Learning English Podcast - March 16, 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, John Russell has a report from our All About America series about a building that sometimes served as a second home for President Abraham Lincoln. Then Ana Mateo brings us words and their stories.

She discusses the expression "to watch grass grow" and others that describe things in the spring. Next, Ashley Thompson and John Russell present a report on the role American President Theodore Roosevelt played in establishing the country's national park system.

And finally, Jill Robbins and Andrew Smith present the lesson of the day. They give examples for correctly using the future continuous tense. But first...

about five kilometers from the white house in washington d c stands an historic building closely linked to one of america's most famous presidents abraham lincoln the building known as president lincoln's cottage is where lincoln spent about one-fourth of his time while in office

and he made some very important decisions while there summer time can get very hot in washington d c so president lincoln used a country house to escape the worst of the heat each morning and evening lincoln rode between the two houses on horseback unguarded the trip took about thirty minutes

the large house he rode to was on the grounds of the soldiers home the house stood on much higher ground than the white house so the wind kept it cooler it was also quiet a place to think lincoln spent much of his time there writing

that work included early versions of what would become one of the most important documents in american history the emancipation proclamation the emancipation proclamation came during the civil war in the united states the proclamation declared people held as slaves in the rebellious states were free

the civil war lasted from eighteen sixty one to eighteen sixty five troops remained at the soldiers home to protect president lincoln during the war at first lincoln did not welcome the soldiers he did not think he needed their protection but he began to enjoy talking to them

in fact much of what historians know about the president's time at the house is from stories told by those soldiers one night in eighteen sixty four president lincoln survived a murder attempt he was alone and on horseback near the country house when some one shot at him his tall hat flew off his head

soldiers found the hat and saw that a bullet had torn through it the president was not injured in the attack after that the war department increased protection for lincoln but it was not enough to save his life records show that he visited his country house for the last time on april thirteenth eighteen sixty five

The next day, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and supporter of the defeated Confederacy, shot President Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington. President Lincoln's cottage opened to the public in 2008. I'm John Russell. And now, words and their stories from VOA Learning English. VOOTING

Springtime is a time of renewal and growth. Many plants end their long winter sleep and form new buds and shoots. Beautiful flowers will soon be showing their bright colors, and the grass will grow thicker and greener again. Some flowers bloom in a very noticeable way, but that is not the case with grass.

Imagine you are sitting in a grassy field and you have only one job: to watch the grass grow. That does not sound very interesting. In fact, it sounds really boring. That idea is what gives us the expression "like watching grass grow." We use this expression to describe an experience that is uninteresting.

Another good word to describe it is "tedious." We use this expression in many situations. Let's hear a few examples. After the politician won his campaign, he gave a two-hour long acceptance speech. Two hours? It was as much fun as watching grass grow. I really don't like watching long sports games.

It's like watching grass grow. Now, grass grows on the ground all the time, and usually we don't give it much thought. If you stand in one place for a long time, the grass will continue to grow under your feet. For people who are always active, always moving, always on the go, we can say they don't let grass grow under their feet.

we can also say beneath their feet. And sometimes we use this expression as a command. Let's hear some examples. Don't let the grass grow beneath your feet. Get back to work. She certainly doesn't let the grass grow under her feet. She's been traveling nonstop for over a year. And that's all the time we have for this Words and Their Stories. Until next time, I'm Ana Mateo.

Woodrow Wilson, America's 28th president, established the National Park Service in 1916 to protect the wild and wonderful landscapes in the United States.

but it is an earlier leader who is considered the father of America's national parks. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt, America's 26th president, signed the American Antiquities Act. The law permitted him and future presidents

to take immediate action to protect important cultural or natural resources. The Antiquities Act led to the creation of many of the 413 sites within the National Park Service today.

No president has played a bigger role in protecting the country's natural and cultural resources than Theodore Roosevelt. During his time in office, he established five new national parks and 18 national monuments. In all, he protected over 93 million hectares of public land.

He became known as the conservationist president. Roosevelt's concern for the land and environment came from the time he spent in the Dakota Territory, beginning in the 1880s. The area where he traveled is now the state of North Dakota. Today, you will find a national park there named in his honor.

The park protects badlands, wildlife, scenic views, as well as two ranches where Roosevelt himself once lived. Welcome to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Theodore Roosevelt came to Dakota Territory in September 1883.

