Learning English Podcast - January 23, 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.

On today's program, Jill Robbins tells about new U.S. rules banning a common food coloring. John Russell reports on research suggesting ancient Celtic women in Britain had deep social networks. Brian Lynn follows that with a report on new methods for policing information on Meta's social media services like Facebook.

Then, the lesson of the day. But first… The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, has banned a chemical widely used to color some food products red. The ban of the coloring chemical, called dye, came nearly 35 years after it was removed from skin products because of a possible cancer risk.

A group of food safety and health supporters issued a petition in 2022 seeking to have the FDA ban red number 3 in food. The earlier ban was ordered in 1990 after two studies showed red number 3 caused cancer in male rats eating high levels of the chemical.

At the time, however, the FDA only acted to ban the coloring mixture in products put on the skin or in drugs taken by mouth. Health activists had long sought FDA approval to expand the ban to food products. In November, nearly two dozen members of Congress sent a letter demanding that FDA officials ban red number three.

Some of the most common products containing red number three include sweets, icing, strawberry milk, maraschino cherries, strawberry protein drinks, as well as some gummy vitamins and medications. The FDA said food manufacturers will have until January 2027 to remove the dye from their products. Other countries still permit certain uses of the dye.

but any imported products will still have to meet the new u s requirement red number three is already banned for food use in europe australia and new zealand except in certain kinds of cherries the dye will be banned in california starting in january twenty twenty seven

and lawmakers in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Indiana have also proposed limits on certain dyes, especially from foods offered in public schools. Jim Jones is the FDA's Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods. He noted that even though the agency had established the new ban, the way that FD&C Red No. 3 causes cancer in male rats does not occur in humans.

FDA officials said the ban was enacted because of a U.S. rule called the Delaney Clause. This legal policy requires the FDA to ban any additive found to cause cancer in people or animals. Dr. Peter Lurie is director of the Consumer Activist Group, the center for science in the public interest. He helped lead the latest effort to remove red number three from food products.

Lurie told the Associated Press. This is a welcome but long overdue action from the FDA. The International Association of Color Manufacturers has repeatedly said red number three is safe in levels usually taken in by humans. The group pointed to research carried out by scientific experts from the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

One study, released in 2018, confirmed the safety of Red 3 in food. Some food manufacturers have already changed their products to remove Red 3. One example is Sensient Food Colors, a St. Louis-based supplier of food colors and flavorings. In its place, the company uses beet juice, a dye made from insects and other coloring mixtures.

I'm Jill Robbins. A recent study suggests that female family ties were central to social networks in ancient Celtic society before the Roman invasion. Genetic evidence from a late Iron Age cemetery in Britain shows that women were closely related.

at the same time unrelated men were more likely to come into the community from other places likely after marriage for the study researchers examined ancient dna from fifty-seven burial places in dorset in southwestern england

people used the cemetery from around two thousand one hundred years ago to around one thousand eight hundred years ago the results showed that two-thirds of the individuals descended from a single maternal lineage lara cassidy of trinity college dublin was one of the study's co-writers

cassidy suggested to the associated press a p that the results were surprising or in her words jaw-dropping she said that such a finding had never been observed before in european prehistory the study appeared recently in the scientific publication nature

the research suggests that women stayed in the same circles throughout life they kept social networks and likely inherited or managed land and property cassidy told the a p that the findings suggest it's your husband who is coming in as a relative stranger dependent on a wife's family for land and livelihood

such a way of living is called matrilocality the researchers said it is historically rare guido nyeke ruscon is with the max planck institute in germany nyeke ruscon was not part of the study he said researchers studying burial places in britain and europe have only discovered the opposite behavior

he said in those communities women left their homes and families to join their husbands family group he said such a way of living known as patrilocality has been observed in other ancient time periods these include the neolithic period which started more than ten thousand years ago

to the early medieval period more than one thousand years in the past cassidy said in studies of pre-industrial societies from around two hundred twenty years ago to the present researchers found that men join their wives extended family households only eight per cent of the time

but researchers already knew there was something special about the role of women in iron age britain a group of tribes with closely related languages and art that is often described as celtic lived in england before the roman invasion about two thousand years ago valuable objects have been found buried with celtic women

roman writers including julius caesar wrote with disrespect about their relative independence and fighting abilities the network of strong female family connections that the researchers found does not necessarily mean that women also held official positions of political power

