Learning English Podcast - October 29, 2024
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Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. 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.

Today, you will hear stories from Brian Lynn and Ana Mateo. Later, John Russell presents the Health and Lifestyle Report. We close the show with the lesson of the day from Andrew Smith and Faith Perlow. But first...

A new government study suggests U.S. teen smoking rates reached an all-time low this year. The study was a survey of American youth carried out by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC.

The survey involved middle school students, which includes grades 6 through 8, and high school students in grades 9 through 12. Nearly 30,000 students from 283 U.S. schools took part in the effort, which was carried out from January to May.

An estimated 33% of youth took part in the voluntary survey. The study showed a 20% drop in the number of middle and high school students who said they recently used at least one tobacco product.

these include cigarettes electronic cigarettes nicotine patches and hookahs that number decreased from two point eight million last year to two point two five million this year

The result suggested the change was the lowest usage rate of those products since the CDC survey began in 1999.

The Associated Press, AP, reports the drop is largely explained by another recent government survey showing e-cigarette use among U.S. youth in 2024 fell to its lowest level in 10 years.

The youth e-cigarette rate fell to under 6% this year, a drop of 7.7% over last year. That was the lowest rate at any time during the past 10 years. Government records show e-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco products among teens.

The second most common is the nicotine patch. In 1999, nearly 30% of American high school students smoked. In 2024, it was just 1.7%. Currently, the share of middle school students who smoke is also at its lowest rate.

recent use of hookahs also dropped from one point one to zero point seven per cent c d c officials said the decreases are linked to several measures

These include product cost increases, public health education campaigns, age restrictions, and more aggressive enforcement actions against makers and sellers to children.

Among high school students, use of any tobacco product dropped from 13 to 10 percent in 2024, while e-cigarette use fell from 10 to 8 percent. The survey showed there was no change reported for middle school students who generally vape or smoke less than older children.

The study found that tobacco use among girls and Hispanic students fell, but it rose among American Indian and Alaska Native students. The survey also showed the current use of nicotine patches increased among white youth. Brian Lynn

Scientists in Colombia say they have developed a new food substance that protects bees from dangerous chemicals used in farming. They claim it will protect the insect's brains from neurological damage caused by chemicals called pesticides.

As pollinators, bees are extremely important in the preservation of natural ecosystems and food production. The plant-based food substance enables bees to deal with neurotoxins commonly used in agriculture. It protects their motor system and memory harmed by the chemicals.

Researchers at Columbia's Rosario University in Bogota developed the substance. They partnered with scientists from the Colombian Universidad Javeriana and the University of Arizona in the United States.

This is a nutritional solution to the problems bees face when exposed to pesticides, said Andre Riveros, a professor at Rosario University. Riveros explained that the food substance causes the bees to develop protection against pesticides.

The substance is created with flavonoids, which are known for their health benefits. Flavonoids come from plants and are a kind of secondary metabolite. Secondary metabolites are substances made by plants that make them competitive in their environment.

During the first round of testing, scientists put the bees to sleep and placed them into small laboratory tubes. Then they fed the bees the substance one by one. Testing has now moved to real-world situations. In a bee colony at the university, said Juan Jose Ovalle, he is a natural science student at Rosario University.

We already know that there are molecules that improve the bees' health. We already know that there are molecules that prevent neuronal damage caused by pesticides, Ovalier said. He added, it was important to continue the work to increase the effectiveness of these methods to support bees. I'm Ana Mateo.

No pain, no gain is an old saying in English. It means that one has to suffer or work hard in order to succeed or make progress. The expression is now often used to push people to train harder or exercise more to get good effects. But just how much pain do you have to have from weight training?

