| The Elephant Song - Cool Tunes for Kids by Eric Herman Source: www.englishexercises.org Author: Jill Friedman Elephants, I like elephants. Elephants, I like elephants. I like how they swing through trees, elephants..... No..... elephant's don't swing through trees They don't? Well what am I thinking of? Monkeys Oh well in that case - Monkey's , I like monkeys. I like how they swim in the ocean........ No, that's fish Oh I see. Fish, I like fish. I like how they scratch at fleas No and sniff at trees and bark at the mailman No,no.no - Those are dogs Aww, gotta like dogs right, Ya, curled up on the windowsill purring No and chasing mice No Well what then? Cats. Cats, of course Cats - I like cats. I like how they say COCK - A - DOODLE - DOO No, no, no - They go "meow" They do? You're thinking of roosters Roosters, I like roosters. I like how they reach into beehives for the honey - Hmm? No, bears do that Oh yes, yes. Bears, I like bears, I like how they jump up high, to catch a fly, No, and sit on a lily pad No, no, no, no, no, no - Frogs Gotta like frogs, Ya, running through a maze for some cheese No, that's mice Oh mice - mice, I like mice. I like how they say "hehaw" No, they go "squeak, squeak" That's a donkey. Donkeys, I like donkeys. I like how they stomp through the jungle with their great big trunks No that's an elephant. Well right, that's like I said, Elephants, I like elephants....... You don't know anything about animals I do so You're silly Am not........... Name the animal ! What animal swings through trees? an What animal crawls on the ground? a What animal swims on the ocean? What animal is called the 'King of the Jungle'? a What animal is black and white? a What animal lives in Antarctica? a What animal says COCK - A - DOODLE - DOO? a What animal says "hehaw"? a |
segunda-feira, 15 de novembro de 2010
The Elephant Song, by Erick Herman
Taking the Frustration Out of Phrasal Verbs
Source: VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about phrasal verbs. The first word is a verb. The second word, sometimes even a third, is usually a preposition. Phrasal verbs have a reputation for being tough for English learners. So what does Lida Baker think?
LB: "I think that is a myth."
RS: "Really."
LB: "Phrasal verbs are not hard to learn, as long as you learn them in a context. I think what has given phrasal verbs a reputation for being difficult is the way they are traditionally taught, which is that students are given long lists of verbs -- you know, for instance every phrasal verb connected with the word 'go.' So 'go on,' 'go up,' 'go out,' 'go in,' 'go away,' 'go through,' OK? That's a very tedious way of learning anything."
RS: "Well, give us some of your strategies."
LB: "All right. Well, one thing we should keep in mind about phrasal verbs is that they are used a lot more in conversational English than they are in formal English. So you are going to find a lot of phrasal verbs in conversational settings such as ... "
RS: "Come on [laughter]."
LB: " ... television programs, radio interviews, and pop music is a wonderful, wonderful source for phrasal verbs. I think the best way to learn, or one of the best ways of learning phrasal verbs is to learn them in everyday contexts. One good one is people's daily routine. We 'get up' in the morning, we 'wake up,' we 'put on' our clothes in the morning, we 'take off' our clothes at the end of the day, we 'turn on' the coffee maker or the television set, and of course we 'turn it off' also. After we eat we 'clean up.' If we're concerned about our health and our weight, we go to the gym and we ... "
RS: "Work out."
LB: "There you go. You see, so as far as our daily routine is concerned, there are lots and lots of phrasal verbs. Another wonderful context for phrasal verbs is traveling. What does an airplane do?"
AA: "It 'takes off.'"
LB: "It 'takes off,' that's right. And lots of phrasal verbs connected with hotels. So when we get to the hotel we 'check
in,' and you can save a lot of money if you ... "
RS: "Stay -- "
LB: "'Stay over,' right."
AA: "And you just have to make sure you don't get 'ripped off.'"
LB: "That's right! I'm glad that you mentioned 'ripped off,' because a lot of phrasal verbs are slang, such as ripped off. And most of them do have sort of a formal English equivalent. So to get ripped off means to be treated unfairly ... "
AA: "To be cheated."
LB: "To be cheated, yeah. And there are lot of other two-word or phrasal verbs that you might find, for instance, in rap
music. For example, to 'get down' means to, uh -- what does it mean?"
RS: "It means to party, doesn't it?"
LB: "To go to parties."
