Passage 1
Education Report - Studying in the US: Getting a Military Education Each of the Defense Department
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
This week in our Foreign Student Series, we talk about military education programs in the United States. There are public and private colleges and universities that (1) offer military educations. But (2) international students can also attend the nation's five service academies.
Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (3) celebrate graduation as Army officers on May 23.
Three of these come under the Defense Department. The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, prepares officers for the Army. The Air Force Academy is (4) located at Colorado Springs, Colorado. And the Naval Academy is in Annapolis, Maryland; it prepares officers for the Navy and the Marine Corps.
Nominees for these academies must be seventeen to twenty-three years old, (5) unmarried and with no children. Candidates are usually nominated by members of Congress. International candidates are nominated by their home (6) governments, which pay for their education.
Each government has its own (7) requirements for military service after students graduate. Americans who attend these four-year colleges must serve at least five years of active duty.
The Defense Department (8) chooses more than one hundred countries every year and invites them to nominate students to the academies. As many as sixty foreign students may attend each school at any one time.
For example, the next class at the Naval Academy will include eighteen foreign students, four of them female. (9) This will bring the total number of foreign students at the Naval Academy to fifty- three.
Tim Disher, head of international programs, says those interested should contact the agency that includes their own naval department. Plus, all of the academies have admissions information on their Web sites.
International students can also attend the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York. The Coast Guard Academy can have thirty-five international students at any one time; the Merchant Marine Academy, thirty.
(10)These schools have their own entrance requirements. The Coast Guard Academy says interested students should contact the defense attache at their local United States embassy. Foreign students interested in the Merchant Marine Academy must request application forms directly from the admissions office.
Passage 2
Education Report - Studying in the US: A Free Year at a Community College
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Two-year colleges in the United States are also known as community colleges. Students earn an (1)associate degree. Or they can train for a job for a year or two and get a certificate.
Community colleges are less (2)costly than other schools. Some international students can even get a year of education for free. The United
States government and the colleges pay the costs in a program called the Community College Initiative.
Six countries took part during the first two years: Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey. Now those countries are joined by Cuba, Ghana and most of Central America. Local Fulbright committees (3)generally nominate the students.
Davidson County Community College in Lexington, North Carolina, is a member of the Community Colleges for International Development
The program provides job training for people who otherwise could not attend college. They learn skills their countries need, like agriculture and health care. (4)Vocational school teachers and administrators from Egypt can also receive (5)professional development through the program.
The program began two years ago with eighty-four students and six colleges. State Department officials say more than five hundred students will attend thirty-seven community colleges this (6)fall.
Where students are placed depends on what they want to study. The program is also a chance to learn about America and its people. And it gives colleges a way to (7)expand their diversity. The students live in dormitories or apartments or with local families.
Carol Stax-Brown is an administrator of the program for a group called Community Colleges for International Development. (8)She says they look for people who have had some work experience, speak some English and want to experience another culture. The program includes English classes in the summer before school starts for those who need them.
Carol Stax-Brown says (9)colleges in some countries might accept credits from the program. But this is not a way to immediately transfer to four-year colleges and universities in other countries, including the United States. Students cannot return to the United States for two years after they finish their year of study.
A Web page is being developed for information on the Community College Initiative. For now, (10)students from countries in the program should contact their local Fulbright committee or United States embassy.
Passage 3
Agriculture Report - Do-It-Yourself: Compost for the Garden
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Compost is a dark, rich (1)material added to soil to improve it. Compost is produced when bacteria and fungi break down organic matter, aided by insects, earthworms and other organisms. This (2)natural recycling returns nutrients to the soil. Some experts advise adding five centimeters of compost for every fifteen centimeters of turned soil.
Homemade compost that is made from kitchen and garden waste
More and more people are making their own compost at home. Composting can (3)reduce the amount of garden and cooking waste that would otherwise go into public landfills.
Monica David from the University of Illinois Extension oversees the master gardeners program in her state. She explains that you can make a compost pile or dig a p
it or use a waste container with (4)holes cut in the side.
There are different methods of composting. Some take more work. Others take almost no work but may require waiting up to a year.
Advice about composting can be found from extension services, at garden centers, in books and on the Internet.
For example, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation lists some dos and don'ts of composting on its Web site:
Do add lime, small (5)amounts of wood ashes or crushed eggshells to the compost pile. This will neutralize acids which may form and cause a bad (6)smell.
Do mix grass cuttings with other wastes to loosen them up. And do keep the compost pile damp, especially during dry periods.
Do not use (7)unfinished compost. It will rob plants of nitrogen instead of acting as a fertilizer.
Do not compost weedy plants with lots of seeds. (8)Some seeds will not be killed during the natural heating process in composting.
