Pro-jovem, Part 9, Ingles vip

Source: www.ingvip.com

For more information visit the site and keep in touch with Teacher Fuvio C. Perini. He is a Brazilian teacher and translate documents, online English classes. Did you like this blog? Please promote it on twitter and let me to know about the navigation or if you have any difficult  for accessing it. You are the most important here. Thank you for dropping by.

Pedro: Hello Mariana. Can I ask you something? (1)
Mariana: Yes, what is it?
Pedro: I'm not good at Brazilian History, and I have a test tomorrow at school. Can you help me?
Mariana: Well, I can try (2). We can go to the public library(3). There are books and magazines (4) that can help us
Pedro: Great. Let's go!
Clerk: Hi
Mariana: We are studying Brazilian History. Where are the books that can help us?
Clerk: Oh, I love Brazilian History. Let's see what we have here(5). We have all kinds(6) of books and magazines, right(7)? Let's go. This book here is very good. Easy(8) to read, easy to learn(9)Mariana: Isn't she...
Pedro: Who?
Mariana: No, nothing(10). She is so familiar...
Man: Excuse me. Can I sit?(11)Mariana: What are you doing? What are you doing?
Man: Hã? I'm sorry(12)...what?
Mariana: What are you doing?
Man: I'm listening to(13)  music
Mariana: We can see that. But we are studying here. So, please...
Man: Oh..sorry!
Pedro: Hey, your wallet(14)! Is this your wallet?
Man: Oh, yes! It is! Oh, man. Thank you very much. There's not much money in it(15) but...thank you.
Pedro: You're welcome (16) . Hum..is this your notebook(17)?
Man: Yes. Oh, no...sorry. My notebook is red(18)! This is yellow (19) Is this yours?
Pedro: Yes, it is mine. Your notebook is over there(20)Man: Oh, sorry.
Pedro: That's OK.
Man: Oh, this is my pen. And my pencil(21). Oh man, where am I(22)? Thanks guys.
Pedro: You're welcome!
Man: See ya'
Mariana: So, where are we? Brazilian History. Year 64
Pedro: Can I have a pencil?
Mariana: Yes
Pedro: I'm going to write all this in my notebook
Clerk: People, you have to go home(23) now, OK?
Pedro: Really(24)?
Mariana: What time is it(25)?
Clerk = It's seven o'clock. We all have to go.
Mariana: OK, Let's go home
Clerk: Is this yours?
Mariana: Yes, that is my backpack(26).Clerk: I love this color
Mariana: My wallet has the same(27) color
Clerk: Oh, but I love your purse(28) too.
Mariana: I love green(29)Clerk: Oh yes! Green and black are so in these days!

---

  

---

                                      Vocabulary
 1. Can I ask you something?  = Posso te perguntar uma coisa?
 2. Try = tentar
 3. Library = Biblioteca
 4. Magazines = Revistas
 5. Let's see what we have here = Vamos ver o que nós temos aqui
 6. Kinds of  = tipos de
 7. Right? = Certo?
 8. Easy  = fácil
 9. Learn = aprender
 10. Nothing = Nada
 11. Can I sit? = Posso me sentar?
 12. I'm sorry = Desculpe
 13. Listening to = escutando (com atenção)
 14. Wallet = carteira
 15. There's not much money in it  = Não há muito dinheiro nela
 16.You're welcome  =  De nada
 17. Notebook = Caderno
 18. Red = vermelho
 19. Yellow = amarelo
 20. Over there = Logo ali
 21. Pencil = Lápis
 22. Where am I? = Onde eu estou?
 23. To go home = ir para casa
 24. Really? = É mesmo?
 25. What time is it? = Que horas são?
 26. Backpack = mochila
 27. Same = mesmo(a)
 28. Purse = bolsa feminina
 29. Green = verde

US History, VOA Special English

American History: Foreign Policy During the 1920s

Source: www.voanews.com

Photo: loc.gov

British and American officials signing a British war loan in 1917

FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.

The nineteen twenties are remembered as a quiet period in American foreign policy. The nation was at peace. Americans elected three Republican presidents in a row: Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. These conservatives in the White House were generally more interested in economic growth at home than in relations with other countries.

But the United States had become a world power. It was tied to other countries by trade, politics and shared interests. And America had gained new economic strength.

