#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 icy material shooting up from a moon of the planet Saturn. We will also tell about an experimental drug for the disease schistosomiasis. And, we tell about a new study of the Grand Canyon -- one of America's greatest natural wonders. #(MUSIC) #VOICE ONE: Saturn is best known for the rings of icy material that surround the planet. But Saturn's moons interest scientists because some may hold liquid water and other materials necessary for life. Recently, the American space agency NASA ordered the Cassini spacecraft to visit one of Saturn's most interesting moons. NASA jointly operates Cassini with the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The moon is Enceladus. It is not Saturn's largest moon. It is only five hundred kilometers across. But the forces that affect the surface of Enceladus are very active. #VOICE TWO: Periodically, huge amounts of material shoot up from the surface. NASA officials have called these events geysers, like the hot water that is forced out from under the ground on Earth. Cassini first captured pictures of such an event three years ago. The pictures have proved so scientifically important that NASA made changes to its plans for Cassini just to study the geysers. On March twelfth, the space agency directed Cassini to pass only about fifty kilometers from the surface of Enceladus. Cassini got so close that it passed through material shooting out of the moon. The spacecraft was traveling at a speed of fifteen kilometers a second. #VOICE ONE: What Cassini found has only increased scientists' interest in the moon. New maps of temperatures on Enceladus show that an area on the southern part of the moon is ninety-three degrees below zero Celsius. Temperatures on Enceladus are normally about one hundred thirty degrees below zero. John Spencer is a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He says the new temperature information makes it more likely that there is liquid water not far below the surface. Liquid water is believed to be one of the things needed for life. Organic material is another. Cassini also found that the geysers are releasing organic material. #VOICE TWO: Hunter Waite is an investigator for the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. The spectrometer is a device that helps identify the chemistry of substances. Mister Waite says the chemicals gathered from the geysers of Enceladus are much like those found on comets in our solar system. Cassini found water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and also organic material shooting from the geyser. It is not known what causes the geysers on Enceladus. Cassini's deputy project scientist, Linda Spilker, says scientists know that heat causes the geysers to shoot from the surface of Enceladus. But, she says, it is not known what causes the heat. #VOICE ONE: Gravity from Saturn and the moon Dione are known to affect Enceladus. But it is not clear if this gravitational force is enough to cause the moon's energetic geysers. The geysers are powerful. The material is leaving the surface at four hundred meters a second. And there is a link between the geysers and the objects for which Saturn is most famous. Material from Enceladus helps form the E-ring, the most distant of Saturn's many beautiful rings. The most recent visit is only the beginning of close study of Enceladus. Scientists will have another chance to observe Enceladus when Cassini passes very near the moon again in August. #(MUSIC) #VOICE TWO: Scientists think they are a step closer to a new drug to treat schistosomiasis. More than two hundred million people suffer from this parasitic worm disease. Most live in developing nations. About ten percent of victims become seriously disabled from internal bleeding, iron loss, organ damage or other effects. A team in the United States found that chemical compounds known as oxadiazoles can attack an enzyme needed for the survival of Schistosoma. This is the group of flatworms that cause schistosomiasis. #VOICE ONE: The scientists tested oxadiazoles on laboratory mice. They found that one compound killed the parasite at every level of development. The study also showed that the compound was active against all three major kinds of Schistosoma worms that infect human beings. America's National Institutes of Health supported the research. Nature Medicine magazine reported on the study by scientists from Illinois State University and the Chemical Genomics Center at N.I.H. David Williams led the research. He says the Schistosoma parasite needs oxygen to survive. Oxygen use produces oxygen-free radicals that can destroy an organism. The worm has a protective enzyme. But Professor Williams says the experimental drug disables this enzyme, causing the worm to self-destruct. #VOICE TWO: Each year, two hundred eighty thousand people die of schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or snail fever. The microscopic worms infect snails, which produce infected eggs. People become infected when they enter fresh water where the snails live. The worms dig through skin to enter the body. They move into blood passages that supply the intestinal and urinary systems. Then, if worm eggs in human waste enter fresh water, more snails and people become infected. #VOICE ONE: Since the nineteen eighties, doctors have used one main drug to treat schistosomiasis. Public health