wrote that experiments to convert gas to electric models has continued because the energy crisis which spurred research for alternate sources of power has affected transportation as well. The U.S. Postal Service, for instance, has ordered 600 electric jeeps from American Motors for mail delivery. In four European countries, new electric models have been used since 1977. In addition to the energy crisis as a motive to switch to electric cars, the matter of air pollution was another factor for the change.

In Sweden, two Volvos, a 13 horsepower two-seater and an 11 horsepower four-seater, are being test driven. Powered by regular six-volt lead batteries which are mounted on a slideout container, these Volvos reach top speed of 43.5 m.p.h.

In Italy, an experimental car, shaped like a teardrop, is being tried out. Called the X 1/23, this 1,800 pound car uses nickel-zinc batteries. These have nearly twice the capacity of lead·acid batteries and give the car a top speed of 47 m.p.h. The 370 pound 105 volt battery pack is stored at the rear of the car for easy handling. Its major shortcoming IS that of all the electric cars - a limited range. This one is restricted to a 45 mile travel range before needing a recharge.

Among the latest of European electrics is the EVR- , produced by Electraction Ltd. of England. It looks like a cross between a car and a light truck and its range is restricted to 50 miles on a charge. Its front mounted 7.5 horsepower motor produces a top speed of 30 m.p.h.

For those who, unlike John Santini, are unable to convert their gas - powered cars and would like to own an electric car, PILCAR of Switzerland has a plastic-bodied hatchback available. The manufacturer claims that its lead-acid batteries have a 28% greater capacity than the standard ones and that a special form of braking charges the batteries as the car slows down. The rear mounted 22 horsepower motor gives this PILCAR a 55 m.p.h. top speed. Good news in the range department, too. It is not quite as limited as most other electrics and goes 70 miles on a charge.

John Santini's used Corvette originally cost him $2,100. The 24 horsepower electric motor he installed cost $2,600. He figures this goodlooking sports car to be worth about $9,000. It performs very well, having had only one breakdown caused by a loose cable which he himself forgot to connect. It can go 50 miles between recharges in any ordinary 120-volt outlet. He is quite satisfied with the car's maximum speed of 61 m.p.h.

On a typical weekday morning, John noiselessly pulls into the parking lot of his Farmingdale company and heads for his own special spot. Although his Corvette is equipped with its own 140-foot extension cord, he doesn't use it. He takes the one waiting at his parking spot instead. This he connects to his own car, recharging it for the trip home.

As we watch him going through these motions, a thought crosses our minds. Are we witnessing the actions of a young man who is daringly different? Or are we getting a glimpse of something all of us will be doing in the not-too distant future?

1. John Santini's car has no _____
a. electric motor.
b. batteries.
c. gas tank.
d. hood.

2. Motoring history dates from _____
a. 1903.
b. the 20th Century.
c. after 1910.
d. the 1890's.

3. The first national auto show offered _____
a. three different kinds of motors.
b. four different kinds of motors.
c. plastic bodies.
d. high-speed racers.

4. Of the engines offered, the smoothest, quietest and easiest to operate was the ___
a. electric.
b. steam.
c. gasoline.
d. solar.

5. Design changes in the gas powered cars, such as putting the engine in front, caused an increase in______
a. speed and accidents.
b. speed and sales.
c. safety.
d. prices.

6. Four European countries tried new electric model jeeps before _____
a. John Santini bought his used Chevrolet.
b. electric cars were given a feminine look.
c. Italy tried out an experimental teardrop shaped car.
d. Jerry Flint wrote his New York Times article.

7. John Santini's actions are considered _______
a. usual.
b. ordinary.
c. extraordinary.
d. typical.

8. John Santini probably has the least interest in the location of _____
a. his home in Centereach.
b. gasoline stations.
c. his Farmingdale company.
d. auto parts stores.

9. Another name for this selection could be ______
a. "The Future of the Electric Car."
b. "John Santini's Car."
c. "The Speed of Electric Cars."
d. "The Shortages of Gasoline."

10. This story is mainly about ________
a. the possibility of a steam car becoming popular.
b. the possibility of the gasoline car becoming popular.
c. the possibility of electric cars becoming popular.
d. the manufacturing of electric cars in the United States.

Eleanor Creesy: She Guided One of the Fastest Sailing Ships. From VOA.

2010-04-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

VOICE ONE:

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Eleanor Creesy. She helped to guide one of the fastest sailing ships ever built.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The name Eleanor Creesy is almost unknown today. But in the middle eighteen hundreds she was a famous woman. Those were the days of wooden sailing ships. It was a time before ships had engines. Cloth sails were used to catch the wind to move a ship through the water.

A ship that sailed from New York to San Francisco had to travel around the bottom of South America. Such a trip could take two hundred days to complete. Not all ships completed the trip. The high winds and angry seas in this area of the world created deadly storms. Ships often sank. No one could survive the freezing waters in this dangerous area if the ship went down.

VOICE TWO:

One hundred fifty years ago, women did not receive much education. Most women were expected to learn to read and write. But they almost never held positions of great responsibility.

Eleanor Creesy was different. She was the navigator for a ship. A navigator is responsible for guiding a ship safely from one port to another.

Eleanor's father taught her to navigate. She wanted to learn this difficult skill because she liked the mathematics involved. A navigator also had to know how to use a complex instrument called a sextant. It was used to gather information about the sun, moon, and some stars to find a ship's position at sea.

Eleanor married a captain of a ship, Josiah Perkins Creesy, in eighteen forty-one. It was not unusual for a ship captain to take his wife with him on long trips. A captain's wife often acted as a nurse, which Eleanor did. But she did a lot more. Josiah Creesy quickly learned that his wife was an extremely good navigator.

Eleanor was the navigator on each ship that Josiah commanded during all their years at sea. They were husband and wife, but they also enjoyed working together.

VOICE ONE:

Eleanor and Josiah Creesy are forever linked to one of the most famous ships in American history. That ship is the Flying Cloud. It was designed and built at the shipyard of Donald McKay in the eastern city of Boston. Grinell, Minturn and Company bought it. Captain Creesy worked for Grinell, Minturn. Company officials chose him to be the captain of the new ship.

The Flying Cloud was a new kind of ship. The front was very narrow and sharp. This helped it cut through the water. The ship itself was narrow and long. This also added to its speed. A New York newspaper wrote a story about the ship when it was new. The paper said it was extremely beautiful. The world soon learned it was one of the fastest sailing ships ever built.

The large number of sails the Flying Cloud could carry increased the speed of the ship. It usually carried at least twenty-one large sails. The crew often added many more to increase the speed.

VOICE TWO:

It was the second day of June, eighteen fifty-one. Goods and passengers had been loaded on the Flying Cloud. The ship quietly sailed out of New York City on its way to San Francisco.

Very quickly it became evident the ship was special. Part of Eleanor Creesy's work was to find out how far the ship had traveled each day. This involved doing complex mathematics and usually took Eleanor several hours. The first time she completed her work, she could not believe the results. She did the mathematics again, carefully looking for mistakes. There were none.

The ship had traveled almost four hundred eighty kilometers in twenty-four hours. This was an extremely fast speed. Few ships had ever sailed this fast.

VOICE ONE:

The captain of a ship keeps a written record of each day's events when a ship is at sea. This record is called a ship's log. On May fifteenth, just seventeen days after leaving New York, Captain Creesy wrote this in the Flying Cloud's log:

"We have passed the Equator in two days less time than ever before. We have traveled five thousand nine hundred and nine kilometers in seventeen days!"

As the Flying Cloud sailed south, each day was extremely exciting. As it neared the South Atlantic, however, storms began to cause great concern.

For Eleanor Creesy to learn the correct position of the ship each day, she had to be able to see the sun, the moon or stars. This was impossible when the ship entered an area of storms. It was then that her greatest skill as a navigator became extremely important.

VOICE TWO:

When bad weather prevented navigators from seeing the sun, moon or stars, they had to use a method called "dead reckoning" to find the ship's position.

Dead reckoning is not exact. A navigator would take the last known position of the ship, then add the ship's speed. The navigator also had to add any movement of the ship to the side caused by waves or the wind. But this information was only a guess. Even a good navigator could be wrong by many kilometers.

If a ship was sailing in the middle of the ocean, a navigator could make mistakes using dead reckoning and no harm would be done. However, when a ship was near land, dead reckoning became extremely dangerous. The ship might be much closer to land than the navigator knew. In a storm, the ship could be driven on to land and severely damaged or sunk. Using dead reckoning near the southern most area of South America called for an expert.

The Flying Cloud was near land at the end of the South American continent. Eleanor Creesy used all her skill to find a safe path for the huge ship.

VOICE ONE:

Captain Creesy was responsible for the safety of the Flying Cloud, the passengers and crew. He would be blamed for any serious accident. Most captains did their own navigating. Perhaps no other captain sailing at that time would think to have a woman do this extremely important work. However, Josiah Creesy never questioned his wife's sailing directions.

He would often stand on the deck of his ship, in the cold rain and fierce winds. He would shout below to Missus Creesy and ask for a new sailing direction. She would quickly do the work required for a new dead reckoning direction and pass the information to her husband. Captain Creesy would give the orders to turn the big ship.

VOICE TWO:

The storm began to grow. The crew put out the fires used for heat and cooking. Fire was a great danger at sea. No fires were ever permitted on a ship during a storm. Not even lamps were lit. Everyone ate cold food. The temperatures were now near freezing.

Hour after hour Eleanor Creesy worked to find the ship's dead reckoning position.

When the storm ended, the crew of the Flying Cloud could see the very southern coast of South America -- a place called Tierra del Fuego. They could see the snow-covered mountains and huge amounts of blue ice. It was an area of deadly beauty. And, it was only eight kilometers away. Eleanor Creesy had guided the ship perfectly.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Flying Cloud sailed north toward San Francisco traveling at speeds no one thought possible. On July thirty-first, the ship traveled six hundred and one kilometers in only twenty-four hours. No ship had ever sailed that far in one day. The Flying Cloud had set a world record. That record belonged to the ship, the crew, the captain and the navigator.

On August thirty-first, the Flying Cloud sailed into San Francisco Bay. The Flying Cloud had set a record for sailing from New York to San Francisco. It made the trip in eighty-nine days, and twenty-one hours. Newspapers across the country spread the news. Josiah and Eleanor Creesy were famous. Newspapers wrote stories about them and their beautiful ship. People wanted to meet them. But soon the two were back at sea.Two years later Captain Creesy and his wife again took the Flying Cloud from New York to San Francisco.

This time they made the trip in eighty-nine days, eight hours. This record would stand unbroken for more than one hundred years.

VOICE TWO:

Josiah and Eleanor Creesy went on to sail in other ships. They continued to work as a team until they left the sea in eighteen sixty-four. They retired to their home in Massachusetts.

Captain Josiah Creesy died in June of eighteen seventy-one. His wife lived until the beginning of the new century. She died at the age of eighty-five, in August of nineteen hundred.

Eleanor Creesy is remembered by anyone who loves the history of the sea. She is honored for her great skill as navigator of the Flying Cloud, one of the fastest sailing ships the world has ever seen.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. You can read scripts and download audio on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

1. Eleanor Creesy's main contribution was as a __________
a. seamstress.
b. housewife.
c. navigator.
d. nurse.

2. In the eighteen hundreds, ships ran by __________
a. steam engines.
b. cloth sails.
c. propellers.
d. heavenly guidance.

3. The Creesy's ship was called the __________
a. "Indomitable."
b. "San Francisco Bound."
c. "Tierra del Fuego."
d. "Flying Cloud."

4. The sailors used more sails to increase the ship's __________
a. weight.
b. speed.
c. endurance.
d. safety.

5. A navigator must have a good understanding of __________
a. astronomy.
b. physics.
c. geography.
d. mathematics.

6. The trip from New York to San Francisco usually took around __________
a. 6 months.
b. two years.
c. 2 months.
d. thirty days.

7. When weather prevented the navigator from using the sun and moon, she relied on a method called "__________"
a. women's intuition.
b. the sextant.
c. dead reckoning.
d. guess work.

8. The Creesys set a world record for the journey from New York to San Francisco __________
a. on their first trip.
b. on their second trip.
c. on a new ship.
d. after they retired.

9. Another name for this story could be __________
a. "The Dangers of Sailing."
b. "The First Woman Navigator."
c. "San Francisco Bay in 1800."
d. "The Life of Josiah Creesy."

10. This story is mainly about __________
a. a fast ship.
b. a great sea captain.
c. a woman with a unique skill.
d. a perilous sea journey.

"Luck" by Mark Twain, from VOA.

2010-03-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

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.

(MUSIC)

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.

"Sybil Ludington, Revolutionary Heroine," from Edcon Publishing.

2010-03-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

A dangerous assignment was willingly accepted by this brave patriot.

Everyone has heard of Paul Revere - of his famous ride to warn his neighbors of the approach of British troops in 1775. Two years later, someone else made a ride to marshal defenders against the British. But how many people have heard of Sybil Ludington?

Paul Revere rode for three hours on a moonlit night over good roads; Sybil Ludington rode for eight hours in heavy rain over roads which were often no more than muddy tracks. His ride covered about fifteen miles; hers is estimated at about fifty miles. Paul Revere was forty years old; Sybil Ludington had just turned sixteen.

Her remarkable ride was but one example of Sybil's courage during the American Revolution. Her family lived in New York, in the Hudson River Valley, where battle and the threat of battle were always near. The fight for independence went on all around her, and Sybil was a part of it.