This week in our series, Bob Doughty and Shirley Griffith discuss American foreign policy during the nineteen twenties.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Before World War One, foreigners invested more money in the United States than Americans invested in other countries -- about three billion dollars more. The war changed this. By nineteen nineteen, Americans had almost three billion dollars more invested in other countries than foreign citizens had invested in the United States.

American foreign investments continued to increase greatly during the nineteen twenties.

Increased foreign investment was not the only sign of growing American economic power. By the end of World War One, the United States produced more goods and services than any other nation, both in total and per person.

Americans had more steel, food, cloth, and coal than even the richest foreign nations. By nineteen twenty, the United States national income was greater than the combined incomes of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, and seventeen smaller countries. Quite simply, the United States had become the world's greatest economic power.

loc.gov

A steel worker at a rolling mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: America's economic strength influenced its policies toward Europe during the nineteen twenties. In fact, one of the most important issues of this period was the economic aid the United States had provided European nations during World War One.

Americans lent the Allied countries seven billion dollars during the war. Shortly after the war, they lent another three billion dollars. The Allies borrowed most of the money for military equipment and food and other needs of their people.

The Allied nations suffered far greater losses of property and population than the United States during the war. And when peace came, they called on the United States to cancel the loans America had made. France, Britain, and the other Allied nations said the United States should not expect them to re-pay the loans.

BOB DOUGHTY: The United States refused to cancel the debts. President Coolidge spoke for most Americans when he said, simply: "They borrowed the money." He believed the European powers should pay back the war loans, even though their economies had suffered terribly during the fighting.

However, the European nations had little money to pay their loans. France tried to get the money by demanding payments from Germany for having started the war. When Germany was unable to pay, France and Belgium occupied Germany's Ruhr Valley. As a result, German miners in the area reduced coal production. And France and Germany moved toward an economic crisis and possible new armed conflict.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: An international group intervened and negotiated a settlement to the crisis. The group provided a system to save Germany's currency and protect international debts. American bankers agreed to lend money to Germany to pay its war debts to the Allies. And the Allies used the money to pay their debts to the United States.

BOB DOUGHTY: Some Americans with international interests criticized President Coolidge and other conservative leaders for not reducing or canceling Europe's debts.

They said the debts and the new payment plan put foolish pressure on the weak European economies. They said this made the German currency especially weak. And they warned that a weak economy would lead to serious social problems in Germany and other countries.

However, most Americans did not understand the serious effect that international economic policies could have on the future of world peace. They believed that it was wrong for the Europeans -- or anyone -- to borrow money and then refuse to pay it back.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Many Americans of the nineteen twenties also failed to recognize that a strong national military force would become increasingly important in the coming years. President Coolidge requested very limited military spending from the Congress. And many conservative military leaders refused to spend much money on such new kinds of equipment as submarines and airplanes.

Some Americans did understand that the United States was now a world power and needed a strong and modern fighting force.

One general, Billy Mitchell, publicly criticized the military leadership for not building new weapons. But most Americans were not interested. Many Americans continued to oppose arms spending until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in nineteen forty-one.

BOB DOUGHTY: American policy toward the League of Nations did not change much in the nineteen twenties.

In nineteen nineteen, the Senate denied President Wilson's plea for the United States to join the new League of Nations. The United States, however, became involved unofficially in a number of league activities. But it continued to refuse to become a full member. And in nineteen thirty, the Senate rejected a proposal for the United States to join the World Court.

The United States also continued in the nineteen twenties to refuse to recognize the communist government in Moscow. However, trade between the Soviet Union and the United States increased greatly during this period. And such large American companies as General Electric, DuPont, and R-C-A provided technical assistance to the new Soviet government.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Coolidge administration was involved actively in events in Latin America. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes helped several Latin American countries to settle border disputes peacefully.

In Central America, President Coolidge ordered American Marines into Nicaragua when President Adolfo Diaz faced a revolt from opposition groups. The United States gave its support to more conservative groups in Nicaragua. And it helped arrange a national election in nineteen twenty-eight. American troops stayed in Nicaragua until nineteen thirty-three.

However, American troops withdrew from the Dominican Republic during this period. And Secretary of State Hughes worked to give new life to the Pan American union.