He was a young married man from New York, where his political career was just beginning. He came to Dakota in hopes of hunting huge animals called bison. He also had a great interest in the Western frontier lifestyle. Roosevelt soon developed an interest in raising cattle,

Cattle ranching in Dakota was a big business in the 1880s. Cattle fed on the land's healthful grasses. He and a partner entered the business. Roosevelt invested $14,000 to build the Maltese Cross Ranch. Roosevelt returned to New York while workers constructed the ranch.

He resumed his political duties in Albany, the state capital. But in early 1884, he experienced two great personal losses. His mother and wife died of illnesses on the same day, February 14th. Roosevelt described the pain and loss in his diary with only one sentence:

The light has gone out of my life. Roosevelt again headed west in the summer of 1884. He sought to escape the reminders of his recent losses. He arrived at his newly built Maltese Cross Ranch. He also decided to build a second ranch in a quieter, more remote area. He called that ranch Elkhorn.

Roosevelt traveled between New York and Dakota, working both as a state lawmaker and a cattle rancher. In late 1884, he helped form an organization in Dakota to help protect ranchers' rights. In 1885, Roosevelt published his first book about his experiences as a rancher and hunter.

In it, he predicted that the cattle industry of the Dakota Badlands was not sustainable. In other words, it would not last. Roosevelt was right. Severe weather struck the area in 1886 and 1887. In the winter, a terrible freeze killed many cattle.

The animals that survived the cold soon starved. Roosevelt himself lost over half of his cattle. He decided to get out of the business. The experience, however, shaped Roosevelt's beliefs about the need for conservation in America. Those beliefs, in turn, helped shape his policies as president.

Visitors to Theodore Roosevelt National Park can experience the Badlands just as Roosevelt did hundreds of years ago. They can also visit the Maltese Cross Cabin as well as the Elkhorn Ranch area. The park has three main areas: the South Unit,

the North Unit, and the Elkhorn Ranch Unit. In the South Unit, visitors can drive along the Scenic Loop Road. It offers many places to see wildlife and the surrounding Badlands. Badlands are very dry places with little vegetation.

Wind and water shape Badlands, mainly through erosion. The process leaves behind high, flat-topped hills of clay and other soft rock. Many visitors stop to look at Painted Canyon. It gets its name from the colorful exposed rocks there.

Trails near the canyon offer visitors a chance to see animals, from the huge American bison to small black-tailed prairie dogs. These animals are not really dogs. They are rodents. Roosevelt described prairie dogs as the most noisy and inquisitive animals imaginable.

The North Unit also offers several hiking trails. Some paths are short and easy. Others may take two days to complete. The Achenbach Trail is a 28-kilometer-long path. It crosses the Little Missouri River and takes visitors into the heart of the Theodore Roosevelt Wilderness.

The third area of the park is the Elkhorn Ranch Unit. This is what Roosevelt described as his "home ranch." He wrote of the ranch in this way: "My home ranch house stands on the river brink, from the low, long veranda shaded by leafy cottonwoods.

One looks across sandbars and shallows to a strip of meadowland, behind which rises a line of sheer cliffs and grassy plateaus. Today, the Elkhorn cabin itself no longer stands. Visitors will find only stone rocks where the cabin once was.

The area that surrounds Elkhorn, however, is among the most beautiful, wild, and quiet places in the Badlands of North Dakota. It is this peace and beauty that appealed to Roosevelt after the deaths of his mother and wife. But the Dakota Badlands did more than just help Roosevelt overcome his pain.

They helped shape the kind of president he would later become. In the words of Roosevelt himself, I would not have been president had it not been for my experience in North Dakota. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm John Russell. ♪

Hello, my name is Ana Mateo. My name is Andrew Smith. And I'm 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 video series, Let's Learn English.

This series shows Ana Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. In Lesson 45 of the series, Ana and her roommate go on a road trip to see famous places in the United States, and their plan is ambitious. Ambitious. That's spelled A-B-I-T-I-O-U-S.

means that a plan or goal is on a large scale or perhaps difficult to do anna and marcia hope to see famous places all over the u s so their plan is ambitious because the u s is very large

to see all the things they want to see, they will be traveling for weeks. That's true. They plan to drive north from Washington, D.C. to New York City and then head west all the way to California. So that's what we call a coast-to-coast trip, all the way from one ocean to the other, in this case from the Atlantic to the Pacific. That's a trip of almost 4,000 kilometers.