Do not add meat, fish bones or fatty food wastes to the compost mixture. Protein materials do not readily decompose and they will bring animals.
And, finally, (9)do not add diseased vegetable plants to the pile if the compost will be used on a vegetable garden. Disease organisms may reappear if you do.
Compost differs from mulch but it can be used as mulch. Mulch (10)is placed on top of soil to protect it. Mulch is generally used to a height of about ten centimeters. But finer materials such as compost should only be two and a half to seven and a half centimeters high. Too much mulch can restrict oxygen and water flow.
Passage 4
Education Report - Studying in the US: The Job Market
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
In America, May and June are the (1)traditional months for graduations. A listener in China, Jack Hoo from Jiangsu province, wants to know how American college graduates find jobs. Right now the answer is: not very easily.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (2)collects information on the college job market. NACE's latest survey in March found that employers (3)expected to hire twenty-two percent fewer graduates this year than last. Most blamed the recession.
Just before graduation, a student, left, (4)explores job possibilities at Temple University's career center
The most recent student (5)survey showed that just one-fifth of those who looked for jobs before graduation have one by now. This is compared to half of students who had looked for a job by this time two years ago. But one difference: fewer of this year's graduates have started to search for jobs.
Still, NACE found no big (6)increase in graduates who plan to stay in school and avoid the job market. About twenty-seven percent said they plan to go to graduate school, compared to about twenty-four percent a year ago.
Engineering and accounting graduates were more likely to have started their job search already and to have accepted a job. These are among the best paid professions for people
with just a college degree. On average, engineering majors expect to start at about sixty-two thousand dollars a year. Accounting (7)majors expect about forty-five thousand.
(8)So how can students increase their chances for a job? Mimi Collins at NACE says the most effective tool is a school's career counseling center. Counselors can help students with job applications and preparing for interviews. They also let students know about job openings and events like job recruitment fairs. They can also help first-year students decide what to study.
Another way to look for a job is to do an internship. (9)This is when a student gets experience in a position that may or may not be paid. The latest NACE survey found that seventy-three percent of graduates who did get jobs had completed an internship.
The group reported in March that (10)employers expected to increase hourly wage offers for college interns by five percent from last year. But, because of the economy, employers reduced the number of internships available by twenty-one percent.
Passage 5
Economics Report - Driven by a Business Plan
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
A business plan, in the words of the Small Business Administration in Washington, is a tool with three basic (1)purposes. As a communication tool, it can show possible investors how well you have considered your ideas. As a (2)management tool, it can list goals and ways to measure progress. And as a planning tool, it can help (3)guide a business around problems.
For people starting a new business, the biggest problems commonly (4)involve financing. Entrepreneurs often seek venture capital. This is money from wealthy (5)individuals or investment companies for the purpose of building new businesses.
Each year, entrepreneurs with ideas for the "next big thing" flood venture capitalists with business plans. But John Mullins of the London Business School, writing in the Wall Street Journal, says most business plans are never even fully read.
A good business plan, he says, must define a problem that the new business will (6)solve. Many plans fail to show how a product or service meets a need.
Also, business plans often assume it will be easy to gain a share of a large or fast-growing market. Professor Mullins advises entrepreneurs to do market tests so they have real numbers to support their (7)claims.
And he says honesty about possible problems with the plan is important. (8)Successful businesses often change plans as conditions change.
Business students spend hours and hours learning how to write a business plan. (9)But even a good one has its limits.
A new study suggests that venture capitalists rarely consider the business plan when deciding whether to invest in a new company.
David Kirsch is an associate professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. He and others examined more than seven hundred requests made to an American venture capital firm. He sa
ys he was startled to find that planning documents have such little influence.
Professor Kirsch tells us that venture capitalists instead talk to people who know the entrepreneur. They talk to business experts, lawyers and other knowledgeable people. The study appeared in the May issue of Strategic Management Journal.
David Kirsch considers business plans a good way to organize an entrepreneur's ideas. But, in his words, (10)"A smart entrepreneur should spend his time developing the business rather than the business plan."
Passage 6
Development Report - US Students Bring Honey Project to Ghana
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
Some American students from Florida are bringing the business of beekeeping to farmers in a community in Ghana. The program, called the Honey Project, not only gives the students a chance to own and manage a business. It also gives them a chance to help (1)ease poverty in Agogo through beekeeping and the sale of honey.
There are plenty of wild honeybees around Agogo, but there was no (2)established market. A businessman named Nathan Burrell and some of his (3)colleagues came up with the idea during a business trip to Agogo three years ago.