BOB DOUGHTY: Relations with Mexico became worse during the nineteen-twenties. In nineteen twenty-five, Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles called for laws to give Mexico more control over its minerals and natural wealth. American oil companies resisted the proposed changes. They accused Calles of communism. And some American business and church leaders called for armed American intervention.

However, the American Senate voted to try to settle the conflict peacefully. And American diplomat Dwight Morrow helped negotiate a successful new agreement.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: These American actions in Nicaragua and Mexico showed that the United States still felt that it had special security interests south of its border. But its peaceful settlement of the Mexican crisis and support of elections in Nicaragua showed that it was willing to deal with disputes peacefully.

America's policies in Latin America during the nineteen-twenties were in some ways similar to its policies elsewhere. It was a time of change, of movement, from one period to another. Many Americans were hoping to follow the traditional foreign policies of the past. They sought to remain separate from world conflict.

BOB DOUGHTY: The United States, however, could no longer remain apart from world events. This would become clear in the coming years. Europe would face fascism and war. The Soviet Union would grow more powerful. And Latin America would become more independent.

The United States was a world power. But it was still learning in the nineteen twenties about the leadership and responsibility that is part of such power.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Our program was written by David Jarmul. The narrators were Bob Doughty and Shirley Griffith. You can find our series online with pictures, transcripts, MP3s and podcasts 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.

___

This is program #17
4

American City Life

Source: www.speakup.com.br

Language level: Advanced

Standard: American accent

American City Life

Our readings this month were recorded at the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, which took place in New York in April. The first reading is set in San Francisco in the optimistic “flower power” era of the 1960s. It’s by the actor and comedian Steve Martin, who provides his own introduction:

1965: Steve Martin’s San Francisco

Steve Martin

I’m Steve Martin and let me just say that it’s a great honor for me be here among these great writers and it’s an incredible disgrace that they are here with me! I’m going to read from an unpublished book that will be published in December. It’s called Born Standing Up and it’s a memoir of my career as a stand-up comedian:

On a humid Monday night in the summer of 1965, after finding a $8 hotel room in the then economically-friendly city of San Francisco, I lugged my banjo and black hardshell prop case ten sweaty blocks uphill to the Coffee and Confusion, where I had signed up to play for free. The club was tiny and makeshift, decorated with chairs, tables, a couple of bare light bulbs and nothing else. I had romanticized San Francisco as an exotic destination, away from friends and family, and toward mystery and adventure. So I often drove my 20-year-old self up from Los Angeles to audition my fledglings comedy act at the club, or to play banjo on the street for tips. I would sleep in VW van, camp out in Golden Gate Park, pay for a cheap hotel, or snag a free room in a Haight Ashbury Victorian crash pad, by making an instant friend. At this point, my act was a catch all, cobbled together from the disparate universes of juggling, comedy, banjo playing, weird bits I’d written in college, and magic tricks. I was strictly Monday-night quality, the night when, traditionally, anyone could get up to perform. All we entertainers knew, Mondays were really audition nights for the club. I walked past Broadway and Columbus where Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s ramshackle City Lights Books was jam-packed with thin, small-press publications, offering way-out poetry, and reissues of long ago banned erotic novels. Around the corner on Broadway was Mike’s Pool Hall, where bikers and hippies first laid eyes on each other, unsure of whether they should beat each other up, or just smoke pot and forget about it. Steps away was the Hungry Eye, a night club that had launched a thousand careers, including those of the Smothers Brothers, The Kingston Trio and Lenny Bruce, but I had to trudge on by. Just up Columbus, I passed the Condor, the first of a sudden explosion of topless clubs, where Carold Doda, in a new-fangled bathing suit that exposed her recently inflated, basketball breasts, descended from the ceiling on a gran piano that was painted virginal white. This cultural mélange and the growing presence of drugs made the crowded streets of North Beach shimmer with toxic vitality.