AA: "Have a good time."
LB: "Right. Another wonderful context is dating and romance. For example, when a relationship ends two people 'break up.' But when they decide that they've made a mistake and they really are in love and want to be together, they 'call each other up' ... "
RS: "And they 'make up.'"
LB: "And they make up. Now, if your boyfriend 'breaks up' with you and it's really, really over, then it might take you a few months to 'get over it.' But, you know, sooner or later you're going to find someone else ... "
AA: "To 'hook up' with -- "
LB: "To hook up with."
AA: " -- to use a current idiom."
LB: "Right. Or you might meet someone nice at work to 'go out with.'"
RS: "So what would you recommend for a teacher to do, to build these contexts, so that the students can learn from them?"
LB: "I think the best thing for a teacher to do, or for a person learning alone, is to learn the idioms in context. And there are vocabulary books and idiom books that will cluster the phrasal verbs for the student. There are also so many wonderful Web sites. I mean, if you go to a search engine and you just type in 'ESL + phrasal verbs,' you're going to run across -- and there's another one, 'run across' -- you're going to find lots of Web sites that present phrasal verbs in these contexts that I've been talking about. And also grammar sites which explain the grammar of phrasal verbs, which I haven't gotten into because we just don't have the time to discuss it here. But in doing my research for this segment I found lots of Web sites that do a really great job of explaining the grammar of phrasal verbs."
AA: Lida Baker writes and edits textbooks for English learners. You can find earlier segments with Lida at voanews.com/wordmaster. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti
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AÇAI, THE BLACK GOLD OF THE AMAZON
Nutrition and agribusiness
SOURCE: www.maganews.com.br
Açaí, the black gold of the Amazon
A fruit which is native to the Amazon region, açaí is good for our health and also for the economy in many cities in the North of Brazil
Açaí is packed [1] with vitamins and minerals and can be eaten fresh, drunk as juice, or eaten as ice-cream, desserts, and preserves [2]. Besides preventing diseases, this fruit is also considered to be a great source of energy. It is very popular among people who go to gyms [3]. Among people who work out [4], it is common to eat it in a bowl [5], mixed with banana,strawberries [6], and granola. Pará State Brazil
A very healthy food
A recent study carried out by the Federal University of Pará concluded that açaí helps prevent cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes [10]. The fruit also has other benefits for our health: it helps the intestines work efficiently and it delays the aging process in cells. In addition to all these benefits, other studies done recently have shown that the fruit is also good for our sight and stimulates our memory.
Matéria publicada na edição de outubro / novembro da Revista Maganews.
Áudio – Aasita Muralikrishna
Foto – Ag. Vanderlei Alvarenga
Vocabulary
1 to be packed with – aqui = é rica em
2 preserve – aqui = geléia
3 gym – academia de ginástica
4 to work out – aqui = malhar / fazer exercícios
5 bowl – tigela
6 strawberry – morango
7 production chain – cadeia produtiva
8 to sell – vender
9 manioc flour – farinha de mandioca
10 stroke – aqui = derrame
domingo, 14 de novembro de 2010
Global Warming Makes Us Sicker
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/climate_100.html
Global Warming Makes Us Sicker
People Are Dying
150,000: Number of people the World Health Organization estimates are killed by climate-change-related issues every year. [Washington Post]
Heat Waves and Strokes
Authorities in China
Death by Smog
Three words you really don’t want in your obit: “Death by Smog.” Yet Canadian doctors say smog-related deaths could rise by 80 percent over the next 20 years. And since warm air is a key ingredient in smog, warmer temperatures will increase smog levels. [CBC News]
More Heart Attacks
Doctors warn global warming will bring more cardiovascular problems, like heart attacks. “‘The hardening of the heart's arteries is like rust developing on a car,’ said Dr. Gordon Tomaselli, chief of cardiology at Johns Hopkins University
More Mold and Ragweed = More Allergies, Asthma
A Harvard Study in 2004 showed higher concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere is good news to allergens like mold and ragweed (they love the stuff). And that means higher rates of asthma attacks, especially in kids. [Globe and Mail]
A Resurgence In Deadly Disease
“The World Health Organization has identified more than 30 new or resurgent diseases in the last three decades, the sort of explosion some experts say has not happened since the Industrial Revolution brought masses of people together in cities.” Why? Global warming “is fueling the spread of epidemics in areas unprepared for the diseases” when “mosquitoes, ticks, mice and other carriers are surviving warmer winters and expanding their range, bringing health threats with them.” Ick. [Washington Post]
