Learning English Podcast - December 26, 2024
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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, John Russell has a surprising report about the planet Saturn. Jill Robbins has a story about Japan's SoftBank. Brian Lynn tells about the top Google searches of the year. Then, a guest appearance by Ana Mateo on Lesson of the Day. But first...

Recent research suggests that Saturn's rings may be older than they look, and possibly as old as the planet itself. Instead of being 400 million years old, as some had thought, the icy rings could be the same age as Saturn, 4.5 billion years old.

a japanese led research team reported saturn's rings may be in good condition not because they are young but because they are dirt resistant for many years scientists had believed that saturn's rings were between one hundred million and four hundred million years old

this idea came from more than ten years of observations by nasa's cassini spacecraft the spacecraft studied saturn before its mission ended in twenty seventeen

Images by Cassini showed no evidence of any darkening of the rings by impacts from micrometeoroids, space rock particles smaller than a grain of sand. The finding led scientists to believe the rings formed long after the planet.

through computer modeling the institute of science tokyo's ryuki hyodo and his team showed that micro meteoroids become gas or small liquid drops once they hit the rings as a result little if any dark or dirty substances or residue remain

Researchers found that the resulting charged particles are forced towards Saturn or out into space, keeping the rings clean. The findings dispute the idea that the rings are much younger than the planet. The resulting research appeared in the scientific publication Nature Geoscience.

yodo said it is possible saturn's rings could be somewhere between the two extreme ages for example the rings could be around the half-way mark of two point two five billion years old however the solar system was much more chaotic during its early years

large planetary sized objects were moving around and affecting each other a lot at that time it was just the sort of situation that might have produced saturn's rings considering the solar system's evolutionary history it's more likely that the rings formed closer to saturn's earliest times

Hyodo told the Associated Press in an email. I'm John Russell. Japanese business leader Masayoshi Son and President-elect Donald Trump recently met at Trump's property Mar-a-Lago in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida. They announced plans for SoftBank Group to invest $100 billion in

in projects in the United States over the coming four years. Trump said the investments in building artificial intelligence, or AI, infrastructure would create 100,000 jobs. Reuters news agency reported that it was the second time that SoftBank's Son made a big promise to invest in U.S. projects.

In 2016, Sohn announced $50 billion in investments with Trump after his election victory. The investments helped companies like Uber and WeWork. Sohn is a founder and CEO or chief executive officer of SoftBank Group.

SoftBank has investments in many new technology businesses, along with big companies like silicon chip maker Arm Holdings and Chinese online business Alibaba. Investor interest in AI has increased SoftBank's value, but it is unclear whether its investments will create that many jobs in the U.S.,

SoftBank investor meetings have supported the idea that AI will become profitable for the company. Son has said he believes AI will outdo human intelligence within 10 years, affecting every industry. He believes that companies and people working with AI will be the leaders of the next 10 to 20 years.

SoftBank owns about 90% of ARM's publicly traded stock. This puts the Japanese company in a good position for expansion of AI applications. ARM says most mobile devices operate on small ARM-based processors. Trump and Son said the $100 billion that SoftBank has promised to invest will go to building AI infrastructure.

but the details remain unclear. The effect of AI on job creation remains an open question. The announcement is like a promise Son made with then-President-elect Trump in December 2016 at Trump Tower in New York City. Then, Son said he would spend $50 billion and create 50,000 jobs. While that money was invested in businesses as time passed,

It is unclear whether that many jobs were created. Early in his first term, Trump announced a $10 billion investment by Foxconn in Wisconsin. Foxconn Technology Group is a Taiwan company best known for making Apple iPhones. In 2017, the company won Trump's praise for announcing that it would build a $10 billion factory.

Foxconn said it would employ 13,000 people in a small town just south of Milwaukee. A much smaller investment there created fewer than 800 jobs. Shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020 made job creation a more complex issue.

SoftBank itself says it had 65,352 employees as of March. Officials in Tokyo praised Son's effort, considering it a sign of friendship between the U.S. and Japan. There is concern over whether Trump will increase tariffs on some imports from allies like Japan, as well as China. Yoji Muto is Japan's trade and industry minister.

He said he was happy with the announcement. Muto said, Generally speaking, I believe expansion of investment through steady accumulation of efforts between Japanese and U.S. companies would help further strengthen Japan-U.S. economic ties, so I find it delightful. Trump called Sohn one of the most accomplished business leaders of our time.

SoftBank has been rebuilding its finances after the failure of its WeWork business and after investors turned away from some of its technology investments. After a decrease in share value between 2021 and 2023, SoftBank stock has recovered. The company's stock has increased sharply this year.