Her father, Colonel Henry Ludington, was an influential citizen whose farm was a meeting place for local patriot's. 'There his regiment drilled, news was shared, and plans were made. The regiment, consisting of mostly farmers, protected their home district. Home troops were set up at the start of the war by an act of the Continental Congress. All men between the ages of sixteen and fifty were supposed to serve. Besides protecting their own and their neighbors' homes, they were ready to ride out and fight when they were needed. Colonel Ludington commanded the home troops in his county, and Sybil knew them all.

Her father played more than one role in the war for independence. As an important link in a chain of communication, he received top secret reports and passed them on, sometimes even to General George Washington. Sybil knew all the secret codes.

Many times when her father was away at war, she received and delivered such messages herself. Colonel Ludington also served on the Commission of Public Safety all through the war. The Commission's task was to learn which of their neighbors were not in sympathy with the Revolution and then prevent them from giving aid to the British.

Some of the Ludingtons' neighbors were loyal to the British government. One large group met and drilled in secrecy, planning to go to New York City and join the British army there. But Ludington and his men found out about the plan. They surrounded the group and captured them on the very night they had planned to sneak away. Incidents of this kind happened often, and the British commander offered a large sum of money for Ludington's capture, "dead or alive." As a result,his whole family was in constant danger.

Colonel Ludington relied on Sybil and her sister Rebecca, fourteen years old, to help guard their home and family. At a time when women were seldom expected to leave the kitchen or the spinning wheel, these feminine sentries did the job as well as any man. Muskets in hand, Sybil and her sister would watch from the upper windows or lie hidden in the cornfields. One night they found the house surrounded by a band of their father's enemies. The situation seemed desperate. The two girls rushed to wake their father. He quickly roused his wife and younger children, gave each a candle and a musket, and posted them near the windows. Besides Sybil and Rebecca, there were twelve-year-old Mary, and little brothers aged ten, eight, six, and four. Only the baby, Abigail, slept on.

Colonel Ludington moved from child to child, from lighted window to lighted window, waving his arms, trying to look like many men in motion. The children held the muskets where they would be seen from outside. Apparently the show was good enough to convince the men that the house was well defended. They rode away into the night without coming close enough to fire a shot.

Enemies would come again on other nights, but none would escape the notice of the young sentries. And all would be fooled by repeat performances of the lighted candle trick. The lone rider who came galloping up to the Ludington farm on the rainy night of April 26, 1777 was no enemy. He had been riding hard all the way from Danbury, Connecticut to deliver the startling news: the British were burning Danbury. American supplies stored there had already been destroyed, and now the city itself was in flames. Ludington's regiment was needed to help in the fighting.

Colonel Ludington had a problem indeed. Someone had to ride out to all the farms in the district to marshal the home troops. The messenger from Danbury was exhausted, and so was his horse. Ludington couldn't ride out himself, because that would leave no one to organize the troops as they arrived. He had no farm hands to send, and his sons were all too young. But there was one person he knew he could trust, someone who could carry the message with haste and determination.

Out rode Sybil into the rain and the darkness with no light from moon or stars to show her the way. The farms of her father's soldiers were far apart, and she rode many long, lonely stretches with nothing to guide her but her memory and judgment. All through the night she rode from farm to farm, delivering her message again and again. "The British are burning Danbury. Gather at Ludington's." By dawn, the regiment was assembled and ready to ride to Danbury where they helped defeat the English troops.

When the British came up the Hudson River later that same year, Colonel Ludington again took an active role and continued to rely on Sybil as his sentry and messenger. During the battle of White Plains, he served on General Washington's staff. And in the summer and fall of 1778, Washington used the Ludington house as his headquarters. It was necessary that messages come in and out of the house in complete secrecy. Sybil not only understood the coded reports, but helped in carrying them. Many more rides by daylight and dark were made by the young patriot who knew the importance of both haste and caution.

After the war, Colonel Ludington remained an influential figure in New York State politics. Little is known about Sybil's later life. We do know that she married a man named Ogden and had four sons and two daughters. Years later, in Indian territory, one of her grandsons died a hero's death when he refused to leave behind some of his men who were too sick to travel. He died fighting to protect them. Perhaps he was following the example set by his grandmother. A model of feminine confidence and courage, Sybil Ludington has never had the fame she deserves. Travelers in the area of New York State now known as Ludingtonville may notice roadside markers along the route of her night ride. One of her father's mills remains standing near the small family graveyard where Sybil is buried.

In 1975, the United States government issued a stamp in her honor. Beneath a picture of a young girl on horseback are the words: "Sybil Ludington - Youthful Heroine." But how many people who see that stamp know who Sybil Ludington was? How many know of her ride through the long stormy night, or the way she risked her life again and again in the fight for independence?

1. Sybil Ludington rode in order to _____
a. warn her neighbors of approaching British troops.
b. marshal local troops to march on Danbury.
c. fool the British troops.
d. learn which roads were safe.

2. Colonel Ludington, Sybil's father, commanded ______
a. General George Washington's regiment.
b. the Continental Congress.
c. a regiment of home troops.
d. a large group of female sentries.

3. In order to help win independence, Sybil often _______
a. taught her brothers to make candles.
b. drilled a regiment of farmers at her home.
c. received and delivered secret messages.
d. dressed as a British soldier.

4. General George Washington used the Ludington house as his headquarters ______
a. before Sybil's famous ride.
b. after Sybil's famous ride.
c. before Danbury was burned.
d. before the regiment marched on Danbury.

5. Sybil's ride was ________
a. her only act of courage.
b. one of her many acts of courage.
c. a sign of her loyalty to the British.
d. the only famous ride during the Revolution.

6. The Ludington sisters helped guard their home at a time when ______
a. women were expected to stay near the kitchen.
b. women were expected to defend their homes.
c. women were not allowed in corn fields.
d. female sentries often helped their country.

7. Paul Revere's ride _______
a. took much longer than Sybil's.
b. was made sixteen years before Sybil's
c. is more well-known than Sybil's.
d. is not as well-known as Sybil's.

8. Sybil Ludington's story would most likely be found in the following book:
a. The Life of Paul Revere.
b. The American Revolution.
c. Women of the American Revolution.
d. Famous British Spies.

9. Another name for this selection could be ______
a. "Riders in the Night."
b. "Battles of the Revolution."
c. "Helping the British."
d. "She Deserved More Fame."

10. This selection is mainly about ______
a. a young woman who helped her country.
b. a family who drilled troops.
c. the British attack on Danbury.
d. Paul Revere's famous ride.

This story is an article from a series of Reading Comprehension Workbooks by Edcon Publishing Group. Edcon Publishing has a very large selection of different types of readings and other
materials for learning. I highly recommend this company. - The Teacher

Paul Revere's Ride:

Sybil Ludington in Wikipedia
Paul Revere's Ride, Youtube
Paul Revere Slide Show

"The Triple" from Edcon Publishing.

2010-03-03T21:46:00.000-08:00

A successful triple for Rico would mean he would no longer be regarded as a child.

From the moment he had taken hold of the bar this afternoon, Rico's timing had been perfect. Now he checked the tape on his wrists, ignoring the familiar bustle of other circus people moving about below, and looked across to the opposite trapeze where his brother Eduardo waited.
U "Ed," he called, sounding more relaxed than he felt, "this time we go for the triple."

Immediately, before Eduardo could answer, the voice of their sister Anita shot up from the ground, warning and scolding.

"You know Papa told you to go easy until he got back and if he finds out you've been trying for triples ... "

Changing over to their native Spanish, she let the threats roll rapidly off her tongue. To Rico's surprise Eduardo cut her short, sounding almost impatient. Eduardo was the "catcher" in the Mendoza family's aerial act. When the rest of them came spinning off the trapeze, speeding through space, only Eduardo's steady strength and state of constant readiness kept them from flying beyond the edges of the safety net, flying to terrible injury or to death. When Eduardo spoke, even sister Anita had to listen with respect.

"Watch Little Brother make this triple," he said, "before you decide what Papa will think about it."

Rico let the annoying nickname slip right by in his pleasure at Eduardo's expression of confidence. The triple somersault was a difficult feat for any aerialist at any age. To achieve it on a consistent basis was a mark of greatness, the kind of greatness Rico felt was not beyond his reach.

Without another word he began to swing, arching his body to build up the necessary speed until, at exactly the right moment, he let go and soared free, tucking into the first perfect somersault, the second, the third. Then he was flat out, reaching for Eduardo. Feeling those powerful hands touch his wrists, he tried to close his own hands around the wrists of his brother but their grip did not hold.

"You're still trying too hard," Eduardo called down, as Rico flipped expertly but disgustedly from the net to the floor. "Let's give it another try but this time you concentrate on the flying and let me worry about the catching."

Rico looked up at him, surprised again. In the past, only great persistence on his part had gotten Ed to agree to an occasional try at the triple. Usually, like Anita, Eduardo reminded him all the time that Papa wanted him to go easy. Everybody, it seemed, always wanted him to go easy. Despite his acknowledged talent for the family vocation, he was by far the youngest, the "Little Brother." This time, however, as he climbed to the platform, Anita was silent and no more did he hear about going easy or about what Papa might say.

In the days following, Rico worked with Eduardo on the triple, and at night he dreamt about it, until every movement was as perfect a reflex as possible. Then it was almost time to go on the road for the season. Papa had returned, asking how they all were and what was new. By now everyone in the family, definitely everyone in the circus, knew that Rico Mendoza was doing a fairly consistent triple but they wanted Rico to be the one to tell Papa.

"There's something I've been working on that I think you ought to see," Rico said.

Papa, with other matters on his mind, just nodded absently and followed his sons to the practice area, but Rico knew his father's full attention would be riveted on him as soon as his hands left that bar. He didn't dare misjudge the timing by a fraction of a second, because if this triple didn't just about knock Papa's eyes out, he wasn't likely to get another chance.

With a last arching swing he went off the bar, over once, twice, three times and straight out to Eduardo's firm, triumphant clasp. He came down to scattered applause from various circus folk who had stopped by to watch, but Papa didn't join in. Instead, he looked Rico up and down as if measuring him for a new pair of spangled tights.

"This," he said finally, "is what you call going easy?"

"Well, Papa," Rico answered carefully, "the more I do it, the easier it gets."

Papa, a strict father who demanded obedience, but also an aerialist who valued persistence and perfection, threw back his head in a great roar of satisfied laughter. That problem solved, Rico didn't see any reason to hesitate about taking the next step. His vocation was performing and the triple wouldn't be good enough for him until he had performed it before an audience.

"I want to make it part of the act," he told Papa. "Right away, for the new season."

"Rico, Rico," Papa exclaimed, "to do this in practice is one thing, but to perform for the public ... think of the difficulty, the pressure."
"That's exactly what I am thinking of," Rico replied.

From then until opening night the hours passed swiftly. There was practice, and more 'practice, broken only by the long trip to the first city on the schedule. Even while traveling, Rico did mental triples, his muscles contracting by reflex as he imagined every movement. He was finding that each goal he achieved became a challenge in its turn. Having won Papa's consent to perform the triple, he now faced the biggest challenge of all.

Opening night was always a miracle as each new circus area went from complete chaos to a state of perfect readiness, from the scuffle and scurry of work crews to the glitter and glory of circus time. The huge audience cheered with excitement. Rico, whose training made him quick to notice if a fellow performer misjudged his time or made a slip, felt like cheering too.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, high above the center ring, the tremendous trapeze talents of the Amazing Mendozas!"

So the cheers now were for him and his family and they too, went through their routine without a flaw until the whistles and applause quieted for, " ... a special announcement, ladies and gentlemen." Not really listening, Rico heard only parts: "Young Rico Mendoza ... first time anywhere ... the extremely demanding triple somersault."

For just a moment he was keenly aware of all those eyes watching him, all those voices ready to cheer his success - or groan at his failure. Then he was up and off, his body and mind a single instrument under his complete control. Not until he came spinning out of the last somersault into the strong grip of Eduardo did he hear the crowd cheer.
Afterward there was celebration, laughter and song.

"I wonder, Little Brother," Eduardo joked, "when you'll be wanting to go for four."

"I will need to grow stronger first," Rico answered seriously, expecting to be teased or scolded.

"It is not impossible," Papa said suddenly, astonishing them all. "I have never seen it, and I know I could not do four, but all the same, it is not impossible. " Rico tried to lighten the silence that followed by joking back at Eduardo.

"What I wonder," he said, "is when you're going to stop calling me 'Little Brother'."

"Oh," Ed laughed, "probably about the time you make those four somersaults."

But for the rest of the evening, Rico noticed, everyone was careful to call him by his name.

Comprehension Check

1. In the story, the triple was ____
a. a play in baseball.
b. three identical children.
c. Eduardo, Rico and Anita.
d. three complete aerial somersaults.

2. The Mendoza family _____
a. owned the circus.
b. were animal trainers.
c. ran a concession stand.
d. were trapeze artists.

3. Everyone stopped calling Rico "Little Brother" because _____
a. he showed good judgment, skill, and maturity.
b. he demanded they do so.
c. he left the family and the act.
d. his strict father told them they should.

4. Papa Mendoza wanted Rico to take it easy because ____
a. he did not want him to get conceited.
b. he was concerned about his son's safety.
c. he did not want the act to be ruined.
d. he did not want his son to become better than he.

5. The first time Ed encouraged his brother to perform a triple, Rico completed three somersaults. Then _____
a. he attempted a fourth.
b. he grabbed Ed's hands tightly.
c. decided they weren't perfect enough.
d. he tried to grab Ed's wrists, but failed.