More Malaria in Africa
“A WHO report in 2000 found that warming had caused malaria to spread from three districts in western Kenya to 13 and led to epidemics of the disease in Rwanda and Tanzania
Malaria Spreading in Western Europe
The World Health Organization warns warmer temperatures mean malaria-carrying mosquitoes are able to live in northern climes, which could lead to a surge in malaria outside the tropics (aka Europe ). [BBC]
Malaria Spreading in South America
Thanks to global warming, “Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.” [An Inconvenient Truth]
Malaria Spreading in Russia
Russians found larvae of the anopheles mosquito, the malaria carrier, for the first time in Moscow
Spread of Dengue Fever
Scientists predict warmer temperatures will allow mosquitoes carrying Dengue Fever to travel outside the tropics. Since people in cooler climes lack immunity from previous exposure, that means transmission would be extensive. You get a severe fever, you start spontaneously bleeding, you can die. There is no vaccine. [Science Daily]
Death in the Time of Cholera
Cholera, which thrives in warmer water, appeared in the newly warmed waters of South America in 1991 for the first time in the 20th century. “It swept from Peru across the continent and into Mexico
Spread of Lyme Disease
Cold weather no longer kills ticks that carry Lyme Disease. Ticks recently began spreading along the coastlines of Scandinavia , which formerly was too cold for them to survive. Cases of Lyme Disease in the area have doubled since the late 1990s. [MSNBC]
West Nile Virus Home Invasion
Once confined to land near the equator, West Nile Virus is now found as far north as Canada United States and Canada
Global Warming Kills the Planet
Global Warming Kills the Planet
Greenland’s Melting
Less Ice in the Arctic
The amount of ice in the Arctic at the end of the 2005 summer “was the smallest seen in 27 years of satellite imaging, and probably the smallest in 100 years.” Experts said it’s the strongest evidence of global warming in the Arctic thus far. [Washington Post]
The Northwest Passage Becomes a Reality
Remember the “Northwest Passage ”? For centuries, explorers were obsessed with the almost-mythical idea of northern sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific. Well...it’s here. So much of the ice cover in the Arctic disappeared this summer that ships were able to take recreational trips through the Arctic Sea
Ice Shelf in Antarctica Bites the Dust
In 2002, a chunk of ice in Antarctica larger than the state of Rhode Island
Ice Shelf in Canada
In 2005, a giant chunk of ice the size of Manhattan
Say Farewell to Glaciers
“In Glacier National Park
The Green, Green Grass of Antarctica
Grass has started to grow in Antarctica in areas formerly covered by ice sheets and glaciers. While Antarctic hair grass has grown before in isolated tufts, warmer temperatures allow it to take over larger and larger areas and, for the first time, survive through the winter. [UK Times]
The Swiss Foothills
Late last summer, a rock the size of two Empire State Buildings in the Swiss Alps collapsed onto the canyon floor nearly 700 feet below. The reason? Melting glaciers. [MSNBC]
Giant “Sand Seas ” in Africa
Global warming may unleash giant “sand seas” in Africa —giant fields of sand dunes with no vegetation—as a shortage of rainfall and increasing winds may “reactivate” the now-stable Kalahari dune fields. That means farewell to local vegetation, animals, and any tourism in the areas. [National Geographic]
Global warming is “bleaching” the coral in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, killing the coral, tourism, and local fish that live among the coral for protection. [Washington Post]
The Oceans are Turning to Acid
It sounds like a really bad sci-fi movie, but it’s true: The oceans are turning to acid! Oceans absorb CO2 which, when mixed with seawater, turns to a weak carbonic acid. Calcium from eroded rocks creates a “natural buffer” against the acid, and most marine life is “finely tuned” to the current balance. As we produce more and more CO2, we throw the whole balance out of whack and the oceans turn to acid. [CS Monitor]
Say Goodbye to the Great Barrier Reef
According to the U.N., the Great Barrier Reef will disappear within decades as “warmer, more acidic seas could severely bleach coral in the world-famous reef as early as 2030.” [CBC News]
Italian experts say thanks to faster evaporation and rising temperatures, the Mediterranean Sea is quickly turning into “a salty and stagnant sea.” The hot, salty water “could doom many of the sea's plant and animal species and ravage the fishing industry.” [AP]
A Sacred River Dries Up
The sacred Ganges River in India Ganges is fed by the Gangotri glacier, which is today “shrinking at a rate of 40 yards a year, nearly twice as fast as two decades ago.” Scientists warn the glacier could be gone as soon as 2030. [Washington Post]