study co-writer miles russell of burnmouth university in england researches ancient societies he said the findings do suggest that women had some control of land and property and strong social support such a situation made britain's celtic society more egalitarian than the roman world russell said

i am john russell facebook parent company meta recently announced changes to the way it tries to identify misinformation and harmful material published on its social media services

met a chief mark zuckerberg explained in a video that the company had decided to make the changes because the old system had produced too many mistakes and too much censorship

zuckerberg said the moderation system metta had built needed to be complex to examine huge amounts of content in search of material that violated company policies however he noted the problem with such systems is they can make a lot of errors

the meta chief added about such systems even if they accidentally censor just one per cent of posts that's millions of people so he said the company had decided to move to a new system centered on reducing mistakes simplifying our policies and restoring free expression

The new method turns over content moderation duties to a community notes system. The company said this system aims to empower the community to decide whether content is acceptable or needs further examination. The changes will be effective for Meta's Facebook, Instagram, and Threads services.

Meta said the new system would become available first to U.S. users in the coming months. Meta's former moderation system involved the use of independent, third-party fact-checking organizations. Many of these were large media companies or news agencies.

The efforts included digital tools as well as human workers to fact-check content and identify faults in appropriate or harmful material. Meta said the third-party moderation method ended up identifying too much information for fact-checking.

after closer examination a lot of content should have been considered legitimate political speech and debate another problem the company said was that the decisions made by content moderators could be affected by their personal beliefs opinions and biases

One result was that a program intended to inform too often became a tool to censor. Meta's new community notes system is similar to the method used by the social media service X. A statement by Meta said changes to this system will have to be made by users, not anyone from the company.

Meta said, just like they do on X, community notes will require agreement between people with a range of perspectives to help prevent biased ratings. The company also invited any users to register to be among the first to try out the system.

The International Fact-Checking Network, IFCN, criticized Meta's latest decision. It said the move threatened to undo nearly a decade of progress. The group rejected Zuckerberg's claim that the fact-checking program had become a tool to censor users.

It noted that the freedom to say why something is not true is also free speech. Miljana Rogic is executive editor of the Serbian fact-checking outlet Istanomir. She told Reuters news agency that she thinks Meta's decision would end up hurting the media industry.

Rogich noted that research suggests that many citizens use meta-services as their main source for information. Removing independent fact-checkers further hinders access to accurate information and news, Rogich said.

Not a lot of research has been done on how effective community notes systems are. But one effort carried out by the University of California and Johns Hopkins University found in 2024 that community notes entered on X for COVID-19 misinformation were accurate.

the research showed the notes used both moderate and high quality sources and were attached to widely read posts however the number of people taking part in that study was small also the effects the system had on users opinions and behavior is unknown

A 2023 study from the Journal of Online Trust and Safety said it was harder for users to agree when they examined content related to political issues. Brian Lynn. You are listening to the VOA Learning English Podcast.

You just heard this week's technology report. We have Brian Lynn here with us to discuss some of the vocabulary in the report. Welcome, Brian. Sure, Mario. It's good to be here. One word that has appeared from time to time in some of our stories is bias. Could you explain the term for our listeners?

Sure. So, the easiest way to understand bias is to use the term slanted or sloped to describe it. That means something is higher on one side and lower on the other. Biased means giving one side of an argument more weight and the other side little, if any.

That can lead to people feeling they are not getting the whole story. When presenting information, bias is not good. The term has a meaning in electronics, too. Bias can describe a continuous current applied to a circuit that is necessary for certain electronic devices to work correctly.

but that is another complex discussion and what about the adjective appropriate i think english learners might hear that term a lot but it also is spelled like a verb that has a very different meaning

Sure, appropriate is pronounced differently from appropriate, the verb, although it is spelled the same and they mean different things. The verb to appropriate means to take as one's own. It often suggests taking something without permission, but it can also mean to use for a specific purpose.

The adjective has a different meaning. Appropriate means right or correct for the purpose. It is an unusual adjective in that it really depends on what it is used to modify. The same thing or action can be appropriate in one situation and not appropriate in another.

It is used when people are describing things that can be understood in many different ways depending on where, when, or how they appear. That is helpful, Brian. The term "appropriate" is a good example of how a simple English word can open a big discussion. Thank you, and we look forward to our next chat. Of course, Mario. Thank you for having me.