6. Eduardo's responsibility in the act was ______
a. swinging the bar.
b. doing the double.
c. catching Rico.
d. coaching the rest of the family.

7. The one factor that made performing really different from practicing was _______
a. the pressure of the crowd.
b. the circus tent.
c. Papa's attention.
d. Anita's scolding.

8. Papa's reaction to Rico's accomplishment was
a. annoyance, disgust, and frustration.
b. anger, pride, and expectation.
c. fear, hate, and pride.
d. happiness, concern, and depression.

9.Another name for this selection might be
a. "Papa's Trip."
b. "The Big Top."
c. "The Biggest Challenge."
d. "A Trapeze For Two."

10. This selection is mainly about
a. a family working to attain a goal.
b. the circus coming to town.
c. a strict father and a disobedient son.
d. the dangers of the trapeze.

"Explorers, Danger, and a Guiding Presence" from Voice of America.

2010-02-23T18:53:00.000-08:00

DOUG JOHNSON:

I’m Doug Johnson.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about an unusual and mysterious experience that can affect people in extreme situations of danger. People who live through life threatening situations sometimes describe a calming presence or guiding voice that helps them survive.

People have described this experience as “sensed presence” or as an “imaginary shadow person.” It is also known as the “Third Man” syndrome. The Canadian-American writer John Geiger wrote about this in a recent book called “The Third Man Factor.” The book will soon be published in several languages, including Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

(MUSIC)

DOUG JOHNSON:

The Endurance trapped on Antarctic iceThe Endurance trapped on Antarctic ice

Ernest Shackleton spent his career exploring the little known areas of the South Pole. One of his most famous trips began in nineteen fourteen. The goal of the trip was to cross Antarctica on foot. But it did not go as planned. His boat, the Endurance, became trapped and later crushed by ice.

After many months, Shackleton and a few of his men traveled through dangerous waters to the island of South Georgia to get help and rescue the rest of their crew. They faced extreme hunger, thirst and cold. But their rescue operation was successful, and all twenty-two crew members survived.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Later, Shackleton wrote about the impossible struggles he faced. He described feeling that there was another unseen person with him and his men during the last days of their trip.

He wrote this about his experience: “I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three.”

DOUG JOHNSON:

The American poet T.S. Eliot was influenced by Shackleton’s description. Here, the poet includes Shackleton’s vision in part of his famous poem “The Waste Land.”

MARIO RITTER:

Who is the third who walks always beside you?

When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another walking beside you.

DOUG JOHNSON:

It is from this line of poetry about Shackleton that the Third Man syndrome takes its name.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Writer and researcher John Geiger has twice experienced a similar reaction to extreme danger himself: once as a child and once while suffering from extreme cold in Arctic Canada. He says his experiences made him want to learn about Third Man examples among other explorers.

JOHN GEIGER: “In other words, my experience I think predisposed me to being interested in the kind of phenomena that people in these extreme and unusual environments encounter.”

DOUG JOHNSON:

With Shackleton’s experience in mind, John Geiger started to investigate whether other people facing death or extreme fear had faced similar situations.

He discussed the subject with explorers and extreme sports athletes. He read historical documents written by past explorers, prisoners of war, pilots, and ship wreck survivors. He found that many different people in extreme situations have similar experiences.

JOHN GEIGER: “So when I had a handful of these cases, it seemed to me then there was likely something worth investigating. I began to look very seriously and very quickly found scores of examples of it.”

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS:

In nineteen thirty-three, the British mountain climber Frank Smythe was attempting to climb Mount Everest in the Himalayan Mountains.

He was at the dangerous altitude of over eight thousand four hundred meters. Smythe was extremely tired and suffering from the effects of low oxygen. He decided to stop, rest and eat. He pulled out a piece of cake, divided it into two pieces, and offered it to another person he sensed nearby. But Frank Smythe was alone. The sense of strength and safety that he felt from this invisible person helped him survive his climb.

DOUG JOHNSON:

John Geiger points out that these Third Man experiences are very common among mountain climbers. But he shows in his book that they take place in other environments as well.

For example, one American astronaut on a four-month long mission on the Russian space station Mir saw a vision of his dead father. His father spoke to him, praised his hard wor k and gave the astronaut a sense of calm during a very stressful space operation.

In another example, pilot Edith Foltz Stearns was flying a plane to a military base in Scotland during World War Two. Because of bad weather she could not see where to land the plane. A voice next to her in the plane called out to warn her about a dangerous hill nearby. She said her imaginary “copilot” guided her to safety.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

John Geiger says that many people who experience the Third Man explain it as a religious experience. But he is more interested in exploring the science behind the Third Man. He discusses how scientists over the years have identified the experience and developed theories to explain it. The findings suggest that the human brain has developed this special ability as a survival method.

DOUG JOHNSON:

Geiger discusses several conditions that seem to produce Third Man experiences. One of these is being alone, far from other people. Being alone can be stressful especially when experienced with monotony. This is when the mind tires from the sameness of a repeated experience. For example, an explorer can be affected mentally after days of walking through the snowy environment of Antarctica. The terrible winds and never-ending whiteness may lead many polar explorers to have visions of other people.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

The psychologist Woodburn Heron wrote about this subject in his nineteen fifty-seven work “The Pathology of Boredom.” He said that the brain depends on having continuing information from the body’s senses. The mind can have problems if it has nothing new to sense. Often, the brain’s response is to create its own input, in the form of a hallucination.

A hallucination is a sensory experience that does not exist outside the mind.

DOUG JOHNSON:

Other stressful conditions can lead to Third Man experiences. These include the stress of injury or of seeing an expedition partner become injured or even die. Different scientists have studied the effects of extreme conditions on the human mind and body.

One researcher found that extreme cold can have a damaging effect on the mind. The researcher said that before the body begins to freeze, cold can cause changes in brain chemistry which lead to hallucinations.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Another doctor believes that Ernest Shackleton’s vision was caused by a drop in blood sugar. Explorers working in extreme cold often burn more energy than they can eat. This doctor believes that low glucose levels in the blood lead to hallucinations.

Another theory says that the stress of having to pay constant attention to survive leads to Third Man hallucinations.

DOUG JOHNSON:

Researchers in Switzerland were able to recreate a Third Man experience in a laboratory setting. They sent electric signals into the brain of a young patient who suffered from epilepsy. When the electric current was on, the woman described seeing a presence or shadow nearby who did not speak or move. When the scientists stopped the electricity, the woman said the presence disappeared.

John Geiger believes brain doctors and other scientists should study this interesting issue more fully.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS:

While writing the book, John Geiger believed that a test of its success would be whether people accepted its subject matter.

JOHN GEIGER: “Here I was writing a book about unseen beings helping people who are in life and death struggles. That seems to me to be a fairly out-there proposition. And yet, the evidence is so overwhelming, that really nobody has surfaced to suggest that indeed this does not happen.”

DOUG JOHNSON:

John Geiger says there is a wide acceptance of the Third Man experience among the scientific community and the general public.

JOHN GEIGER: “People understand that there is this phenomenon, the Third Man Factor. And, that it applies universally, it doesn’t matter what one’s faith is, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a man or a woman. It doesn’t matter whether they are at great elevation or at sea level.”

FAITH LAPIDUS:

John Geiger suggests that the brain’s effort to create a Third Man is not an accident of human brain structure, or a sign of injury in extreme conditions.

He says it may be an evolutionary characteristic developed to help us. In times of extreme hardship, the human brain may have developed a way to create a social link, the sense of a helpful and guiding partner. So, even in a person’s darkest hour, he or she can feel less alone.

DOUG JOHNSON:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Doug Johnson.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. John Geiger has created a Web site where people who have had Third Man experiences can publish their stories. You can find a link to it on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

"Race With Black Death" from Edcon Publishing.

2010-02-16T17:46:00.000-08:00

Something you will read about: "diphtheria", an acute, contagious disease of the throat, which affects breathing.

Driven by pride and determination, Balto led the team through the blizzard and delivered the lifesaving serum.

Gunner Kasson was a well-known dog-sled racing champion and was among the first dog runners to answer the desperate plea for help sent out by Nome, Alaska in January of 1925. His heroic mission, however, could not be accomplished without the help of Balto, the black Siberian Malemute, who was the lead dog of Kasson's team.

An epidemic of diphtheria had struck and was spreading fast. In one night, five people died, and twenty-three new cases were reported. Neither Eskimo or settlers were immune from the dreaded Black Death.

The small supply of antidote, that the only doctor in the icy territory had to inoculate the sick, was four years old. Their only hope was to get the shipment of lifesaving serum from the railroad at Nenana to Nome, a 655 mile trail of fierce snow and howling winds. The only way the antidote could be shipped was by dog sled. Different dog-sled teams would make the long trip.

Kasson and Balto were stationed at Bluff, scheduled to make the run to Safety, a 43 mile drive. Balto did not understand the meaning of the words, immune ... inoculate ... antidote ... He didn't know the terror of the word, epidemic. He didn't need to. He sensed caution. Kasson's expression told him trouble was at hand, and he could smell a blizzard coming in the heavy, icy wind. Balto was tense and alert, ready for his command.

They were at Bluff for two days with a team of thirteen dogs - waiting for the serum. On the trail, the team was as a single beast in mind and strength, but out of harness, freedom roused their primitive instincts of greed and anger. Age had left its mark on Balto's splendid body, and now he settled these raging battles more by his commanding wit than his strenuous might. He was growing old, and he suffered from the cold.

The second night in Bluff, after a bitter fight among the dogs, Balto dug his nest in the snow, down wind from the roadhouse and tucked his nose under his tail for warmth. The howling storm was picking up. In his sleep, Balto's ears were up and alert. He could hear the faintest sound. Even in the screaming wind, his instinct kept him wide awake. He heard the snap of a whip down the trail. The wind was driving against the sound so hard he could not pick up any scent. But soon his sharp eyes recognized a team driver staggering in, worn and stiff and half frozen. The team fell to a halt in their harness as Charlie Olsen, the driver, snatched a small package from the sled and trudged against the wind to the roadhouse.

Balto sprang to gather the dogs, and was waiting with them when Kasson appeared with their harness in his hands. Kasson was a giant of a man but he had to walk with effort against the heavy wind and falling snow. He hitched the team, lashed the small package to the sled, and cracked his whip. Balto was ready.
"Mush!"

The old dog forgot his tired bones. His muscles became as hard as iron and he ignored all pain. Balto did not know how fast the wind was,but he knew it was faster than he had ever felt it before. They were driving right into it. The snow was coming down harder and it was getting colder. It was strenuous work trying to get through the storm.

As they raced up the hill to Safety, the same fast wind was carrying an urgent warning from Safety down the trail to Bluff by telegraph:

BLIZZARD STRUCK COAST AT NOME
HOLD SERUM AT BLUFF. IMPOSSIBLE FOR DOGS TO GET THROUGH. WIND 80 MILES AN HOUR 380 BELOW ZERO GROUND SWELLS - TRAIL OUT

Kasson had missed the message. He did not know that it was impossible to get to Safety. Balto was determined and he kept the team going. He heard the howling wind, and sometimes he could hear Kasson above it.

After they crossed the Topkot River, Balto felt the ice moving under his legs. He took command instantly and raced the suffering team across a snow drift to dry their freezing paws. He knew Kasson could no longer see the trail. They were lost in the blinding blizzard with the worst part of the journey still ahead.

The roaring wind and snowfall persisted, but Balto continued searching for a familiar scent. As he inhaled deeply, the icy air shot through his lungs, sharply and painfully. He relaxed the team's pace, until he was finally able to locate the trail, then dashed directly across the smooth surface of the ice.

Amid the blizzard and the darkness, Balto missed the little village of Solomon, but remained on the trail, following it to Bonanza, where the drifting snow was heavy. Churning through the deep snow, he felt the sled turn over. Balto halted and fell to his belly to rest the team, wondering if he had lost Kasson. Should he turn back? If he stayed still too long, the sled would freeze in the snow and they would be strapped to a frozen death.

Balto looked back, but the snow was coming down so heavily he could not see his own tail. He decided to make a circle and search for Kasson. Just then, through the howling wind, he heard the crack of the Whip. Kasson was there, the sled was righted and the lead dog plunged on in the dark night.

When Balto got across Bonanza, the trail turned, putting the wind to his back which made his job less strenuous. It wasn't as dark now, and the wind was dying down. Balto's heart pounded with pride, knowing he had taken Kasson through the storm.

They pulled into Safety just after midnight. The whole town was in gloomy darkness, boarded against the storm. There were no dogs at the roadhouse. Out of the wretched wind, Balto heard the whip crack. Kasson shouted, "Mush!" and Balto knew that he must go on. Their destination was Nome. A twenty-one mile trail along the frozen beach of the Bering Sea, still lay ahead.

Kasson had placed rabbitskin covers around two of the other dogs, since they were beginning to stiffen up, and Balto could feel the extra effort as they plowed through the deep snow. His body ached and his paws were cut and bleeding. His strength wavered occasionally, but always returned. His legs became numb, and he lost all sensation of pain. His pride made him determined to go on and his instinct to duty and love of harness lured him mile after treacherous mile. This pride and determination that set Balto aside from ordinary animals, commanded him now and gave him incredible strength.
At five-thirty the next morning they reached Nome and delivered their precious parcel.

Balto let his strength collapse when they reached the roadhouse. He felt the rough, but kindly hands pulling splinters of ice from his torn paws, and heard Kasson say, in a choked voice, "Balto, you are a fine dog," and Balto knew they had won again.

In New York City, a famous explorer, Roald Amundsen, proclaimed Balto as
"the best lead dog in the Northwest."

