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A Visit to Two National Parks: Mount Rainier and Valley Forge

Tue, 13 May 2008 19:09:04 -0400

VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about two areas that are popular with visitors to the United States. One is a place of fierce beauty. It is Mount Rainier National Park in the northwestern state of Washington. The other is one of the most important places in the history of the American Revolution. It is Valley Forge National Historical Park, in the eastern state of Pennsylvania.

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VOICE ONE:

The American Indians who lived in the northwest called the great mountain “Takhoma.” One tribe said it was a female monster that would eat people. Other old stories among the Indians said the mountain could produce huge amounts of fire.

In seventeen ninety-two, British explorer George Vancouver became the first European to see the huge mountain. He named it after a navy friend, Captain Peter Rainier.

Today the people who live in the northwestern city of Seattle call it “The Mountain.” Mount Rainier is almost one hundred kilometers from Seattle. Yet it can be seen from almost any place in the city. The beautiful, snow covered mountain seems to offer the city its protection.

VOICE TWO:

The mountain’s offer of protection is false. Mount Rainier is not just a mountain. It is a sleeping volcano. Steam and heat often rise from the very top of the huge mountain, causing snow to melt. Mount Rainier is four thousand three hundred ninety-two meters tall. Its top is covered in snow all year. More than twenty-five thick rivers of ice called glaciers cover a lot of the mountain. In some areas, these glaciers are more than one hundred meters thick.

VOICE ONE:

Mount Rainier always has been a popular place to visit. Many people go to enjoy the beautiful forests that surround the mountain. Others go to climb the mountain.

Hazard Stevens and Philemon VanTrump became the first people known to reach the top of Mount Rainier. They reached the top in August of eighteen seventy after a ten-hour climb through the snow.

In eighteen ninety, a young schoolteacher became the first woman to reach the top. Her name was Fay Fuller. For many years after her successful climb, she wrote newspaper stories asking the federal government to make Mount Rainier a national park. Many people who visited the mountain also wanted it to be protected forever by the government.

On March Second, eighteen ninety-nine, President William McKinley signed a law that made Mount Rainier a national park. It was the fifth national park established in the United States.

VOICE TWO:

Today, National Park Service experts say about ten thousand people climb the huge mountain each year. But only about half of the climbers reach the top.

The mountain can be extremely difficult to climb. Severe weather is possible at almost any time. Snow and ice cover parts of the mountain all year. More than fifty people have died trying to climb Mount Rainier. Mountain climbing experts often use it as a difficult test for people who want to climb some of the world’s highest mountains.

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VOICE ONE:

You do not have to climb the huge mountain to enjoy Mount Rainier National Park. More than one million people visit the park each year. Many walk on the hundreds of kilometers of paths. The paths lead through flat meadows filled with wild flowers and up through forests of large old trees. Other visitors drive around the park to experience its natural beauty. They often see black tailed deer, elk, and mountain goats.

The park is large. It is almost one hundred thousand hectares. Many lakes, rivers, roads, two hotels and six camping areas are inside the borders of the park.

VOICE TWO:

Experts agree that Mount Rainier will become a very active volcano at sometime in the future. They say the real problem is that they do not know when.

They also agree that the great heat produced by an explosion of the volcano would melt the ice rivers that are part of the mountain. This could happen in only a few minutes. They say the melting ice would produce flowing rivers of mud and rock. People who live in the southern part of Seattle and in the city of Tacoma, Washington would be in danger.

Experts carefully study the great mountain. They hope to be able to warn of any dangerous change. But for now, the great mountain provides a safe and beautiful place to visit in the Northwest area of the United States.

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VOICE ONE:

A very different kind of national park is in the eastern state of Pennsylvania. It is called Valley Forge National Historical Park. It is near the city of Philadelphia.

