CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Miles Toler at the museum in New London says classes restarted within two to three weeks of the explosion.. MILES TOLER: "I don't know how you walk past it where ever[r]
(1)Unit one : Working With Clay: A How-to Guide This is the VOA Special English Development Report Clay is found almost everywhere in the world It is formed by the action of wind and water on rocks over thousands of years The rocks change in both chemical and physical ways Chemically, elements like potassium and aluminum are added and taken away Physically, the rocks break down into smaller and smaller pieces After a long time, some of the rock changes to clay Clay is important because it is used around the world to make containers of all kinds Potters add water to soften the clay This makes it easier to form into shapes by hand or by machine Then it is fired in an extremely hot stove The result is a container with a hard surface that will last for many years In many countries, clay was formed from volcanoes This kind of clay usually contains many minerals So the fires to make containers from volcanic clay must be hotter than those used for non-volcanic clay The fires may be as hot as one thousand four hundred degrees Celsius It is also important to dry the clay containers slowly This means that the highest temperature should not be reached too fast You can add materials to clay to gain desired results For example, you can add sand to prevent tiny breaks or lines from forming in the finished product But you should not use sand from the coasts of oceans Instead, you should use sand from rivers or from other areas of land that are not near the sea You can usually find good clay in low areas of islands or land, especially if volcanoes helped form the land Clay often exists in fields covered with some water The clay will be found about one meter below the ground River banks often also have clay about one meter or less under the surface You can recognize clay because it is very shiny when it is wet You can also perform a test Take some of the material and add enough water to it to make it seem like you are making bread Then press it in your hand until it is about the size of an egg It is probably clay if it holds together instead of falling apart when you stop pressing And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Gary Garriott Guides to working with clay and other materials can be found on the EnterpriseWorks/VITA list of publications These publications can be ordered for a charge The list is available at enterpriseworks.org Transcripts, MP3 and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com I'm Chris Cruise (2) Unit two : The Lady, or the Tiger? BOB DOUGHTY: Now, the VOA Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES We present the short story “The Lady, or the Tiger?” by Frank R Stockton Here is Barbara Klein with the story BARBARA KLEIN: Long ago, in the very olden time, there lived a powerful king Some of his ideas were progressive But others caused people to suffer One of the king’s ideas was a public arena as an agent of poetic justice Crime was punished, or innocence was decided, by the result of chance When a person was accused of a crime, his future would be judged in the public arena All the people would gather in this building The king sat high up on his ceremonial chair He gave a sign A door under him opened The accused person stepped out into the arena Directly opposite the king were two doors They were side by side, exactly alike The person on trial had to walk directly to these doors and open one of them He could open whichever door he pleased If the accused man opened one door, out came a hungry tiger, the fiercest in the land The tiger immediately jumped on him and tore him to pieces as punishment for his guilt The case of the suspect was thus decided Iron bells rang sadly Great cries went up from the paid mourners And the people, with heads hanging low and sad hearts, slowly made their way home They mourned greatly that one so young and fair, or so old and respected, should have died this way But, if the accused opened the other door, there came forth from it a woman, chosen especially for the person To this lady he was immediately married, in honor of his innocence It was not a problem that he might already have a wife and family, or that he might have chosen to marry another woman The king permitted nothing to interfere with his great method of punishment and reward Another door opened under the king, and a clergyman, singers, dancers and musicians joined the man and the lady The marriage ceremony was quickly completed Then the bells made cheerful noises The people shouted happily And the innocent man led the new wife to his home, following children who threw flowers on their path This was the king’s method of carrying out justice Its fairness appeared perfect The accused person could not know which door was hiding the lady He opened either as he pleased, without having knowing whether, in the next minute, he was to be killed or married Sometimes the fierce animal came out of one door Sometimes it came out of the other This method was a popular one When the people gathered together on one of the great trial days, they never knew whether they would see a bloody killing or a happy ending So everyone was always interested And the thinking part of the community would bring no charge of unfairness against this plan Did not the accused person have the whole matter in his own hands? (MUSIC) The king had a beautiful daughter who was like him in many ways He loved her above all humanity The princess secretly loved a young man who was the best-looking and bravest in the land But he was a commoner, not part of an important family (3) One day, the king discovered the relationship between his daughter and the young man The man was immediately put in prison A day was set for his trial in the king’s public arena This, of course, was an especially important event Never before had a