The Coffee and Confusion was on nearby Grant Avenue, a street dotted with used clothing stores and incense shops. I nervously entered the club and Ivan Holtz, the show runner, put me on the line-up. I lingered at the back, waiting for my turn and surveyed the audience of about fifteen people. They were arrayed in patchwork jeans with tie-dyed tops, and the room was thick with an illegal aroma. In the audience was a street poet dressed in rags and bearded like a yeti, who had a plastic, which he unloaded on performers he didn’t like. I was still untouched by the rapidly changing fashion scene – my short hair and conservative clothes weren’t going to help me with this crowd. Ivan introduced me. my opening line – “Hello,   I’m Steve Martin and I’ll be out here in a minute –was met with one lone chuckle.  I struggled through the first few minutes, keeping a wary eye on Mr. Ping Pong Ball, and filled in the dead air with some banjo tunes that went just OK. I could see Ivan standing nearby, concerned. I began to strum the banjo, singing a song that, I told the audience, my grandmother had taught me:

“Be courteous, kind and forgiving,

  Be gentle and peaceful each day,

  Be warm and human and grateful,

  And have a good thing to say.

  Be thoughtful and trustful and child-like,

  Be witty and happy and wise,

  Be honest and love all your neighbors,

  Be obsequious, purple and clairvoyant,

  Be pompous, obese and eat cactus,

  Be dull and boring and omnipresent,

  Criticize thing you don’t know about,

  Be oblong and have you knees removed.”

And then I said, “Now everyone” and I repeated the entire thing, adding in, “Ladies only: ‘Never make love to Big Foot.’ Men  only: ‘Hello, my name is Big Foot.’” Not many people sang along.

9/11/2001: Don DeLillo’s New York

Our second reading is set in New York and in a darker era – that of the attacks on the World Trade Center on 11^th September 2001. Don DeLillo reads from his latest novel, Falling Man, which was published in May of this year:

Don DeLillo:

Standard: American accent:

The first cop told him to go to the checkpoint on block east of here and he did this and there were military police and troops in Humvees and a convoy of dump trucks and sanitation sweepers moving south though the parted saw horse barriers. He showed proof of address with pictures 10 and the second cop told him to go to the next checkpoint, east of here, and he did this and saw a chain-link barrier stretching down the middle of Broadway patrolled by troops in gas masks. He told the cop at the checkpoint that he had a cat to feed and if it died his child would be devastated and the man was sympathetic but told him to try the next checkpoint. There were fire-rescue cars and ambulances; there were state police cruisers, flatbed trucks, vehicles with cherry pickers, all moving through the barricades, and into the shroud of sand and ash. He showed the next cop his proof of address and picture 10 and told him there were cats he had to feed three of them, and if they died his children would be devastated and he showed the splint on his left arm. He had to move out of the way when a drove of enormous bulldozers and backhoes moved through the parted barricades, marking the sound of hell machines at endless revving pitch.

He started over again with the cop and showed his wrist splint and said he needed only fifteen minutes in the apartment to feed the cats and then he’d go back to the hotel and reassure the children. The cop said okay but if you’re stopped down there be sure to tell them you went through the broadway checkpoint, not this one. He worked his way through the frozen zone, south and west, passing through smaller checkpoints and detouring around others. There was a Guard troop in battle jackets and sidearm and now and then he saw a figure in a dust mask man or woman, half surreptitious, the only other civilians. The streets and cars were surfaced in ash and there were garbage bags stacked high at curb stones and against the sides of buildings. He walked slowly, watching for something he could not identify. Everything was gray, it was limp and failed storefronts behind corrugated steel shutters, a city somewhere else under permanent siege, and a stink in the air that infiltrated the skin.

Pro-jovem, Part 8, Inglês vip

Source: www.ingvip.com


Lucas: Hello
Pedro: Hi Lucas, how are you?
Lucas: I'm fine, thanks. What do you want to do today?
Pedro: Don't you remember? We are going to your house
Lucas: Today? Are the girls coming?
Pedro: Yes, they are
Lucas: Can you help me with the snacks(1)?
Pedro: Sure(2). What do you want me to do(3)?
Lucas: You can prepare the sandwitches, I can buy the drinks(4), you can call the girls, and I can...
Pedro: Easy(5) man, easy...why are you so worried(6)?
Lucas: Because my house is a mess(7).
Pedro: Hey, don't worry about it (8) OK? We'll fix it up (9). Everything is gonna be ok (10), right.
             Bye bye...see'ya
Lucas: Hello
Julia: Hello Lucas. We are going to your house, but we don't know where you live. So, where do you live (11)?
Lucas: It's not too far from your house, it's near the drugstore (12).
Julia: Why are you so tired?
Lucas: because, because...
Julia: OK. See you in 20 minutes
Lucas: OK. Bye, see you. How do I clean (13) all this in 20 minutes?
Lucas: Welcome to (14) my house
Pedro: Where do we put this (15)?
Lucas: You can put it in the kitchen (16)
Julia: Where do we sit?
Lucas: We can sit  here in the living room (17)
Julia: Who do you live with (18)?
Lucas: I live with my family. But they are working
Julia: How many brothers do you have?
Lucas: I have two brothers and one sister
Julia: You have a clean house
Lucas: Thanks
Mariana: Lucas, where is the bathroom (19) ?
Lucas: It's that door over there (20)
Mariana: Oh, thank you...Lucas!
Lucas: No, no no...not this door...I'm sorry
Pedro: That's how he cleans his house. This bedroom is not clean!
Lucas: Spare me (21), man!
 

