How Does Long-Term Space Travel Affect Humans?

Astronaut Scott Kelly launched into space on a one-year mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015. He was weightless for 340 days.    His identical twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, stayed on Earth.                                     Because they are identical twins, Scott and Mark Kelly share almost all the same genetic material, or DNA. They agreed to let scientists study them before, during, and after Scott’s mission to find out what a year floating in space may do to the human body.  The investigation is known as the Twins Study ... and the first results are now in. Genetic changes In the Twins Study, researchers are looking at 10 aspects of the human body. They are doing the investigation for NASA’s Human Research Program. NASA is the American space agency. They introduced some early findings at a conference in Texas last month. At the conference, researchers said that some genetic changes occurred in Scott Kelly while he was in space.    John Charles is the chief scientist for NASA’s Human Research Program. He says researchers expected some of those changes. But there was a surprise: a change to Scott’s telomeres. Telomeres sit on the end of chromosomes. Chromosomes are the part of cells that hold DNA. Usually, as people age, their telomeres become shorter. But when he was in space, Scott Kelly’s telomeres did the opposite: They became longer. Charles says usually astronauts have shorter telomeres than other people. He thinks this may be because their intense training on Earth is stressful. So being in space, Charles says, may actually be less stressful. “They’re eating well, they’re sleeping – we hope – well, they have work that is meaningful to them. They’re exercising, they have two hours everyday for exercise, a luxury many of us on Earth would like but can’t afford...” Scott Kelly’s telomeres shortened again when he returned to Earth. Microbiomes Researchers are also looking at the twin brothers’ microbiomes. Those are the microorganisms, mostly “good bacteria,” that all humans carry in their intestines to help with digestion. Scott and Mark had different microbiomes, but NASA says that is probably because the men had different diets and different environments. Charles says Scott Kelly’s microbiomes showed the astronaut was very healthy going into space, and stayed healthy while he was there. Bone loss Scientists also compared the two men’s bones. They expected Scott to have more bone loss, a known problem connected to weightlessness in space. Sure enough, Scott’s bone formation decreased during the second half of his mission. But over the year, the hormone that helps with bone and muscle health increased. Researchers say the increase is probably connected to all the exercising Scott did every day to combat the bone and muscle loss. So, while his bones did change, they may end up being just as strong as before. Fine motor skills The researchers also studied the men’s fine motor skills — how their hands and fingers work. To test the skills, the twins performed tasks with their fingers on a tablet computer screen. The early results show that Scott’s accuracy and reaction time may have decreased while he was in space. Next steps As for now, the Twins Study is continuing. NASA’s John Charles says the results will give the agency a “new and powerful tool” to prepare astronauts for long space flights, including going to Mars one day. “If we understand their bodies and how they change in these long duration space missions beyond Earth, then we can better train them, better equip them, better prepare them, better support them for the missions that they are going to undertake.” Charles says the Twins Study will also take mental and emotional factors into account. Because long space flights to and from Mars will mean years away from loved ones on Earth, scientists are studying how to reduce feelings of isolation. “There is something really to think about as we consider sending people off to long duration missions off to Mars, where they won’t have instantaneous communication whenever they feel like it...” But, Charles says, do not expect answers soon.   “This is a painstaking, tedious process that will only gradually provide the results that we’re expecting from this mission. So that, give us a year or so to continue the analysis, and let the investigators talk amongst themselves and talk with our colleagues and make sure they have the right results...” Then, he says, there might be some surprises when researchers truly understand what happened genetically to Scott Kelly in space and Mark Kelly on the ground. I’m Anne Ball.   Anne Ball wrote this story for Learning English with material from Reuters. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and visit us on our Facebook page. Check your understanding of the story by taking this listening quiz.   _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   telomeres – n. the items on the end of a chromosome. stressful – adj. full of or causing stress or making you feel worried or anxious hormone – n. a natural substance that is produced in the body and that influences the way the body grows or develops accuracy – n. freedom from mistake or error instantaneous – adj. happening very quickly, in an instant painstaking – adj. done with great care and effort tedious – adj. boring or too slow or long

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Will Wooden Buildings Be Part of Tomorrow's Cities?