common subject been brave enough to love the daughter of the king The king knew that the young man would be punished, even if he opened the right door And the king would take pleasure in watching the series of events, which would judge whether or not the man had done wrong in loving the princess (MUSIC) The day of the trial arrived From far and near the people gathered in the arena and outside its walls The king and his advisers were in their places, opposite the two doors All was ready The sign was given The door under the king opened and the lover of the princess entered the arena Tall, beautiful and fair, his appearance was met with a sound of approval and tension Half the people had not known so perfect a young man lived among them No wonder the princess loved him! What a terrible thing for him to be there! As the young man entered the public arena, he turned to bend to the king But he did not at all think of the great ruler The young man’s eyes instead were fixed on the princess, who sat to the right of her father From the day it was decided that the sentence of her lover should be decided in the arena, she had thought of nothing but this event The princess had more power, influence and force of character than anyone who had ever before been interested in such a case She had done what no other person had done She had possessed herself of the secret of the doors She knew behind which door stood the tiger, and behind which waited the lady Gold, and the power of a woman’s will, had brought the secret to the princess She also knew who the lady was The lady was one of the loveliest in the kingdom Now and then the princess had seen her looking at and talking to the young man The princess hated the woman behind that silent door She hated her with all the intensity of the blood passed to her through long lines of cruel ancestors Her lover turned to look at the princess His eye met hers as she sat there, paler and whiter than anyone in the large ocean of tense faces around her He saw that she knew behind which door waited the tiger, and behind which stood the lady He had expected her to know it The only hope for the young man was based on the success of the princess in discovering this mystery When he looked at her, he saw that she had been successful, as he knew she would succeed Then his quick and tense look asked the question: “Which?” It was as clear to her as if he shouted it from where he stood There was not time to be lost The princess raised her hand, and made a short, quick movement toward the right No one but her lover saw it Every eye but his was fixed on the man in the arena He turned, and with a firm and quick step he walked across the empty space Every heart stopped beating (4) Every breath was held Every eye was fixed upon that man He went to the door on the right and opened it (MUSIC) Now, the point of the story is this: Did the tiger come out of that door, or did the lady? The more we think about this question, the harder it is to answer It involves a study of the human heart Think of it not as if the decision of the question depended upon yourself But as if it depended upon that hot-blooded princess, her soul at a white heat under the fires of sadness and jealousy She had lost him, but who should have him? How often, in her waking hours and in her dreams, had she started in wild terror, and covered her face with her hands? She thought of her lover opening the door on the other side of which waited the sharp teeth of the tiger! But how much oftener had she seen him open the other door? How had she ground her teeth, and torn her hair, when she had seen his happy face as he opened the door of the lady! How her soul had burned in pain when she had seen him run to meet that woman, with her look of victory When she had seen the two of them get married And when she had seen them walk away together upon their path of flowers, followed by the happy shouts of the crowd, in which her one sad cry was lost! Would it not be better for him to die quickly, and go to wait for her in that blessed place of the future? And yet, that tiger, those cries, that blood! Her decision had been shown quickly But it had been made after days and nights of thought She had known she would be asked And she had decided what she would answer And she had moved her hand to the right The question of her decision is one not to be lightly considered And it is not for me to set myself up as the one person able to answer it And so I leave it with all of you: Which came out of the open door – the lady, or the tiger? (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: You have heard the American Story “The Lady, or the Tiger?” by Frank R Stockton Your storyteller was Barbara Klein This story was adapted into Special English by Shelley Gollust It was produced by Lawan Davis Listen again next week for another American story in VOA Special English I’m Bob Doughty (5) Unit three : Safety Science: The Stories Behind Seat Belts SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This is science in the news, in VOA Special English I’m Shirley Griffith BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty Today we tell about two recent inventionsthat have helped to save lives We will also tell about the people who developed them.