Learning English Podcast - February 26, 2025
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Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Katie Weaver. And I'm Mario Ritter, Jr. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases especially written for people learning English.

Coming up on the show, Alice Bryant and Phil Dierking have education tips. I'll bring you a gardening story. And we close the show with the lesson of the day. But now, here's John Russell. The year was 1931. The top-selling book in the United States was The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.

the following year buck won the pulitzer prize for the best novel by an american writer in nineteen thirty eight buck became the first american woman to be awarded the nobel prize in literature she wrote more than one hundred books

she also wrote short stories poetry plays essays and children's books but most people remember pearl buck for her novels about china she knew the country and its people very well for nearly forty years china was her home pearl's parents were caroline and absalom sidenstricker

they were religious workers in china pearl's education began at home her mother taught her many of the things she would have learned in an american school a chinese teacher taught pearl other subjects in nineteen ten pearl went back to the united states to study philosophy at randolph macon women's college in lynchburg virginia

after graduation she returned to china three years later she met john lossing buck he was a religious worker who studied agriculture they were married and moved to a small village in the north of china their life among the poorest people provided the subject matter for many of the books she later wrote

the good earth is the story of a poor chinese man named wong lung his wife is o lan they work very hard together and finally make enough money to buy some land for a farm after a time they grow enough crops to feed their family well with some left over to sell

Their lives get much better and they are happy, but the good times do not last. Pearl Buck wrote her first books about China at a time when most people in the world knew almost nothing about the Chinese way of life. After almost 40 years in China, the writer moved back to the United States.

she bought green hills farm in eastern pennsylvania she began to write articles for newspapers and magazines she expressed her opinions on war politics religion equal rights for all people and many other subjects she also gave many speeches

Buck talked to young people about the importance of a good education. She also told them they needed to know more about other people around the world. Pearl Buck died in 1973 at the age of 80. I'm John Russell.

If you are a gardener, you probably have some favorite plants that you grow year after year. But you might also like to try new plants sometimes.

Gardening expert Jessica Damiano recently reported for the Associated Press about one way to find new plants that might appeal to growers. Each year, the independent nonprofit organization All-America Selections, or AAS,

enlists more than 80 horticultural professionals from around the United States and Canada to serve as plant trial judges. Their job is to grow the new plants side by side with currently available varieties. The group then compares plant performance, time to reach full growth,

flower or fruit size, disease resistance, and other qualities important to home gardeners. When the results are gathered, the best plants are named AAS winners for the following year, in time for their launch on the market.

For 2025, 20 plants have been named national or local winners. Seven of them are edible plants, meaning they can be eaten. Here are the new kinds of edible plants that some gardeners might be interested in. Two of the winners received the honor under the regional or local identification.

The basil piedmont of the Great Lakes and Heartland regions was noted for its strong resistance to disease, especially that of the fungus called downy mildew. The experts also favored its strong smell, classic flavor, and refined habit.

Harvested plants keep for a long period, the judges said. The dense, bushy plant also was honored for strong growth and health, even in difficult growing conditions. Garden genetics and seeds by design produced the new plant.

Tomato Tonatico F1 of the Mountain Southwest and Northeast regions also was a winner. Judges praised the taste, texture, yield, disease resistance, and reduced fruit cracking and splitting of this cherry tomato.

Tonetico also was noted for its strongly attached, uniform fruit clusters that were easy to remove at harvest time. The fruit was created or bred by Bijou USA. The Cauliflower Murasaki Fioretto 70 F1 is among the five winners in the national class.

Murasaki translates to purple in Japanese. This cauliflower has bright purple flowers as well as long, soft stems. The experts said the plant matures or reaches full growth early and is easy to harvest.

It does not have a strong flavor and would make a beautiful purple food to serve raw or uncooked. It will turn to a fuchsia color in vinegar and golden brown when lightly cooked. Tokita Seed America bred the plant.

The winning Pepper Pick and Pop Yellow F1 was noted for outstanding resistance to bacterial leaf spot disease. Judges also found that the plant produced sweet yellow small peppers throughout the growing season. The company Seminis Home Garden was the breeder.

Squash Green Lightning F1 was praised for its small seed cavity. This results in more edible flesh from each fruit. Green Lightning lived up to its name in the trials, judges said. They noted how quickly it reached maturity. One judge said,

This entry not only looked better, but also tasted better than the comparison, adding it looked good enough to use as a decoration. Another winner, Squash Thriller F1, was noted for its unusual color-changing quality. Judges also said it was easy to grow.