And then they have to drive back. I guess we could call that a coast-to-coast-to-coast trip. I never thought of it that way, but I guess you're right. Let's listen to Anna and Marcia talk about some of the things they will be seeing.

Hi, Marsha. Hi. I packed my bags and I am ready to go. Did you make a list of all the places you want to see? I did. I want to see New York City and the Statue of Liberty. And I want to see Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore. And don't forget the Grand Canyon. Let's not forget California's Redwood Forest.

There are so many places to see. We will be driving for a long time, so we might get bored. Bored? No way! We can talk. Or not talk. We can play word games. We sing! You know, Marsha, our trip is like that famous American song. This land is yours. This land is my land. From California.

to New York Island. From the red to the Gulf Stream wall, this land was made for you and me. Marsha and Anna were singing the song called This Land is Your Land. It was written by an American folk singer named Woody Guthrie in 1940.

Guthrie wanted to express the idea that the U.S. should offer equal opportunity and rights to every person in the country. Great idea. Now let's see if their trip gets off to a good start. Will we be stopping soon? We won't be stopping soon.

I'm hungry. Marsha, we just left D.C. We'll be eating lunch in about two hours. Can you wait? I guess. Here, have an apple. It's organic. Thanks. Unfortunately for Marsha, Anna accidentally throws the apple out of the window of the car. So Marsha will have to wait a little longer before she can eat.

She will have to wait, but our listeners can notice right now a special way we can talk about the future in English. It's called the future continuous tense. Listen again. Marcia, we just left DC. We'll be eating lunch in about two hours. Instead of saying, "We're going to eat in two hours," Anna says,

We'll be eating lunch in about two hours. That's because it takes some time to eat. For actions in the future that take some time to do, we can use the modal will plus the verb be plus the main verb with ing. For example, listen to this exchange. What will you be doing tomorrow afternoon? I'll be working from noon until 6 p.m.

We often use the future continuous when we specify or say the amount of time we expect the activity to take. If we don't know or care about the length of time, then we can just use the expression "going to," like in this exchange. Do you have any plans for the weekend? I'm going to try to clean my room and maybe go to a movie.

Here, the speaker either does not know or does not care about expressing how long the actions will take. Now listen to this part of Lesson 45 and see if you can hear the future continuous tense. How many times do you hear it used? Listen carefully. We will be entering North Dakota any minute now. North Dakota? We are going in the wrong direction.

We want to go to South Dakota. No problem. I will just exit the highway. We will be going south in just a minute. There. Done. We're going south. Okay. We will be stopping for gas and a bathroom break in about an hour. Anna used the tense three times. We will be entering North Dakota any minute now.

We will be going south in just a minute. Okay, we will be stopping for gas and a bathroom break in about an hour. And most native speakers join together the two words "we" and "will" with a contraction. Instead of saying "we will," people say "we'll." We combined the subject and the word "will" together, like this: aisle, yule, heel,

"she'll," "will," and "they'll." Now, let's listen to one more quick example from Lesson 45. Okay, we will be arriving in New York City very soon. I can't wait to see the big apple! You can hear the future continuous when Marcia says, "We will be arriving." She expresses an expectation about the time by using the word "soon."

Also, we should note that the Big Apple is a nickname for New York City. Other cities in the U.S. have nicknames too. Chicago is called the Windy City because its politicians talked so much. Detroit is called the Motor City because many American cars and trucks are built there.

And Denver is called the Mile High City because it is about one mile, or 1,600 meters, above sea level. It's fun to learn the nicknames of cities. I grew up in a city they called the Crossroads of America. Listeners, what are the nicknames of some cities or towns in your country? Write to us at learningenglish at voanews.com and let us know.

And now, before we go, here's one last example of the future continuous. This is from a song written in 1938, and it uses the future continuous in its title. It's a song about seeing people again, after you have missed them. Jill, do you know what song I'm talking about? I think I do. Is it "I'll Be Seeing You"? It sure is. Are you going to sing it for us?

Um, maybe just the first part so our listeners can get the idea. It goes like this. I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places that this heart of mine embraces all day through. A little high for me. And we'll be seeing you in a sense soon on the next lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast.

Thanks for listening. I'm Jill Robbins. 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.