My name is Ana Mateo. And my name is Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. 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 18, Ana tries something new at work.

Reading the News. Her boss, Ms. Weaver, is coaching her on how a professional journalist should read. She wants Anna to give the facts without showing any emotion. But we all know Anna. It's hard for her to do that because she becomes so excited about each story she reads. Let's hear some of the lesson. Hello from Washington, D.C.,

Today at work, I am reading the news for the first time. I am really nervous, but my boss, Ms. Weaver, is here to help me. Now, Ana, remember, when we read the news, we are always reading facts. We never show our feelings. Sure thing, Ms. Weaver. Great. Are you ready? Yes. Okay. Let's try the first story.

Hello and welcome to The News. A new book is very popular with children and families. This is it. It is about a lost duckling. The duck's mother cannot find him. Stop. Anna, when you say the words duck and duckling, you look really sad. I do? Yes.

Sad is a feeling. Sad is not a fact. Sorry. Let me try again. I see. Ms. Weaver is trying to teach Anna to read objectively. That means to tell the facts without adding your own feelings. Anna shows her feelings both in her face and in her voice.

Andrew, you know, our listeners might think the opposite of the adjective objective is subjective. In some cases, that's true. But there's another word we use when we talk about reporting news. When someone presents the news in a way that makes it seem worse or more shocking than it really is, we call it sensationalist news.

Subjective means we show our personal feelings or opinions about something. When we do that with the news and make everything seem terrible, you would call it sensationalist. Now I see why Ms. Weaver wants Anna to read the news objectively. Yes, we've all seen what happens when the news is sensationalized. People get worried.

So, Anna gives it another try. Let's listen and see if she can do it better the next time. Okay, she's trying again. And go. Hello and welcome to The News. A new book is very popular with children and families. This is it. It is about a lost duckling. The duck's mother cannot find him.

but a family gives him a home. Stop, Anna. You are doing it again. Story is very sad. Well, that didn't go so well. Did you notice that Anna changed the way she said one word? Him. The second time she read it? Listen to that again. The duck's mother cannot find him. I think that's because she's feeling so strongly about the story.

but we hear a shorter form of pronouns quite often in American English. One example of shorter forms is that phrase we use to encourage someone trying something new. Go get them. Here, M is a short form of them, but we never shorten me, it, or us because those words are already short.

If I was in the studio with Anna, I'd tell her, "Go get 'em," when she tries reading the news again. Maybe she can get it right the third time. Let's find out if Miss Weaver gives her another chance on a different story. I have an idea. Let's read the second story. She's reading the second story. And go. Okay, let's try the first story. She's reading the second story.

Hello and welcome to The News. In Indiana, a grandmother is the first 80-year-old woman to win the race car 500. It's awesome. Stop. Stop. Anna, please. No feelings. Right. But it is awesome that an 80-year-old grandmother wins a car race. Just the facts, Anna. Right.

Hello and welcome to The News. In Indiana, a grandmother is the first 80-year-old woman to win the race car 500. She rarely talks to reporters, but when she does, she often says, "Nothing can stop me now. I am very happy for her." Stop, stop, stop. Ana, you cannot say you are happy.

But I am happy. But you can't say it. Why? This is the news. Happy and sad are feelings. You can't have them in the news. Okay, I got it. There's another useful expression. Anna says, I got it, to show she understands Ms. Weaver. It's a little informal, and it's a shorter form of, I have got it.

If you listen to the rest of the story, you'll find that she finally does understand what Ms. Weaver's trying to teach her. And her boss uses the same expression, too. What can I do, Ms. Weaver? Take out my feet. Put them here. Yes! That's right. Now you've got it. Once again, I'm Andrew Smith, and you're listening to the Lesson of the Day on the Learning English Podcast.

To review, we've learned some short forms for pronouns like "im" or "em." But now we're almost out of time. But I think there's just enough time for a little chant with our reduced pronoun forms. Are you ready, Jill? Let's give it to 'em! Listeners, try to repeat after we say the lines. Can you find him? I can't find him. Can you see her?

I can't see her. Did you tell them? I didn't tell them. Did you get it? I got it. Well, that's all for the lesson of the day today. You can learn more on our website, learningenglish.voanews.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. And thanks for listening to the Learning English Podcast. I'm Andrew Smith. And I'm Jill Robbins.

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