The answer depends on what you are trying to gain, fitness experts say. For years, some trainers have told people that to get the best results, they need to train until failure. Training until failure means that you do an exercise until you cannot do one more repetition.

some recent studies however suggest training until failure with weights may only help some people if somebody wants to increase muscle mass as much as they possibly can then training to failure is something to consider said michael zordos of florida atlantic university

co wrote a review of fifty-five research papers on the subject in the scientific publication sports medicine zordos and colleagues found that lifting weights until failure may build bigger muscles but training in such a way is not needed to increase strength

he said people who work out hard but do not push themselves to exhaustion will still likely make their health and fitness better there is a difference between training for health and training for elite performance benefits he said for the average person simply looking to increase their fitness levels zordos said it is much easier to get results

he explained people who work out regularly would benefit from an intense session that comes within five to ten repetitions of failure he also said failure training often comes at a cost people who train until failure might be so tired and in so much pain that they skip their next workout or two

in rare cases extremely difficult training can even be harmful one example is the condition called rhabdomyolysis where damaged muscles begin to break down possibly causing kidney damage james fisher is a sports science expert and adviser in southampton england

he said many people are not interested in the idea of working until complete exhaustion what we're really talking about is how hard you should work when you go to the gym he said fischer added that the idea should be understood to mean that people can spend less time in the gym if they work hard

if you're short on time then you can push yourself harder and then you don't need to work out as long he said fisher explained that to increase strength it is necessary to push your muscles to a certain level if you lift a weight you can easily lift ten times or more you never really work hard enough he said

now if we increase the weight so that on the ninth and tenth rep it feels hard that will benefit your muscle still fischer said that the best workout is one that people will actually do regardless of how hard they push themselves

he said that strength training is probably the single best thing people can do for their health quality of life and longevity whatever your fitness goal fisher said the idea of failure training can be included into your workout people should then rest the muscle group they have trained for about two days he said

For people who have more experience, experts suggest saving the failure training for some of the workouts or on the last set of exercises in your session. It's not meant to be for every person, every time they work out, Fisher said. This is a tough way to exercise. I'm John Russell.

You just heard this week's Health and Lifestyle Report from John Russell. John joins me now to talk more about the report and one word in particular that we heard. Hi, John. Welcome. Hi, Ashley. Thanks for having me on the show. So if you had to pick one very important noun from this report, what would the noun be? And why would you choose it?

I would choose the noun exhaustion. It means the act of using up all of your energy. It can also mean the act or process of using up all of a muscle's ability. We might also talk about exhaustion if we go long periods without sleep or if we have to run or walk extremely long distances.

That's right. Exhaustion is something that is not particularly enjoyable for most people most of the time. That is for sure. Well, thanks so much for coming on the show today, John. And thank you for your report. Thanks for having me. See you next time. VOA Learning English has launched a new program for children. It is called Let's Learn English with Anna.

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. Hello, my name is Ana Mateo. My name is Andrew Smith. And I'm Faith Perlow.

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. The series shows Ana Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C.

In Lesson 44 of the series, Anna has a conflict when she goes to buy food at the grocery store. But her conflict is not with another person. Instead, it is with herself. Anna is fighting with herself? In a way, she is. How is that? Well, the problem is, Anna wants two things at the same time. And the two things don't really go together.

Hmm. Now I'm curious. Let's listen to find out more about these two things and Anna's inner conflict. Hi there, Ashley. Anna, hi. Where are you going? What was that? I'm hungry.

When I'm hungry, I only want to eat junk food. But I know I should eat healthy food. So I fight with myself. One side says, you should eat healthy food. The other side says, but I want to eat junk food. Well, Anna, go to the giant supermarket. You should be able to find all kinds of food there for all of you. Good idea, Ashley. See you later. Bye, Anna.

Ah, yes. The conflict between junk food and healthy food. I think this is something many people can relate to in modern life. But Faith, I suppose we should explain a bit about this word junk and what exactly we mean by junk food. Well, I think our listeners can understand that junk food is not healthy food.

In fact, it's pretty much the opposite of healthy food, in general anyway. When we use the noun junk, that means things are not valuable or things of bad quality, the kinds of things that we really don't want. So junk food is basically food that we don't want? Not exactly. The problem is junk food sometimes tastes pretty good.

It can be sweet and salty and have fat, things that make us want to eat it. Things like salty chips with flavors that are made by mixing together chemicals or food with lots of fat and sugar, like some cakes or cookies. I think this episode of Let's Learn English is going to make me hungry. So when I think about junk food...

