se-econ-oil-prices-11mar11.Mp3 How High Will the Price of Oil Go This Time? Posted by admin on May 10th, 2011 at 08:15am This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Unrest in North Africa and the Middle East has pushed oil prices back into the news. Prices have been rising at their fastest level since two thousand eight. Libya is not among the ten largest oil exporters. But the rebellion against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has reduced production, affecting the global market. This month, oil prices rose above one hundred dollars a barrel. Prices went above one hundred forty-five dollars a barrel in two thousand eight. The price of oil affects prices and demand for energy, plastics, farm chemicals and many other products made with petroleum. During the last week of February, Americans paid the second biggest weekly increase in gasoline prices in twenty years. This young woman has to drive a long way to school, so high gas prices mean less money for other things. WOMAN: “I am a college student and I have to drive forty-five minutes to college, so it sucks.” The United States has a Strategic Petroleum Reserve that contains more than seven hundred million barrels of oil. President Obama could use some of this emergency supply to help ease fuel prices. But intervening in the market could hurt oil production in the United States. Oil prices have been rising at a bad time, just as many economies have been recovering from the global recession. Also, several countries in the euro area are still struggling with debt crises. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said last week that “strong vigilance” is needed to contain inflation. That could mean raising interest rates which could hurt European countries heavily in debt. In the United States, higher fuel prices come just as General Motors and Chrysler show signs of recovery after their reorganizations. American car sales last month were twenty-seven percent higher than last February. GM led all carmakers with a forty-seven percent increase. High fuel prices reduce demand for big cars and trucks. But economist George Magliano says this time, high prices may be good for carmakers. GEORGE MAGLIANO: “With gasoline prices higher, certain people might want to get a much more fuel- efficient vehicle and I don’t mean even a hybrid or an electric vehicle which they could do, but the gasoline vehicles get twenty-five, thirty percent better mileage today than they did three or four years ago.” And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Share your stories about what high fuel prices mean to you at voaspecialenglish.com or on Facebook at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Emb After Brain Study_ New Questions About Mobile Phones - English Listening Lessons.mp3 After Brain Study, New Questions About Mobile Phones Posted by admin on May 8th, 2011 at 08:14am This is the VOA Special English Health Report. How important is your mobile phone, better known to Americans as a cell phone? MAN: “I use my phone all the time. I’m always on my phone.” WOMAN: “It’s kind of pretty much important to me because it’s like my life saver.” WOMAN: “I need my cellphone.” So far, no studies have proven beyond question that the radio signals from cellphones cause brain cancer or other health problems. But a new study by government scientists in the United States has some people wondering what to think. The scientists found that holding a cellphone to your ear for at least fifty minutes increases brain cell activity. Even the scientists themselves are not sure about the meaning of their findings. Dr. Nora Volkow led the study. She heads the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Volkow says she would not be concerned that fifty minutes of cellphone exposure would harm anyone. But she says the research does show the need to study whether or there are long-lasting effects of repeated exposure over several years. Her team studied forty-seven healthy volunteers between January and December of two thousand nine. The volunteers had cellphones placed against both ears while the scientists made images of their brain activity. As part of the test, one phone was activated but muted for fifty minutes. The other phone was off. After that, the people were tested with both phones turned off. Dr. Volkow says the brain scans showed increased activity in brain cells closest to the activated phone. NORA VOLKOW: “This right area of the brain that was very close to the antenna shows the largest increase in metabolism as compared when the telephones were off. Even though the radio frequencies that are emitted from current cellphone technologies are very weak, they are able to activate the human brain to have an effect.” The scans showed how the brain cells used sugar to produce energy, a normal activity. The activity was seven percent higher in areas of the brain closest to the cellphone antenna. The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Experts say people who are concerned about mobile phones can take steps like using a wired headset. Dr. Giuseppe Esposito is a nuclear medicine expert at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. He says after many years of studies, better kinds of research are still needed to settle questions about cellphone safety. These studies would take years. GIUSEPPE ESPOSITO: “We need what are called epidemiological studies where you will follow a population using cellphones — high users or light users — and then see what happens over the years.” And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also post comments on our website or on Facebook at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember. se-ed-japan-us-children-31mar11.mp3 Children at US School Show Their Support for Victims in Japan Posted by admin on May 6th, 2011 at 04:16pm This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Cranes are large birds with long legs and necks. In Japan and other East Asian cultures, they represent luck and long life. Japanese tradition says a person who folds one thousand paper cranes gets the right to make a wish. Some schoolchildren in the United States have been folding cranes. They want to show they care about the victims of the March eleventh earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Almost forty Japanese-American students attend Somerville Elementary School in Ridgewood, New Jersey. But all five hundred twenty-five students at the school have heard about the disasters. So they have decorated their school with paper origami cranes. Their wish is for a speedy recovery for the Japanese people. Art teacher Samantha Stankiewicz says the activity gives students a way to express empathy for victims. SAMANTHA STANKIEWICZ: “For children, the folding of the cranes has been a