  A show in Washington, D.C. suggests that tall buildings of the future can and should be built out of wood. The exhibition is open at the National Building Museum. Wood has been an important building material for homes and other structures in many areas since ancient times. Modern tall buildings, however, are made out of man-made products, such as steel, concrete and glass. The exhibition is called “Timber City.” Timber is an expression for trees that are grown to produce wood. “Timber City” shows the work of two winners of the Tall Wood Building Prize. The award was the idea of industry groups and the United States Department of Agriculture. They hope to show new ways of manufacturing wood products for tall buildings -- structures with three or more floors. The exhibition’s curator is Susan Piedmont-Palladino. She says the prize winners are responsible for building projects in two U.S. communities. “One in New York City and one in Portland, Oregon, are two premier cross-laminated timber buildings going up right now.” Piedmont-Palladino says the two buildings are similar in appearance and design. She says both use the same cross-laminated material. Cross-laminated material is made of several pieces of wood. The pieces are connected together at 90-degree angles. This is a way to make the finished wood product stronger. Piedmont-Palladino says it is a good idea to use wood products manufactured in this way for areas like New York’s Manhattan. As a result, the building can be constructed quickly without affecting nearby homes and offices. “Buildings go up very quickly. The materials for the building, the walls and the floors and the ceilings – are manufactured off-site.” Piedmont-Palladino says the building materials arrive on a truck after being manufactured in another place. Workers using power tools can put the pieces together very quickly, she says. And the wood does not bend very much. “It’s what we called dimensionally stable,” she adds. Information on large wood panels shows the exhibit’s visitors reasons that building from wood is good for the environment. One panel says that concrete, a common building material, has been linked to rising temperatures in Earth’s atmosphere. The sign says manufacturing concrete is the third largest producer of greenhouse gasses. Studies have linked those gases to the rise in temperatures. Other information says harvesting wood has a lower environmental cost than manufacturing concrete because the materials do not need to be mined and processed. Another reason to use wood in buildings might be that it improves the way people feel about the building. Piedmont-Palladino notes that people say they like being surrounded or living in a home made of wood. “And then there’s this concept of biophilia. That's the theory that we are attracted to and relaxed by, and in general our mental and physical health is improve by being in proximate condition to nature or to elements from nature.”  Wood cannot be used for all buildings, notes Piedmont-Palladino. It cannot be used in any every situation. But she predicts there soon will be more structures made from manufactured wood products. I’m Mario Ritter.   June Soh wrote this report for VOANews.com. Mario Ritter adapted her report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Do you think using wood for construction is a good idea? Let us know in the comment section below. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   exhibition – n. an event such as a show or demonstration of something such as artwork or other creative work curator – n. a person who oversees objects in a museum, exhibit, etc. premier – adj. important construct – v. to build, to create dimensionally stable – adj. something that does not change shape very much proximate – adj. near, close

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Poor in US Worried About Loss of ObamaCare