( MUSIC) SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Most cars have seat belts as part of their equipment Seat belts protect drivers and passengers in case of accident They also reduce the effect of a crash on the body Safety experts estimate that the restraining devices save thousands of lives a year in the United States alone Worldwide, some experts, say the devices have protected up to a million people The first seat belt was said to have been created in the eighteen hundreds by George Cayley of England He is remembered for many inventions, especially for early “flying machines.” The United States first recognized the invention of an automobile seat belt in eighteen forty-nine The government gave a patent to Edward J Claghorn of New York City so that others would not copy his invention Claghorn called the device a Safety-Belt It was said to include hooks and other attachments for securing the person to a fixed object BOB DOUGHTY: Other inventors followed with different versions of the seat belt But more than one hundred years passed before the current, widely used seat belt was developed It resulted from the work of a Swedish engineer, Nils Bohlin His three-point, lap and shoulder seat belt first appeared on cars in Europe fifty years ago Bohlin was born in Sweden in nineteen twenty After completing college, he designed seats for the Swedish aircraft industry The seats were built for the pilot to escape from an airplane in case of disaster Bohlin’s work with planes showed him what could happen in a crash at high speed In nineteen fifty-eight, Bohlin brought that knowledge to the Swedish car manufacturer Volvo He was the company’s first chief safety engineer At the time, most safety belts in cars crossed the body over the abdomen A buckle held the restraints in place But the position of the buckle often caused severe injuries in bad crashes SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Nils Bohlin recognized that both the upper and lower body needed to be held securely in place His invention contained a cloth strap that was placed across the chest and another strap across the hips The design joined the straps next to the hip Volvo was the first automobile manufacturer to offer the modern seat belt as a permanent addition to its cars It also provided use of Nils Bohlin’s design to other car-makers The Swedish engineer won many honors for his seat belt.He received a gold medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in nineteen ninety-five He died in Sweden in two thousand two (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: Kevlar is another invention that has saved many people from serious injury and death Kevlar is a fibrous material with qualities that make it able to reject bullets Added to clothing, the material protects security officers and soldiers across the world The fibers form a protective barrier against gunfire Bullets lose their shape when they strike Kevlar Those bullets look like mushrooms, and not enter the body Most threats to police and security officers come from handguns They wear Kevlarvests to protect the upper body Soldiers wear more extensive clothing protected with Kevlar against heavier ammunition (6) SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Kevlar might not have been invented had Stephanie Kwolek been able to seek a career in medicine From childhood, she wanted to be a doctor But she lacked the money for a medical education Today, thousands of people are glad that Stephanie Kwolek became a research chemist In that job, she developed the first liquid crystal polymer The polymer was a chemical product that formed the basis for Kevlar BOB DOUGHTY: Stephanie Kwolek was born in nineteen twenty-three in New Kensington, Pennsylvania As a child, Stephanie loved science Later, she studied chemistry and other sciences at a Pennsylvania college now known as Carnegie Mellon University She got a job with the DuPont chemical company in nineteen forty-six It was the beginning of a career with the company that lasted about forty years SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: By the nineteen sixties, DuPont already had produced materials like nylon and Dacron The company wanted to develop a new fiber Stephanie Kwolek was part of a DuPont research group that asked to work on its development At the time, she was searching for a way to make a material strong enough to use on automobile tires If tires could be improved, automobiles would need less fuel Ms Kwolek needed a new way to make stiff, resistant fibers for the job BOB DOUGHTY: Her experiments for the project were supposed to produce a clear substance similar to a thick syrup Instead, what Stephanie Kwolek produced was unexpected It was a liquid that looked cloudy or milky She said she might have thrown it out But she decided to let it sit for a while She told VOA that she was warned the liquid could never complete a required process The process calls for the chemical to be pushed through the small holes of a spinneret She remembers that the man operating the device at first refused to accept her material He probably suspected it had solid particles that would block the holes However, after a while he said he would try it She says she thinks he was tired of being asked, or might have felt sorry for her SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: That person must have been surprised when the substance passed the test It returned from the laboratory with more firmness than anything Stephanie Kwolek had made before Ms Kwolek did not tell anyone that she had produced something new and strong She said she was afraid there might have been a mistake Repeated testing, however, did not find anything wrong She and her group worked to improve the discovery DuPont first manufactured large amounts of Kevlar in nineteen seventy-one The material is found today in hundreds of products from sports equipment to window coverings Over the years, Stephanie Kwolek has received many awards Her honors include membership in the National Inventors Hall of Fame (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: Getting Kevlar placed in protective clothing resulted mainly from the work of Lester Shubin and Nicholas Montanarelli Mr Shubin was educated in chemistry He worked for the United States Army in the nineteen seventies At the time, Mr Montanarelli was an Army project director He was trained in engineering and psychology The two Americans were working at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland They were searching for a way to protect people in public life from gunfire Mr Montanarelli knew about DuPont’s recently developed fiber, and the two men decided to test it (7) SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The