Valley Forge also is a beautiful place. Within the park are many different kinds of trees and flowers. Huge areas of green grass. And a beautiful, slow moving river. You can see many deer. Often you can come very near them. Deer do not run away because they are used to seeing people in the park.

It is not the natural beauty that made Valley Forge a National Historic Park. It is what happened there. Many other places were important in the American War for Independence, but no other place is so filled with suffering. No battle was fought at Valley Forge. Yet, more than two thousand soldiers of the small American army died there. They died of hunger, disease and the fierce cold in the winters of seventeen seventy-seven and seventeen seventy-eight.

It was also at Valley Forge that the men of this small army learned to be real soldiers.

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VOICE TWO:

What happened at Valley Forge began in August of seventeen seventy-seven. A British force threatened to capture the American capital at Philadelphia. The American commander, General George Washington, moved the army to defend the city. A battle was fought at a place called Brandywine and another at Germantown. The British forces won those battles and occupied Philadelphia.

By the month of December, General Washington needed to find a place his small army could easily defend. He chose Valley Forge. More than fifteen centimeters of snow fell only a few days after the army arrived. Ice covered the rivers. The soldiers began building very small wooden houses called log cabins. They built more than one thousand of these small houses.

VOICE ONE:

The fierce winter was only one of the many problems the American army faced. Many of the soldiers had no shoes. Most had no winter clothing. All suffered from a severe lack of food. Then, several diseases struck. Typhus, typhoid, dysentery and pneumonia were among the diseases that spread through the army. Most of the soldiers became sick. Many died.

General Washington wrote letters to Congress asking for help. He asked for money to buy food and clothing. But Congress had no money to give him.

Several things happened to change the small army during that long and terrible winter. General Washington knew the army had been defeated in the past because of a lack of real training. A man named Baron Friedrich von Steuben had recently come from Europe. He was an expert at training soldiers. So, each day during the terrible winter, Baron von Steuben taught the men of the American army to be soldiers. He also taught them something very important. He taught them to believe in themselves.

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VOICE TWO:

As the winter passed, the army slowly changed. New troops arrived. New equipment arrived. An alliance with France brought guarantees of military support. The men who survived that terrible winter were no longer a group of armed citizens. They were well-trained soldiers who no longer feared the enemy.

When the American army left Valley Forge on June nineteenth, seventeen seventy-eight, the soldiers took with them the spirit that had helped them to survive.

The War for Independence would continue for another five years. Terrible battles were yet to be fought. However, the men who had survived the winter in Valley Forge knew they could win. They did.

VOICE ONE:

Today, you can visit the area where Baron von Steuben trained the soldiers of the American Revolution. You can watch a movie about the American soldiers’ struggle to survive that long ago winter. You can see examples of the small log cabins the soldiers built. You can walk on paths along the remains of the defense system and the officers’ headquarters. And you can feel the spirit of Valley Forge.

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VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Need Your Appendix Out? Let Me Reach Down Your Throat

Tue, 13 May 2008 22:50:02 -0400

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Medical researchers keep looking for less invasive

ways to perform operations. The aim is to cut less and to reduce pain and recovery time. Some researchers see a future in NOTES. NOTES is short for Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery.

In simple terms, what this means is the removal of diseased organs through the body's natural openings. For example, a man in California recently had his appendix removed through his mouth.

Twenty-five years ago, having your appendix removed meant staying in the hospital for as long as a week. Patients returned home with an ugly and permanent scar on their abdomen.

But since the late nineteen eighties, laparoscopic surgery has gained popularity. It leaves only small marks where holes were made in the skin. The doctor works with a system called a laparoscope, usually connected to a video camera. Laparoscopic surgery rarely requires a hospital stay.

With the newest kind of surgery, doctors make a small cut in the patient's belly button. A camera is placed through the hole to help guide the surgical instrument.

The operation at the University of California San Diego Medical Center in March

lasted three hours. It was done as part of a study to test new methods of minimally invasive surgery. Santiago Horgan, director of UC San Diego's Center for the Future of Surgery, led the medical team.