Dr. Monica Vohra says her patients are often worried when they come to see her at a free medical center in Washington, D.C. But she says their worries have increased recently. Most of Dr. Vohra’s patients are low-income, members of minority groups and are mainly immigrants to the United States. "I think the language that's out there has been disturbing. Some of it has re-traumatized some of our folks who have been traumatized by previous policies. There's a sense of feeling unsafe and insecure.” Dr. Vohra says many of her patients are worried that they will lose their health insurance if they received coverage through the Affordable Care Act. That law is often called ObamaCare. She says critical statements by President Donald Trump about ObamaCare make her patients worry they will lose their insurance. “It’s definitely something that is on our minds,” she says. “We encourage people to get insurance every day, and in the back of my mind I am thinking, ‘What if this is not an option soon?’” Trump and the Republican-majority Congress say they plan to cancel ObamaCare and replace it. The new program will give, in the president’s words, “great health care for less money.” Many poor Americans are waiting to see how any new program will affect them. Brian Nabinett is one of them. He has lived in Washington, D.C. for many years. VOA spoke with him at Bread for the City, a non-profit organization that gives food, clothing and legal and medical services to about 10,000 people every month. Nabinett says the organization is “one of the beautiful places in D.C. It helps a lot of people here. If I need counseling or food, I can always come here.” Some volunteers at Bread for the City are not sure how the new administration’s planned changes will affect poor people. Patrice Ali is one of those volunteers. She got food and clothing from Bread for the City when she was jobless. She told VOA that she is concerned about the situation of the poor and what services they will be offered. She said programs like Obamacare and Medicaid, a government health program for children and the poor, are very important. Ali believes few political leaders understand what is happening in the country. She says that in recent years she has seen an increase in the difference in income between poor people and others. “Since I've been in my 20s, I have noticed that the gap has increasingly gotten larger, no matter who is actually in that position of power or authority to run this particular country.”  York, Pennsylvania is about 160 kilometers to the north of Washington. At the York County Food Bank, Grace Geltrude is getting food and other items that she says help her family survive. “It is very important because (the) cost of living goes up all the time,” she says. “We have a 3-year-old in the home. There used to be 13 people in the house at one time.” The food bank gives food to churches and other groups that help poor families in southern Pennsylvania. Debbie Krout-Althoff is the director of development at the food bank. She says 680 kilograms of food are given on Fridays alone. “I think it's an eye-opening experience when you come back from lunch and you see people outside of our building lined up for blocks to receive the food in all kinds of weather. We kinda go through life with blinders.” She says some low-income people in the county are worried about whether they will lose their medical insurance. But she says they are most concerned about survival -- “how they are going to feed their family, how are they going to pay their bills."  Geltrude says she has depended on the food bank, aid and a local health insurance program for help. “I could not afford the insurance any other way, with the bills and all, taking care of a vehicle. I mean, it does get costly. And without some of these programs, people are struggling.” The struggles of Geltrude and others like her are issues lawmakers will consider as they make changes to health care policies in the future. I’m Jonathan Evans.   VOA Correspondent Aru Pande reported this story from Washington, DC and York, Pennsylvania. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the report for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   re-traumatized – adj. to again become very upset; to again suffer emotional harm option – n. an opportunity or a chance to choose something Medicaid – n. a health program involving federal and state government that pays for some kinds of health care for poor families gap – n. a space between two things or groups despair – n. unhappiness; not having hope blinders – n. devices that keep a horse from seeing what is next to him; anything that limits someone’s vision or knowledge

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Trump Considers Adding to List of Terrorist Groups

  The United States last added a group to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations on June 30, 2016. On that day, the Obama administration put al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinental on the list. It said the group carried out attacks in Pakistan and murdered writers and activists in Bangladesh. President Donald Trump is considering adding two more groups: the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. Ted Cruz: It is time to call this enemy Senator Ted Cruz of Texas lost out to Trump for the Republican Party presidential nomination. He and other Republicans in Congress last month proposed bills that ask Trump to consider adding the Brotherhood and Iran's Revolutionary Guard to the terrorist list. “It is time to call this enemy by its name and speak with clarity and moral authority,” Cruz said. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is Iran’s main security group. It also controls large parts of Iran’s economy and is a major influence on its politics. Opponents of naming the Iranian Guard a terrorist organization worry the move could do more harm than good. They say it likely would increase support for Iranian hardliners, reducing the influence of moderate leaders. The Muslim Brotherhood wants countries to be governed by Islamic Law. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi was elected president of Egypt in 2012. But he was removed by the military, led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, one year later. After taking over as the country’s president, el-Sisi has banned the Muslim Brotherhood. And he has been calling on the U.S. to add the group to its terrorist list.   There is also opposition to putting the Muslim Brotherhood on the terrorist list. The Council on American-Islamic Relations works to protect civil liberties of American Muslims. Ibrahim Cooper speaks for the group, which also opposes President Trump’s executive order blocking travel to the U.S. from seven majority Muslim nations. A court has put the order on hold. Cooper told VOA that those pushing for the terrorist declaration are trying to connect American Muslims to the Muslim Brotherhood. Such a declaration, he said, would be used “in a political campaign to attack” American Muslims. But important advisers to President Trump support the terrorist declaration for the Brotherhood. Among them is his chief strategist Stephen Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News. He has called the Brotherhood the “foundation of modern terrorism.”     Sean Spicer is the press secretary for President Trump. He would not say if Trump is ready to declare the Brotherhood and Iran's Revolutionary Guard terrorist organizations. But he said the president’s main goal is to “attack” and “destroy” Islamic terrorism. The Egyptian government recently ordered 1,500 people to appear in court on charges of helping fund the Muslim Brotherhood. Human Rights Watch said the action amounts to “indiscriminate use” of Egypt’s anti-terrorism laws. What happens to groups on U.S. terrorism list? American people and businesses are prohibited from doing business with groups on the foreign terrorist organizations’ list. And the groups and their members are prohibited from using any money or other holdings they own in the U.S. Since 1997, 61 groups have been declared terrorist groups by the U.S. government. The list includes some of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups. Among them are al-Qaida, the Islamic State, al-Shabaab, and Boko Haram. Other well-known groups on the list include HAMAS, and Hezbollah. Twelve of the groups were removed because they are no longer considered a threat. Among those removed was the Khmer Rouge. The group was responsible for 2 million deaths in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.   Bruce Alpert reported this story for VOA Learning English with materials from VOA News, Reuters and other sources. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story clarity - n. the quality of being expressed, remembered, understood, etc., in a very exact way​ authority - n. a quality that makes something seem true or real hardliner - n. someone considered to have radical and unbending opinions foundation - n. something such as an idea or principle that provides support for something indiscriminate - adj. affecting or harming many people or things in a careless or unfair way​ holdings - n. things owned by individuals or groups, such as real estate prohibit - v. to order (someone) not to use or do something​  