Disappearing African Rivers
Geologists recently projected a 10 percent to 20 percent drop in rainfall in northwestern and southern Africa by 2070. That would leave Botswana with just 23 percent of the river it has now; Cape Town
Suddenly Vanishing Lakes
What happened to the five-acre glacial lake in Southern Chile ? In March, it was there. In May, it was ... gone. Scientists blame global warming. [BBC News]
Goodbye to the Mangrove Trees
Next on the global warming hit list: Rising sea levels linked to climate change mean we could lose half of the mangrove trees of the Pacific Isles by the end of the century. [UNEP]
Volcanoes Blow Their Tops
British scientists warn of another possible side effect of climate change: A surge of dangerous volcanic eruptions. [ABC News Australia]
More Hurricanes
Over the past century, the number of hurricanes that strike each year has more than doubled. Scientists blame global warming and the rising temperature of the surface of the seas. [USA Today]
More Floods
During the summer of 2007, Britain
More Fires
Hotter temperatures could also mean larger and more devastating wildfires. This past summer in California
More Wildfires
Global warming has also allowed non-native grasses to thrive in the Mojave Desert , where they act as fast-burning fuel for wildfires. [AP]
Thunderstorms Get Dangerous
Hurricanes aside, NASA scientists now say as the world gets hotter, even smaller thunderstorms will pose more severe risks with “deadly lightning, damaging hail and the potential for tornadoes.” [AP]
Higher Sea Levels
Scientists believe sea levels will be three feet higher by the end of the century than they are now. [National Geographic]
Burning Poo
As “shifting rainfall patterns” brought on by global warming “have made northern Senegal
A New Dust Bowl
Calling Mr. Steinbeck. Scientists this year reported the Southwest United States is "expected to dry up notably in this century and could become as arid as the North American dust bowl of the 1930s," a process which has already started. [ABC News]
sábado, 13 de novembro de 2010
American History Series: Remembering the Peace Talks That Followed the Original Armistice Day
Source: www.voanews.com
Photo: loc.gov
Allies around the conference table in Paris in 1919
BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.
In nineteen eighteen, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, a truce took effect between the Allies and Germany. But not until seven months later was a treaty signed to officially end what was known as the Great War and the War to End All Wars.
This week in our series, Shirley Griffith and Larry West continue the story of the peace conference following World War One.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: American President Woodrow Wilson was one of the chief negotiators at the conference in Paris. Throughout the early months of nineteen nineteen, he struggled hard for a treaty that would result in peace with justice for all sides.
Wilson demanded a treaty that provided for a new international organization. He called it the League of Nations. To Wilson, the league was more important than any other part of the treaty.
Not all Americans shared Wilson's opinion. Many feared the league would take away the power of the American government to declare war and make treaties. They also agreed with the leaders of the other allied nations. Establishing the league was less important than punishing the defeated enemy.
woodrowwilsonhouse.org
Left to right: Britain's Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Italy's Premier Vittorio Orlando, France's Premier Georges Clemenceau, and President Woodrow Wilson on June 28, 1919.
LARRY WEST: The other major allied leaders at the peace conference were Prime Minister David Lloyd-George of Britain, Premier Georges Clemenceau of France, and Premier Vittorio Otto of Italy.
Lloyd-George, Clemenceau, and Otto understood how much Wilson wanted the League of Nations. They used this knowledge to win Wilson's approval for other parts of the peace treaty.
Wilson soon learned that, to get the league, he had to compromise on many issues. For example, he had to accept British and French demands to make Germany pay all war damages. The payments added up to more than three hundred thousand million dollars. Wilson also had to accept the allied takeover of Germany's colonies.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Some of Wilson's compromises violated his belief in self-determination. This was the right of all people to decide for themselves who would govern them.
One compromise, for example, gave to Japan Germany's colonial rights in the Shantung area of China. China protested the decision. It asked that control of Shantung be returned to the Chinese government. But President Wilson needed Japan's support for the League of Nations. So he accepted Japan's demand for control of Shantung.