experts worry that the worms will become resistant to this drug, praziquantel. More studies are needed on the experimental drug. The scientists say the results in mice were better than all the targets set by the World Health Organization for new schistosomiasis compounds. They hope the drug will be ready for testing in humans in four to five years. #(MUSIC) #VOICE TWO: Scientists in the United States say the Grand Canyon is nearly three times as old as earlier estimates. They say they found evidence that the Grand Canyon began forming seventeen million years ago. That is eleven million years earlier than other studies have shown. Geologists at the University of New Mexico carried out the new study. Their findings were published last month in Science magazine. Other scientists say the findings fit with earlier theories about how the Grand Canyon may have been formed. But some experts on Earth's development disagree. They say the study fails to support earlier findings. #VOICE ONE: The Grand Canyon is a popular stop for visitors to the southwestern United States. It stretches up to twenty-nine kilometers wide and nearly two kilometers deep. Yet its age has long been an issue of scientific debate. Scientists have often used geologic events to describe the history of the Grand Canyon. Such events have included rock flows and sedimentary rock, or rock formed from other rocks. Generally, this method is only able to confirm ages of rock formations up to one million years ago. #VOICE TWO: Instead, the American geologists used a uranium-lead dating method that finds ages of minerals back tens to hundreds of millions of years. They dated minerals from caves at different depths of the canyon's walls. Minerals from openings on hillsides are less likely to suffer damage from water or other causes of erosion. The uranium-lead dating system helped the geologists estimate water levels over time as river water cut through the rock to form the Grand Canyon. Their findings suggest that the rate of erosion was much slower in the western canyon than in the eastern part. #VOICE ONE: Today the Colorado River runs along the four hundred forty-six kilometer long canyon. Based on their findings, the geologists believe a separate river began the formation of the Grand Canyon. They say the canyon started instead from the west by a river about seventeen million years ago. Another river began forming a canyon from the east. Over time, the rivers connected to each other. The geologists estimate the two canyons joined together about six million years ago. #(MUSIC) #VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Jill Moss and Mario Ritter. Brianna Blake was also our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. #VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. #(MUSIC) Every people has its own way of saying things, its own special expressions. Many everyday American expressions are based on colors. Red is a hot color. Americans often use it to express heat. They may say they are red hot about something unfair. When they are red hot they are very angry about something. The small hot tasting peppers found in many Mexican foods are called red hots for their color and their fiery taste. Fast loud music is popular with many people. They may say the music is red hot, especially the kind called Dixieland jazz. Pink is a lighter kind of red. People sometimes say they are in the pink when they are in good health. The expression was first used in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. It probably comes from the fact that many babies are born with a nice pink color that shows that they are in good health. Blue is a cool color. The traditional blues music in the United States is the opposite of red hot music. Blues is slow, sad and soulful. Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded a famous song – Mood Indigo – about the deep blue color, indigo. In the words of the song: "You ain't been blue till you've had that Mood Indigo." Someone who is blue is very sad. The color green is natural for trees and grass. But it is an unnatural color for humans. A person who has a sick feeling stomach may say she feels a little green. A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from high waves may look very green. Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as a friend has, like a fast new car. That person may say he is green with envy. Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars or greenbacks. Dollars are called greenbacks because that is the color of the back side of the paper money. The color black is used often in expressions. People describe a day in which everything goes wrong as a black day. The date of a major tragedy is remembered as a black day. A blacklist is illegal now. But at one time, some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations. In some cases, colors describe a situation. A brown out is an expression for a reduction in electric power. Brown outs happen when there is too much demand for electricity. The electric system is unable to offer all the power needed in an area. Black outs were common during World War Two. Officials would order all lights in a city turned off to make it difficult for enemy planes to find a target in the dark of night. #(MUSIC) I'm Warren Scheer. Listen again next week for another Words and Their Stories program in Special English on the Voice of America.

#VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. #VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we visit the historic center of Philadelphia. #(MUSIC) #VOICE ONE: Philadelphia is a big city on the Delaware River in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania. It has about a million and a half people and is often called Philly. The city was designed by William Penn. The Englishman and Quaker founded Pennsylvania in the sixteen eighties. He chose the name Philadelphia which he interpreted to mean "city of brotherly love" in Greek. #VOICE TWO: Philadelphia holds an important place in American history. It served as the nation's capital from seventeen eighty-five to seventeen ninety. And 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. (SOUND) #VOICE ONE: A guide takes us into the room in Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. The signing took place on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. During the summer of seventeen eighty-seven, the room had another important use. Delegates held a federal convention there and wrote the Constitution. #VOICE TWO: In the seventeen hundreds, Independence Hall was the Pennsylvania statehouse. Philadelphia was the capital of Pennsylvania at the time; today the capital is Harrisburg. A bell was ordered for the building. But the bell cracked soon after it arrived from England. So in seventeen fifty-three, the bell was melted down for its metal and a new bell was made. The new bell was rung many times for public announcements, including the signing of the Declaration of Independence. #VOICE ONE: In the eighteen thirties, a group that was trying to ban slavery in the United States began calling it the Liberty Bell. On it are these words taken from the Bible: "Proclaim Liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." But in eighteen forty-six a crack appeared in the replacement bell. No one knows why it cracked. The Liberty Bell has not been rung since, but it remains an important national symbol. #VOICE TWO: The National Park Service says more than two million people visited Independence National Historical Park last year. Across the street from the park is the National Liberty Museum. This museum has a collection of more than ninety paintings and sculptures. They represent the idea that liberty is a freedom that is easily violated. The museum also celebrates more than three hundred fifty world heroes. One example is Jonas Salk, the American doctor who developed a polio vaccine. Another is Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who helped the poor and sick. #(MUSIC) #VOICE ONE: Time for a meal. A few blocks from the Liberty Bell is the City Tavern. The restaurant serves food based on recipes as old as the nation itself. For example, there is beer brewed from a recipe developed by Thomas Jefferson, the third president, and his sweet potato biscuits. In fact, the City Tavern is three years older than the United States. It was completed in seventeen seventy-three. Historians say it was considered the best restaurant in British North America. When the nation was a year old, the first Independence Day celebration was held there on July fourth, seventeen seventy-seven. And ten years later, after approving the Constitution, what did the delegates do? Tavern records show they went to the City Tavern for a meal. #VOICE TWO: Speaking of food, another good place to eat in Philadelphia is the Reading Terminal Market. It opened in eighteen ninety-two with spaces for almost eight hundred sellers. Today, the huge building is filled with stores selling local farm products as well as seafood, clothing, jewelry and crafts from many countries. One hundred thousand people a week visit the Reading Terminal Market. Visitors can find all kinds of foods -- including, of course, Philly cheesesteak. The city is known for these sandwiches made of thinly sliced meat covered with cheese. A cheesesteak is offered with onions and other toppings and served on a long roll. #(MUSIC) #VOICE ONE: Now it is time to get back to the Visitor Center at Independence Park for a tour of Philadelphia on a Duck. This is a kind of vehicle that can drive on land or ride on water. Other cities also have these kinds of tours. The seventy-minute ride includes about twenty minutes on the Delaware River, which separates Pennsylvania and New Jersey. As we travel through Philadelphia, the riders blow on duck noisemakers, like this. (SOUND) #VOICE TWO: As we pass through Independence Park, our driver points out Carpenters' Hall. That was where colonial delegates first gathered in seventeen seventy-four to discuss their problems with British rule. We also pass by the houses of important people during colonial times. One of these buildings was where Betsy Ross lived when tradition tells us she sewed the first United States flag. Outside the historical area, the Duck passes by Elfreth's Alley. This is one of the oldest streets in Philadelphia. It dates back to the beginning of the seventeen hundreds. We also drive down South Street, a well-known area of shops and restaurants. The Orlons, a group from Philadelphia, had a hit in nineteen sixty-three with a song called "South Street." #(MUSIC) #VOICE ONE: Finally, the Duck takes us back to the Visitor Center. We just have time to see the National Constitution Center. This privately operated museum opened in Philadelphia on July fourth, two thousand three. It was created to increase public recognition of the Constitution, its history and its importance today. The museum is near Independence Hall, where the document was written. Visitors are presented with the idea that the most important part of American constitutional democracy is the individual citizen. Children and adults can learn about the United States through interactive technology programs. For example, visitors can serve on a jury or decide