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A Farmer and a Factory Worker React to President Trump

  President Donald Trump told voters he would work to make the trade policies in the United States fairer for workers. During his campaign he said the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA, was the “worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere, but certainly ever signed in this country.” Two days after taking office,  Trump promised to renegotiate the 23-year-old trade agreement between Mexico, Canada and the U.S. That came after he signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Former president Barack Obama supported the trade deal, known as the TPP. The agreement was designed to make trade easier between 12 nations, including Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand. VOA visited with two people affected by these trade agreements in the Midwestern state of Illinois. One is farmer Wendell Shauman. Another is former factory worker George Carney. Shauman first spoke with VOA in 2015 before Trump became the Republican Party’s candidate. At that time, he said the U.S. would be “better off” with more free trade agreements. He was especially interested in the TPP. The agreement would have given American farmers the ability to sell meat from cows and pigs to consumers in Japan. The new market would have increased the need for corn and soybeans those animals eat. That in turn would have helped farmers like Shauman, who grow those crops, earn more money. Tamara Nelsen is the Senior Director of Commodities for the Illinois Farm Bureau. She said opening markets like Japan to U.S. farmers might have boosted the price of corn and soybeans by up to 10 percent. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the TPP will hurt the incomes of Shauman and other farmers in the U.S. “That’s going to be disappointing,” Nelsen said. Shauman may disagree with the president’s position on the TPP, but he voted for him anyway. He said his support for Trump went beyond profits. “We’re conservative people. We think government is too big. We’ve got too many regulations. We could only see more of them coming from Hillary. We could see a liberal Supreme Court which is already giving us trouble. A lot of rules and regulations that we fight end up going to the Supreme Court.” Just about 30 minutes from Shauman’s farm is a former Maytag company factory. The workers there built refrigerators. George Carney was one of those workers for more than 20 years. But in 2004, Maytag moved the factory to Mexico. Carney and many of his friends lost their jobs. He has since struggled to find steady work. Carney blames NAFTA for his employment problems. He also opposes the TPP. While he did not vote for Trump, and thinks the president speaks like a “babbling buffoon” sometimes, Carney said Trump is doing a good job so far. “I could see myself voting for him next time,” he said. Shauman also has his criticisms of Trump’s behavior sometimes. But, he says, he might vote for him again. “Yeah, sometimes it’s frustrating. Sometimes it’s embarrassing. Sometimes … I’ve literally said, ‘why don’t you just grow up?’ But he’s the president and we’re going to live with him for four years, and we’ll see where this ride goes.”   I’m Dan Friedell. Kane Farabaugh wrote this story for VOANews.com. Dan Friedell adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. What do you think about President Trump’s plans to leave the trade agreements? We want to know. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   executive order– n. an order that comes from the U.S. President or a government agency and must be obeyed like a law commodity – n. something that is bought and sold babble – v. to talk foolishly or too much buffoon – n. a stupid or foolish person who tries to be funny

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Everyday Grammar: Maybe vs. May Be

