Learning English Podcast - March 02, 2025
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Hello, and welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ana Mateo. And I'm Brian Lynn. This program is aimed at English learners, so we speak slowly. And we use words and phrases especially written for people learning English.

Today on the show, Ana Mateo brings us words and their stories. She discusses terms used to describe different foods and explains what it means to dish up something. Next up is the Science Report. This week we report on a new discovery that could explain what gives Mars its red color.

Then, as part of our All About America series, I'll have a report about one of the most recognizable attractions in New York City, the Empire State Building. And finally, Jill Robbins and Andrew Smith present the lesson of the day. As usual, they look back at an episode of Let's Learn English.

This week they discuss negative prefixes. Okay, let's get started with Words and Their Stories. And now, Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English. Food is a popular subject with many people around the world. It is fun to talk about our favorite dishes.

it is even more fun to share a favorite dish with others today we talk about the word dish a dish can be the object on which you serve food but a dish can also mean a specially prepared food do you have a signature dish our signature is how we sign our names so a signature dish is a dish we are known for making well

in a way it identifies us my signature dish is sweet potato rosemary dinner rolls i am often asked to make them especially for holiday parties in my circle of friends i am known for this dish when the rolls are on the table people know that i made them a tasty dish is something that makes a table look good and inviting

Sometimes the same can be said about a person. Someone who is good-looking can be called a dish. While this usage might be a bit dated, it is still used. Now let's talk about the verb dish. To dish can mean to talk about private or personal information. It might be gossip. But I can also dish about myself.

For example, a friend may ask me to dish about my new job. I could also use a phrasal verb form and say my friend wants me to dish out all the interesting details. Now, to dish up something means to put food on a dish for someone to eat. However, it can also mean sharing personal details, our own, and others.

We can also dish out things like jokes or even insults. Some people like to tease or insult. They can dish out jokes and insults all day long. But sometimes these same people do not like it if you do the same to them. We have a saying for just such people. We say they can dish it out, but they can't take it.

They are able and willing to share harsh thoughts, criticisms, or insults about others, but they do not think they themselves deserve such treatment. And that's Words and Their Stories. Until next time, I'm Ana Mateo. VOA Learning English has launched a new program for children. It is called Let's Learn English with Ana.

The new course aims to teach children American English through asking and answering questions and experiencing fun situations. For more information, visit our website, learningenglish.voanews.com.

Scientists say they might have identified the mineral on Mars that is responsible for making the planet appear red.

new data collected on mars through several methods suggests the substance called ferrohydrite is likely found in dust and rock material across wide areas of the planet the team carrying out the research describes ferrohydrite as an iron oxide mineral

the mineral appears reddish in colour and can form in water-rich environments the scientists said discovering large amounts of it on mars adds to existing evidence that the planet might have held a large supply of liquid water in the past

the research was carried out by an international team led by america's brown university and the university of bern in switzerland the findings recently appeared in a study published in nature communications

the researchers noted that scientists have long wondered about the exact substance that gives mars which is also known as the red planet its deep red color past studies had suggested a mineral called hematite might be the cause

the study is based on martian data collected by several spacecraft these include the mars reconnaissance orbiter operated by the american space agency

In addition, information was captured by instruments aboard the European Space Agency's ASA's Mars Express and Trace Gas orbiters. Some data also came from exploring vehicles called rovers operating on Mars.

in their examinations the researchers also used man-made or synthetic material designed to look and feel similar to real martian dust valentinus currently works as a researcher at brown university's department of earth environment and planetary sciences

he helped write the study valentinus noted the mystery of why mars is red had been considered for hundreds if not thousands of years valentinus recognized his team was not the first to consider ferrohydrite as a possible reason for the coloring of mars

but he noted it has never been proven as we have now using observational data and novel laboratory methods

valentinus noted the discovery of widespread ferrohydrite suggests mars once held liquid water that would have made it possible for the planet to support some form of life

our study reveals that ferrohydrate formation on mars required the presence of both oxygen and water capable of reacting with iron he added these conditions were very different from the dry cold environment of mars today

john mustard is a planetary expert at brown university and was a co-writer of the study he called it a door-opening opportunity for future research but he added that additional study is needed to confirm the team's latest findings

as exciting as the new findings are we realize that our results can only be verified by samples from mars which are currently being collected by nasa's perseverance rover mustard said

He added, "When we get those back, we will be able to check whether our theory about ferrihydrite is correct." The Empire State Building remains a popular place to visit in New York City. The structure sits in a central part of New York's Manhattan area.