Nathan Burrell recruits student (4)volunteers at one Agogo school to help gather and sell honey
NATHAN BURRELL: "It was the ability to (5)effect change and impact the lives of the people. As an entrepreneur and a business person you normally look at market movement. You look at what will sell and what's the most profitable venture to take on. And trust me, it wouldn’t have been honey. But it was the fact that the honey had an (6)opportunity to really change the lives of those people and provide them with a living wage."
Nathan Burrell says many of the farmers in Agogo earn less than a dollar a day. He calls the project an example of social entrepreneurship.
It began with the planting of ten to twelve beehives in the town. Nathan Burrell depended heavily on the beekeeping experience of Dan Warren. He heads an (7)environmental group in Florida called One Village Planet that works in Ghana and Haiti. The Honey Project also partnered with an American company that sells African honey.
NATHAN BURRELL: "All the profits and proceeds that the students earned went back into the reinvestment of the Agogo venture, of really trying to plant more hives. I think there are over one hundred hives now that have been planted in the village."
Members of the group traveled to Agogo this spring (8)to provide more education and training in the beekeeping business. They also brought protective clothes for the beekeepers and equipment to gather and package the honey.
Wearing protective hoods and suits, the American students help gather honey from one broken beehive
The Honey Project currently sells a limited amount of honey in Ghana and the United States. The project also uses student volunteers in Agogo to gather and sell the honey. Nathan Burrell says (
9)it is not a profitable business yet, but the farmers are hopeful. And honey is not the only bee product they could sell.
NATHAN BURRELL: "Everything from the wax to the pollen to the royal jelly could be marketable and can add income and revenue generation to those cooperatives that we're working with."
For now, there are no plans to expand the business beyond Agogo. But the organizers in south Florida (10)are looking to involve students around the United States.
Passage 7
Agriculture Report - In the Garden, Making the most of Multh
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Mulch is material (1)spread over soil. It protects against wind and rain (2)damage. It can also limit weed growth.
Finding materials for organic mulch can be easy. Small pieces of tree bark or cut up leaves can be used. Some people use grass cuttings or newspapers. Others use inorganic material such as shredded rubber from tires.
Mulch is important to home gardens but also to farms. Farmers may keep the (3)remains of maize or other crops on top of the soil. The crop waste creates mulch. This practice is called conservation tillage.
Organic mulch protects but also improves the condition of the soil. It provides nutrients for plants. It also provides a good (4)environment for earthworms and other helpful organisms in the soil.
As the mulch breaks down, it provides material that keeps the soil from getting hard. This improves the growth of roots and increases the (5)movement of water through the soil. The mulch also improves the ability of the soil to hold moisture.
Experts generally suggest laying mulch to a depth of about ten centimeters. If finer materials are used, such as cut grass, the depth should be two and a half to seven and a half centimeters. The same is true if compost is used for mulch.
Too much mulch can (6)restrict oxygen and water flow to the soil and harm roots. Also, do not build up mulch around the base of trees or plants like a (7)volcano. This could lead to disease or insect damage.
Some gardeners use leaf mulch -- fine particles of leaves -- instead of wood mulch around trees, especially young trees. Leaf mulch (8)can also be used in flower beds.
Mulching is one of the best things people can do for their gardens. (9)It helps keep the soil from getting dry, so it reduces the need for watering. It also limits temperature changes in the soil.
Mulch forms a barrier between the soil and the air. As a result, mulched soil will be cooler in the summertime. And in winter, it may not freeze as deeply as areas without mulch.
Mulch can be added late in autumn to help moderate the effects of winter weather.
The best time is after the ground has frozen but before the coldest weather arrives. Spreading mulch before the ground has frozen (10)may attract small animals searching for a warm place to spend the winter.
Passage 8
Education Report - Studying in the US: Four Kinds of Financial Aid
We explain assistantships, sc
holarships, fellowships and grants in part 22 of our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:
18 February 2009
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
This week in our Foreign Student Series, we look at financial aid that comes in ships. (1)Scholarships, fellowships and assistantships.
But first we talk about financial aid of another kind: (2)grants. A grant, unlike a loan, does not have to be repaid.
One of our examples this week is the University of Missouri-Columbia, known as Mizzou (pronounced mah-ZOO). Mizzou is a public university with more than one thousand five hundred international students this school year. The total student population is more than thirty thousand.
Mizzou has a grant program for international students. The Curator's Grant-in-Aid program is for those who get good grades and take part in university activities. Graduate students who receive a grant get nine free credits to take courses. (3)Undergraduates receive between one thousand and five thousand dollars in support.
Students must have attended Mizzou for a year before they can (4)receive a grant. And they must (5)reapply for the awards each semester. Some grants are called scholarships or fellowships. Scholarships are for undergraduates; fellowships are for graduate students. (6)Awards may be based on financial need or on grades, (7) talents or other requirements. The Global Heritage Scholarship at Mizzou, for example, is only for international undergraduates whose mother or father graduated from there. The scholarship pays seven thousand five hundred dollars a year for (8) tuition. Full tuition is currently almost nineteen thousand dollars.