---

                                      Vocabulary
 1.  Snacks = lanches
 2.  Sure = claro
 3. O que você quer que eu faça? = What do you want me to do?
 4. Drinks = bebidas
 5. Easy = calma
 6. Why are you so worried? = Por que você está tão preocupado? 
 7. Mess = bagunça
 8.  Don't worry about it = Não se preocupe com isso
 9. We'll fix it up =  Nós vamos "dar um jeito"
 10. Everything is gonna be OK = Tudo vai ficar bem
 11. Where do you live? = Onde você mora?
 12. Drugstore = farmácia
 13. Clean = limpar, arrumar
 14. Welcome to = Bem-vindo a
 15. Where do we put this?  = Onde nós colocamos isso?
 16. Kitchen = cozinha
 17. Living room = sala
 18. Who do you live with? = Com quem você mora?
 19. Bathroom = banheiro
 20. Over there = Logo ali
 21. Spare me =  " me poupe"

James Rouse, 1914-1996: Developer Who Found New Ways to Improve Cities

Source: www.voanews.com visit the site for more information, really interesting for English learners.

Photo: columbiaarchives.org

James Rouse attends an International Council of Shopping Centers Conference in 1966

 

STEVE EMBER: I'm Steve Ember.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about James Rouse. He was a developer who found new ways to improve American cities.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: It was a gray day in nineteen seventy-three. James Wilson Rouse got off a train in Boston, Massachusetts. He had come to see a very old building that was almost empty.

Mr. Rouse owned a company that developed property. Another official of the company was on that trip. The official remembered that the building looked terrible. Part of it was burned out. It was filled with holes where rats lived.

Yet, the official said: "Jim was very happy. He said it was going to be great. The man could see things no one else could see.”

FAITH LAPIDUS: The damaged building James Rouse was inspecting became the beginning of Boston's famous Faneuil Hall. Repaired and rebuilt, it is an important part of a historic cultural center for stores, ethnic foods and street performers.

visit-boston-massachusetts.com

The Rouse Company redesigned Boston's Faneuil Hall marketplace in 1976

The center is designed to show life as it was in the seventeen hundreds. Millions of people from all over the world have visited Faneuil Hall.

Faneuil Hall is just one of many “festival marketplaces” that James Rouse created in the centers of older cities. Festival marketplaces are large centers for shopping, eating and other pleasant activities. He built other major centers in New York City; Baltimore, Maryland and Miami, Florida.

STEVE EMBER: Harborplace in Baltimore is a good example of James Rouse’s festival marketplaces. In the seventeen hundreds, the land on which the Harborplace development was built served as a trade center for Baltimore. Many ships sailed to and from this area of the eastern American port city.

Over the years, however, this busy, successful waterfront area changed. By the middle of the twentieth century, businesses were failing. Many buildings were empty and in need of major repair.

The Baltimore city government decided to establish a plan to re-build the area. The plan called for a waterfront development that would combine business and pleasure.

FAITH LAPIDUS: James Rouse’s company won the right to develop part of the area. The project was to be called Harborplace. The first part of Harborplace opened in nineteen eighty. Later in the nineteen eighties, the Rouse Company developed another area called The Gallery at Harborplace.

columbiaarchives.org

James Rouse and wife Patty attend Columbia's 20th birthday celebration

Today, millions of people each year visit Harborplace and The Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland. They shop and eat in many stores and restaurants. They watch music, dancing and plays performed near the water. And they enjoy the mix of people and activities that brings new life to the center of that old city.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: James Rouse was born in nineteen fourteen. His family lived in a farming area on the eastern shore of Maryland. His father and mother died within a few months of each other in nineteen thirty. They left their five children without much money.