cases as if they were on the Supreme Court. #VOICE TWO: The National Constitution Center also has a big room called Signers' Hall. It looks like the room at Independence Hall where thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution on September seventeenth, seventeen eighty-seven. Included among the delegates were George Washington, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. There are life-size statues of forty-two delegates -- the ones who signed the Constitution and three others who did not. American visitors have fun finding the delegates from their home states and having their pictures taken with them. #VOICE ONE: Nearby is a rare first public printing of the Constitution. The Pennsylvania Packet Constitution was published in a newspaper two days after the Constitution was signed in Independence Hall. A copy of the Constitution itself is on display at the National Archives in Washington. #VOICE TWO: The National Constitution Center is not just about political events in the past. On April sixteenth, Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton plan to be there for a debate. Six days later is the Pennsylvania primary election. #VOICE ONE: The city of Philadelphia has much to see, both historic and modern, but that's all we have time for today. For anyone planning a visit, one place to get information on the Internet is gophila.com, spelled g-o-p-h-i-l-a, the official visitor site for Greater Philadelphia. #(MUSIC) #VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. #VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Goldman Sachs Group, the international investment banking company, has launched a new program to provide ten thousand poor women with business education. The program, called 10,000 Women, will support partnerships between American and European universities and business schools in mostly developing countries. Partners will work together to establish or expand education programs lasting from five weeks to six months. Several partnerships may also offer full college degrees in business. The 10,000 Women program hopes to expand into the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and throughout Africa. Sixteen schools have agreed to take part in the program so far. They include Columbia, Harvard and Stanford Universities in the United States. Other schools are in India, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. The Pan-African University in Lagos, Nigeria is also a partner. Peter Bamkoleh heads that university's Enterprise Development Services. He says about fifty women will receive training at the school every year. The women will take classes several times a week, then use what they have learned. Dina Powell is the managing director of Goldman Sachs. She says that 10,000 Women is not a "one size fits all" program. Each university decides what to teach to fulfill local needs. At the American University of Afghanistan, for example, women will study the general ideas of business management. But at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, the partner school will offer beginning and higher-level business classes to the first five hundred women. Such classes may include financial record-keeping, market research and advertising. Women also could learn how to write a business plan, do business over the Internet or gain investors. Goldman Sachs plans to give one hundred million dollars to the 10,000 Women program over the next five years. It will also urge its employees to donate their time and knowledge in the classroom. The program is based on a Goldman Sachs research report called "Women Hold Up Half the Sky." The research shows the powerful effects that working women have on their nations' economies and societies. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.

#VOICE ONE: I'm Mary Tillotson. #VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about writer Langston Hughes, who has been called the poet voice of African Americans. #(MUSIC) #VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes is usually thought of as a poet. But he also wrote novels, plays, short stories, essays, autobiographies, newspaper columns, children's books, and the words to operas. He also translated into English the works of foreign poets. Hughes was one of the first black writers who could support himself by his writings. He is praised for his ability to say what was important to millions of black people. Hughes produced a huge amount of work during his lifetime. He also has influenced the work of many other writers. He wrote for almost fifty years. #VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes was famous for his descriptions of black American life. He used his work to praise his people and voice his concerns about race and social injustice. His work is known all around the world and has been translated into many languages. Hughes's poetry had serious messages. He often wrote about racial issues, describing his people in a realistic way. Although his story was not often pleasant, he told it with understanding and with hope. #(MUSIC) #VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in nineteen-oh-two. His parents were separated. He spent most of his childhood with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. She told him stories about their family and their fight to end slavery. Her storytelling filled him with pride in himself and his race. He first began to write poetry when he was living with her. When he was fourteen, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to stay with his mother and her new husband. He attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Langston was named Class Poet one year. He published his first short stories while he was still in high school. #VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes struggled with a feeling of loneliness caused by his parent's