Learning English Podcast - March 09, 2025
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Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Brian Lynn. I'm Ana Mateo. This program is made for English learners, so we speak a bit slower, and we use words and sentences especially written for people learning English.

Here are the stories we have for you on today's program. John Russell talks about the history and importance of the U.S. city of Philadelphia. Jill Robbins brings us a science story. She talks about how scientists have linked a gene to human speech.

For words and their stories, we learn about green expressions from Warren Shear. My co-host Brian will return with a short history of moon landings. We will end our 30 minutes together with the lesson of the day. But first, here is John Russell.

Philadelphia, also sometimes called Philly, is a big city on the Delaware River in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania. It has about 1.5 million people, estimates from the United States Census Bureau show.

william penn an englishman and member of the christian group known as quakers founded pennsylvania in the sixteen eighties he also designed the city penn chose the name philadelphia

a term he interpreted to mean city of brotherly love in greek philadelphia is famous for holding an important place in american history it served as the nation's capital from seventeen eighty five to seventeen ninety

earlier it was the capital of the american colonies during most of the revolutionary war against britain philadelphia became the central meeting place for the founding fathers who created the united states government

the buildings where they worked can be seen today in an area called the old city or independence national historical park the main building is independence hall that was where colonial leaders declared independence and later debated the creation of a government

The National Park Service says more than 2.6 million people visited Independence National Historical Park last year. Close to the park is the National Liberty Museum. It holds a collection of more than 90 paintings and sculptures. They represent the idea that liberty is a freedom that is easily violated.

several blocks away lies the national constitution center this privately operated non-profit museum opened its doors in philadelphia on july fourth two thousand three it was created to increase public recognition of the constitution its history and its importance today

visitors are presented with the idea that the most important part of american constitutional democracy is the individual citizen rich with tradition philadelphia offers plenty for visitors who are less concerned about history and more concerned about their stomachs there are many food choices for hungry visitors

Reading Terminal Market, for example, is one of the nation's largest public markets. At Reading Terminal Market, visitors can find all kinds of foods, including, of course, Philly cheesesteak. The city is known for these sandwiches. They are made of thin pieces of meat covered with cheese.

A cheesesteak is offered with onions and other toppings and served on a long roll. And where might a visitor find the best Philly cheesesteak? That question is the subject of much debate. I'm John Russell. A new study suggests the beginnings of human speech are linked to genetics. The research identifies a protein found only in people

that may have helped early humans develop spoken communication. Scientists involved in the study say this new speaking ability became important for humans' survival. For example, speech permitted individuals to share information, organize activities, and pass down knowledge.

These abilities are now seen as an advantage humans had over their relatives, such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans. The researchers recently published their findings in a study in the journal Nature Communications. Liza Feinstach teaches about speech and hearing at the University of Minnesota. She told the Associated Press, or AP,

The new study is a good first step to start looking at the specific genes that may affect speech and language development. Feinstaech was not involved in the study. Dr. Robert Darnell has long been studying the protein, called NOVA1, at his laboratory at New York's Rockefeller University. He helped lead the new research and was a writer of the study.

Darnell told the AP the genetic version, or variant, included the protein that helped humans develop into the dominant species that remains today. The latest research involved scientists using CRISPR gene editing methods to replace the NOVA1 protein found in mice with the one found in humans. The aim was to test the real-life effects of the genetic variant.

The researchers were surprised to learn that the variant changed the way the animals called out to each other. Baby mice with the human variant made a different sound than normal mice do when their mother came around. Adult male mice with the variant also made different sounds when they were near a female they wanted to mate with. Darnell said both of these situations gave the mice a reason to speak.

Those with the human variant spoke differently, demonstrating the gene's influence in speech. He added, I'm Jill Robbins. Now, the VOA Learning English program, Words and Their Stories. Today, we talk about a color found all throughout nature, green. Green is also very common in American English.

Let's hear Warren Shear read a story about these colorful expressions. Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants. Sometimes the word green means young, fresh, and growing.

Sometimes it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the 15th century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century or so later,

A greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the 18th century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today, a person who is new in a job. About 100 years ago, greenhorn was a popular expression in the American West.

Old-timers used it to describe a man who had just arrived from one of the big cities back east. The greenhorn lacked the skills he would need to live in the hard, rough country. Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early 1900s.

A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died. The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains.