men fired handguns at several materials protected by Kevlar The material changed the shape of the bullets It seemed a good candidate to help defend police officers and soldiers Mr Shubin was able to gain financial help for a field experiment Thousands of police officers in many cities began to wear the vests But Mr Montanarelli said it was difficult to get companies to make them The companies feared legal action if the vests should fail BOB DOUGHTY: Then came December, nineteen seventy-five A gunman shot at a policeman in Seattle, Washington One bullet hit the officer’s hand But a bullet fired very close to the policeman struck his chest The officer survived The bullet did not enter his body He felt good enough to protest being kept in a hospital that night to make sure all was well The incident helped get manufacturers to stop worrying about legal action They began making the vests SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Today, about three thousand people are members of the Kevlar Survivors’ Club DuPont and the International Association of Chiefs of Police organized the group All the members have escaped injury or death because long ago, a chemist named Stephanie Kwolek produced something unexpected (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: this science in the news was written by Jerilyn Watson Our producer was Brianna Blake I’m Bob Doughty SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith Join us again next week for more news about Science in Special English on the Voice of America (8) Unit four : The Day a Texas School Exploded, and a Generation Died FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English I'm Faith Lapidus CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I'm Christopher Cruise This week on our program, we tell you about the seventy-fifth anniversary of a tragedy in Texas It led to new safety requirements for natural gas around the world Yet the tragedy itself is not very well remembered today A gas explosion at a school killed nearly three hundred children and adults And, later, we hear about a group that provides jobs through the Internet for people in the some of the world's poorest places (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: People in East Texas call March eighteenth, nineteen thirty-seven, the day a generation died This week, people in New London and surrounding communities are honoring the victims of that day Seventy-five years ago, the community of New London had one of the wealthiest school systems in the country That was because oil had recently been discovered in the area People in the community were proud of their newly built school It costone million dollars The building had separate areas for the lower grades and for a high school London High School that was its name was for students in grades five through eleven School officials had decided to heat the new school with natural gas At that time oil companies considered it waste gas It came out of the ground when they drilled for oil Oil companies burned it off into the atmosphere But people were allowed to tap into pipelines carrying the waste gas and use it for fuel in homes and buildings By using the free gas, the school was able to save about three hundred dollars a month in heating costs Miles Toler is the director of the local museum MILES TOLER: "You get the mindset of people who, even though you were a very rich school district, we're in the thirties, we've just come out of the Depression and we're saving money any way we can." CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: On the afternoon of March eighteenth, nineteen thirty-seven, students in the lower grades had already been dismissed The high schoolstudents were nearly finished for the day London High School had an estimated eight hundred fifty students Many of them were preparing for a big sports event and were not in the building Several parents had gathered in a nearby building for a meeting At three-seventeen that afternoon, a machine shop teacher turned on a piece of electrical equipment, causing a spark That spark ignited gas that had been leaking from the school's pipeline No one knew about the leak because the gas had no smell The explosion that followed blew the roof off the school Miles Toler says the roof crushed the front of the building as it crashed back to the ground MILES TOLER: "The blast literally eliminates the front half of the school." Mr Toler says there were about five hundred students in the building, in addition to teachers and visitors, at the time of the explosion There are different estimates of the number of people killed He says the museum has been able to confirm the deaths of two hundred ninety-three children, teachers and visitors (9) In the hours that followed, thousands of people came to the school from all around They came to search for their children and to help in the rescue effort Today people on YouTube can watch an old newsreel report about the explosion ANNOUNCER (UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL): "There was no warning Before the eyes of persons in the vicinity including scores of parents assembled for a meeting in a nearby building the schoolhouse, one of the finest rural structures in the country, suddenly burst asunder and collapsed In the remaining hours of daylight and the through the long, terrible night, the scenes of the disaster were indescribable, harrowing A wild confusion of feverish rescue work by floodlights with their gruesome, ghostly shadows, and everywhere, sobbing, hysterical parents." FAITH LAPIDUS: News of the explosion spread across the country and throughout the world In part that was because of a young reporter named Walter Cronkite He was working for United Press in Dallas, Texas, at the time He quickly traveled to the school, two hours away, and began reporting on the explosion It was his first major story Walter Cronkite went on to cover wars and other major events He become the nation's leading nightly news anchorman