divorce. He developed a love of reading books as a way to deal with the lack of time his parents spent with him. His love for reading grew into a desire to write. He wanted to reproduce the powerful effect other writers had made upon him. Among the early influences on his writing were poets Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. After graduating from high school in nineteen twenty, Langston moved to Mexico City to live with his father for one year. His father had moved there to escape racism in America. His father did not offer much warmth to his son. Yet, Langston turned the pain caused by his family problems into one of his most famous poems, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." In this poem, he speaks of the strength and pride of black people in ancient African civilizations and in America. (SOUND: "The Negro Speaks of Rivers") #VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes learned a lot about race, and about social and economic conditions while he was in Mexico. His ability to speak Spanish and his brown skin often made it easy for him to appear to be a native. Many of his works, including a play for children, deal with his days in Mexico. During the time he stayed with his father in Mexico, Langston wrote many poems because he was always unhappy. He once said that he usually created his best work when he was really not happy. Langston had a troubled relationship with his father from which he never recovered fully. His father did not think he could earn a living as a writer. His mother, however, recognized his need to be a poet. #VOICE TWO: Langston's father agreed to pay for his college education at Columbia University in New York City, if he studied engineering. Langston arrived in New York when he was nineteen years old. At the end of that first year at Columbia, he left school, broke with his father, and began traveling. Traveling was a lifelong love that would take him throughout the world before he died. In nineteen twenty-two, Hughes took a job on a ship and sailed to Africa. He would later sail to France, Russia, Spain and Italy. He wrote poems and short stories during his travels. His experiences while traveling greatly influenced his work. He sent a few of his writings back home. They were published, which helped establish him as a professional writer. Financial problems ended Hughes's travels. He tried to find work on a ship so he could return to the United States. But in Italy, he had problems finding work on a ship because he was black. In the poem, "I, Too", he noted that the American color line even reached all the way over there. (SOUND: "I, Too") #VOICE ONE: In nineteen twenty-four, Langston Hughes returned to the United States to live with his mother in Washington, D.C. The poet Vachel Lindsay ate in a hotel where Hughes was working. Hughes put some poems he had written next to Lindsay's dinner plate. Lindsay gave a poetry reading later that night. He read some of Hughes's poetry, too. Newspapers across the country wrote about Lindsay's poetry reading. Hughes became known as a new black poet. A year later, Hughes returned to New York. Through the years he lived in many places, but always came back to New York's Harlem area. Harlem was the center of black life in New York City. Hughes's creativity was influenced by his life in Harlem. #VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes returned to New York during a period called the Harlem Renaissance. It took place during the nineteen twenties and thirties. The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great artistic creativity among black people. For the first time, black artistic expression was being widely recognized. Hughes became friends with other great black writers of the time, such as Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Zora Neal Hurston. They hoped that great art could change the racist ideas in America about African Americans. Hughes was considered one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance. He was the first poet to use the rhythms of black music. He often wrote about the everyday experiences of black working people. And he helped bring the movement of jazz and the sound of black speech into poetry. #VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes experimented with his writing. Other Harlem Renaissance writers wrote traditional poems like those of English classic poets, such as William Shakespeare. Hughes broke free with his writing and helped change literature forever. Hughes became firmly established as a successful writer in nineteen twenty-six with the publication of a collection of jazz poems called "The Weary Blues." Hughes wrote the poems in a place in Harlem where blues music was played. He loved to write while sitting in clubs listening to blues and jazz. The title poem, "The Weary Blues," was written to be played with musical instruments. The poem perfectly expressed the desire of Langston Hughes to combine black music and speech in his poetry. #VOICE THREE: "I got the Weary Blues and I can't be satisfied. Got the Weary Blues and can't be satisfied. I ain't happy no mo' and I wish that I had died." "And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. The singer stopped playing and went to bed – while the Weary Blues echoed through his head. He slept like a rock or a man that's dead." #VOICE TWO: Poems in "The Weary Blues" are warm and full of color. They have a sense of freedom, like that of jazz music. Langston Hughes was excited about the new form of poetry he had discovered for himself. #(MUSIC) #VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Caty Weaver. The poetry was read by Langston Hughes and Shep O'Neal. I'm Mary Tillotson. #VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA when we finish the story of the life of Langston Hughes.

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