really positive way for them to feel like they’re actively engaged, even though the cranes are symbolic.” These students thought out loud as they folded cranes in the school library. BOY: “The crane is a symbol of hope, so we try to have a lot of hope for those people in Japan.” GIRL: “It makes me feel really happy that everyone’s caring for another country.” GIRL: “I feel sad for them, like really sad for them. But I also feel happy for us, because we are really trying to help out.” And that help is not just in the form of paper cranes. The school principal, Lorna Oates-Santos, says children at Somerville Elementary have raised about two thousand dollars for disaster relief agencies. LORNA OATES-SANTOS: “We will be donating that money to the American Red Cross and Save the Children. They are two groups that are ready on the ground in Japan to help the people of Japan.” The school has a television club that produces weekly programs on different subjects. Fourth-grade teacher Gabrielle King is director of the club, and says the students are involved in the school’s efforts. GABRIELLE KING: “When the earthquake happened, the children wanted to know what they could do to inform other students and raise awareness for the people in Japan. So, we decided to do a show on the earthquake, and to also making the cranes, the origami cranes.” Some American children have shown their feelings for the victims in Japan in other ways. Yasuhisa Kawamura is Japan’s deputy consul general in New York. YASUHISA KAWAMURA: “One American young girl dropped by the consulate a couple days ago with her own painting. The painting shows the two countries, Japan and the United States, shaking hands over the ocean, and saying ‘We are with you.’ So, we are very, very moved and touched by this young girl’s expression.” And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report. The East Asia Program at Cornell University in the United States has a lesson plan and directions for folding origami cranes. You can find a link at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember Future Payments for Retirees Are Big Issue Now for US States - English Listening Lessons.mp3 Future Payments for Retirees Are Big Issue Now for US States Posted by admin on May 4th, 2011 at 11:08am This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. State and local governments across the United States are facing big budget deficits. Many of these shortfalls include promises of future retirement payments for public employees. Several states have had to borrow money for pension plans that have fallen below required funding levels. Pay and benefits for public workers have been a target as state and local governments try to cut spending. At the same time, there are efforts in several states to reduce the negotiating rights of public employees. In many cases, public employee unions have agreed to accept lower pay. But they oppose efforts to limit collective bargaining. An effort by Republicans to do that in Wisconsin has led protesters to occupy the state capitol building. Almost every state requires a balanced budget. Yet worries that state and local governments might not be able to repay their debts are now adding to the costs of borrowing. Illinois had to offer a high return of nearly six percent on bonds to be repaid by twenty nineteen. Experts say, on average, public employees are paid less but have better benefits than workers with similar skills in private jobs. However, they say these differences in labor costs are a lot less than some people think. Still, traditional pension plans pay a set amount for as long as a retiree lives. States like Georgia, Michigan, Colorado and Ohio are considering a change for future employees. They might offer retirement plans similar to what are called 401(k) plans. These are a common form of plan offered by private employers. Employers and workers both put money into the plan. Workers can invest the money in areas like stocks or bonds. Their retirement savings are defined by the return on their investments in the plan. Federal workers already have a savings plan similar to a 401(k). John McGlennon heads the Government Department at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. He says the economic crisis of two thousand eight continues to affect state and local tax collections. Also, many pension funds have less money because their investments have yet to fully recover from the recession. But Professor McGlennon says things could change. JOHN McGLENNON: “In terms of the future, states are not necessarily going to be in a rosy condition in the next couple of years. But they do tend to recover much more rapidly than we tend to anticipate.” se-health-malaria-mosquito-bait-23feb11.Mp3 A Possible Safe New Way to Kill Mosquitoes That Spread Malaria Posted by admin on April 29th, 2011 at 02:14pm This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Israeli researchers say they have developed a substance that attracts and kills mosquitoes infected with the malaria parasite. However, the sweet smelling substance is said to be harmless to people and animals. Scientists at Hebrew University in Jerusalem developed the sugary bait by combining fruit juice oils and boric acid. The fruit juice gets the attention of the mosquitoes. Boric acid kills the insects when they eat it. The scientists took the boric acid sweet bait to the West African nation of Mali. They sprayed it on plants near man-made ponds. Villagers use water from the ponds during the dry season. But the area is also home to Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito that carries the most deadly form of malaria. The researchers also placed a sweet-smelling spray on grasses near other ponds. But that spray contained no boric acid. Both substances also contained a substance that would mark any mosquito that came in contact with it. This way the scientists could count the mosquitoes that fed on the bait. Yosef Schlein is an expert on insects that affect human health. Professor Schlein led the sweet bait research. He says thirty-eight days of results show the sweet boric acid bait proved very effective at killing mosquitoes. YOSEF SCHLEIN: “In Mali, we got down by some eighty percent, the females, and ninety percent of the males. But the area is full of little ponds in there, so it is impossible to stop mosquitoes from flying from an untreated pond to a treated pond.” At the ponds treated only with sweet-smelling bait, Professor Schlein says, more than seventy five percent of mosquitoes fed on the false bait. He says most people do not know that female mosquitoes feed on sweet plant nectars to survive. Their blood feedings are part of reproduction. The Israeli researchers now hope to develop a bait that is even more desirable to the malaria mosquitoes. Boric acid is generally safe for human beings and other mammals. Professor Schlein says scientists might be able to develop a mosquito bait for enclosed spaces. Boric acid has been used to kill other insects including cockroaches, termites and ants inside homes since the middle of last century. A report about the malaria mosquito sweet bait was published in Malaria Journal. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. You can find this report and more health news at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I’m Mario Ritter. Meet Some Top Students in the Intel Science Talent Search - English Listening Lessons.mp3 Meet Some Top Students in the Intel Science Talent Search Posted by admin on April 27th, 2011 at 02:13pm This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The Intel Science Talent Search is the top science competition for high school students in the United States. The forty finalists were honored in Washington last week. They met with scientists and politicians. President Obama welcomed them to the White House. These forty students were selected from almost two thousand contestants nationwide. They had to present original research to be judged by professional scientists. The students showed their research projects on large posters. The winners were announced March fifteenth. Wendy Hawkins is executive director of the Intel Foundation. She says the forty finalists represented excellence across many areas of science. WENDY HAWKINS: “These students bring work that is ready for publication and in many cases has already been published in pretty much any branch of science that you can think of: physics, electrical engineering. And the projects are deep and rich and insightful.” Selena Li is from Fair Oaks, California. She wanted to find a more effective treatment for liver cancer. She began her research four years ago. A scientist at the University of California, Davis, taught her how to design and do experimental work in the laboratory. SELINA LI: “I researched a new approach to targeting liver cancer by basically starving the liver cancer cells to death, while leaving the normal cells unaffected. And, to go one step further, I blocked a survival pathway to make the treatment more effective.” Ms. Li placed fifth in the Intel Science Talent Search and was awarded thirty thousand dollars. Scott Boisvert lives near Phoenix, Arizona. He began using a laboratory at the University of Arizona at the age of fourteen. Over four years, he completed a project studying a fungus linked to the decrease in amphibians around the world. He was trying to find out if different chemicals and substances in the water could kill the fungus. He collected and tested water samples across Arizona. SCOTT BOISVERT: “My results were able to identify a list of chemicals that were significant in the growth and in the movement of the fungus.” He placed tenth in the Intel competition and was awarded twenty thousand dollars. Evan O’Dorney of Danville, California, won the top award of one hundred thousand dollars in this year’s Intel Science Talent Search. For his mathematical project, he compared two ways to estimate the square root of an integer, a number with no fractional parts. Wendy Hawkins at the Intel Foundation says these young people represent the next generation of scientists who will help shape America’s future. And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report. Visit the all-new mobile version of our website where you can read and listen to Special English programs and watch captioned videos. From your phone or other device, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Christopher Cruise. Brain-Computer Interfaces Could Mean More Freedom for the Disabled - English Listening Lessons.mp3 Brain-Computer Interfaces Could Mean More Freedom for the Disabled Posted by admin on April 23rd, 2011 at 02:11pm This is the VOA Special English Technology Report. Since the nineteen seventies, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain- computer interface, or BCI, technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines. Recently, scientists demonstrated a small robotic vehicle directed by a person’s thoughts. The demonstration took place at the Swiss embassy in Washington. Jose Millan and Michele Tavella developed the system. Mr. Tavella can even talk as he watches the vehicle and guides it with his thoughts. MICHELE TAVELLA: “That’s very, very easy. That’s the simplest part we could say because moving one hand or the other is a very, very common task. There is no workload. It’s very, very simple.” Mr. Tavella is a researcher at the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland. In the laboratory, he can operate a wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand. Professor Millan is the team leader. He says systems like those being developed in Lausanne and other places may be available in less than ten years. JOSE MILLAN: “The brain-machine interface is a system that allows disabled people, people suffering from physical disabilities to communicate with external world and also to control devices.” Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles. The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover captures the signals from the scalp and redirects them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain. Professor Millan says scientists keep improving the computer software that identifies brain signals and turns them into simple commands. JOSE MILLAN: “The practical possibilities that brain-machine interfaces offer to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: Communication, and controlling physical devices and virtual devices. One example is this wheelchair.” He says his team has set two goals. JOSE MILLAN: “What we want is to bring this technology out of the lab and this has two components. First is testing with real patients, so as to demonstrate that this is a feasible technology they can benefit from. And the second aspect of that is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.” And that’s the VOA Special English Technology Report. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find us on Facebook and YouTube at VOA Learning English. I’m Robert Cohen. . se-econ -oil- prices-11mar11.Mp3 How High Will the Price of Oil Go This Time? Posted by admin on May 10th, 2011 at 08:15am This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Unrest. affecting the global market. This month, oil prices rose above one hundred dollars a barrel. Prices went above one hundred forty-five dollars a barrel in two thousand eight. The price of oil affects prices. barrels of oil. President Obama could use some of this emergency supply to help ease fuel prices. But intervening in the market could hurt oil production in the United States. Oil prices have