But he would later write that nothing could have prepared him for what he witnessed that day in New London, and no other story ever equaled it Several lawsuits were brought after the explosion However, no one was found legally responsible for the accident But one of the most important results of the disaster was the passage of a new state law in Texas It required gas suppliers to add an odor to natural gas so people would know if there was a leak That requirement was quickly adopted throughout the country and around the world Today millions of people recognize the danger of a gas leak when they smell an odor like rotten eggs CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Miles Toler at the museum in New London says classes restarted within two to three weeks of the explosion MILES TOLER: "I don't know how you walk past it where everybody was killed in the explosion, but you and you go to the gym and other buildings on the campus and you finish the school year out." Mr Toler was born two years after the explosion He says the community had an extremely difficult time dealing with the tragedy He says no one ever discussed it while he was growing up and attending the very same school Local citizens rebuilt the school over the next two years, replacing the natural gaswith steam heat And in nineteen thirty-nine a large stone memorial was placed nearby But Mr Toler says the first memorial gathering was not held until nineteen seventy-seven MILES TOLER: "So there's a forty-year span that nobody talks about anything that went on." He believes the people of the rural community just could not deal with so great a loss MILES TOLER: "Some lost as many as three kids, some lost the only children they had, and, you know, it's one of those things, if you don't talk about it, maybe it's going to go away Of course, we know it doesn't." FAITH LAPIDUS: The museum opened across the street from the school campus in nineteen ninety-eight Mr Toler says people donated things their families had saved, including clothing that their surviving children were wearing that day Other items include telegrams of sympathy sent from throughout the world There are twenty-five cards that students in Switzerland sent at the time of the explosion And there is even a telegram sent by Adolf Hitler, then the chancellor of Germany Today, Mr Toler says more than two thousand people visit the London Museum each year MILES TOLER: "A lot of students come through with field trips so that they can learn about the explosion, about the fact that natural gas has a smell to it because of the explosion at London." (10) The school in East Texas still operates In nineteen sixty-six the name was changed to West Rusk County Consolidated High School (MUSIC) CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The State Department in Washington has recognized the work of a nongovernmental organization called Samasource Samasource connects workers to jobs through the Internet The group received an Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls Its founder, Leila Janah, says helping people get jobs is a better way to end poverty than simply giving them money as charity LEILA JANAH: "I really don't like charity I think charity does a disservice to the people that it tries to help." Samasource uses the Internet to employ hundreds of people living in poverty around the world Ms Janah graduated from Harvard University She has spent much of the past ten years working in development and visiting poor countries FAITH LAPIDUS: She was seventeen when she made her first trip to Ghana She says she was surprised to discover that many of the poor children she met were smart and spoke English LEILA JANAH: "I really flipped my understanding of economic development and poverty on its head and I realized that we don't live in a global meritocracy." In a meritocracy, people are recognized and rewarded with advancement based on their skills The idea for Samasource was born when Ms Janah was working for a management firm She visited an outsourcing center in India If people could use the Internet to work for that company, she thought, so could others living in rural areas Samasource has its headquarters in San Francisco, California It negotiates contracts for projects with big technical organizations Then it breaks down large projects into "microwork." This can include creating content for websites and working with data Samasource workers can complete this work anywhere they have a computer and an Internet connection CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Samasource began in two thousand eight It works with sixteen work centers in Africa, South Asia and Haiti Ms Janah says Samasource has paid more than one million dollars to more than one thousand five hundred people, many of them women She says violence against women often results from their inability to earn an independent income But when women are given work with computers, she says, they are helped not just financially LEILA JANAH: "They start getting respected for their brains rather than their bodies." Some critics question the idea of sending work outside the country The Great Recession increased the number of Americans living in poverty Ms Janah says Samasource is looking for ways to use its technology to help them But she says anti-poverty efforts need a more globalized point of view LEILA JANAH: "I think it's important to remember that a person is a person, whether it's a poor person in Bangladesh or a poor person in rural Mississippi Each deserves our consideration." (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake We also had reporting by Monaliza Noormohammadi I'm Faith Lapidus CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I'm Christopher Cruise You can find videos about the New London school explosion on our website, voaspecialenglish.com You can also find transcripts and MP3s of our programs, along with podcasts and activities for learning English Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English (11) Unit five : “kony 2012” - the success This is the VOA Special English Technology Report Have you heard of Joseph Kony? Chances are you have An American group placed a video about him on the YouTube website in early March Since then, people around the world have watched the video more than eighty million times SOUND ("KONY 2012"): “For twenty-six years Kony has been kidnapping children into his rebel group, the LRA, turning the girls into sex slaves and the boys into child soldiers.” That is the voice of Jason Russell He is with the American-based charity Invisible Children It created the “Kony 2012” video to bring attention to Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army They hope the video will lead to his capture before the end of the year Public reaction to the film has been mixed Many people are praising its creators for bringing attention to the issue Just as many have criticized the work They have questioned the video’s trustworthiness and substance Some have accused the creators of seeking financial gain In Uganda, some people even rioted at recent showings of the film The video opens with the words “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” But some say timing is one of the problems Louisa Lombard is agraduate student in Duke University’s Department of Cultural Anthropology Ms Lombard has studied conflict and policy in Africa She says much of information presented in the video is old LOUISA LOMBARD: “People watching this video get the impression that this is a northern Ugandan problem, when in fact, the LRA has not been operating in northern Uganda for years They moved first to South Sudan, and then on to the Democratic Republic of the Congo into the Central African Republic Where they are now is debatable.” The Ugandan government had a similar reaction to the video In a statement, thegovernment thanked the international community for its interest in Joseph Kony and the LRA But it made clear that the group had not been active in Uganda since two thousand six Uganda says the LRA is no longer a major threat and that the group now has less than three hundred members Paul Levinson is a professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University in New York He agreed that some of the information could be seen as misleading But he said the more important thing was to publicize Joseph Kony and the LRA PAUL LEVINSON: “I think this is a profoundly disturbing serious issue that needs to be brought to the attention of the world And if it’s slightly off in a fact or two that’s a very very minor criticism.” Last Thursday, Jason Russell was hospitalized after San Diego police found him in his underwear, following reports that he had been naked and screaming in the streets The head of Invisible Children, Ben Keesy, said the filmmaker was “suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition.” And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms I'm Steve Ember (12) Unit six : Getting a Free Education, in Huge Online Classes This is the VOA Special English Education Report A class with tens or even hundreds of thousands of students might sound like a teacher's bad dream But a big idea in higher education these days is the massive open online course, or MOOC Some universities offer free, non-credit MOOCs available to anyone in the world Others charge for courses and provide credits The idea is still developing The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently started its first MOOC The school plans to offer many free, non-credit courses through a project called MITx So far, most massive open online courses are in computer science, technology, mechanics and engineering For example, students around the world are taking a free course called "Building a Computer Search Engine." Two computer scientists, Sebastian Thrun and David Evans, are offering this course through udacity.com Mr Evans is on leave from the University of Virginia, where he is an associate professor Mr Thrun is a Stanford research professor and a Google Fellow best known for his work on a driverless car There are no education requirements for the course The students watch short videos Then, says Mr Evans, they take informal, ungraded quizzes after the videos each week for six weeks DAVID EVANS: "Quizzes are part of the lecture to keep students engaged and keep them thinking, for students to be able to check that they understood what we covered Those are not graded and students try those as often as they want." They can repeatedly watch the videos and take the quizzes whenever they want Students receive homework They join online groups to exchange questions and answers about the course The teachers hold virtual office hours to answer questions that the students have voted to send them They also present their own questions and observations The students take a final examination to show where they rate in the class Everyone who finishes the course receives a grade and proof of completion Topstudents get letters documenting their work Mr Thrun started Udacity, which supports free MOOCs Udacity hopes to make a profit in the future by connecting possible employers with interested students On his Stanford homepage he says he wants to "democratize" education Education, he says, should be free, accessible for all, everywhere and any time So how does David Evans compare the education in MOOCs to traditional teaching? DAVID EVANS: "There are things that we can better in the online format We can certainly deliver high-quality education to so much more students at much lower cost " But he recognizes the limits DAVID EVANS: "Part of what I hope will happen as a result of this is that the best traditional universities will be able to focus on the things they can really well that can't be done better through an online university." And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jerilyn Watson I’m Bob Doughty (13) Unit seven : Learners’ favorite sayings Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES A proverb is a short, well known saying that expresses a common truth or belief Many proverbs give advice about the best way to live Recently, we presented a program about proverbs We asked our listeners to send us their favorite proverbs A short time later, we received suggestions from around the world We heard from listeners in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America The top proverb among these listeners is this one: "Where there is a will, there is a way." This means that you can rise above your problems if you have a goal and work very hard Some listeners liked another proverb: "Strike while the iron is hot." This means it is best to take action quickly and at the right time Another favorite proverb was,"God helps those who help themselves." Xu Da-ju from China wrote that his country has thousands of proverbs Several of them are also used in the United States One example is "Birds of a feather flock together." This means that people who are alike often become friends or spend time together Another proverb is "Blood is thicker than water." This means family ties are stronger than other relationships A similar proverb states "Charity begins at home." A person should help his family or close friends before helping others Alina from China sent us this proverb: "He who would climb a ladder must begin at the bottom." That is good advice when working around your home or looking for a job Antonio Jose from Brazil says his favorite proverb is "Tell me who walks with you, and I'll tell you who you are." Didier Vermeulen of France sent us this one: "It does not matter the speed you go The most important thing is to never stop." Wafaa from Egypt says her favorite proverb is, "Think twice, act wise." She also says she is making an effort to use this saying in her life Another favorite proverb among our listeners is "Practice makes perfect." This means you will become good at something if you keep doing it Another popular proverb is: "If you want something done right, it yourself." Najeeb from Afghanistan sent us this proverb: "If you risk nothing, then you risk everything." And, here is the favorite proverb of Marius Meledje in Ivory Coast: "Your defeat now is your victory in the future." He says it means you can learn from your mistakes This will help you better when facing similar situations in the future (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust I'm Faith Lapidus We will present more programs about proverbs in the future And you can find more WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com (14) Unit eight : using national parks as classrooms This is the VOA Special English Education Report The National Park Service in the United States will mark its one hundredth anniversary in twentysixteen As it nears its second century, the Park Service plans to increase its educational programs for students and teachers The plans include transportation support for one hundred thousand students each year to visit national parks to learn about nature and history Yellowstone is believed to have been the world's first national park when it was established in eighteen seventy-two Other students will get a chance to see parks in faraway places through Skype and other online programs The National Park Service also works with partners to provide education One of its partners is a nonprofit organization called NatureBridge NatureBridge is celebrating its fortieth anniversary and says one million young people have taken part in its programs The organization works with students from kindergarten through twelfth grade and uses national parks as its classrooms It provides field science programs at Yosemite National Park and four other locations in California and the northwestern state of Washington Now, NatureBridge is launching an East Coast center with a four-million-dollar grant from Google The program will begin in April at the Prince William Forest Parkin Virginia Students stay for three to five days in NatureBridge programs The activities are aimed at developing their science skills For example, they learn about different soils and study water quality under a microscope Jason Morris is executive vice president of NatureBridge He says when they are not sleeping, eating or in a laboratory, the students spend their time outdoors Julia Washburn is associate director of education and interpretation for the National Park Service She says in a time of budget cuts, the agency has to find ways to still meet its goals JULIA WASHBURN: "We are not likely to get a lot of money in this current economy This is about doing different work with the money that we have and redirecting resources into it." Ms Washburn says one of the most important services that the Park Service provides every day is nature interpretation Park rangers try to make visiting the outdoors more meaningful JULIA WASHBURN: "Interpretation is a form of informal education Essentially, it is a word that we use for the people in parks that explain the park or help orient you So park rangers are interpreters They orient you to the place you are in and help you make connections, emotional and intellectual connections, with the place." And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jerilyn Watson You can find captioned videos of our programs at the VOA Learning English channel on YouTube I'm Steve Ember (15) Unit nine : Russian votes for President This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English Russians vote for a new president Sunday, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is expected to win There are five candidates on the ballot The others include Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov and billionaire businessman Mikhail Prokhorov Mr Putin was president from two thousand to two thousand eight By law, Russianpresidents cannot serve more than two terms in a row There were reports of widespread cheating in the elections for parliament, the Duma, last year Those claims led to the largest street demonstrations in