The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs. Green is also the color used to describe the powerful emotion jealousy. The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about 400 years ago

by British writer William Shakespeare in his play Othello. It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants. A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else. Or that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay raise and she does not.

In most places in the world, a green light is a sign to move ahead. A green light on a traffic signal means your car can continue on. In everyday speech, a green light means approval to continue with a project. We want you to know we have a green light to continue this series next week. And that's all the time we have for this Words and Their Stories.

Don't forget to tune in again for another story about American English expressions. Until next time, I'm Ana Mateo. Many years have passed since the first spacecraft landed on the Moon in 1966.

From then until now, there have been many additional attempts, with some succeeding and others failing. Here is a short history of some of these attempts. The Soviet Union's Luna 9 spacecraft was the first to land on the Moon. It touched down on the lunar surface in 1966.

The landing came after several other Soviet spacecraft either did not reach the moon or crashed on the surface. The American space agency NASA says Luna 9 was the first spacecraft to carry out a soft landing on the moon.

It was also the first to send photographic data from the moon's surface to Earth. Luna 9's landing proved the lunar surface could support the weight of a lander and that an object would not sink into a loose layer of dust, as some models predicted, NASA said.

In May 1966, the United States followed with its Surveyor 1 mission. NASA describes this effort as "the first of a series of seven robotic spacecraft sent to the Moon to gather data in preparation for NASA's Apollo missions."

The successful soft landing of Surveyor 1 was one of the great successes of NASA's early lunar and interplanetary program. Both the U.S. and Soviet Union had other successful robotic landings. Next, the countries aimed to be the first to land humans on the Moon.

In 1969, NASA successfully landed Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon. The U.S. Apollo program sent 12 astronauts to explore the Moon over six missions. Apollo 17 was the last in 1972.

The US is still the only country to land humans on the moon. NASA officials say the agency's Artemis program aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface possibly by the end of 2026. In 2013, China became the third country to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon.

China landed an exploring vehicle or rover named Yutu that year. China followed with the Yutu 2 rover in 2019, this time touching down on the moon's unexplored far side. In 2020, China successfully returned samples of rock and dirt collected by the rovers.

The mission returned about 1.7 kilograms of lunar material collected from the near side of the moon. Then in 2024, another mission returned rock and soil samples from the less explored far side of the moon. China has said it aims to land its astronauts on the moon by 2030.

In 2023, Russia tried its first moon landing in nearly 50 years. The Luna 25 spacecraft was attempting to land near the lunar South Pole, but it is believed to have crash-landed on the moon's surface.

The country's last effort before that, Luna 24 in 1976, landed successfully and returned moon rocks to Earth. After its first lander crashed into the moon in 2019, India made its second attempt in 2023.

The country successfully landed its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the lunar surface. The mission made India the fourth nation to complete a moon landing.

In January 2024, Japan became the fifth country to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon. But the slim spacecraft landed upside down. This caused some power and communication problems, but the lander was able to operate for a short time. I'm Brian Lynn. 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. Today, we're going to talk about a scene from Lesson 42 of the series.

And we're going to explain some things about that word, scene, spelled S-C-E-N-E. Because in Lesson 42, Anna was at the scene of a crime. A scene means the setting or place where something happens. And in a movie or play,

A scene is where one series of events happens, set in one particular place. For example, a movie can have a scene that happens in a kitchen, another scene that happens in a car, a scene that happens in a park, and so on. In Lesson 42, the scene of the crime is just outside of the building where Anna works. Let's listen to find out what Anna saw at the crime scene.

something was stolen from someone. Listen and find out. Hello, I'm Guy Newsman with News Channel XYZ. I'm here in Washington, D.C., at the scene of a crime. We are talking with this woman. She saw the crime during her lunch break. It looks like she hurt herself while she was trying to stop the crime. Tell us your name. Hi, Guy. Anna.

- Ana, what did you see and what happened to your arm? - Guy, I was minding my own business. See, I work over there. I left work to get some lunch. Then suddenly, I heard a woman yelling. She was yelling like this.

Two robbers were grabbing her bag. She was hitting them with her umbrella. Is that when you hurt your arm? No. At that time, I was not fighting the robbers. See, I was too far away, and I didn't have my own umbrella.