The parents owed a bank a lot of money for their house. So the bank was forced to take away the family home. James was able to find a job to pay for his college education. He later graduated from the University of Maryland Law School in nineteen thirty-six. He began working for a bank in Baltimore.

FAITH LAPIDUS: In nineteen thirty-nine, James Rouse and a banker, Hunter Moss, borrowed twenty-five thousand dollars. They formed a company that lent money to people who wanted to buy homes. During World War Two, Mr. Rouse served as an officer in the Navy in the Pacific area.

After the war, he returned to Baltimore. His business grew. It represented banks and provided loans to people returning from the war who wanted to buy homes.

James Rouse became a rich man. During the early nineteen fifties, he also became known for social action as well as property development. He tried to improve a poor, undeveloped area in east Baltimore. The mayor of the city said he would not offer complete support for a plan to rebuild the poor area. So Mr. Rouse resigned from a citizens' committee that was supporting the plan.

STEVE EMBER: Also in the nineteen fifties, Mr. Rouse began a project that brought him national fame. He began building some of the first enclosed shopping centers in America. He built a lot of these shopping malls in Maryland and other states. Each mall had stores and businesses inside a large building. They were built outside cities, in the growing housing areas called suburbs.

James Rouse wanted to develop land for the good of society and the environment, not just for profit. In the nineteen sixties, he dreamed of building a complete new city between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland.

His company bought ten percent of the property in Howard County, Maryland. The company bought more than fifty-seven square kilometers of land from one hundred forty separate owners.

FAITH LAPIDUS: In nineteen sixty-three, James Rouse announced that his company would help build a new planned community. By creating separate villages within the community, it was to seem like a small town. Each village would have a shopping center, open spaces and homes. The new community of Columbia, Maryland began in nineteen sixty-seven.

Today, more than ninety-four thousand people live in the city.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen seventy-two, three members of a Washington, D.C. church came to visit James Rouse. The three belonged to the Church of the Saviour, where James and Patricia Rouse had been married.

The women asked Mr. Rouse for advice about creating housing for poor people in the Adams Morgan area of Washington. But Mr. Rouse thought people who knew nothing about development, money or building could not possibly create low-income housing.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The women did not give up their goal. Instead, they invested money to buy two apartment house buildings in Adams Morgan. The buildings were in terrible condition. Mr. Rouse helped them get six hundred twenty-five thousand dollars to complete the deal. He also helped them get one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars to repair the buildings.

Their project was huge. People worked for no pay for fifty thousand hours to repair the buildings. Workers cleaned out garbage and rats. People also gave additional financial help for the restoration. More than nine hundred housing violations were corrected. The completed project provided ninety apartment homes for poor people. They were called Jubilee Housing.

STEVE EMBER: James and Patricia Rouse served as advisors for Jubilee Housing. Mr. Rouse retired as head of his development company. Then, in nineteen eighty-two, they took a further step toward helping poor and middle-income people. They established a new organization, the Enterprise Foundation. They used profits from Mr. Rouse’s company to start the foundation. Its goal is to give poor people in America a chance to live in clean, pleasant places.

Since then, the Enterprise Foundation has worked with thousands of community groups and other organizations. Each year it provides thousands of new or re-built homes for poor and middle-income families.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Many experts say that James Rouse helped shape the look of the United States for years to come. In nineteen ninety-five, President Clinton gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is the highest award a civilian can receive. He was honored for his work restoring the central areas of cities. President Clinton said that James Rouse’s life was based on a strong belief in the American spirit.

James Rouse died in nineteen ninety-six. But the work of the Enterprise Foundation continues with help from family members. One of these is the Rouses’ grandson, Edward Norton, a movie actor. He developed a project to help poor people heat their homes. It is a joint project with the organization his grandparents established.