thecountry since the Soviet Union collapsed twenty years ago Protesters say Mr Putin controls Russia through a heavily controlled political system and corruption Angela Stent is a Russia expert at Georgetown University in Washington She was not surprised that the Prime Minister has blamed the United States in connection with the unrest ANGELA STENT: “He has really resorted to a tactic that, of course, has been used since he became president in two thousand and that is to invoke the United States [as the] enemy, to blame the United States for a lot of Russian problems And as you saw, in the Duma elections, he then blamed Hillary Clinton, Secretary Clinton, for supporting the opposition and for trying to undermine Russian stability.” President Obama has made better relations with Russia an important part of his foreign policy His dealings with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev led to a major arms-control agreement known as New START It also led to increased cooperation on issues like Afghanistan, Iran and Libya But Russia joined with China in vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria Sasha a Russian in his twenties who did not want to use his last name says he is tired of Mr Putin He says he is voting for Mr Prokhorov, the co-owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team Mr Putin has already shown all that he can do, Sasha says, and he has enough money But Anya who did not want to use her last name either says she is looking forward to Mr Putin returning to the presidency She says he helped bring Russia out of economic collapse in the late nineteen nineties Another Russian, Natasha, says she is not even going her to vote because she knows the ruling United Russia party will cheat and Mr Putin will win She says she does not think the elections will be clean unless there are cameras in the voting stations, as Mr Putin has promised In the December elections, United Russia won the most seats After criticism of the vote, Prime Minister Putin announced a one-half-billion-dollar program to place two Web cameras at each voting center Russia has nearly one hundred thousand polling stations The last public-opinion survey before the election by an independent group suggested that Mr Putin will win with sixty-two to sixty-six percent In two thousand four he was re-elected with seventy-one percent of the vote Mr Medvedev is expected to become prime minister in a new government A win on Sunday will make Mr Putin the longest-serving leader in Moscow since Josef Stalin ruled the Soviet Union Two hundred thousand Russians have volunteered to watch for cheating on Sunday A group called Citizen Observer has been training volunteers And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English I'm Bob Doughty (16) Unit ten : For meat lovers, the challenge of faking it This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report Some people in the Netherlands are spending three hundred thirty thousand dollars on a hamburger The people are scientists at the University of Maastricht They want to prove that they can make a hamburger that tastes good and does not require an animal to be killed Researcher Mark Post and his team have been growing muscle-tissue cells in alaboratory with muscle taken from a cow MARK POST: "We have committed ourselves to make a couple of thousand of these small tissues and then assemble them into a hamburger." Several teams around the world are trying to produce meat without killing animals So far the Dutch team appears to have made the most progress Mr Post says he wants to show that the world's growing demand for meat could be satisfied more efficiently and with less harm to the environment MARK POST: "It's a combination of the two things, care for environment and food production for the world And second is just a generic interest in life-transforming technologies." Seth Tibbott is the founder of Turtle Island Foods in Hood River, Oregon SETH TIBBOTT: "This is some of our flagship product, the Tofurky roast, being made, where the stuffing is inside and the " His company makes a vegetarian turkey substitute called Tofurky Tofurky is made from tofu Tofu is made with soybeans So what does Mr Tibbott think of the idea of a hamburger made in a lab? SETH TIBBOTT: "I think it sounds still pretty disgusting." His company estimates that about three percent of Americans are vegetarian Vegetarians not necessarily want food that tastes like meat But Seth Tibbott says a lot of other people might try meatless alternatives if those products did look and taste more like real meat SETH TIBBOTT: "In the industry, they're called flexi-tarians or they're called 'sometimes vegetarians.' And, depending on what study you look at, they're thirty to forty percent of America." Turtle Island Foods is building a new Tofurky factory It will let the company make three times as much Tofurky starting next year Biochemistry professor Patrick Brown at Stanford University in California has started his own company developing a meat substitute His food scientists are working with plant proteins and oils to try to reproduce the look and taste of the real thing But he says whatever they produce will also need a price that appeals to meat lovers PATRICK BROWN: "What we're intending to is basically produce stuff that will compete by being substantially cheaper and every bit as good and essentially indistinguishable to a consumer who loves meat or dairy That’s the only way I think you’re really going to win in the market." The American beef industry uses the marketing slogan: "Beef, it's what's for dinner." Jack Field is the director of the Washington Cattlemen's Association, in Washingtonstate He says he is not too worried about competition from fake meat In his words, "Real beef will be what's for dinner, now and into the future." And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report You can find captioned videos of our programs at the VOA Learning English channel on YouTube I'm Jim Tedder (17) (18)