Doctors used a long robotic tube to pass the instrument down the patient's throat. Then they made a cut in the wall of the stomach. The cut was made to pass the instrument through to the appendix for removal.

The researchers said they believed it was the country's first removal of a diseased appendix through the mouth. They said India was the only other country to report such an operation.

The patient in California, named Jeff Scholz, said he recovered quickly and with little pain.

But some doctors say they are not sure this kind of surgery is worth the possible risks. They say stomach fluids could leak if the hole in the stomach wall is not closed completely. A mistake, they say, could be life-threatening.

The surgical method is still being studied to see if it is better than traditional surgeries.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Brianna Blake. Archives of transcripts and MP3s of our reports can be found at voaspialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

Honey Bee Losses Still a Problem in US

Mon, 12 May 2008 20:12:17 -0400

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Honey bees add billions of dollars in value to around one hundred thirty crops in the United States. But since the nineteen eighties, researchers have been concerned about the health of these valuable pollinators.

Worries grew after the winter of two thousand six. Some pollination services reported losses of anywhere from thirty to ninety percent of their hives. The beekeepers did not find dead adult bees as they often do after winter. Instead, the bees were gone. Experts gave a name to this mysterious situation: colony collapse disorder.

A report in Agricultural Research magazine, from the Department of Agriculture, takes a fresh look at C.C.D. It says the disorder is truly a serious problem. But it says there were enough honey bees to provide all the agricultural pollination needed last year.

Still, beekeepers reported losing about thirty-five percent of their hives in the fall and winter of two thousand seven. It two thousand six, it was thirty-one percent.

The United States has almost two and one-half million managed beehives. Experts from the Agriculture Department and the Apiary Inspectors of America did a study involving about one-fifth of them.

One finding was that beekeepers who found no dead adult bees were more likely to have the most severe losses. Also, a virus called I.A.P.V., for Israeli acute paralysis virus, was present in almost half the colonies studied.

But researchers say they do not know if this virus causes a colony to collapse. They say the lack of affected bees to examine makes it difficult to know exactly what the new disorder is.

Losses in honey bee populations can result from a number of causes. A big problem, for example, is the varroa mite, a deadly parasite. And experts keep looking for other answers for the current situation.

Scientists at the University of Virginia recently reported that air pollution may prevent bees from finding flowers to pollinate. They think ozone in the air is keeping bees and other pollinators from smelling the flowers. Bees feed on nectar and pollen from flowers.

Jose Fuentes and his team at Virginia studied how far the scent of flowers travels with the wind. Before the eighteen hundreds, they say, it was more than one thousand two hundred meters. Now, they say, the scent can travel only about three hundred meters at best. Their study is in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. For more about bees, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus.

Museum Aims to Keep African Archeological Treasures in Africa

Mon, 12 May 2008 19:27:17 -0400

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we will tell about an effort to keep African archeological treasures in Africa. We will report on progress against a bacterial form of the disease meningitis. We will also tell about a study that suggests genetic reasons for living longer.

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VOICE ONE:

An archeologist from Canada is working to establish a museum in Mozambique. The museum will have the traditional purpose of showing valuable objects from the past. But another purpose is to keep ancient African objects in Africa. That goal goes against a long history of foreign archeologists digging up such objects and taking them home for permanent showing.

The new museum in Mozambique will open officially in August. It is called Museu Local. The name means local museum in the Portuguese language.

VOICE TWO:

The creator of this unusual project is Julio Mercader of the University of Calgary in Canada's Alberta Province. He has been leading archeological digs in Mozambique for about five years.

Museu Local will be only the second museum in Mozambique’s Niassa Province. Julio Mercader decided to build it after finding a cave overlooking Lake Niassa in two thousand three. He recognized the area’s richness for ancient objects when he found one-thousand-year-old ceremonial containers in the area.