So what happened next? They grabbed her bag and ran away. So I grabbed her umbrella and ran after the robbers. Then that is the time that you hold your arm? No, I was yelling, "Stop, robbers, stop!" She was yelling, "Hey, come back with my umbrella!" When you watch the video, you can easily see that "to grab" means to take something quickly and forcefully.

the robbers grabbed and stole the woman's handbag and then anna grabbed the woman's umbrella the poor woman has now had two things taken from her we'll need to listen to more of lesson forty two later to see if she gets them back

But first, let's talk a little bit more about this word grab. Sure. While grab means to hold or take an object, we also use this verb informally in the expression to grab a bite. That means to get something to eat. Yeah. And when we invite friends to go out, we often say, would you like to grab a drink? Or would you like to grab a bite?

Have you ever noticed how some words sound funny if you say them over and over? Oh, you mean like this? Grab, grab, grab, grab, grab, grab. All right, that's enough. Yes, like that. Well, at least our listeners are getting to hear that word lots of times. I think we might be digressing or getting away from the story of the crime scene.

We still don't know how Anna hurt her arm or whether anyone caught the robbers. True, but there's an easy way to find out. Let's listen. Then that is the time that you hurt your arm? No.

I was yelling, "Stop, robbers, stop!" She was yelling, "Hey, come back with my umbrella!" Were you afraid? I had no time to be afraid, Guy. Well, I had time while I was resting on a bench. I had a lot of time. Then what happened? The robbers got on a bus, so I ran after the bus. While I was running, I tripped and fell. And that is the time that you hurt your arm?

No. While I was lying on the ground, someone stepped on my arm. Ouch! That's too bad. Yeah, and they didn't apologize. Well, then the robbers got themselves kicked off the bus. Why? They didn't pay. You've got to pay when you get on a bus. The police came and took them away.

And that's when you hurt your arm? No! Then when did you hurt yourself? Well, Guy, by this time I was feeling very hungry. So I went to my office to get a snack. I'm calling for help right now. Hello? Yes, please come right away. My coworker is stuck in a vending machine. You hurt your arm in a vending machine buying a bag of chips?

I was really hungry and the bag was stuck. That's all from News Channel XYZ. This is Guy Newsman saying goodbye. Okay, we have to find ourselves another story, guys. Until next time. Hi, Mom. So just to be clear, a vending machine has snacks in it, like bags of chips, nuts, or candy bars.

You pay for the snacks at the machine, and the machine moves the snack into a place where you can reach it. But like Anna said, sometimes the snacks get stuck, and then you can't reach them, even after you paid. And that's when people sometimes hurt themselves the way Anna hurt herself by trying to get the snack that is stuck.

I once heard about a man who seriously hurt himself by pulling so hard on a vending machine that the machine tipped over and fell on top of him. That's a high price to pay for a snack. We sometimes do things to ourselves that we wish we didn't do. Jill, I noticed that we just used the pronouns themselves, herself, himself,

and ourselves. We use these reflexive pronouns when the subject of the sentence is the same as the object. Right. So instead of saying Anna hurt Anna, we say Anna hurt herself. You can learn more about reflexive pronouns and much more by downloading the lesson plan that comes with lesson 42 of Let's Learn English.

You can find that lesson plan on our website at learningenglish.voanews.com. I think Lesson 42 has some funny scenes that our listeners will enjoy seeing. Now, let's talk a little more about that word, "scene." Well, we have the idiomatic expression, "to make a scene." That means somebody is being very dramatic and emotional to bring attention to themselves.

but perhaps in a way that they shouldn't be. When we say someone is making a scene, we are usually criticizing them for being too emotional or upsetting the people around them. But you know what? In some situations, maybe making a scene is a good way to get people to pay attention to you. That may be true, and I definitely think some teenagers will agree with you.

but I'm not sure their parents do. Perhaps. We also have the adjective "scenic." This describes a place or places with very nice views of nature. In the eastern United States, we have a scenic highway called the Blue Ridge Parkway. The road goes near the mountaintops of the Appalachian Mountains for hundreds of kilometers. Have you ever driven on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Jill?

I have. And from this scenic highway, can you guess what you can see? Hmm. What can I see from this scenic highway? Well, I can see lots of scenery. That's spelled S-C-E-N-E-R-Y. Scenery is just another word for the view of nature that you can see. I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith.

And that's all the time we have for today's show. Thanks for listening. Some content in today's show is from the Associated Press or Reuters News Agency. And don't forget to join us again tomorrow when we will have more stories from around the world aimed at helping you learn English. I'm Ana Mateo.

And I'm Brian Lynn.