Tuition is about the same at another public university, the University of Arizona in Tucson. It offers an undergraduate scholarship for international students who earned high marks in high school. The program is open to all foreign students (9) who have been admitted to the university. Winners receive between two thousand and ten thousand dollars a year to help pay tuition.
Seventy international students are currently receiving the scholarship. The University of Arizona has more than two thousand international students (10) this academic year. The school had close to forty thousand students during the fall term.
Assistantships are jobs paid with money or free classes. Graduate assistants help professors for about twenty hours a week. They may teach undergraduates, grade papers and tests, and assist with research.
Passage 9
Have a Heart
Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with some expressions using the word heart.
People believed for a long time that the heart was the center of a person's (1) emotions. That is why the word heart is used in so many expressions about emotional situations.
One such expression is to "lose your heart" to someone. When that happens, you have fallen in love. But if the person who "won yo
ur heart" does not love you, then you are sure to have a "broken heart." (2) In your pain and sadness, you may decide that the person you loved is "(3) hard-hearted," and in fact, has a "heart of stone."
You may decide to "pour out your heart" to a friend. Telling someone about your personal problems can often make you feel better.
If your friend does not seem to understand how painful your broken heart is, you may ask her to "have a heart." You are asking your friend to show some (4) sympathy for your situation. Your friend "has her heart in the right place" if she says she is sorry, and shows great concern for how you feel.
Your friend may, however, warn you "not to wear your heart on your sleeve." In other words, do not let everyone see how (5) lovesick you are. When your heart is on your sleeve you are showing your deepest emotions.
If your friend says, "my heart bleeds for you," she means the opposite. She is a (6) cold-hearted person who does not really care about your situation.
In the ever-popular motion picture, The Wizard of Oz, the Tin Man seeks a heart. He wanted to feel the emotion of love, and was seeking help from the powerful Wizard of Oz to find a heart.
The cowardly lion, in the same movie, did have a heart. But he lacked courage and wanted to ask the Wizard of Oz to give him some. You could say that the cowardly lion was "chicken-hearted." That is another way of describing someone who is not very brave. A chicken is not noted for its (7) bravery. Thus, someone who is chicken-hearted does not have much courage.
(8) When you are frightened or concerned, your "heart is in your mouth." You might say, for example, that your heart was in your mouth when you asked a bank to lend you some money to pay for a new house.
If that bank says no to you, do not "(9) lose heart." Be "strong-hearted." Sit down with the banker and have a "heart to heart" talk. Be open and honest about your situation. The bank may have a "change of heart." It may agree to lend you the money. Then you could stop (10) worrying and "put your heart at rest."
Passage 10
Development Report - A Cool Way to Keep Food From Spoiling
Mohammed Bah Abba's pot-in-pot cooling system. Transcript of radio broadcast: 09 February 2009
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
A few degrees can make a big difference when it comes to (1) food storage. Foods can go bad if they get too warm. But for many of the world's poor, finding a good way to keep food cool is difficult. Refrigerators are costly and they need electricity.
Yet (2) spoiled food not only creates health risks but also economic losses. Farmers lose money when they have to throw away products that they cannot sell quickly.
But in nineteen ninety-five a teacher in northern Nigeria named Mohammed Bah Abba found a (3) solution. He developed the "Pot-in-Pot Preservation/Cooling System." It uses two round containers made of clay. A smaller pot is placed inside a larger one.
The space
between the two pots is (4) filled with wet sand. The inner pot can be filled with fruit, vegetables or drinks. A wet cloth covers (5) the whole cooling system.
Food stored in the smaller pot is kept from spoiling through a simple evaporation process. Water in the sand between the two pots evaporates through the (6) surface of the larger pot, where drier outside air is moving. The evaporation process creates a drop in temperature of several degrees. This cools the inner pot and helps keep food safe from harmful bacteria. (7) Some foods can be kept fresh this way for several weeks.
People throughout Nigeria began using the invention. And it became popular with farmers in other African countries. Mohammed Bah Abba personally financed the first five thousand pot-in-pot systems for (8) his own community and five villages nearby.
In two thousand, the Rolex Watch Company of Switzerland honored him with the Rolex Award for Enterprise. This award recognizes people trying to develop projects aimed at （9）improving human knowledge and well-being.
A committee considers projects in (10) science and medicine, technology, exploration and discovery, the environment and cultural history. Winners receive financial assistance to help develop and extend their projects.
The award is given every two years. The most recent one was given last year.