Mister Mercader chose an historic building for the museum’s home. The building had been the first schoolhouse in the area of Lago. As such, it already held special meaning for the local population.

VOICE ONE:

Last year, Mister Mercader led his team in collecting stories from twenty-five nearby villages. Team members recorded the spoken tradition and personal histories of more than two hundred people. They also recorded the people’s memories of their travels, stories and songs. Sixty-five hours of sound and video recordings already are available for museum visitors.

One member of the team is Arianna Fogelman, a graduate student at Boston University in the United States. She has spent three summers collecting the spoken histories. She worked along a one hundred-fifty-kilometer long area on the coast of Lake Niassa.

Miz Fogelman says she is satisfied to see the looks on people’s faces when they hear recordings of their stories and songs. She plans to return soon for another summer.

VOICE TWO:

In addition to building the museum, Julio Mercader has provided chances for local people to help with his project. The archeologist teaches as he works on excavations, or digs. He also offers classes and training in laboratory methods.

Mussa Raja is an aide to Mister Mercader. Mister Raja has been taking archeology courses in a school in Mozambique and at the University of Calgary. He says Mozambique needs more experts in the archeology of Stone Age times, when stone tools were first used.

Mister Mercader worked with two universities in Mozambique to help establish Museu Local. The museum employs local workers. The United States has given thirty-five thousand dollars to support the project.

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VOICE ONE:

You are listening to the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. With Bob Doughty, I'm Barbara Klein in Washington.

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Meningitis is an infection of the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. Both bacteria and viruses can cause it. Viral meningitis is the more common form. But bacterial meningitis is more dangerous. It results from a bacterium known as Hib, or Haemophilus influenzae type b.

Each year, almost four hundred thousand young children die from bacterial meningitis. Millions more suffer hearing loss, brain damage or other disabilities as a result of the disease.

VOICE TWO:

Hib requires intensive treatment with antibiotic drugs. But most of the children are poor and live in developing countries. Hib vaccines for babies have been available since nineteen ninety-one. For most of that time, their use was limited to industrial countries, mostly because of cost.

Uganda began a vaccination campaign to protect children against Hib in two thousand two. Now, a study has found that in areas where cases were counted, the disease rate fell by eighty-five percent in the first four years. Then it fell to zero in two thousand six.

VOICE ONE:

Scientists from the government, the World Health Organization, a French agency and others have been studying the campaign. They estimate that the program now prevents thirty thousand severe infections and five thousand deaths in children under five each year.

The GAVI Alliance paid for the vaccines. GAVI was formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. This alliance of private and public interests was created in two thousand to widen the availability of immunizations.

With GAVI support, Uganda provided sixteen million five hundred thousand doses of Hib vaccine nationwide from two thousand two to two thousand six.

VOICE TWO:

Other studies have found similar results with Hib vaccines in countries such as Bangladesh, Gambia and Kenya. But the executive secretary of the alliance, Julian Lob-Levyt, says this is the first time the group has seen rates drop to zero.

Uganda chose to use an injection that contains vaccines against five diseases. They are Hib, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and hepatitis B.

In November, the GAVI board approved additional financing to pay for Hib vaccine in a total of forty-four countries.

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VOICE ONE:

Scientists are moving closer to understanding genetic reasons why some people live longer than others. A recent study suggests a gene mutation may be one of the secrets to living one hundred or more years. Scientists found that genetic orders linked to both long life and small size in animals may produce a similar effect in human beings. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The orders affect genetic material involved in the actions of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor. Hormones are chemicals produced by the body. They control the activity of cells and organs. The scientists say the genetic orders reduce the activity of the growth hormone IGF-One. But the exact reasons why they may lengthen a person’s life are still not known.

VOICE TWO:

Nir Barzilai is director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. His team of researchers looked for the gene mutation among a population of Ashkenazi Jews. The team studied members of the population who were at least ninety-five years old, and their children.