It seems we don't want it, but at the same time, we do want it, and that creates a conflict. Let's listen to more of Lesson 44 and see how Anna deals with her conflict. Wow, this supermarket is huge. Look at all of these fruits and vegetables.

should eat more vegetables. Good idea, Anna. You must eat more vegetables, like celery. Celery? Do you know what the web says about celery? No, what? Celery is 95% water, 100% not ice cream. I love the web. Anna, you mustn't eat junk food. Junk food will kill

You are being silly. No, you are. No, you are. Will you two please be nice to each other? It is important to eat healthy foods, but a little junk food will not kill me. Ice cream. Ice cream does sound good.

Okay, we are in the frozen food aisle. Mmm, ice cream. Mmm, frozen peas. Nobody says, mmm, frozen peas. They say, mmm, ice cream. Mmm, frozen peas. Mmm, ice cream. I'm not going to tell you two again. Stop fighting. We should explain to our listeners what is going on here.

In the Lesson 44 video, Anna has two small imaginary people talking to her. And there's one of them on each of her shoulders. One of them, who wants junk food, looks like a devil or evil spirit, and the other looks like an angel or good spirit.

In Western culture, we use this picture of an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other to represent two different kinds of thoughts. Those that make us want to do good things and those that make us want to do bad things, or sometimes just two different things.

I'm Faith Perlow, and you're listening to the lesson of the day on the Learning English Podcast. In Lesson 44, the healthy food angel talks about what Anna shouldn't eat. But notice how she says it in this sentence. Anna, you mustn't eat junk food. Mustn't is the contraction of the two words must not.

It's a stronger and more formal sounding way of saying that you should not do something. So Faith, I have to ask you, do you ever have an internal conflict or a fight with yourself over what you should eat? I have, Andrew. I love ice cream and I always keep a pint of it in my freezer.

I don't eat it every day, but sometimes when I have a hard day, I reach for it. What about you, Andrew? You know, I like ice cream too, and that sounds like something that I could also do a lot. I tend to eat pretty healthy food regularly.

But at night before I go to bed, I sometimes want something sweet or filling, like a piece of cake or bread or cookies or ice cream. So sometimes I have a little, not a fight, but a discussion with myself over whether or not I should eat them. Our internal dialogue or what we say to ourselves can be interesting or even funny.

But you know, I think it is okay to enjoy a guilty pleasure from time to time. I agree. It's hard to be strict all the time. And I think that's a great expression, a guilty pleasure. Can you explain it for our listeners? So a pleasure is something you like, but guilty is the feeling you get, or you should get if you are a good person, and you've done something wrong.

But a guilty pleasure is not something that is seriously wrong. It's just a little thing you like to do, something that's not harmful. But if you did it a lot, then it might be bad for you. Right. So if I ate cookies every single night, that would not be good.

But if I eat them only from time to time, it's not really harmful. So it's just a guilty pleasure. What about you, Faith? Do you have any guilty pleasures? I do. I love eating popcorn. I love eating popcorn so much that I make it myself. So I have popcorn kernels around all the time, just waiting to be popped. Popcorn isn't necessarily bad.

It is quite healthy for snacking. But my problem is the amount I eat. I can eat a lot of it. So Andrew, the devil and the angel keep fighting with each other. In the Lesson 44 video, how do you think Anna can make them stop? I'm not sure she can make them stop, but she can stop hearing them. Let's listen to the end of the video.

Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. I am sick and tired of the both of you. I know what you two need. What are you doing? Me down. You two need to cool off. I am going to buy my healthy food and my junk food. Bye. Until next time. When someone is angry or arguing, we say they are hot and that they need to cool off. Anna is sick and tired of all the fighting.

So she puts the devil and the angel in a cold container in the store. Well, that should cool them off. And we'll have more to say about the expression sick and tired in another lesson of the day. But for now, listeners, do you have any guilty pleasures?

Write to us at learningenglish at voanews.com and let us know. And remember that you can find us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. And thanks for listening to the Learning English Podcast. I'm Faith Perlow. And I'm Andrew Smith.

And that's our program for today. Join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Mario Ritter, Jr. ♪

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