There were other violations of the policy of self-determination. These affected the people and land along the borders of several European nations.
For example, three million Germans were made citizens of the new nation of Czechoslovakia. Millions of other Germans were forced into the newly formed nation of Poland. And Italy received territory that had belonged to Austria.
LARRY WEST: Today, most history experts agree Woodrow Wilson was correct in opposing these decisions. They say Germany's loss of territory and citizens caused deep bitterness. And the bitterness helped lead to the rise of fascist dictator Adolph Hitler in the nineteen thirties.
In East Asia, Japanese control over parts of China created serious tensions. Both decisions helped plant the seeds for the bloody harvest of World War Two twenty years later. But allied leaders at the Paris peace conference were not looking far into the future. As one person said at the time: "They divided Europe like people cutting up a tasty pie."
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: After months of negotiations, the peace treaty was completed. The Allies gave it to a German delegation on May seventh, nineteen-nineteen. The head of the delegation objected immediately. He said the treaty was unfair. He urged his government not to sign it.
At first, Germany did not sign. The leader of the government refused and resigned in protest. But a new government was formed. And its leader signed the document at a ceremony at the palace in Versailles outside Paris.
Finally, World War One was officially over.
LARRY WEST: President Woodrow Wilson returned to the United States after the treaty signing ceremony. He was not completely satisfied with the treaty. Yet he believed it was still valuable, because it established the League of Nations.
Wilson's battle for the league was only half over when the treaty was signed in Europe. He had to win approval from the United States Senate. That half of the battle would not be easy.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Part of the problem was political. Wilson was a member of the Democratic Party. The Senate was controlled by the Republican Party. Also, Wilson had refused to name any important Republicans to his negotiating team at the peace conference.
loc.gov
Henry Cabot Lodge
Part of the problem was personal. A number of senators disliked Wilson. One was Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. Lodge was the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He told a friend he never expected to hate anyone as much as he hated Wilson.
LARRY WEST: Wilson spoke before the Senate just two days after he returned from Europe. He urged it to approve the peace treaty.
Wilson said: "The united power of free nations must put a stop to aggression. And the world must be given peace. Shall we and any other free people refuse to accept this great duty? Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world? We cannot turn back. America shall show the way. The light streams upon the path ahead and nowhere else."
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee began hearings on the treaty. It heard a number of people who opposed the League of Nations. They said the league would destroy the freedom and independence of the United States.
The committee completed its hearings and prepared a report for the full Senate. The report said the United States should reject the treaty, unless changes were made. The committee proposed almost forty changes.
LARRY WEST: The committee's report was a blow to President Wilson both politically and personally. He had worked extremely hard to win Europe's support for the idea of a league of nations. Great crowds in Paris had cheered him and his idea. Now, the Senate of his own country was about to reject it.
Wilson decided he must take his case out of the hands of the peoples' representatives. He would take the case directly to the people themselves. He would build public support for the treaty. If enough citizens supported it, he believed, the Senate could not reject it.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: President Wilson planned a speaking trip all across the country. His family and his doctor urged him not to go. They said he was still weak from a recent sickness. But Wilson refused the advice. He said the treaty was more important to him than his own life.
The president left Washington in early September. He traveled in a special train.
In city after city, he made speeches and rode in parades. He shook thousands of hands. At times, he suffered from a painful headache. But there was no time to rest.
LARRY WEST: Everywhere Wilson stopped, he urged the people to support the League of Nations. It was, he said, the only hope for peace.
In Boulder, Colorado, ten thousand people waited to hear him. By then, Wilson was extremely weak. He had to be helped up the steps of the building where he was to speak. He made the speech. He said he was working to honor the men who had died in the war. He said he was working for the children of the world.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Wilson put all his heart and energy into his speeches. And, as his family and doctor had warned, the pressure was too great. While in Wichita, Kansas, the pain in his head became terrible. He could not speak clearly. His face seemed frozen. A blood vessel had broken in his brain. Wilson had suffered a stroke.
The president was forced to return to Washington. His condition got worse every day. Soon, he was unable to move.
Woodrow Wilson would spend the rest of his presidency as a terribly sick man. He continued to hold on to his dreams of a League of Nations. But his dreams now filled a broken body.
We will continue our story next week.
(MUSIC)
BOB DOUGHTY: Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The narrators were Shirley Griffith and Larry West.
You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and images at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.
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This is program #162
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