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Review of Lessons 40 - 44

What is your English learning plan for 2017? It's a new year. It has been one year since we started Let's Learn English. Have you studied with us all year? Do you have any new plans for learning English in the coming year? Will you use the English that you know in a new way? We love to hear from our audience! You can write in the comments section below this article or send us an email using this link.  Review Quiz In this quiz, you can test your listening skills and review the last five lessons. Watch a short video and answer each question. Lesson Review Did you miss a lesson? Look back and see if you remember these grammar points and topics. Lesson 40: The Woods Are Alive Grammar focus: Adverbs (loudly, quietly, slowly); Comparatives of adverbs (more seriously); Review agent nouns (actor, director) Topics: New Year resolutions; Describing people’s actions Learning Strategy: Self-Evaluate Speaking & Pronunciation Focus: Asking for & giving feedback ; Projecting when public speaking Lesson 41: Teamwork Works Best With a Team Grammar: Future Real Conditional (If clauses) Topics: Asking for & giving feedback about job performance; Identifying ways to improve performance at work or school; Interpreting advice Learning Strategy: Use Selective Attention Speaking & Pronunciation: Pronouncing contrastive stress Lesson 42: I Was Minding My Own Business Grammar: Reflexive pronouns; While-clauses; Past Continuous Tense, Topics: Describing ongoing past activities; Asking about & giving information about past events; Describing a sequence of events; Expressing concern about someone; Reacting to bad news; Expressing sympathy Learning Strategy: Read Between the Lines Speaking & Pronunciation: Reflexive pronouns; Pronouncing /didjə/ Lesson 43: Time for Plan B Grammar: Could; Would; Be able to; Have got to; Too + adjective Topics: Asking and telling about ability to do things; Review of Giving an Excuse; Expressing past & future ability or obligation Learning Strategy: Personalize Speaking & Pronunciation: Using modal verbs to make polite requests; Informal pronunciation of "what are you & would you" Lesson 44: Making Healthy Choices Grammar: Mustn’t vs. Don’t have to, Must vs. Should Topics: Expressing concern, Nutrition; Types of foods; Complimenting about food choices Learning Strategy: Classify Pronunciation: Pronouncing must & mustn’t Now it's your turn. How are you using Let's Learn English? Tell us about where you live and how often you do these lessons.  Send us an email or write to us in the Comments section below or on our Facebook page to let us know what you think of these lessons.

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Ratings Show Students Unfairly Favor Male Professors