The influence of James Rouse continues today in other ways. Developers continue to re-build and improve poor areas of cities. And millions of people visit historic centers like Faneuil Hall and Harborplace every year.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Steve Ember.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Pro-jovem, part 7, Ingles vip

Source: www.ingvip.com





Pedro: Is this your father?
Mariana: Yes, he is
Pedro: He is so young. Does he work?
Mariana: Yes, He does. He is a bus driver(1)
Julia: And your mother. Does she work too?
Mariana: Yes, she does. She is a teacher(2)
Julia: Does she teach(3) math(4) ?
Mariana: No, she doesn't. She teaches Brazilian history.
Pedro: Ah, now I see how you know all those things(5) about Brazilian History. Mariana, do you want to be a teacher too?
Mariana: I don't know. I want to be an actress(6), but it is too(7) difficult. I want to be a dentist too but..but I love to write. Maybe I want to be a writer(8), or a photographer, I love to take pictures(9)! Oh, I don't know what I want to be. And you, do you know?
Pedro: I don't know. Let me see(10): doctor, firefighter(11), lawyer(12), dentist, taxi driver, soccer player (13), telemarketing operator
Julia: I know what I want to be. I want to be a social worker to help people.
Mariana: Julia, that is a great idea. I don't know what I want to do. I don't know, I have somedoubts(14). I love music, but I can't play any instrument. Nurse(15), engineer(16), waitress(17),
saleswoman,(18) actress.
Pedro: You can work in a TV station. Maybe(19) we will see you in a soap opera(20).
Mariana: Oh, yes.
Julia: Tourism is the job(21) of the future. Maybe you can be a clerk(22)  in a tourism agency tolearn(23) how it works(24).
Pedro: Thanks. This is a great idea.
Mariana: But first, you have to learn more English. So, let's go to the park?
Julia: I can't. I have to go. I have many things to do.
Mariana: OK.
Pedro: And I have to go home.
Julia: Bye bye Pedro.
Pedro: Bye bye Julia. Girls, don't forget(25). Tomorrow Lucas wants to show(26) us his home.
Julia: Tomorrow. I can't. I have to work. Can we go on the weekend?
Pedro: Well, it's up to you(27).
Mariana: OK, so let's go on the weekend

---

                                      Vocabulary
 1. Bus driver  = motorista de ônibus
 2. Teacher =  Professor(a)
 3. teach =  ensinar
 4. math = matemática
 5. things = coisas
 6. actress = atriz
 7. too = demais
 8. writer  = escritor(a)
 9. take pictures = tirar fotos
 10. Let me see = deixe-me ver
 11. firefighter = bombeiro
 12. lawyer = advogado
 13. soccer player  = jogador de futebol
 14. doubts = dúvidas
 15.  nurse = enfermeira
 16. engineer = engenheiro
 17. waitress = garçonete
 18. saleswoman = vendedora
 19. maybe = talvez
 20. soap opera =  novela
 21. job = trabalho, emprego
 22. clerk = balconista
 23. learn = aprender
 24. How it works = como funciona
 25. forget = esquecer
 26. show = mostrar
 27. it's up to you = "depende de você"

How long does it take to be fluent?

How long does it take to be fluent? Difficult answer, it depends on how much you spend dedicating to improve your English. Fluency means speaking without stopping, not without mistakes, it’s impossible don’t make any mistakes, in particular for beginners.

Let me share something about my own experience in English. Of course, I’ve been practise English, at least over 20 years, and I usually practise English for about 2 hours a day, actually I have difficult sometimes, in particular I'm not good at slangs and idioms. The key of success is very simple. Studying hard and keep focusing improve first, your speaking skill, of course depending on the country the grammar structures are not easy for English learners, however you have to develop the writing skill.

It takes time, will power, dedication and of course keep motivated to continue with your purpose and you’re going to get your achievement. Speak fluent is synonym of “Open doors” for you.

In conclusion, do not forget to invite friends and organise groups and getting started right now. But if you are attending a private course, do not forget to study at home and use Skype, in my viewpoint it is the best software, beyond make friends you can practise and improve your English. 

Please, express your idea about it, and do not forget to twit me, and telling for friends about English tips. You can keep in touch with through Skype ID: aventureirosdacaatinga but, do not forget, I'm not an ESL teacher, if you want an online ones, I have a friend of mine, just leave your Skype's contact and I'll tell you. If you want to help English tips, thank you a lot, I'll give some tips. Thank you for everything and have a wonderful night, or from Asia's friends and Oceania, have a wonderful day.