From the floor, in Washington, D.C., Senator Dill praised the heroic mission, expressing gratitude, "especially to Balto." By public donation, a statue of Balto was erected in New York's Central Park, and stands there today - a fitting tribute to this unusual hero.

1. Balto was a ___________
a. courageous sled dog.
b. trained circus dog.
c. famous explorer.
d. famous race driver.

2. When the team of thirteen dogs were in harness, they ___________
a. fought almost all the time.
b. worked together as one.
c. were not as effective as a single dog.
d. could not keep up a strong pace.

3. If Balto and Kasson had not reached Nome, ___________
a. Balto would not have been famous.
b. the people would have been saved anyway.
c. it really would not have mattered.
d. many more people would have died.

4. A tribute to Balto can be seen ___________
a. in the snow of Alaska.
b. in Central Park in New York.
c. at the North Pole.
d. in the museum at Safety.

5. Balto knew the importance of his mission because ___________
a. Kasson told him about the Black Death.
b. he used his senses and powers of observation.
c. he was the only dog in the world with ESP.
d. it was strictly a matter of self-survival.

6. Balto and Kasson were ___________
a. trying to get back home.
b. searching for a lost child.
c. delivering an antidote.
d. racing to beat another team.

7. First, Balto felt the sled turn over. Then, he dropped to his belly to rest the team. Next, ___________
a. he plunged ahead into the night.
b. he made his way to Solomon at full speed.
c. he decided to circle back to look for Kasson.
d. he broke loose from the team and ran.

8. Balto was able to complete the exhausting trip because ___________
a. of his tremendous loyalty and devotion.
b. Kasson whipped him continuously.
c. he loved the challenge of the deep snow.
d. his mate was traveling alongside him.

9. Another name for this selection could be ___________
a. "Blazing Trails."
b. "Dog of the North."
c. "The Sled Race."
d. "Terrors of the Black Death."

10.This selection is mainly about ___________
a. a bad storm in Alaska.
b. a heroic dog and his master.
c. a famous explorer and his expedition.
d. a disease called the Black Death.

Balto in Wikipedia
Diphtheria in Wikipedia
Listen to The Story of Balto: American Storyteller
Dogs Can Detect Bladder Cancer

Dog Sledding in Vermont, Youtube
Dog Sledding in Siberia, Youtube
Dog Sledding in North Dakota, Youtube

Arthur Ashe: Tennis Champion and Civil Rights Activist, from Voice of America.

2010-02-06T22:50:00.000-08:00

BARBARA KLEIN:

I’m Barbara Klein.

STEVE EMBER:

And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life of tennis champion Arthur Ashe.

He was an athlete and a social activist who died before he was fifty. He was honored for his bravery and honesty as well as his strong support of just causes.

BARBARA KLEIN:

In nineteen seventy-five, Arthur Ashe played against Ilie Nastase in the Masters tennis games in Stockholm, Sweden. Nastase was out of control. He delayed the game. He called Ashe bad names.

Finally, Arthur Ashe put down his tennis racket and walked off the tennis court. He said, "I've had enough. I'm at the point where I'm afraid I'll lose control. " The officials were shocked; Ashe was winning the game. One official told him he would lose if he walked out of the game. Ashe said, "I don't care. I'd rather lose that than my self-respect. "

The next day, the Masters committee met. They knew that if they gave the game to Nastase, they would be supporting his kind of actions. They felt it was how you played the game that really counted. So, the officials decided it was Nastase who must lose the game.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER:

Arthur Ashe was born in nineteen forty-three in the southern city of Richmond, Virginia. His parents were Mattie Cunningham Ashe and Arthur Ashe, Senior.

In those days, black people and white people lived separately in the South. By law, African-Americans could not attend the same schools or the same churches as white people.

Arthur learned to live with racial separation. He attended an all-black school. He played in the areas kept separate for blacks. And when he traveled to his grandmother's house, he sat in the back of the bus behind a white line. Only white people could sit in the front part of the bus.

Tennis was a sport traditionally played by white people. Arthur's experience was different from most other tennis players. He grew up under poorer conditions. His father worked several jobs at the same time. And his mother died when he was six.

BARBARA KLEIN:

Mister Ashe taught his son the importance of leading an honorable life. He said a person does not get anywhere in life by making enemies. He explained that a person gains by helping others. Arthur Ashe, Senior taught his son the importance of his friends, his family and his history. He said that without his good name, he would be nothing.

By example, Arthur's father taught the importance of hard work. His job was to drive people where they wanted to go. And he did other kinds of jobs for several wealthy families.

STEVE EMBER:

When Arthur was four, his father was given responsibility for a public play area called Brook Field. It was the largest play area for black people in the city of Richmond. Mister Ashe continued to work at his other jobs as well. The family moved into a five-room house in the middle of the park.

Arthur could use the swimming pool, basketball courts, baseball fields and tennis courts in the park. He liked sports. He was not very big, but he was fast.

Arthur began playing tennis when he was seven years old. He was very small. The racket he used to hit the tennis ball seemed bigger than he was. But by the time he was thirteen years old, he was winning against players two times his size and age.

Arthur had great energy and sense of purpose. He would hit five hundred tennis balls each summer day early in the morning. He would stop to eat his morning meal. Then he would hit five hundred more tennis balls.

BARBARA KLEIN:

When Arthur was ten years old, he met Robert Walter Johnson. Doctor Johnson established a tennis camp for black children who were not permitted to play on tennis courts for whites.

Doctor Johnson helped Arthur learn to be calm while playing tennis. He taught him to use restraint. He said that anger at an opponent was a waste of energy.

By nineteen sixty, Arthur had won the National Junior Indoor Championship. And, the University of California at Los Angeles offered him a college education if he played for the UCLA tennis team. In nineteen sixty-five, Arthur Ashe led the team to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship. He completed his education the next year with a degree in business administration.

STEVE EMBER:

Arthur Ashe then became a professional tennis player. In nineteen sixty-eight, he won the United States Open. It was the first time an African-American man had won one of the four major competitions in tennis.

In nineteen seventy, he won the Australian Open. The next year, he won the French Open Doubles Championship with Marty Riessen. And, in nineteen seventy-five, he won the Wimbledon Singles Championship in England. Two times he was named the number one tennis player in the world.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN:

Throughout his life, Arthur Ashe fought against social injustice. He supported racial equality and tried to bring blacks and whites together.

In nineteen seventy-three, Ashe was the first black player to be invited to compete in the South African Open. At the time, South African laws separated people by race.

Ashe knew why he was invited. He knew that the South African government was trying to change its image so it could take part in the Olympic Games. He agreed to go, but on his own terms. He played before a racially mixed group. And, he went wherever he pleased and said what he wanted.

STEVE EMBER:

Arthur Ashe went back to South Africa many times. He went not only to fight against the system of racial separation. He went to show the oppressed children of the country that he was a successful black man. Former South African President Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison. After his release, the first person Mandela asked to see during his visit to the United States was Arthur Ashe.

BARBARA KLEIN:

Ashe used his fame to help increase public knowledge of racism in America. He told reporters how the color of his skin kept him out of tennis games as a boy in Richmond. He spoke against black separatism. He wanted to unite the races, not separate them.

During his travels with the United States Davis Cup team, he said, "People in other countries read a lot about race troubles in the United States. But when they see two guys from the South like Cliff Richey and me, one white and one colored, both sharing a room and being close friends, it must do a little good.”

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER:

In nineteen seventy-seven, Arthur Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy. They shared a deep concern for others. Ashe always urged people to do their best -- even his opponents. To help others, he started an organization, the Safe Passage Foundation. It helped poor children develop the skills to learn. And it taught them how to play tennis and golf.

BARBARA KLEIN:

In nineteen seventy-nine, Ashe felt severe pain in his chest. He had suffered his first heart attack, even though he seemed in excellent physical condition. His days of playing tennis were over.

Doctors operated on him later that year to try to improve the flow of blood from his heart. But his physical activity was very limited. Four years later, he had to have another operation.

STEVE EMBER:

Now that he could not be active in sports, he took on new responsibilities. He helped the American Heart Association educate the public about heart disease. He wrote books. And, in nineteen eighty-six, he became a father when his wife Jeanne gave birth to their daughter, Camera.

Two years later, Arthur Ashe faced his final struggle. He discovered he had the virus that causes the disease AIDS.He and his doctors believed he had gotten it when he received infected blood after his second heart operation. He kept the bad news a secret for more than three years. He did not want his daughter to know. But reporters found out about his condition in nineteen ninety-two. He decided to tell the public.

BARBARA KLEIN:

Ashe continued to work even though he was weak from the disease. During his last ten months of life, he continued to help children. He also demonstrated to support Haitian refugees, continued to fight racial injustice and battled AIDS. He said, ". . . Living with AIDS is not the greatest burden I've had in my life. Being black is." He gave his last speech the week he died. He said, "AIDS killed my body, but racism is harder to bear. It kills the soul."

Arthur Ashe died in nineteen ninety-three. He was forty-nine years old. He had told a friend, "You come to realize that life is short, and you have to step up. Don't feel sorry for me. Much is expected of those who are strong."

STEVE EMBER:

This program was written by Vivian Chakarian. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember.

BARBARA KLEIN:

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

Like Roberto Clemente, Arthur Ashe was a world class athlete who cared for the education of children. He was a hero both on and off the field.

Arthur Ashe in Wikipedia

"Reach For The Sun" from Edcon Publishing.

2010-01-31T09:31:00.000-08:00

Solar energy can be gathered and stored with a flat-plate collector.

Have you ever spent a pleasant day in the sun and suffered that night with a painful sunburn? Have you used a magnifying glass to direct the sun's rays onto a piece of paper and watched the paper burst into flames? At such times, the sun's power is most evident. Even then we find it hard to realize that all the work of the world is made possible by the sun. People's energy comes from food, grown in the warmth of the sun. Meat and dairy products come from animals. The grasses and grains that fed them needed the sun to make them grow.

Over the years, people have used many forms of energy: wind, water, coal, oil, and natural gas. What is the source of these? The heat of the sun causes winds to blow and rain to fall. Coal, oil, and gas are really the remains of green plants. Long ago they were alive, making their own food from sunlight.

All energy comes first from the sun. Why, then, do we hear and read about the prospect of using solar energy to replace other fuels? The difference lies in the fact that other fuels store the sun's energy in changed forms. Solar energy refers only to use of the sun's direct rays. The earth's fuel supply is being used at an alarming rate. How many billion tons are left? No one knows exactly. Experts say oil will be gone in less than one hundred years. Coal is more plentiful, but burning it dirties the air, causing a danger to health. We need new, clean sources of energy.

Atomic energy plants now meet some of our needs. When atoms of hydrogen are split, huge amounts of energy are set free. But the process has some problems. Dangerous metals. must be used, and the waste products are harmful. Another way to free energy from hydrogen is to join the atoms. This process would be safer, but there are still some technical problems. Scientists are working on them. Meanwhile, 93 million miles away, billions of hydrogen atoms are joined every day in the biggest atomic plant of all: the sun.

Solar energy is not, as we might assume, a new idea. We can find examples of its use in the past. A story is told of a clever Greek scientist who, two thousand years ago, set up huge mirrors to reflect the sun's rays. In this way he set fire to the sails of an enemy fleet. A hundred years ago in South America, a solar plant was built in a place where little rain fell. The sun was put to work making water to drink. First, sea water was evaporated by the sun's heat. Then the vapor was collected and cooled. The water thus obtained was fresh and sweet. In France there is a giant solar furnace, described as a huge magnifying glass. For many years it has been melting metals for industry.

The first sun-heated home was displayed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. Called "The House of Tomorrow," it was so popular that other homes like it were built. For the last twenty years, solar batteries have been used in spacecraft. All equipment on the Telstar satellites runs on solar power.
Telstar Satellite
All the projects mentioned here have been successful. Yet they remain rare. The advantages of solar energy are evident. It is free and clean, and the supply will last for billions of years. Why hasn't greater use been made of this amazing energy source? For a long time, fuel costs were low. Solar power, on the other hand, was expensive. Sunlight is free, but the equipment needed to collect it is not. A solar heating system for a house built today may cost two to four times as much as one which burns fuel. For industry, the costs are even higher. Before the energy crisis, solar power didn't seem practical. Now rising fuel costs and shrinking supplies have sparked new interest. The prospect of increasing use of direct sunlight seems likely.

Solar energy is available right now in our own backyards. Small systems can take over part, if not all, of the job of heating water for home use. Larger ones can heat homes. As far north as Canada, a house has been heated through the winter by solar energy alone. A popular type of heating system is the flat-plate collector. Metal pipes are attached to flat metal sheets. One or more layers of glass are laid over the pipes. These plates are set on a roof or the ground at an angle to the sun. Water pumped through the pipes on sunny or partly cloudy days can be heated to high temperatures, and can then be used to heat the house. At night or when it rains, tanks can store the heated water for two days or more. Many solar houses have small fuel burning units to use during periods of rainy weather. Other methods of collecting and storing the sun's heat are being explored.Perhaps better ways can be found.

The world's population and its energy needs are growing. Will solar power be the answer, or one of the answers, for the future? Mass production of equipment would help cut costs. This will occur only if the demand is great enough. The states of Indiana and Arizona have lowered taxes on solar homes. Such laws encourage people to try solar heating and help them pay for it. We can assume that as solar power is used more, our methods of collecting and storing will improve. The sun will shine for billions of years, pouring free energy onto the earth. The challenge to us is to find the best ways to use it.