The plants produce one to two pound fruits with bright orange, green, and white ridged lines that change color as they mature. Cicada America bred the squash thriller. I'm Katie Weaver. Music

On a recent program, we explained that knowing just a few root words in English can help you understand the meaning of hundreds more words. To refresh your memory, a root word is the simplest form of a word. For example, two forms of the root for the word "see" are "viz" and "vid."

such as in the words "television" and "video." Today, we will tell you about prefixes and suffixes, groups of letters that appear at the beginnings and endings of words. Learning the meanings of common prefixes and suffixes can help you understand unknown English words you come across.

It can also help you become better at spelling words. Let's start with prefixes. A prefix is a letter or a group of letters that we add to the beginning of a word. Prefixes change the meanings of words. For example, the prefix "un" or "u-n" can mean "not, remove, or opposite,

Adding -un to the word happy gives you the word unhappy, which means not happy. -un and -re are the two most common prefixes in the English language. -re means again or back, such as in the words rethink, redo, and repay.

Here are a few things to remember when learning prefixes. Number 1. Different prefixes in English can have similar meanings, such as "un", "in", and "non", all of which mean "not" or "opposite of". Also, the prefixes "mis" and "ir" mean "wrong", "wrongly", or "incorrectly". Number 2.

Notice that double letters are possible. For example, when you add the prefix "im" to words that begin with the letter "m", you get two "m's" as in "immeasurable". That's also true when you add "un" to words that begin with the letter "n" as in "unnoticeable". The same is true for many other prefixes. Number 3.

When adding a prefix to a word, the spelling of the base word never changes. For example, the prefix "un" did not change the spelling of the word "happy" and the prefix "re" would not change the spelling of the word "live" in "relive". Number 4. Watch out for lookalikes: words that look like they contain prefixes but in fact do not.

For example, the -un in the word "uncle" is not a prefix, nor is the -re in the words "reach" or "real." Now let's turn to suffixes. A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word. Suffixes are commonly used to show the part of speech of a word.

For example, adding -ion to the verb "act" gives us "action," the noun form of the word. Suffixes also tell us the verb tense of words or whether the words are plural or singular. Some common suffixes are -er, -s, -es, -ed, -ing,

and -ly. Here are a few things to remember when learning suffixes. Number one: Some suffixes have more than one meaning. For example, the suffix -er may suggest a person who performs an action, like a teacher. But -er is also commonly added to the ends of adjectives and adverbs.

they compare two things and show that one is more than the other, such as in faster and stronger. Number two, the spelling of a base word can change when a suffix is added. This is true of most base words ending in the letter Y.

For instance, when we add the suffix -ness to the word crazy to make craziness, we replace the y with an i. This rule is also true of many base words ending in a silent e when the suffix begins with a vowel. For example, in the words write

make and manage we drop the e in the words when we add ing to make writing making and managing we also often drop the silent e before the suffix able such as in usable

Be careful, though, because with some words we keep the E, such as "inchangeable" and "lovable." There are additional suffix rules, but they deal with spelling and can be learned with time and practice. A thing to keep in mind about both prefixes and suffixes

is that some are only used with some words. For example, we add the suffix "ful" to some nouns to mean "full of", such as in the words "beautiful" or "helpful". But, we cannot add "full" to just any noun. You could not, for example, say "loveful" to mean "full of love". So what are some ways that you can practice common prefixes and suffixes?

One way is to use online flashcards from websites like Quizlet. You can choose sets of cards that are already made or create and use your own sets. Or you can make your own flashcards with pieces of paper. Once you've spent time practicing, take a news story or page in a book and look for words that have the prefixes and suffixes you learned.

Then, use what you know about the meaning of the root words to guess the meanings of those words. Learning prefixes and suffixes will not only build your vocabulary, but can make unfamiliar English words a lot less frightening. I'm Phil Deerking. And I'm Alice Bryant. My name is Ana Mateo. My name is Andrew Smith. And my name is Jill Robbins.

You're listening to the lesson of the day on the Learning English Podcast. Welcome to the part of the show where we help you do more with our series, Let's Learn English. This series shows Ana Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. In lesson 37 of the series, Ana finds a backpack outside her office building and tries to find the person it belongs to. Let's listen.

You know, I am from the country and sometimes I miss it, but I really like life in the city! I love the city. Oh look, someone lost a bag. Maybe it's theirs. Excuse me, is this bag yours? No, it's not mine. It might be hers. Thank you. Excuse me, is this bag yours? No, it's not mine. It might be his.