The researchers compared their findings to other Ashkenazi Jews whose family members did not live as long. They found that the genetic orders were more common among those who lived longer, and their children. They also discovered that this gene mutation is found mostly among women.

Daughters of the people who lived to be one hundred had higher levels of the growth hormone than people in the control group. The daughters also were, on average, two centimeters shorter than those in the control group.

VOICE ONE:

Neither the older adults nor their family members had evidence of anything unusual in the growth hormone gene itself. Instead, the difference was observed in the growth hormone receptor, which is responsible for telling the cells to grow. The researchers believe the higher levels of growth hormone present may be the bodies’ way of dealing with the slowed receptors.

Doctor Barzilai says the new findings show that it might be possible to develop drugs to prevent aging and age-related disease. However, scientists still do not know how long growth hormones need to be restricted to delay the effects of aging.

For those born with the gene mutation, it may help them to live longer by avoiding cancer. However, the mutation is very rare. Only two percent of those one hundred years or older in the study had it.

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VOICE TWO:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was also our producer. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Internet users can read our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Coming Down to the Finish Line for a Race That Is About to Begin

Sun, 11 May 2008 17:56:10 -0400

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. This is Shep O'Neal.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week our subject is the presidential campaign.

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VOICE ONE:

The seemingly endless campaign for the Democratic Party nomination is nearing an end. Only five states and the territory of Puerto Rico have yet to vote.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama moved closer to victory last Tuesday. A win by fourteen points in North Carolina increased his lead in delegates and the popular vote.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton had a two-point victory in Indiana, the other state that voted last Tuesday. Still, many political commentators declared the race over.

But speaking in Indiana, Hillary Clinton promised to continue her fight.

HILLARY CLINTON: "I am going to work my heart out in West Virginia and Kentucky this month and I intend to win them in November.”

VOICE ONE:

West Virginia will vote this Tuesday, then Kentucky and Oregon on May twentieth. The primary season ends on June third.

VOICE TWO:

Barack Obama captured fifty-six percent of the North Carolina vote, led by his strong support among African-American voters. If elected, he would be America's first black president.

After the results were in, he talked about defeating Republican candidate John McCain in the general election.

BARACK OBAMA: "We can’t afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George Bush’s third term. We need change in America and that’s why we will be united in November."

VOICE ONE:

Hillary Clinton argues that she is the Democrat more likely to defeat John McCain in big and often unpredictable states. Her campaign has faced a shortage of money, and she has helped finance it lately with personal loans.

Hillary Clinton would be America's first female president. Her continued support among working-class white voters and older Americans helped her win Indiana. Nine out of ten black voters there and in North Carolina chose Barack Obama.

VOICE TWO:

Hillary Clinton could still win the nomination if delegate votes from Michigan and Florida are counted at the party's convention in August. The national party has refused to recognize those votes. The states held their primaries earlier than rules permitted. The party rules committee will meet on May thirty-first to decide what to do.

The hope is to avoid a divisive fight over the nominee at the convention. In the early nineteen eighties, the Democratic Party created superdelegates. These are party officials and elected office holders. One reason they were created was to avoid such fights.

The nearly eight hundred superdelegates are free to choose any candidate. Undecided superdelegates are under intense pressure from both campaigns. Their votes could decide the nominee in the coming weeks.

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VOICE ONE:

At forty-six, Barack Obama describes himself as a Washington outsider. His promises to work for change and unity have appealed especially to young voters and more-educated voters.

Hillary Clinton says he lacks experience while she is "ready to lead on day one." Senator Obama agrees that he has not spent many years learning the ways of Washington. But, he says, “I have been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.”

VOICE TWO:

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii to a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas. Their marriage ended when he was two, and his father later returned to Kenya. Barack Obama spent part of his youth in Jakarta after his mother married an Indonesian man.