It was built at a time when many developers were racing to become the first to complete the world's tallest building. Construction on the Empire State Building started in January 1930. Building operations began two months later.

the structure went up very quickly with workers completing framing for the structure at a rate of about four and a half floors per week when completed in nineteen thirty one the empire state building was just over four hundred forty three meters tall with one hundred and two floors

the measurement included a sixty two meter tall lightning pole on top it was the world's tallest building at the time and remained so for more than forty years on may first nineteen thirty one the president of the united states herbert hoover took part in an opening ceremony

he pressed a button that turned on the lights to officially open the building by nineteen forty six the empire state building had become the headquarters for numerous organizations and supported more than fifteen thousand employees

but over time the building never became as popular with large companies as the developers had hoped to-day the structure houses mostly small businesses

the empire state building opened during the great depression a long-lasting economic crisis that affected the u s and other economies around the world this resulted in lower than predicted building costs

the structure alone cost about twenty five million dollars while the cost of the land brought the price up to more than forty million dollars today new york city officials estimate that more than two point five million people visit the empire state building each year

at least half the visitors come from other countries the building has observation areas on two floors the first is on the eighty-sixth floor and the other on the one hundred second the upper area has top to bottom windows on all sides to provide three hundred sixty degree views of the city skyline

building officials say that on a clear day visitors can see up to one hundred twenty kilometers on the way up visitors can stop at an exhibit area on the second floor among the things to see there is a model of the moving hand used in the popular nineteen thirty three movie king kong

in the film king kong climbs the empire state building the huge creature is then attacked by military planes and falls to his death the empire state building appears in many pictures and films it also disproves a common saying that lightning never strikes the same place twice

Lightning actually strikes the Empire State Building an average of 25 times a year. 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 a recent Lesson of the Day podcast, we talked about Ana going to the store to buy food for a dinner party. In Lesson 39, which is called It's Unbelievable, we see Ana shopping online.

She sees an advertisement on television and, as you can imagine, learns an important lesson about advertising. Winter weather in Washington, D.C. can be really windy. And wind messes up my hair. It is really windy today. Look at my hair. Will it be windy this weekend? I'll listen to the news.

I am tired of my untidy hair. Are you tired of your untidy hair? Yes, yes I am. And it's uncomfortable. Comfortable? Yes, yes it is. Hey, is that Pete? Hi, I'm Pete and I have the perfect product for you. Hair Be Good. Just spray Hair Be Good on your hair.

Wrap in a towel and you are done. Hair Be Good works, and it's inexpensive. One can costs only $10. So go online and order your Hair Be Good today. Hair Be Good sounds perfect. And I can trust Pete. I am buying some right now. Okay, I will order one can of Hair Be Good for $10.

I'll pay with a credit card. My delivery will arrive in two days. We should add that in Let's Learn English, you can find lesson plans with many activities and explanations like the ones we give you in this podcast. For example, there's a pronunciation practice video about the feeling Anna describes for her untidy hair.

One of the new words in this lesson can cause problems for English learners. That word is "uncomfortable" and its opposite "comfortable." When you say this word, you do not pronounce some of the letters that you see in the written word. In this lesson, you hear Anna say that her hair is uncomfortable.

Are you tired of your untidy hair? Yes. Yes, I am. And it's uncomfortable. Un-com-for-ble. Uncomfortable. Hey, that sounds like one of those reduced forms we've been teaching in some of our earlier podcasts. Yeah, are you happy? It wouldn't be a lesson of the day without a reduced form. That's right.