1. The sun is an important source of ____________

a. power and energy.
b. meat and dairy products.
c. grasses and grains.
d. winds and rain.

2. The use of the sun's direct rays is referred to as ____________

a. atomic energy.
b. solar energy.
c. natural energy.
d. people's energy.

3. The need for new clean sources of energy ____________

a. is no longer important.
b. will greatly increase in the next fifty years.
c. is not given much thought at present.
d. will be studied by all nations.

4. The sun's rays are ____________

a. clean, expensive, and plentiful.
b. harmful, new, and fresh.
c. clean, cheap, and widely used.
d. free, clean, and plentiful.

5. The second solar energy project discussed in the story tells of ____________

a. reflecting the sun's rays to defeat an enemy.
b. melting metal with a giant solar furnace.
c. evaporating sea water.
d. using solar power on Telstar satellites.
6.

Solar heating systems for homes would be of most interest to homeowners ____________

a. in warm climates.
b. in cold climates.
c. in rainy climates.
d. in hot climates.

7. The costs of solar heating systems for new homes would probably be of most interest to ____________

a. lawyers.
b. tax experts.
c. news reporters.
d. home builders.

8. We need to find better ways to ____________

a. collect and store the sun's heat.
b. help the world's population grow.
c. lower taxes on solar homes.
d. help people pay for heating their homes.

9. Another name for this story could be ____________

a. "The Dangerous Sun."
b. "The Earth's Fuel Supply."
c. "Atomic Energy."
d. "Solar Power."

10. This story is mainly about ____________

a. the growth of the energy crisis.
b. the growing population.
c. the challenge of finding ways to use solar power.
d. early projects using the sun's energy.

President Kennedy in 1962 applauds the first Telstar communication.

Scott Joplin: King of Ragtime Music. Early 1900s. From Voice of America.

2010-01-24T14:19:00.000-08:00

VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life and work of one of America’s greatest music writers: Scott Joplin, the King of Ragtime.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

That song is called “Maple Leaf Rag.” Scott Joplin wrote it more than one hundred years ago. The song changed Joplin’s life. It was very popular. The composer earned a good living from the sales of the sheet music. He also became famous.

But, even today, much about Scott Joplin remains a mystery. There is conflicting information about the most basic facts, like when and where he was born. Official population documents suggest Scott Joplin was born in eighteen sixty-seven and eighteen sixty-eight. He was born in Texas, probably near the border with Arkansas. The Joplins moved to Texarkana, Texas sometime after eighteen seventy-five and Scott grew up there.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Scott was the second of seven children born to Giles and Florence Joplin. His father was a freed slave who worked on the railroad. His mother cleaned people’s homes.

The whole Joplin family was musical. Scott’s father played the violin. His mother played the banjo. And all the Joplins enjoyed singing together at home.

Scott learned to play several musical instruments. But Florence Joplin wanted her son to learn how to play the piano. When Scott was about seven years old he began taking piano lessons with a music teacher at his school. The Joplins were poor, so Scott’s mother paid for the weekly lessons with food. Florence Joplin also got permission for her son to use a piano in one of the houses she cleaned in Texarkana.

Florence and Giles Joplin separated before Scott became a teenager. Some experts think Scott blamed himself for the break-up. Many experts also think Scott Joplin’s opera “Treemonisha” included incidents of his life with his mother after Giles Joplin left. For example, the character “Treemonisha” receives music lessons paid for by her mother who cleans people’s houses. Listen to this aria from the opera. Carmen Balthrop is Treemonisha.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Scott Joplin’s early piano lessons did not include ragtime. That kind of music was played in dance and drinking places and was not considered acceptable. Scott first studied classical music with several teachers. They included a German immigrant named Julius Weiss who probably had the strongest influence on the boy.

VOICE TWO:

Scott left Texas when he was a teenager. He worked as a piano player and gave lessons in the guitar and mandolin. In his twenties he settled in Sedalia, Missouri. He formed a group called the Texas Medley Quartet. The group sometimes traveled great distances to perform. Scott Joplin began his music-writing career in Sedalia. He attended college classes to learn to become a composer.

Joplin also got a permanent job in Sedalia playing the piano in a new nightclub. Sedalia’s most important citizens visited the Maple Leaf Club. The job permitted Joplin time to write and play his own work.

Something even more important happened to Joplin in Sedalia. He met John Stark, the owner of a local music store. In eighty ninety-nine, Stark published the song “Maple Leaf Rag.” It was not Joplin’s first published music. But it was the he was most proud of.

Stark offered to pay Joplin a percentage of each sale of “Maple Leaf Rag” sheet music. This was an extremely unusual business agreement for a white publisher and black composer at that time. Usually, white publishers paid only a small amount of money for full ownership of music written by African-Americans. The agreement was very good for both Scott Joplin and John Stark.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Ragtime music is dance music. It combines a solid, often lively, beat with a looser, complex melody. Most experts agree that the traditional music and dance of American slaves played a big part in the development of ragtime.

Here is a perfect example. Scott Joplin and John Stark published “A Breeze From Alabama” in nineteen-oh-two. It is music for a dance called the two-step.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

John Stark decided that Scott Joplin was going to become too popular to stay in the small town of Sedalia. He decided to move his music business to the big city of Saint Louis, Missouri. Joplin moved to Saint Louis with a woman named Belle Hayden. Later they were married. But Joplin was not as successful in love as he was in music. He and Belle separated in nineteen-oh-two.

Two years later Joplin married again. But his wife, Freddie Alexander, died just three months later. The Scott Joplin Organization in Sedalia, Missouri says Joplin wrote this rag, “The Chrysanthemum,” for his second wife.

(MUSIC)

After his wife’s death, in nineteen-oh-five, Joplin wrote a concert waltz called “Bethena.” The piece has a sad sound to it, quite unlike Joplin’s earlier work. You might recognize it as the theme music for the Special English program Words and Their Stories.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Joplin lived in many places in the years that followed. He also worked on his opera, “Treemonisha.” He had hoped his longtime business partner John Stark would publish it, but he refused. Stark did not think a ragtime opera would sell.

After nineteen-oh-seven Joplin lived mostly in New York City. He and his new wife Lottie tried for many years to get “Treemonisha” produced. But its opening night did not come until more than fifty years after Joplin’s death.

By about nineteen fifteen, Scott Joplin began suffering badly from syphilis. The disease robbed him of his ability to play piano. It also destroyed his ability to write music. He died in New York City in nineteen-seventeen.

Scott Joplin left the world sixty musical works. These include many piano rags that are still played today.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. We leave you now with one of Scott Joplin’s prettiest rags, “Heliotrope Bouquet.”

"Edgar Allen Poe" A Biography from Voice of America

2010-01-17T13:48:00.000-08:00

VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. This year is the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of writer Edgar Allan Poe. The United States Postal Service is honoring him with a stamp. And several museums in cities where he lived are remembering him with plays, readings and other events. This week on our program we explore his life and the continuing influence of his work.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Edgar Allan Poe wrote stories and poems of mystery and terror, insanity and death. His life was short and seemingly unhappy.

He was born Edgar Poe on January nineteenth, eighteen hundred and nine in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were actors. He was a baby when his father left the family. And he was two when his mother died. At that time they were in Richmond, Virginia.

Edgar went to live with the family of a wealthy Richmond businessman named John Allan. John Allan never officially adopted him as a son, but the boy became known as Edgar Allan Poe.

He attended schools in England and in Richmond. He also attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He was a good student. But he had a problem with alcohol. Even one drink seemed to change his personality and make him drunk. Also, he liked to play card games for money. Edgar was not a good player. He lost money that he did not have.

John Allan refused to pay Edgar's gambling losses. He also refused to continue paying for his education. So the young man went to Boston and began working as a writer and editor for monthly magazines.

VOICE TWO:

Poe served in the Army for two years, before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point to become an officer. He was dismissed from the academy in eighteen thirty-one after six months. By then he had already published three books of poetry.

He began writing stories while living with his aunt in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. In October of eighteen thirty-three, he won a short story contest organized by a local newspaper. He received fifty dollars in prize money and got a job editing the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. He published many of his own stories.

In eighteen thirty-four, Poe married his cousin Virginia Clemm, the thirteen year old daughter of his father's sister. They moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in eighteen thirty-eight. There, Poe served as editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and continued to write.

He published many of his most frightening stories during this time. These included "The Black Cat," "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Pit and the Pendulum."

VOICE ONE:

Edgar Allan Poe did something unusual for writers of his time: he used a narrator in a story to describe what was happening. A good example is the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart."

The narrator claims that he is not mad, yet reveals that he is a murderer. He has killed an old man for no apparent reason. He cuts up the body and hides the parts under the floorboards of the victim's house.

Police officers arrive after getting reports of noises from the house. The murderer shows them around the house and is proud of the way he has hidden all the evidence. But he begins to hear a sound. The others in the room cannot hear it.

READER:

Yet the sound increased -- and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound -- much a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath -- and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly -- more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased. Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men -- but the noise steadily increased. Oh God what could I do? I foamed -- I raved --I swore. But the noise continually increased. It grew louder -- louder -- louder!

VOICE TWO:

Edgar Allan Poe is also remembered for the kind of literature known as detective fiction. These are stories of an investigator who has to solve murders and other crimes.

In fact, Edgar Allan Poe is considered the father of the modern detective novel. His fictional detective C. August Dupin first appeared in his story "The Murders In the Rue Morgue" in eighteen forty-one. Dupin also appeared in two later stories, "The Mystery of Marie Roget" and "The Purloined Letter."

Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, wrote about Poe's influence on other crime writers: "Each may find some little development of his own, but his main art must trace back to those admirable stories of Monsieur Dupin, so wonderful in their masterful force, their reticence, their quick dramatic point."

VOICE ONE:

Jeff Jerome is the curator of the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in Baltimore. He says Poe's influence can also be seen in the work of H.G. Wells and Alfred Hitchcock, to name a few. Poe's influence extends to plays, movies, operas, music, cartoons, television, paintings -- just about every kind of art.

Poe's creation of the detective novel is recognized by the Mystery Writers of America. The writers group presents the yearly Edgar Awards to honor the best detective and suspense books, movies and TV shows.

An award also goes to an individual, organization or business for working to continue the influence of Edgar Allan Poe. The award is named for Poe's most famous work. This year, the Edgar Allan Poe Society and the Poe House in Baltimore will receive the Raven Award.

VOICE TWO:

Edgar Allan Poe became famous after "The Raven" was published in eighteen forty-five. The poetry is rich in atmosphere. The rhythm suggests music.

The narrator of "The Raven" is a man whose love has died. He sits alone among his books late at night. He hears a noise at the window:

READER:

Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word "Lenore!"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"
Merely this, and nothing more."

VOICE TWO:

The man finds a large black bird and asks it questions. The raven answers with a single word: "Nevermore." At the end of the poem, the man has quite clearly gone mad from grief:

READER:

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted -- nevermore!

VOICE ONE:

The sadness and horror in Poe's writing might lead readers to suspect a disordered mind. Yet people who knew him reported him to be a nice man. Some even called him a real gentleman.

His wife died in eighteen forty-seven. Virginia Clemm Poe had suffered from tuberculosis for many years. At the same time, Poe's magazine failed, and so did his health. He died on October seventh, eighteen forty-nine, under mysterious conditions.

He was found in a tavern in Baltimore. He did not know where he was or how he got there. He was dressed in rags. He died four days later in a hospital. He was forty years old.

VOICE TWO:

Over the years, historians and medical experts have tried to explain the cause of Poe's death. Some say he killed himself with drink. Others say he developed rabies from an animal bite. Many in Baltimore believe he was beaten by local criminal gangs.

Every year about two thousand people visit Edgar Allan Poe's grave at the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore. And every year on January nineteenth -- Poe's birthday -- people watch for a man dressed in black to appear. His face is covered. He places a bottle of French cognac and three roses on the grave.

No one in Baltimore really wants to know the visitor's identity. They prefer that it remain a mystery, much like Edgar Allan Poe himself.

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. Doug Johnson was our reader. To hear the short story "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe, listen at this time Saturday for the program AMERICAN STORIES. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Short Story: 'The Purloined Letter' by Edgar Allan Poe. A mystery from Voice of America.

2010-01-16T09:41:00.000-08:00

Vocabulary Note: "purloined" means "stolen"
Now the Special English program AMERICAN STORIES.

(MUSIC)

Our story today is called "The Purloined Letter." It was written by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is generally known for his horror stories. This is the third of three stories he wrote about Auguste Dupin and how he solves crimes. The story is about a stolen letter. It first appeared in eighteen forty-four in a yearly magazine. It was reprinted in many publications, newspapers and books. This is one of Poe's stories that influenced the development of the modern detective story. Here is Shep O'Neal with "The Purloined Letter."

(MUSIC)

STORYTELLER:

One evening in Paris, during the autumn of eighteen forty-five, I went to visit a friend, Auguste Dupin. We were smoking our pipes and talking when the door of his apartment opened. Mister Germont, the head of the Paris police force, came into the room.

"I came to ask your advice," Germont said to my friend Dupin. "I am trying to solve a very important case. It is also a very simple case, so I really need your help. But I thought you would like to hear about it, because it is so strange.

"My men and I have worked on this case for three months," Germont said. "It is a very simple case of robbery. But we still cannot solve it."

Dupin took the pipe out of his mouth. "Perhaps the mystery is too simple," he said.

Germont began to laugh. "Too simple?" he said. "Who ever heard of such a thing?"

I looked at Germont. "Why don't you tell us the problem?" I said.

Germont stopped laughing and sat down.