  Rankings are very important in higher education. Lots of publications produce lists of the best colleges and universities. They use several measures to decide the rankings. Price, size and the average starting salary for graduates are just some of those measures. The rankings can help students decide which school they want to attend. But rankings are not just for colleges and universities as a whole. Their individual parts, namely professors, are also rated. At the end of a period of study, almost every university in the United States asks its students to evaluate their professors. This often happens before the students know how well they performed in their classes. Schools ask students about the teaching abilities of their professors, and the usefulness of the material covered in the class. Administrators use this information to help make decisions about a professor’s value to the school. Universities rarely share this information with students. But, students want information about teachers they have yet to take a class with. How difficult are the classes this professor teaches? How much time does that professor offer outside of class to help students? Does the professor use digital technology, like posting notes online? These are some of the kinds of questions students want answers to. So in 1999 a computer programmer designed a website called RateMyProfessors. The site let students from Canada, Britain and the U.S. rate their professors on a scale of 1 to 5 in several areas. These areas included clarity, easiness, helpfulness and overall quality. The site also let students rate the professors’ physical appeal. As of December 2016, RateMyProfessors listed about 17 million ratings of more than 1.6 million professors from over 7,000 schools. However, last May the site removed clarity and helpfulness as individual qualities to be rated. Universities rarely, if ever, use RateMyProfessors ratings as a way of evaluating the performance of a professor. Students may find them useful. However, this system of evaluation does present problems. Andrew Rosen is a graduate student studying chemical engineering at Northwestern University outside of Chicago. He says he used RateMyProfessors often in the past. He likes that students can list comments about professors to give more information than just a rating. But, Rosen says, he noticed a sharp gender disparity in such ratings. So he designed a computer program to study the almost 8 million ratings of professors at U.S. universities. He says no one had ever done a study of this kind. The academic publication Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education published the findings in January. Rosen looked at the differences in average overall quality scores between professors in different areas of study. He also looked at the differences in average overall quality scores between male and female professors. "So across all of the disciplines on the site, there’s not one discipline where females professors score higher than male professors. And, of course, by that I don’t mean to imply that female professors may not be as good professors as male professors. That’s not true at all. What I do mean is that students that submit these reviews may have gender biases against or for certain professors." Rosen says students may not realize they are consistently rating women lower than men. But he says the study shows that subconscious bias among students affects their judgement. And, he says, gender is not the only thing students are considering. Rosen found that professors with higher average scores for “easy” classes also had higher average overall quality scores. Overall quality scores were also higher for professors rated as good looking. There were also major differences in how students view academic fields. Professors of mathematics and science often had lower ratings than those teaching art or language. For example, the average overall quality rating of physics professors is 3.4 out of 5. The average overall quality rating of foreign language professors is 4. Rosen suggests this may be because professors in some fields have more experience in research than in teaching. But the rating process could also be affected by student expectations as to how professors of certain subjects should look and act. "Some disciplines probably have different gender stereotypes. The stereotypical image of a scientist is kind of like a white male in a lab coat with a beaker, right? So, if you have a professor that doesn’t fit that mold, perhaps these gender stereotypes … are causing these differences." RateMyProfessors chose not to speak with VOA for this story. But other experts in higher education also argue these types of rating methods have problems. Philip Stark is a professor of statistics at the University of California at Berkeley. He and his research partner, Anne Boring, also published a study of student evaluations of professors. They looked at about 23,000 university-operated student evaluations of 379 professors in France. They also looked at a U.S. study of college student evaluations of an online class. Students in that class had never met their professors nor even learned their names. Two classes secretly had a male teacher and two other classes had a female teacher. Stark and Boring found the French students and the U.S. students both favored male professors in their ratings. And in the online classes, the students gave lower ratings when they thought their teacher was a woman. This happened despite test results showing students performed better in the classes taught by the female. Stark says universities began about 30 years ago to use their own student evaluation systems in employment decisions. He says it proved an easy and low-cost way of measuring teacher effectiveness. But, he says it may not be fair to judge all professors in the same way. "It gives students a voice … It makes it really easy on administrators to rank people. The problem is that it may be giving students a voice in the wrong way, or we may be misinterpreting exactly what the voices are able to judge well. And in making it easy for the university, the administration to do their job, that doesn’t mean that they’re doing a good job as a result." Stark says there is no proof that male professors perform better than females. And students may not fully understand the usefulness of some material over others and so may not be fit to judge. He suggests administrators should instead take care when evaluating teaching ability. They should consider the time and effort professors put into teaching in and outside their classes. That way professors can be rated on their level of commitment, and not just by student opinion. I'm Jill Robbins. And I’m Pete Musto.   Pete Musto reported this story for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. We want to hear from you. What qualities do you think make a good professor? How do you think schools and students should evaluate a professor’s teaching abilities? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   ranking(s) – n. a list of people or things that are ordered according to their quality, ability, or size salary – n. an amount of money that an employee is paid each year graduate(s) – n. a person who has earned a degree or diploma from a school, college, or university evaluate – v. to judge the value or condition of someone or something in a careful and thoughtful way class(es) – n. a series of meetings in which students are taught a particular subject or activity rate – v. to make a judgment about the quality, ability, or value of someone or something scale – n. a range of numbers that is used to show the size, strength, or quality of something — usually singular clarity – n. the quality of being easily understood gender – n. the state of being male or female disparity – n. a noticeable and often unfair difference between people or things academic – adj. of or relating to schools and education score(s) – n. the number of points that someone gets for correct answers on a test, exam or evaluation discipline(s) – n. a field of study imply – v. to express something in an indirect way submit – v. to give a document, proposal, or piece of writing to someone so that it can be considered or approved bias(es) – n. a tendency to believe that some people, things or ideas are better than others that usually results in treating some people unfairly subconscious – adj. existing in the part of the mind that a person is not aware of stereotype(s) – n. an often unfair and untrue belief that many people have about all people or things with a particular characteristic lab coat – n. a piece of clothing that is worn over a shirt as part of the uniform of a doctor or scientist beaker – n. a wide glass with a lip for pouring that is used especially in chemistry for holding and measuring liquids mold – n. a usual or typical example of something online – adj. connected to a computer, a computer network, or the Internet misinterpret(ing) – v. to understand or explain something incorrectly commitment – n. a promise to do or give something