Let's listen to more of the story. I want to find out if the hair product helps Anna fix her hair. I'll use it before I go to work. Okay, Hair Be Good, make my untidy hair tidy. No, make it fabulous. Hi, Anna. Hello, Amelia. Anna, you look different. Thanks. I used a new product called Hair Be Good.

Well, it's not. It's not what? Good. Your hair does not look good. Oh, no! This is not good. Why don't you go home and take care of this? Good idea. Listeners, we need to describe for you now how Anna's hair looks in the video. It's standing up straight from her head in all different directions.

you could say it's even more untidy than it was before. It looks very strange. Now you can guess that Anna will be very unhappy with Pete when she meets him on her way home from work. Let's listen. Hi, Anna. Hello, Pete. Is something wrong?

I hope this doesn't damage their friendship.

And by the way, you probably figured out that untidy means not neat. In this lesson, you hear Anna use adjectives with negative prefixes. Prefixes are those little two- or three-letter pieces that come before a word and change its meaning. The prefixes in this lesson are the letters i-n, n, the letters u-n, un,

the letters D-I-S, DIS, and the letters I-M, IM. Hey, we had an example of DIS in our previous podcast when we talked about Anna and the guy from the country disagreeing. That's true. We did. And like I said before, Anna is really unhappy with Pete because she believed his TV ad.

She didn't know it was a dishonest ad, one that was not really telling the truth. So it was unbelievable. Thanks, Jill, for those examples of how those prefixes give the opposite meaning to an adjective. Like when Anna tells Pete that the product in his advertisement does not work. Yes, I bought it. You said in your ad it was a perfect product. It's not perfect.

This is imperfect! In this example, imperfect means the opposite of perfect. The prefix is "I am" or "im." I suppose our listeners are wondering why there are so many prefixes to make the meaning opposite. Dr. Jill, do you have a linguistic explanation for that? Of course I do! One reason is that English words were borrowed from several different languages.

One of them is German. Words from German use the prefix "un" or "un." And a lot of words come to us from Latin through other languages like French. Those words from Latin use the prefix "in" or "in." Okay, but what about the other prefixes, like "I am" as in "imperfect"? "Perfect" comes from Latin, doesn't it?

Yes, but the prefix "in" changes to "im" before adjectives that begin with "p", "b", and "m" . So there, it changes because of the sound of the next letter. That makes sense. There are some important words that take the "im" like:

import, immunize, immortal, and important, too. There are two other prefix sound changes like that. The prefix in, i-n, changes to i-l or ill before the letter l, as in illiterate or not able to read. That's right. If you are literate, you can read, and if you are illiterate, you cannot read.

That prefix also gives us words like illegal and illogical. And isn't there one more prefix? IR, ear. The letters IN changes to ear before words that begin with R, as in irresponsible, which means careless.

Right, so we get irregular and irrelevant. But let's get back to our story. Will Anna forgive Pete? You don't believe everything you see in ads, do you? No, Pete. Just the ones with my friends. Your hair will be okay. Just wash it a couple of times. Thanks. Thanks a lot, Pete.

Here! Here's your product! You should call it "Hair Be Really Really Bad!" Until next time, Pete! 'Til next time! I guess it will take a little time for her to forgive him. But she's learned not to believe everything she sees on television.

That gives me an idea, Andrew. Let's ask our listeners to write to us about some advertising they learned that was not 100% true. Write to us at [email protected] or in the comments on our YouTube video. And here's a useful vocabulary word for our listeners. An advertisement that is very untrue, we call that a scam. S-C-A-M.

So, perhaps you have encountered some scams, but hopefully not. And whether you find us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or on our website, learningenglish.voanews.com, we hope you have enjoyed the lesson of the day on the Learning English Podcast. And thanks for listening. I'm Dr. Jill. And I'm Andrew Smith.

And that's all the time we have for today's show. But join us again tomorrow for another VOA Learning English program. I'm Brian Lynn. And I'm Ana Mateo.