"All right," he said. "But you must never tell anyone I told you this."

"The wife of a very important person needs help. I cannot tell you her name, because her husband is a powerful man in the French government. Let us just call her Madame X. Three months ago, someone stole a letter from Madame X. She is offering a large amount of money to anyone who can return the letter to her.

"We know that her husband's political enemy, Mister D'Arcy, stole the letter. We also know it is somewhere in his apartment. D'Arcy plans to use the letter to embarrass Madame X's husband and destroy his political power.

"As you know, I have keys which can open any lock in Paris. For the last three months, my men and I have spent every evening looking for the letter in his apartment. But we cannot find it."

Dupin stopped smoking. "Tell me how you looked for it," he said. Germont moved forward in his chair.

"We took our time," he said. "First, we examined the furniture in every room. We opened all the drawers. We looked under the rugs. We searched behind all the paintings on the walls.

"We opened every book. We removed the boards of the floor. We even took the tops off the tables to see if he had hidden the letter in the table legs. But we cannot find it. What do you advise me to do?"

Dupin puffed on his pipe. "What does the letter look like?" he asked.

"It is in a white envelope with a red stamp," Germont said. "The address is written in large black letters."

Dupin puffed on his pipe again. "I advise you to go back and search the apartment again," he said.

(MUSIC)

About one month later, Germont came back to see us.

"I followed your advice," he said. "But I still have not found the letter."

Dupin smiled. "I knew you would not find it," he said. Germont became very red in the face. "Then why did you make me search the apartment again?" he shouted.

"My dear Germont," Dupin said. "Let me tell you a little story. Do you remember the famous doctor, Louis Abernathy?"

"No!" Germont shouted. "Get to the point, Dupin!"

"Of course! Of course," Dupin said. "Once, a rich old man met Abernathy at a party. The old man was not feeling very well. He decided he would get a medical opinion from the doctor without paying for it. So he described his problems to Abernathy. 'Now doctor,' the old man said, 'suppose you had a patient like that. What would you tell him to take?'"

"'Oh, that is quite simple,' said Abernathy. 'I would tell him to take my advice.'"

Germont looked embarrassed. "Look here, Dupin. I am perfectly willing to pay for advice."

Dupin smiled at Germont. "How much money did you say the reward was?" he asked. Germont sighed. "I do not want to tell you the exact amount. But I would give fifty thousand francs to the person who helps me find that letter."

"In that case," Dupin said, "take out your checkbook and write me a check for fifty thousand francs. When you have signed the check, I will give you the letter."

Germont looked at Dupin with his mouth open. His eyes seemed to jump out of his head. Then he took out his checkbook and pen, and wrote a check for fifty thousand francs. He gave it to Dupin.

My friend examined the check carefully and put it in his pocket. Then he unlocked a drawer of his desk, took out the letter, and gave it to Germont.

The policeman's hands shook as he opened the letter. He read it quickly. Then he put it in his pocket and ran out of the room without saying a word.

"Dupin!" I said, as I turned to my friend. "How did you solve the mystery?"

"It was simple, my friend," he said. "Germont and his policemen could not find the letter, because they did not try to understand the mind of the man who stole it. Instead, they looked for the letter where they would have hidden it.

"Mister D'Arcy is not a policeman. He is, however, very intelligent. He knew the police would search his apartment. He also knew how police think. So, he did not hide the letter where he knew they would look for it.

"Do you remember how Germont laughed when I said the mystery was difficult for him to solve because it was so simple?"

Dupin filled his pipe with tobacco and lit it. "Well, the more I thought about it, the more I realized the police could not find the letter because D'Arcy had not hidden it at all.

"So I went to visit D'Arcy in his apartment. I took a pair of dark green eyeglasses with me. I explained to him that I was having trouble with my eyes and needed to wear the dark glasses at all times. He believed me. The glasses permitted me to look around the apartment while I seemed only to be talking to him.

"I paid special attention to a large desk where there were a lot of papers and books. However, I saw nothing suspicious there. After a few minutes, however, I noticed a small shelf over the fireplace. A few postcards and a letter were lying on the shelf. The letter looked very old and dirty.

"As soon as I saw this letter, I decided it must be the one I was looking for. It must be, even though it was completely different from the one Germont had described.

"This letter had a large green stamp on it. The address was written in small letters in blue ink. I memorized every detail of the letter while I talked to D'Arcy. Then when he was not looking, I dropped one of my gloves on the floor under my chair.

"The next morning, I stopped at his apartment to look for my glove. While we were talking, we heard people shouting in the street. D'Arcy went to the window and looked out. Quickly, I stepped to the shelf and put the letter in my pocket. Then I replaced it with a letter that looked exactly like it, which I had taken with me. I had made it the night before.

"The trouble in the street was caused by a man who had almost been run over by a horse and carriage. He was not hurt. And soon the crowd of people went away. When it was over, D'Arcy came away from the window. I said good-bye and left.

"The man who almost had an accident was one of my servants. I had paid him to create the incident."

Dupin stopped talking to light his pipe. I did not understand. "But, Dupin," I said, "why did you go to the trouble of replacing the letter? Why not just take it and leave?"

Dupin smiled. "D'Arcy is a dangerous man," he said. "And he has many loyal servants. If I had taken the letter, I might never have left his apartment alive."

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER:

"The Purloined Letter" was written by Edgar Allan Poe and adapted into Special English by Dona De Sanctis. The storyteller was Shep O'Neal. The producer was Lawan Davis.

You can read and listen to other AMERICAN STORIES at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein.

1. ________________ stole the letter in order to embarrass Madame X's husband.
a. August Dupin
b. Officer Germont
c. Mister D'Arcy
d. Madame X

2. Germont tried and failed to find the letter because the letter _____________ .
a. was under the floor
b. was in a strange place
c. wasn't really hidden
d. wasn't in the apartment

3. At first, Dupin didn't help Germont because Dupin hadn't ____________ .
a. felt like it
b. liked the problem
c. had a clue
d. been paid

4. Dupin left his glove behind in D'Arcy's apartment ______________ .
a. carelessly
b. on his second visit
c. on his first visit
d. because he didn't like the glove

5. After taking it, Dupin replaced it with a duplicate because otherwise _____________ .
a. D'Arcy would have him killed
b. D'Arcy would be convicted
c. D'Arcy would be confused
d. D'Arcy would marry Madame X

6. The incident on the street which distracted D'Arcy was caused by _____________ .
a. a fire
b. an attack on a child
c. Dupin's servant
d. a political parade

7. This type of story had a big influence on the modern _______________ story.
a. horror
b. romantic
c. adventure
d. detective

8. Dupin wore dark glasses when he visited D'Arcy so that he could ______________ .
a. get away from strong light
b. hide his tearful eyes
c. look around the apartment
d. hide his identity

9. Another name for this story could be _________________ .
a. "Fooling the Paris Police"
b. "Finding a Stolen Letter"
c. "Germont's Frustrating Investigation"
d. "Dupin's Retirement Plans"

10. This story is mainly about ________________ .
a. Parisian politics
b. a narrow escape from death
c. solving a stolen letter mystery
d. dining in nice Parisian restaurants

"The Purloined Letter" - Comprehension Check

2010-01-15T16:55:00.000-08:00

"The Mystery of a Summer Night" by Edvard Munch

1. Poe's story, The purloined letter, influenced the modern ________ .
a. romance story.
b. science fiction story.
c. mystery.
d. horror story.

2. The word "purloined" means _________ .
a. broiled.
b. stolen.
c. dressed up.
d. devoured.

3. It was obvious that __________ stole the letter.
a. Dupin.
b. Germont.
c. Poe.
d. D'Arcy.

4. The letter was stolen in order to ________ .
a. embarrass a political leader.
b. blackmail Madame X.
c. find out about a scandal.
d. cash the check that was inside of it.

5. The case was brought to the attention of the police by _____ .
a. a famous detective.
b. a politician's enemy.
c. the politician's wife who remains unnamed.
d. an ex convict.

6. Germont and his fellow officers searched for the letter _________ .
a. in Germont's bedroom.
b. in D'Arcy's apartment.
c. in a government office.
d. in Dupin's drawer.

7. One place that the policemen did not look for the letter was _______ .
a. under the rugs.
b. in the garden.
c. behind the paintings.
d. around the furniture.

8. Dupin didn't give Gorment the letter until _______ .
a. Gorment admitted he was a failure.
b. Madame X promised to marry him.
c. Gorment paid him for his work.
d. the politician gave him a job.

9.Another name for this story could be ___________ .
a. "The Simple Solution"
b. "The life of Gorment"
c. "How to Purloin a Postcard"
d. "French Crime"

10. This story is mainly about
a. August Dupin's life in Paris.
b. D'Arcy's affair with Madame X.
c. The location of a stolen letter.
d. Efficient French Policemen.

"The Law is For Everybody" from Edcon Publishing.

2010-01-12T09:44:00.000-08:00

Today, we are reading the story from the Edcon Reading Comprehension Workbook, "The Law is For Everybody". It is a story about a freed slave, living in New York, whose son is stolen and sold into slavery in the South. It is the story of Sojourner Truth.

Bell needs a friendly, sympathetic lawyer.

Slavery was not confined to the southern United States; many slaves lived without freedom in the North as well. Among them was a woman named Isabelle, born into slavery in New York around 1795. Isabelle stood six feet tall, and she declared that she "could work as much as a man, and eat as much as a man, when I could get it."

On July 4, 1827, Isabelle was sweeping the kitchen of her latest and most kindly owners, the Van Wageners, when Mrs. Van Wagener appeared at the door.

"Isn't it a beautiful day, Belle!" she exclaimed.

"Going to be terribly hot," Belle answered.

"Belle, don't you realize today is Freedom Day?" questioned Mrs. Van Wagener. "By New York state law, you're officially a free woman!"

Gedney Farm
It was indeed a great day for Belle, but it was far from perfect. To celebrate her freedom, she decided to visit her six-year-old son Peter who belonged to a man named Solomon Gedney. Belle had not seen Peter in two years. She ran nearly all the way to Gedney's farm, where she met an elderly black woman.

"Mr. Gedney sold Peter to Mr. Fowler," the woman informed Belle, "and Mr. Fowler took him to Alabama months ago."

"They couldn't sell Peter out of the state!" exclaimed Belle. "The law would forbid it. Down South, he'll stay a slave forever!"

"Why chatter about the law?" wondered the old woman. "The law is for white folks. Don't you know that?"

"The law is for everybody," insisted Belle, and out of her grief for her son grew her determination to prove it. "I will have my child again!" she cried, and then began to pray:

"Lord, You know I don't ask You for much. But this time, I've got to ask You for everything. I have no money, no power; I have only You. You just have to be my helper, my ally. Please show them that You are my helper."

Belle then visited a family that had often been kind to her. They urged her to notify a lawyer, named Mr. Chip, about Peter's sale.

"Well, what do you want?" asked Lawyer Chip when Belle arrived in his office.

"I want my son," Belle explained, pouring out the story of Peter's sale to Mr. Fowler.

"Are you saying your boy has been sold out of this state?" questioned the lawyer. Angrily, he gathered together some official documents. "I'll notify Gedney that Peter must be brought back," he told Belle.

But travel between New York and Alabama took months in those days, and Mr. Gedney was furious about making the trip. Belle's anxiety grew with each passing day as she waited nearly a year for Gedney and Peter to return - and then Gedney refused to let her see her son!

She hurried back to Lawyer Chip, but he was not sympathetic about her anxiety and grief. "Court is closed until next season," he said. "You will have to wait several months."

"But Mr. Gedney is madder than a hornet," cried Belle, "and he'll take it out on my boy."

"There is nothing I can do," Lawyer Chip insisted. "Now be off, woman, because I have more important concerns."

Belle left Lawyer Chip's office and turned again to her one sure ally, God.

"Couldn't You help me just a little bit more?" she pleaded.

As if in answer to Belle's prayers, a sympathetic stranger approached her and suggested she visit yet another lawyer, Mr. Romeyne. "I think he will help you," the stranger said.

Belle thanked him tearfully and sped to Mr. Romeyne's house. Sure enough, he was also sympathetic to her cause and arranged a special meeting of the court. Mr. Gedney was ordered to bring Peter to that meeting.

The morning of the special meeting, Belle rushed joyfully into the courtroom, feeling, she said later, "as ifthe power of a nation was within me." The moment she saw Peter she cried out his name and started toward him. But he fell to the floor, clutching Mr. Gedney's leg and screaming, "That's not my mother! My mother doesn't look like that!"

Belle turned to Lawyer Romeyne in confusion. Then all eyes were on the judge as he spoke to the trembling child.

"What are those scars on your forehead and cheek, Peter?" the judge asked.

"That's where Master Fowler's horses kicked me, sir," the boy sobbed.

The judge looked long at hard at Peter. Finally, he announced, "I order that the boy be delivered into the hands of the mother."

Peter screamed in terror. Gedney left the courtroom in rage, and Belle slowly approached her son.

"When will I be taken South again?" the frightened boy questioned anxiously.

"Master Gedney warned me to remain with him, or Master Fowler would make me return to Alabama. Master Fowler mistreated me all the time; 11 horses never kicked me Look!" and Peter lifted his shirt to show other markings from other whippings.

Michelle Obama and Sojourner statue
Belle gathered her son into her arms and held him tightly.

"Nobody is going to take you away ever again," she comforted him. "The law forbid it. It's the law that returned you to me and the law will continue to protect you. It's more powerful than Mr. Gedney and Mr. Fowler - and the law is for everybody."