Amir Anwarzadeh studies Japanese businesses at Asymmetric Advisors, a company that advises on Japanese securities. Speaking of the SoftBank announcement, he said he did not think there was a firm plan. The question arises, what are they going to buy? Anwarzadeh asked. He said there were no remaining easily purchased companies in the industry. I'm Jill Robbins.

As we near the end of 2024, we are looking back at the top terms people searched for on Google during the year. Each year, Google releases its Year in Search report. It includes terms that saw the biggest rise in traffic compared to the year earlier.

Online marketing company SEMrush reports Google controls about 92% of the worldwide internet search traffic. It also estimates the search engine completes up to 3 trillion requests per year.

In an announcement on its news website, The Keyword, Google said 2024 was a very big year for web searches related to sporting events. Searches for information on soccer and cricket proved to be especially popular.

The top-searched soccer event was the Copa America competition, which took place in the United States this past summer. The next most-searched was the UEFA European Championship. That was followed by cricket's Men's T20 World Cup competition.

Imane Halif led the list of top-searched sports stars during the year. Halif is an Algerian female boxer who won a gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

An American boxer, Mike Tyson, came next on the list, and Spanish soccer professional Lamin Yamal took the third place. News was the other area receiving the most search requests during 2024. Topping the list for searches of events was the U.S. presidential election.

That was followed by news stories about excessive heat experienced across many parts of the world. And finishing in third was news about the Paris Olympics. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump topped searches in Google's People category. He was followed by Catherine, Princess of Wales,

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's main opponent in the November presidential election, came in third on the list. The most popular searches for people who died in 2024 included Leah Payne, Toby Keith, and O.J. Simpson.

In the world of entertainment, Disney and Pixar's movie Inside Out 2 was the top-searched movie of the year. In second place was Marvel's Deadpool and Wolverine, followed by the comedy film Salt Burn. The top-searched television show was Netflix's Baby Reindeer. That was followed by Amazon's series Fallout.

In third place was the action show House of the Dragon. In music, Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us topped song searches. Next on the list was Apatit, a pop song by Rosé and Bruno Mars, followed by Bling Bang Bang Born by Creepy Nuts.

The top Google search for a food recipe was for the Olympic Village's chocolate muffin. The sweet treat was made famous by Norwegian swimmer Henrik Kristiansen during the Games. The New York Times Connections puzzle topped game searches. In searches on parks on Google Maps, New York City's Central Park was number one.

At number two was Rizal Park in Manila, the Philippines, followed by Japan's Ohari Park in Fukuoka. The California-based technology company said the 2024 search results were collected from January 1st through November 23rd. I'm Brian Lynn.

You are listening to the VOA Learning English Podcast. We have Brian with us here today to tell us more about his report on the top searches on the world's most popular search engine, Google. Google's top searched terms of 2024 included major news and sports subjects.

The most searched for soccer event was the Copa America competition. In news, the U.S. presidential election topped the list. Welcome, Brian. Yes, sure, Mario. Let's do that.

Brian, lists are a big part of looking back on a year. Can you explain to our listeners a little about how lists are structured and how people talk about them? Since Google is the most popular search engine, it would seem natural for the company to release a year in search report.

Now, this report usually follows the things people searched for most during the year. So we used the term top searched with a hyphen to describe the search that was at the top of the list or the term most searched for.

As a verb, to top means to be at the top, to lead or to be first in a competition or a list. The top spot is often the most important one to many people, but other spots can be considered important as well.

Were there any surprises in the report that you saw? Yes, so perhaps not surprisingly, sports was the most searched subject with the Copa America soccer competition leading the list.

It was also not a surprise that politics was a big search subject, since 2024 was an election year in many countries, including the U.S. But I think the biggest surprise might have been the Algerian Olympic boxer, Imani Khalif, who led in the sports star search list.

Well, thank you for that report, Brian. And we look forward to talking with you again in the new year. Of course. Thank you, Mario. 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. That music means it's time for the lesson of the day on the Learning English Podcast.

My name is Andrew Smith, and I'm joined by Dr. Jill Robbins. Hi, Jill. Hi, Andrew. Today, we bring you a special lesson. We're going to go back and revisit some fun moments from our previous podcast lessons, and hopefully we'll add something fun or funny to today's lesson.

Our lessons of the day have been based on our video series, Let's Learn English. The series shows Ana Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. Here's Ana introducing herself. My name is Ana Mateo. The series has two levels, named Level 1 and Level 2.

Level 1 has 50 episodes, and Level 2 has 30 episodes. That's 80 in total. And we have a podcast lesson of the day for almost every one of them. But don't worry, we won't revisit 80 lessons today. We wouldn't want our listeners to get bored. No.