Although his father and stepfather were Muslim, and his middle name is Hussein, Barack Obama is Christian. He and his wife, Michelle, have two daughters.

He attended Columbia University and Harvard Law School. He says his whole life has been about bridging racial divides and helping people work together. He was a community organizer in Chicago and an Illinois state senator. He entered the United States Senate in January of two thousand five.

VOICE ONE:

Barack Obama recently broke ties with his former pastor of twenty years. Senator Obama denounced statements made by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

These included suggestions that American policies invited the two thousand one terrorist attacks on the United States. Reverend Wright also said the government may have developed the AIDS virus to use against blacks.

When asked about Reverend Wright, Hillary Clinton said some of his comments were offensive and outrageous. John McCain said he would not make it a campaign issue if Senator Obama is the Democratic nominee.

JOHN McCAIN: "Do I believe that Reverend Wright's comments were outrageous? Of course, so do all Americans. But it’ll be a discussion that Senator Obama will have with the American people."

VOICE TWO:

Political experts said the issue of Reverend Wright appeared to have little effect on Senator Obama in last week's primaries.

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VOICE ONE:

Hillary Rodham Clinton grew up in the Midwest, in Illinois. Her father owned a textile business. He was strict. He is said to have turned off the heat on cold winter nights to save money.

She graduated from Wellesley College and Yale Law School. Over the years, she has often worked on issues affecting women, children and those without health insurance.

VOICE TWO:

Hillary Clinton is sixty years old. She was elected a senator from New York in two thousand, and re-elected in two thousand six.

She entered the presidential race as someone who, it was often said, most Americans either loved or hated. That reputation goes back to her eight years as first lady when her husband, Bill Clinton, was president.

Early on, he appointed her to lead a White House effort to reform the American health-care system. But the plan was unable to win congressional support.

VOICE ONE:

In the Senate, she has been a strong critic of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war. But her vote to support military intervention angered some of the Democratic Party base. Barack Obama makes a campaign point that he has always opposed the war.

Recently Hillary Clinton was criticized for saying she faced sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia in nineteen ninety-six. She later said she was mistaken, after video of her arrival with her daughter, Chelsea, showed no sign of danger.

VOICE TWO:

High energy prices and the economy are much bigger issues now than they were when the campaign began.

John McCain and Hillary Clinton both want to suspend a fuel tax this summer to help motorists save money. She would have oil companies pay for it. Barack Obama said the idea of a tax "holiday" was a political trick that would save little and could hurt road projects.

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VOICE ONE:

Senator John McCain of Arizona is in his second campaign for the White House. In two thousand, he lost the Republican Party nomination to George W. Bush. This time, he has had enough delegates since March to become the nominee at the party convention this September.

John McCain was born on an American base in the Panama Canal Zone. His father and grandfather were admirals in the United States Navy. He graduated from the Naval Academy and became a Navy pilot.

His plane was shot down over North Vietnam in nineteen sixty-seven during the Vietnam War. He spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war. He faced severe beatings, and returned home a national hero. He led the Navy's largest air squadron at the end of his twenty-two years of service.

John McCain's political message centers on national security.

VOICE TWO:

Senator McCain says his war experience makes him uniquely qualified to be president. He supports President Bush's war policies and says he would keep troops in Iraq as long as needed.

President Bush has called the fourth-term senator a "true conservative." But some Republicans do not think John McCain is conservative enough. He is trying to appeal to conservative and independent voters.

If elected, he will be the oldest first-term president. John McCain will be seventy-two this August.

He faced criticism recently after his campaign released only his tax returns and not those of his wife, Cindy, a wealthy businesswoman. The McCains keep their personal finances separate. The Obamas and the Clintons released their tax returns. But Cindy McCain says this is an issue of privacy.

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VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Brianna Blake and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus with Shep O'Neal.

VOICE ONE:

Send us your opinions about the presidential campaign. Write to special@voanews.com and tell us your name and country. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.