Years later, Belle became traveling preacher. She gained fame as she spoke out against slavery, for God, and for women's rights. She replaced her slave name with one that represented her new career and her great faith in God. The name she chose is respected and honored to this day: Sojourner Truth.

This story is an article from a series of Reading Comprehension Workbooks by Edcon Publishing Group. It is under Copyright, and included here with permission from the company. Edcon has all the rights to the audio files of their articles and stories. Edcon Publishing has a very large selection of different types of readings and other materials for learning. I highly recommend this company. - The Teacher

Here is a biography of Sojourner Truth:

Sojourner Truth's Biography

Read Sojourner's famous speech, "Ain"t I a Woman?"

Here is a video from You Tube of actress Kerry Washington reading Sojourner Truth's speech, "Ain't I a Woman?"

1. On July 4, 1827, Isabelle ___________ .
a. saw her son.
b. became a free woman.
c. prayed for her freedom.
d. spoke out against slavery.

2. Next, Belle decided to _____________ .
a. pray for help.
b. go to Alabama.
c. visit her son.
d. eat as much as a man.

3. Belle learned that Peter _________ .
a. had been sold out of the state.
b. had become a lawyer.
c. had changed his name to Chip.
d. stood six feet tall.

4. The old woman at the Gedney farm thought that _______ .
a. the law would help Belle.
b. Belle was white.
c. the law was for white people only.
d. the law was the same for all people.

5. Belle knew _____ .
a. something about Alabama's laws.
b. something about New York's laws.
c. New York's laws did not work in Alabama.
d. Alabama's laws were fair.

6. Mr. Chip notified Mr. Gedney that ___________ .
a. Peter had been mistreated.
b. he could not return to Alabama again.
c. Belle was madder than a hornet.
d. Peter must be brought back.

7. Belle was afraid that Peter would _______ .
a. be treated unkindly.
b. be killed.
c. be sent to prison.
d. not know her.

8. Belle chose the name_______ .
a. Gedney Fowler.
b. Isabelle.
c. Sojourner Truth.
d. Black Angel.

9. Another name for this story could be ___________ .
a. "The Life of Sojourner Truth."
b. "Sojourner Truth Uses the Law."
c. "Slavery in the North."
d. "Day of Freedom."

10. This story is mainly about __________ .
a. the gaining of freedom for Sojourner Truth.
b. the changing. of a slave woman's name.
c. Sojourner Truth's belief in laws that would forbid slavery.
d. Sojourner Truth's belief that the law protects everyone.

I would love to read any comments you have about this or any of the stories or articles found on this blog. Don't worry about your English spelling or grammar. Leave your email and I will be happy to help you with your mistakes. Remember, mistakes aren't bad. In fact, they are the best way to learn. If you like commenting, I can also publish your thoughts in
the New Mission Journal, a magazine devoted to English learners' writings.

Feel Free! ... John Robinson, The Teacher

The Man Who Declared Himself Emperor of the US.

2009-12-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

The Emperor of The US and The Protector of Mexico

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we answer a question from a listener in Brazil. Tino Therezo in Sao Paulo wants to know about Joshua Norton. Who is that? Oh, just the man who declared himself emperor of the United States. Here are Steve Ember and Robert Cohen with the story of Emperor Norton.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The small city of Colma, California is just a few kilometers south of San Francisco. Many people visit the city each year to see the burial place of one very unusual man in Colma's Woodlawn Cemetery. These visitors come to see a memorial stone placed on his grave.

The writing on the stone says in large letters: Norton the First, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.

VOICE TWO:

Anyone who has studied American history knows that the United States is a democracy. The president and other political leaders of the United States are elected to office by the citizens. There is no royal family, no king, and no emperor.

Yet, Joshua Abraham Norton declared himself to be Emperor of the United States on September seventeenth, eighteen fifty-nine.

He sent an announcement to the newspapers of San Francisco saying he was Emperor Norton the First of the United States and the Protector of Mexico. The newspapers did not publish it.

VOICE ONE:

Many people in San Francisco knew Joshua Norton. He was born in England in eighteen nineteen. He moved to San Francisco from South Africa. He arrived with a lot of money. He later lost all his money in a very bad financial deal. His many friends knew that this greatly affected him.

Joshua Norton no longer was the same man. Most of his friends believed the shock of losing all his money had taken away his ability to reason and to live in the real world. Poor Joshua Norton was not dangerous or violent, but he no longer knew what was real and what was only imaginary.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Soon after he declared himself Emperor of the United States, Joshua Norton began wearing blue military clothing. A soldier at the Army base in San Francisco gave him gold colored buttons and gold cloth. It made his uniform seem as if it belonged to a general. Or perhaps a king. Or even an Emperor.

Emperor Norton the First soon became the best known man in San Francisco. He always wore his uniform and a tall hat. When people saw him they would show the respect given a king or emperor.

Emperor Norton usually did not have any money. But he did not need any. If Emperor Norton went to a restaurant, he was served a meal -- free. If he needed something little from a store, that was also freely given. Sometimes he paid with his own kind of money. It was paper money with his picture on it.

Some stores began placing a small sign in the store window. The sign said, "By Appointment to His Majesty, Emperor Norton the First." The sign meant the store or restaurant had been approved by the emperor of the United States. Stores with the signs noted that their business increased.

VOICE ONE:

Emperor Norton began sending royal orders -- called decrees -- to the newspapers of San Francisco. The newspapers began publishing them. Many people thought they were funny. Some bought the newspapers just to read about the latest decree from the emperor of the United States.

Many of the decrees, however, made people think. For example, Emperor Norton said that Governor Wise of Virginia was to be removed from office by royal decree. Emperor Norton said this was necessary because Governor Wise had ordered the death by hanging of John Brown. John Brown was a rebel who had tried to start a war to free slaves.

Emperor Norton's decree said John Brown had tried to capture the state of Virginia with only seventeen men. That was evidence, Emperor Norton said, that John Brown was mentally sick and should have been put in a hospital for treatment.

Emperor Norton said John Brown never should have been executed. Many people in San Francisco agreed with Emperor Norton. The execution of John Brown was one of the many issues that led to the American Civil War.

VOICE TWO:

Another Emperor Norton decree had to do with the name of the city. Some people often use a short name for city of San Francisco. They call it Frisco. Emperor Norton did not like this short name. He decreed that anyone found guilty of using the word Frisco must pay a penalty of twenty-five dollars. Even today many citizens of San Francisco warn visitors never to call the great city Frisco.

Perhaps Emperor Norton's most famous decree ordered the city government to build a bridge from the city of Oakland to a small island in San Francisco Bay. It said the bridge should extend from the little island to San Francisco.

City leaders did nothing about building the bridge. So Emperor Norton ordered them removed from office. Nothing happened, of course, to the city leaders or about the bridge.

Many years later, after Emperor Norton's death, a bridge was built extending from San Francisco to the city of Oakland. It was placed almost in the exact spot that Emperor Norton had decreed. It is called the Bay Bridge. Thousands of cars pass over it every day.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

San Francisco has always been home to many Chinese people. It still is today. One story about Emperor Norton involves the Chinese. In his time many people did not like Chinese people. One group of people organized an anti-Chinese committee. They believed too many Chinese lived in San Francisco. They decided to cause violence in the Chinese area of the city.

Many people knew about the committee's plans but no one did anything to stop the planned violence. One night members of the committee left a meeting and walked toward the area of the city where most of the Chinese lived. As they got close to the area, one man stood in the street blocking their way.

He said nothing. He did not move. His head was low on his chest and he seemed to be praying. The mob of troublemakers stopped. They looked at the old blue uniform with its gold colored buttons. They said nothing. They did nothing. Slowly, the mob turned and walked away. Emperor Norton had prevented the planned violence.

VOICE TWO:

One night, a new member of the San Francisco Police Department arrested Emperor Norton. The young policeman thought anyone who claimed to be the emperor of the United State might be a danger to the public. Very soon a judge and the chief of police arrived at the police station. The judge said. "The emperor has hurt no one that I know of." He quickly ordered the emperor freed and apologized for the mistake. From that time on, the San Francisco policemen showed respect to Joshua Norton by giving a military salute.

VOICE ONE:

On January eighth, eighteen eighty, Emperor Norton was walking along California Street inspecting his city as usual. People in the area saw him fall down. Several rushed to his aid. Moments later it was clear that Joshua Norton was dead.

The next day, the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper printed four words in French across the front of the paper. They were "LE ROI EST MORT." The King is Dead.

The newspaper reported the death of the city's most famous citizen. The report said that Joshua Norton had no real money -- not even enough to pay for his burial. Almost immediately, wealthy members of a San Francisco business group collected enough to pay for the funeral.

Businesses closed in San Francisco the day of the funeral. Newspapers reported that more ten thousand people attended the burial ceremony for Emperor Norton. One newspaper said that the world would be a much better place if all kings and emperors were as kind and honest as Joshua Norton.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER:

Today, some stores and restaurants in San Francisco still have signs that say, "By Appointment to His Majesty, Emperor Norton the First." And each year in January, a group of people gather at Joshua Norton's grave to remember him. Then they gather at a nearby tavern to continue the remembrance.

These are local members of E Clampus Vitus, a historical society whose members like to have a good time. They do not want people in Frisco -- oops, make that San Francisco -- to forget the first and only emperor of the United States.

Our program was written by Paul Thompson and Nancy Steinbach. The narrators were Steve Ember and Robert Cohen. I'm Shirley Griffith. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. We hope you join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

The Difficult Life of Early English Settlers. VOA History Series.

2009-12-09T16:37:00.000-08:00

Historic Jamestown, Early 1600s

VOICE ONE:

This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the first permanent English settlements in North America.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

England was the first country to compete with Spain for claims in the New World, although it was too weak to do this openly at first. But Queen Elizabeth of England supported such explorations as early as the fifteen seventies.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert led the first English settlement efforts. He did not establish any lasting settlement. He died as he was returning to England.

Gilbert's half brother Sir Walter Raleigh continued his work. Raleigh sent a number of ships to explore the east coast of North America. He called the land Virginia to honor England's unmarried Queen Elizabeth.

In fifteen eighty-five, about one-hundred men settled on Roanoke Island, off the coast of the present day state of North Carolina. These settlers returned to England a year later. Another group went to Roanoke the next year. This group included a number of women and children. But the supply ships Raleigh sent to the colony failed to arrive. When help got there in fifteen-ninety, none of the settlers could be found.

History experts still are not sure what happened. Some research suggests that at least some of the settlers became part of the Indian tribe that lived in the area.

VOICE TWO:

One reason for the delay in getting supplies to Roanoke was the attack of the Spanish Navy against England in fifteen eighty-eight. King Phillip of Spain had decided to invade England. But the small English ships combined with a fierce storm defeated the huge Spanish fleet. As a result, Spain was no longer able to block English exploration.

England discovered that supporting colonies so far away was extremely costly. So Queen Elizabeth took no more action to do this. It was not until after her death in sixteen-oh-three that England began serious efforts to start colonies in America.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In sixteen-oh-six, the new English King, James the First, gave two business groups permission to establish colonies in Virginia, the area claimed by England. Companies were organized to carry out the move.

The London Company sent one hundred settlers to Virginia in sixteen-oh-six. The group landed there in May, sixteen-oh-seven and founded Jamestown. It was the first permanent English colony in the new world.

The colony seemed about to fail from the start. The settlers did not plant their crops in time so they soon had no food. Their leaders lacked the farming and building skills needed to survive on the land. More than half the settlers died during the first winter.

VOICE TWO:

The businessmen controlling the colony from London knew nothing about living in such a wild place. They wanted the settlers to search for gold, and explore local rivers in hopes of finding a way to the East. One settler knew this was wrong. His name was Captain John Smith. He helped the colonists build houses and grow food by learning from the local Indians. Still, the Jamestown settlers continued to die each year from disease, lack of food and Indian attacks.

The London Company sent six thousand settlers to Virginia between sixteen-oh-six and sixteen twenty-two. More than four thousand died during that time.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

History experts say that all the settlers surely would have died without the help of the local Powhatan Indians. The Indians gave the settlers food. They taught them how to live in the forest. And the Powhatan Indians showed the settlers how to plant new crops and how to clear the land for building.

The settlers accepted the Indians' help. Then, however, the settlers took whatever else they wanted by force. In sixteen twenty-two, the local Indians attacked the settlers for interfering with Indian land. Three hundred forty settlers died. The colonists answered the attack by destroying the Indian tribes living along Virginia's coast.

The settlers recognized that they would have to grow their own food and survive on their own without help from England or anyone else. The Jamestown colony was clearly established by sixteen twenty-four. It was even beginning to earn money by growing and selling a new crop, tobacco.

VOICE TWO:

The other early English settlements in North America were much to the north of Virginia, in the present state of Massachusetts. The people who settled there left England for different reasons than those who settled in Jamestown. The Virginia settlers were looking for ways to earn money for English businesses. The settlers in Massachusetts were seeking religious freedom.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

King Henry the Eighth of England had separated from the Roman Catholic Church. His daughter, Queen Elizabeth, established the Protestant religion in England. It was called the Church of England, or the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church, however, was similar to that of the Roman Catholic Church.

Not all Protestants liked this. Some wanted to leave the Anglican Church and form religious groups of their own. In sixteen-oh-six, members of one such group in the town of Scrooby did separate from the Anglican Church. About one hundred twenty-five people left England for Holland. They found problems there too, so they decided to move again...to the New World.

These people were called pilgrims, because that is the name given to people who travel for religious purposes.