Thank you. Hello. Is this bag yours? Yes, that's mine. These are all my travel things. Thank you. Thank you. Luckily for this traveler, Anna found his bag and brought it to him. Anna was thinking to herself, I wonder whose bag this is. That's whose spelled W-H-O-S-E, which refers to possession.

That means to whom the object or idea belongs. Right. So if you find something and you're not sure whose it is, one thing you can ask is: Whose is this? Remember that this word, whose, is spelled differently than the contraction of the two words who is. Those two words form a subject and verb, like this:

Who's the President of the United States? The contraction and the possessive adjective both sound the same. They are both pronounced with the sound of the letter Z at the end. Whose bag is this? Who's the President of the United States? And when we talk about to whom something belongs, we use possessive pronouns. We heard these when Anna was trying to find out whose bag she found. Oh, look!

Someone lost a bag. Maybe it's theirs. Excuse me, is this bag yours? No, it's not mine. It might be hers. Thank you. Excuse me, is this bag yours? No, it's not mine. It might be his. Thank you. Hello, is this bag yours? Yes, that's mine. These are all my travel things. Thank you.

Thank you. You'll notice that these possessive pronouns sound almost the same as possessive adjectives. For example, the adjective form of the pronoun you is your. Like when we say, "This is your bag." And then for the possessive pronoun, we just add the letter s. For example, This bag is yours. But notice that the s at the end

Sounds like the letter Z. Zzzz. Yours. If you listen carefully, you can hear a bit of the sound of the letter S at the end of a word like "yours". So, the sound of Z is not as strong or as long as in a word like "zero". Instead, it's more like a Z with a little S at the end. Yours.

Now listen to these five possessive pronouns: yours, his, hers, ours, theirs. We'll listen to a chant at the end of today's lesson of the day to give you a fun way to practice saying these possessive pronouns. Oh, we will? Whose idea was that? That idea was mine. Well, I'm not surprised.

Let's go back to lesson 37 and see what the owner of the bag and Anna talk about. Hey, you seem nervous. Well, this is my first visit to Washington DC. I'm from a small town in the country. I feel a little lost. I'm from the country too. And I understand. When I first came here, I felt lost.

So, do you like living in the country or in the city? I like to live in the city. Why? The city is exciting. It has more culture than the country. There are many museums and restaurants. Every night there's theater and music. And there are more jobs. That is why I'm here. Well,

I agree, there is more culture in the city and there might be more jobs, but the country has more nature. It's peaceful and beautiful. There are more trees and mountains. The air is clean. You can go hiking and camping. The city is not beautiful.

It's noisy and dirty. I disagree. I think all the different buildings are beautiful. And I like to watch all the different people. Anna and the man from the country... And we should note that when the man uses the word country, he means he is from a rural area, not a city. It does not mean he's from a foreign country. Good point.

Anna and the man from the country are talking about which kind of place they prefer. Prefer is a verb. It means to like something more compared to another thing. Anna prefers the city, while the man prefers the country. So, they are talking about their preferences. Preference is a noun. It means the thing or the choice that you like more.

and we can use it or the verb form to form a question. For example, we can ask: Which do you prefer? The city or the country? Or if you already know or have mentioned the choices, you can just ask: Do you have a preference? Or you can ask: Do you have a preference between the two? Anna and the man prefer different things.

In another lesson of the day, we'll listen to more of Lesson 37 of Let's Learn English and find out if Anna and the man continue to disagree or if they share some preferences. And here's a question for our listeners. Do you have a preference between living in the city or the country? You can let us know which you prefer by writing to us at learningenglishatvoanews.com.

So, Andrew, we're almost out of time. How about we listen to that chant with possessive pronouns? Okay, let's do it. And special thanks to my friend Jennifer, who helped record the chant. Here it is.

Whose is this? Whose is that? It's his. It's hers. It's theirs. It's mine. Whose are these? Whose are those? They're his. They're hers. They're ours. They're mine. Is it ours? Is it his? Is it hers? Is it theirs? It's not his. And it's not hers. And it's not ours. And it's not theirs. I think it's mine. I think it's mine. It's mine. It's mine. It's mine. It's mine.

Is everything yours? Not everything's mine. This one's yours. And that one's hers. And those are his. But what about these? These are mine. But what about those? Those are mine. Are you gonna share? Of course I'll share. Whenever we share. It's not just yours. It's not just mine. It's yours and mine. It's yours and mine. It's yours and mine. It's yours and mine. And together, it's ours.

I'm Dr. Jill. And I'm Andrew Smith. And that's our show for today. But join us again tomorrow to keep learning English on The Voice of America. I'm Katie Weaver. And I'm