But they might like to hear this chant we did about the difference between the two adjectives, bored and boring. Let's hear it. Who's bored? I'm bored. You're bored. He's bored. She's bored. They're bored. In fact, we're all bored. Guess who's boring? I'm not boring. You're not boring. She's not boring.

They're not boring. And we're not boring. I guess that means that nobody's boring. But I'm bored. You're boring? No, I said I'm bored. Well, then let's learn with VOA. They're not boring. Alright. Jill, that was a fun chant you made. I'll bet it kept our listeners interested. I hope so. We don't want to be boring. No, we don't. But you know what? A little boredom is okay.

Sometimes we just need to rest and do nothing. My cat is very good at that. I thought it was kind of fun to talk about the words bored and boring in that chant we did. And some days I wish I could be a cat and just lie around and have someone feed me. Me too.

But speaking of the verb wish, we also gave some examples of this verb when we talked about lesson 10 from level 1 of the Let's Learn English series. Let's go back and listen. I can't swim. I wish I could swim. I don't understand the question. I wish I understood the question. My head hurts. I wish my head didn't hurt. Jill, I hope your head doesn't hurt now. No, it doesn't.

At least not yet. I was just giving an example of how to say a sentence with the verb wish. You were the one who said your head hurt. Yes, that's what I said. You have told our listeners the truth. Well, at least now they know whose head was hurting. Wait, whose head was hurting? Yours. Oh, yeah. Well, it feels fine now. But speaking of the word whose, spelled W-H-O-S-E,

We also did a chant to help give examples of this word and of possessive pronouns. Hmm, whose idea was that? It was mine. Oh yeah, that's right. It was yours. This is the chant you recorded with your friend Jennifer, right? That's right. Well, let's hear it.

Whose is this? Whose is that? It's his. It's hers. It's theirs. It's mine. Whose are these? Whose are those? They're his. They're hers. They're ours. They're mine. Is it ours? Is it his? Is it hers? Is it theirs? It's not his. And it's not hers. And it's not ours. And it's not theirs. I think it's mine. I think it's mine. It's mine. It's mine. It's mine. It's mine.

Is everything yours? Not everything's mine. This one's yours. And that one's hers. And those are his. But what about these? These are mine. But what about those? Those are mine. Are you gonna share? Of course I'll share. Whenever we share. It's not just yours. It's not just mine. It's yours and mine. It's yours and mine. It's yours and mine. It's yours and mine. And together, it's ours.

And listeners, remember that Let's Learn English lesson plans are not just ours, they're also yours too, and they're free. Each episode of the series comes with a lesson plan you can download. Simply go to our website at learningenglish.voanews.com. And this is a good time to tell our listeners about another video series we have made here at VOA Learning English.

And this series even has Anna's name in the title. That's right. This series is called Let's Learn English with Anna.

It has English lessons made for children and has lots of fun and creative ideas in it. For example, there is Max, who is a mailbox that talks with Anna. And there is also Daisy, a flower that talks. And just like the Let's Learn English series, Let's Learn English with Anna has a lot of humor or funny situations. One might be...

One way to be funny is to just change your voice. And Anna knows lots of other ways to be funny. So we've invited her to join us to talk a bit more about the children's video series. Hi, Anna. Welcome to the podcast. Hello, Andrew. Hello, Jill. Glad to be here. And we're glad you're here, too. Anna, can you tell us a few special things about the children's show?

Of course, the children's show is available in many languages, and I love it that kids in different parts of the world can learn English with these fun videos. Also, as a script writer, I chose what I hope are fun topics for the whole family to talk about, from cooking and shopping to sports and music.

And which parts of the show were a lot of fun to make or things that you thought were funny?

Andrew, great question. I really love working with creative people. So working with the man who made the videos was so much fun. I would think of crazy situations like flying in space or visiting the dinosaurs, and he would make it happen with the computer. Anything was possible.

And I have to say, I really loved writing for Daisy. She was always causing trouble for me and Max. When we first started filming the show, it was in the middle of the pandemic. So we had to figure out a way to film outside, which we did. And viewers will be able to see your treehouse, which was a really fun location to go to to film.

You know, talking about the show makes me want to watch it again. And listeners, even though Let's Learn English with Anna was made for children, people of all ages can enjoy it and learn from it. Well, Anna, we'd love to speak with you longer, much longer. But a little bird is telling me we're out of time. Can you help us say goodbye like they do in the movie The Sound of Music? Sure.

Yes, I know what song you mean, and I love it. Although I don't know the whole thing. But so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye. That was three ways to say goodbye in English and one in German just for fun. Thanks for listening to the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. Now it's time for all of us to say goodbye. I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith.

And I'm Ana Mateo. Are you ready, guys? One, two, three. Goodbye. Oh, we can do better than that. Guys, come back. One, two. Ready, guys? One, two, three. Goodbye.

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