VOICE TWO:

About thirty-five pilgrims were among the passengers on a ship called the Mayflower in sixteen twenty. It left England to go to Virginia. But the Mayflower never reached Virginia. Instead, it landed to the north, on Cape Cod Bay. The group decided to stay there instead of trying to find Jamestown.

The pilgrims and the others on the Mayflower saw a need for rules that would help them live together peacefully. They believed they were not under English control since they did not land in Virginia. So they wrote a plan of government, called the Mayflower Compact. It was the first such plan ever developed in the New World.

They elected a man called William Bradford as the first governor of their Plymouth Colony. We know about the first thirty years of the Plymouth Colony because William Bradford described it in his book, Of Plymouth Plantation.

As happened in Jamestown, about half the settlers in Plymouth died the first winter. The survivors were surprised to find an Indian who spoke English. His name was Squanto. He had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and had lived in England before returning to his people.

The Pilgrims believed Squanto was sent to them from God. He made it possible for them to communicate with the native people. He showed them the best places to fish, what kind of crops to plant and how to grow them. He provided them with all kinds of information they needed to survive. The settlers invited the Indians to a feast in the month of November to celebrate their successes and to thank Squanto for his help. Americans remember that celebration every year when they observe the Thanksgiving holiday.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Other English settlers began arriving in the area now called New England. One large group was called the Puritans. Like the pilgrims, the Puritans did not agree with the Anglican Church. But they did not want to separate from it. The Puritans wanted to change it to make it more holy. Their desire for this change made them unwelcome in England.

The first ship carrying Puritans left England for America in sixteen thirty. By the end of that summer, one thousand Puritans had landed in the northeastern part of the new country. The new English King, Charles, had given permission for them to settle the Massachusetts Bay area.

VOICE TWO:

The Puritans began leaving England in large groups. Between sixteen thirty and sixteen forty, twenty thousand sailed for New England. They risked their lives on the dangerous trip. They wanted to live among people who believed as they did, people who honored the rules of the Bible. Puritans believed that the Bible was the word of God.

The Puritans and other Europeans, however, found a very different people in the New World. They were America's native Indians. That will be our story next week.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Rich Kleinfeldt

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Voice of America Special English program about the history of the United States.

For more VOA articles on American History, Click Here!

Christmas in America During the 19th Century.

2009-12-01T21:54:00.000-08:00

VOICE ONE:

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith with THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. Today we present a special program on Christmas traditions in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century.

VOICE TWO:

During this period, Christmas was a very different kind of holiday than it is today. There was no set way of celebrating the day, which was not yet an official holiday. Communities around the country honored the day in different ways. Some observed Christmas as an important Christian religious day honoring the birth of Jesus. Others celebrated the day with parties, music, drinking and eating. And, some communities did not celebrate the day at all.

VOICE ONE:

But, it was during this period that Americans began to reinvent the holiday by combining ancient Christmas traditions from different cultures with modern American influences. You can think about the historical people we have been talking about, Andrew Jackson, Martin van Buren and others, and the ways they too might have celebrated Christmas.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In eighteen nineteen, the popular American writer Washington Irving wrote a series of five essays published in a book called "The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent."

VOICE TWO:

The essays describe a wealthy British landowner who invites his farm workers into his home to celebrate Christmas. The landowner recreates a traditional Christmas as it would have been celebrated in the distant past. Irving praised this looking back to ancient traditions. He liked the idea of different levels of society coming together to enjoy a festive and peaceful holiday. Washington Irving seemed to express concern about the lack of such unifying Christmas traditions in modern America.

VOICE ONE:

Penne Restad wrote a book "Christmas in America: A History." It shows how Americans began to slowly shape Christmas into a unifying national holiday during the first half of the nineteenth century. She describes how Christmas had different meanings for Americans who came from different cultural and religious backgrounds. Many immigrants brought Christmas traditions from their own countries.

VOICE TWO:

Religion played a big role in how an American might celebrate the holiday. Calvinist Christians banned the celebration of Christmas. But groups such as Episcopalians and Moravians honored the day with religious services and seasonal decorations.

VOICE TWO:

By mid-century, Christian groups began to ignore their religious differences over the meaning of Christmas and honored the day in special ways.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Christmas became an important time for families to celebrate at home. More and more Christian Americans also began to follow the European traditions of Christmas trees and giving gifts. Christians believed that the tree represented Jesus and was also a sign of new beginnings. German immigrants brought their tradition of putting lights, sweets and toys on the branches of evergreen trees placed in their homes.

VOICE TWO:

This tradition of setting up a Christmas tree soon spread to many American homes. So did the practice of giving people presents. As these traditions increased in popularity, the modern trade and business linked to Christmas also grew.

VOICE ONE:

As Christmas became more popular, some states declared the day a state holiday. Louisiana was the first state to make the move in eighteen thirty-seven. By eighteen sixty, fourteen other states had followed. It was not until eighteen seventy that President Ulysses Grant made Christmas a federal holiday.

VOICE TWO:

Americans already knew old Christmas songs that came from England and other areas of Europe. But many new American Christmas songs started to become popular. For example, in eighteen forty-nine, a religious leader from Massachusetts wrote the words to "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." The song "Jingle Bells" appeared seven years later. And, a year later, a religious leader in Williamsport, Pennsylvania wrote the song "We Three Kings of Orient Are."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

And of course, no discussion of Christmas would be complete without talking about of one of the holiday's most famous representations, Santa Claus.

VOICE ONE:

This character is based on the story of Saint Nicholas, a Christian holy person believed to have lived in the third century. Saint Nicholas became known as a protector of children. In his role as a Christmas hero, different cultures have given him different names. These include Sinterklaas, Kris Kringle and Father Christmas. But for most Americans his most popular name would become Santa Claus.

VOICE TWO:

In the nineteenth century, many Dutch immigrants living in the United States celebrated the feast of Saint Nicholas on December sixth. Saint Nicholas was especially important to New Yorkers because of their history as a Dutch colony. In eighteen-oh-nine, Washington Irving published his "History of New York." It lists Saint Nicholas as the patron saint of New Yorkers. He describes the saint wearing a low hat, large pants, and smoking a pipe. Does this description sound familiar?

VOICE ONE:

In eighteen twenty-two, an American professor named Clement Clarke Moore wrote a poem that redefined the image of Saint Nicholas. It was called "Account of a Visit from Saint Nicholas." He did not expect it to be published. He wrote it as a Christmas present for his young children. In recent years, experts have questioned whether Moore actually wrote the poem.

VOICE ONE:

Some believe it was written by Henry Livingston, a map maker in New York who wrote and published funny poems in his spare time.

VOICE TWO:

But whoever wrote this classic poem, it has since become a favorite around the world. This poem combines the traditions of Santa Claus, seasonal decorations and gift-giving that have come to define Christmas in America. We leave you with Clement Clarke Moore's poem, popularly known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."

(MUSIC)

VOICE THREE:

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and Saint Nicholas, too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney Saint Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. Jim Tedder read the poem. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are online at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION. And happy holidays from all of us in VOA Special English.

Exploring the Art of Glass.

2009-11-24T22:18:00.000-08:00

"The Sacred Heart of Healing" by Tim Tate

VOICE ONE:

I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, you can see a large heart-shaped sculpture made of blown glass. The deep red colored heart is topped with a burning flame also made of glass. It is called the "Sacred Heart of Healing" and was made by the artist Tim Tate. How did he make this interesting glass form? Today we answer this question as we explore the art of making glass.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Throughout history, people from cultures around the world have been making glass. People first found and used glass made by nature. For example, lightning can create tubes of glass when it strikes sand that has the right combination of minerals. Glass pieces produced by lightning are called fulgurites.

Obsidian is a kind of black glass formed when the heat of a volcano melts the silica material in sand. Ancient cultures broke off pieces of obsidian to make knives and weapons such as arrows. The ancient Aztec civilization in current day Mexico used obsidian for making hunting tools and jewelry. The Aztecs made extremely sharp knives and weapons from obsidian. This is one reason experts say they never developed the use of metal.

VOICE TWO:

Glass is considered a physical state of matter. It may look solid, but it is a liquid as well. This is because glass has the hardness of crystal materials while also having a disordered arrangement of molecules like a liquid.

The chemical quality of glass is what makes up its color. Impurities in glass such as iron can give it a green or brown color. Adding chemicals to the glass can give it different color intensities and effects. For example, adding copper to glass can make it blue, while adding tin can make it white.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

It is hard to say exactly when humans first started making glass. The Roman historian Pliny said that Phoenician sailors accidentally discovered how to make glass over three thousand years ago. The sailors landed on a beach and started a cooking fire near some containers of the mineral natron. The next day, they realized that the sand and natron under the fire had melted then cooled into glass. Other experts say glass making first started four to five thousand years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, present day Iraq and Syria.

VOICE TWO:

One of the earliest methods developed for making glass containers is called core-forming. A glassmaker places a rounded piece of clay material on the end of a long metal stick. Once the clay dries, the glassmaker dips the form in a container of hot liquid glass until it is covered. The artist can then add a second color of glass to make designs over the first layer of glass. Once the glass form cools completely, it is taken off the metal stick. The clay inside is carefully cut out to form a glass container.

VOICE ONE:

Another ancient method of making glass that is still used today is called casting. Casting involves making a clay form in which the shape of the glass container is carved. Then, the artist puts small pieces of glass material inside of the clay form. When it is cooked at a very high temperature, the glass pieces melt and take the shape of the clay form. Once the solid glass object cools, an artist uses special tools to carve an opening in the container.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

But it was another method of making glass --the blown glass method-- that changed the glass industry of the ancient world. It was first developed in the Roman Empire about two thousand years ago. This new technology made glass production faster and less costly. A glass container made by casting or core-forming could take a few days to make. With glass blowing, an artist could make many containers in a day.

VOICE ONE:

Glassblowing involves gathering hot liquid glass on the end of a metal pipe called a blowpipe. The glass reaches a temperature of about one thousand degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the glass is a bright orange color. The glassblower must turn the pipe constantly so that the thick liquid glass does not fall off the end. He or she then blows through the pipe so that the glass expands into a rounded bubble form. The blown piece of glass can be worked and formed to create many different kinds of shapes. To reshape the glass, it must be continually reheated to stay soft.

VOICE TWO:

In modern terms, the hot oven that the glassblower uses to quickly reheat the glass is called a "glory hole." The artist can shape the hot glass using metal tools such as jacks, tweezers and shears. Or, he or she can place the hot glass on a metal table called a marver to shape the form by rolling it back and forth. Watching an expert glassblower is an exciting experience. The artist moves as quickly and as gracefully as a dancer.

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An example of a glass work made in 1885 in Murano, Italy

In thirteenth century Italy, the government ordered glassblowers in Venice to move to the island of Murano. The aim was to reduce the threat of fires from the glassmakers' furnaces. It was also useful for the glassmakers to be together so that they could control the secrets of their trade. Each generation of glassmaker would pass along the secrets of the trade to the next generation.

Murano glass became famous around the world. It is still a center for glass production today. In fact, the Murano glassblowing tradition has been a major influence on one of the most famous American glass artists today, Dale Chihuly. Chihuly trained in Murano in the nineteen sixties. His electrically colorful and fluid glass works can be seen in museums around the world.

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The Washington Glass Studio is located near Washington, D.C., in Mount Rainier, Maryland. This is where the artist Tim Tate works and teaches. Here he tells about his "Sacred Heart of Healing" sculpture that we talked about earlier.

TIM TATE: "My name is Tim Tate and I am a glass sculptor. In the Smithsonian, there is a blown glass heart with a flame coming out of the top. The image in the flame is a hand and off of each fingertip are different natural healing techniques. The first heart I made was when my mother was extremely ill and after she passed away I made the heart larger. For me, it was a memory piece. For years afterwards I made these large sacred hearts. Some of them were clear with things inside, some were very colorful."

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Making these hearts is not easy. Tate works with a team of glass artists at a studio in the state of North Carolina.

Tim Tate is also the director of the Washington Glass School. He says he loves teaching glass skills to students because he learns so much from them. And, he likes to work near the other glass artists in the school because they can exchange ideas and methods.

Tate first became interested in glass by watching glassblowers as a young child. As an adult, he developed his love of glass making for very different reasons.

TIM TATE: "When I was just a small kid I went to Corning Glass works and watched the glass blowers there and was really mesmerized by that. And then, years ago when I first found out that I was HIV positive, my initial reason for doing glass was I wanted to leave one glass vase for my nephew and nieces to remember their uncle by. My initial reason was a sense of legacy.

"And then, I kept living and twenty-three years later, I am in many museums around the world. I just got good at it, because I knew I had to hurry because I was supposed to die."

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Tim Tate makes glass that is meant to be sculptural. He says the message in his work is usually about healing.

TIM TATE: "My messages in all of these is all about healing. Either healing ourselves, or society's healing, or healing through making art, or healing through viewing art. So, that's what my content tends to be about."

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Tim Tate also makes sculptures that he calls reliquaries. These works are made of clear blown glass containers with different objects inside. He has a big collection of interesting small objects such as maps, tools, game pieces, and dolls for putting inside the containers.

"Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand" by Tim Tate

One reliquary is called "Dice." It is filled with hundreds of small red cubes for playing games of chance. The surface of the container is covered with writing that has been cut into the glass. The message tells about different methods for guessing about the future. It says that good health can sometimes be a matter of luck.

Tim Tate is also working on a series of blown glass sculptures inside of which are small televisions playing videos. In these detailed works, the ancient art of glass meets the modern world of technology.

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

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And I'm Barbara Klein. You can learn about other artists on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.