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Health Costs in Asia Expected to Rise

  Asian countries are expected to face higher health care costs over the next 10 years. The World Health Organization (WHO) says improvements in Asia’s economies have caused much lower levels of poverty. But this progress has caused changes in societies, lifestyles and the kind of food people eat. It has also caused an increase in urban pollution. Conditions such as cancer, stroke and dementia are predicted to cause health care costs in the area to increase sharply. The WHO says late treatment of cancer causes 1.3 million deaths a year in Southeast Asia. The UN organization says two thirds of the 8.8 million people who die of cancer worldwide each year are in Africa and Asia. The WHO says cancers, diabetes, heart diseases and lung diseases caused 40 million deaths in 2015. Cancer seen as a major health care cost in Asia Costs to treat these diseases are increasing even as they become more common. In 2015, the cost of cancer drugs rose by 11.5 percent to $107 billion worldwide. Experts believe that will rise to $150 billion by 2020. They say the increase is mostly because of the cost of new drugs. In a recent report, The Boston Consulting Group, a research organization, said the “cancer burden in developing countries is reaching pandemic proportions.” It notes that 2.5 million people die of cancer in India every year. It says the number of people with cancer in India could increase 500 percent by the year 2025. China reported four million new cancer cases in 2016. The report noted that costs to care for people with cancer in China may increase 400 percent by 2025, to $1.84 trillion. Gregory Winter is a professor at Cambridge University. He leads a team of researchers examining different ways to treat diseases like cancer. He reports some progress, but says the cost of treatment is too high for most people to pay. He says, “in general we will be struggling with cost problems. The cost of antibody treatment can be in the order of $15,000 - $75,000 per year and that’s a lot for anybody.” Some reports in China note that people with cancer, and family members who care for them, must pay a lot of money for cancer-fighting drugs. The report says some families buy drugs in unofficial markets. However, it warns that some of the drugs in these markets may be ineffective or fake. Agencies in China that approve drugs work slowly. Some drugs are not available in China for as long as 10 years after they have been approved in the United States. Professor Winter says such delays also take place in India. He says some Asian countries should “take more risks during the drug approval process.” Strokes and dementia linked to pollution Asian countries also are facing increasing costs for caring for the growing number of people affected by strokes and dementia. In 2012, the WHO reported that 35.6 million people worldwide are living with dementia. It predicted that would increase to 65.7 million in 2030 and 115.4 million by 2050. The report said almost 60 percent of those with dementia live in low- and middle-income countries. That percentage is expected to increase. The WHO wrote that the huge cost of care drives millions of families into poverty. It says dealing with the increases should be a “public health priority.” Valery Feigin is a director of the National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences at Auckland University of Technology. In 2016, his research showed a link between air pollution and strokes. The researchers found that the harm air pollution causes to the lungs, heart and brain has been underestimated. Vladimir Hachinski is an expert in stroke and dementia at the University of Western Ontario, in Canada. He said a growing amount of evidence links high levels of pollution with strokes and dementia. Hachinski said, “This is a global problem because there are currents between the continents. There are currents in the atmosphere that carry air from one continent to another, and also within continents. So what happens in Beijing matters in Bangkok because the whole atmosphere is one in the biosphere.” A recent report by the environmental group Greenpeace said air pollution causes up to 1.2 million deaths every year in India. That is almost as many deaths as tobacco use causes. In China, high levels of smog affect cities during the winter. Research shows the smog causes more than a million premature deaths in China each year. It reduces life expectancy by two to five years. Hachinski said Asia must find a way to deal with the pollution. “At the rate we are going, we cannot afford more patients having strokes, more patients having dementia -- particularly in Asia, (which has) 61 percent of the world’s population,” he said. “In some countries like China, stroke is the leading cause of death and in Japan, of course, you have an aging population (and) you have high rates of stroke and dementia.” Hachinski said if countries in the area do not deal with pollution, they might have a sharp increase in strokes and dementia. I’m Phil Dierking. And I’m Ashley Thompson.   Correspondent Ron Corben reported this story from Bangkok. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted his report for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   stroke – n. a serious medical condition where a blood vessel becomes blocked or breaks suddenly dementia – n. a brain disease that causes the loss of the ability to communicate and think burden – n. the number of cases of a disease pandemic – n. a dangerous disease that spread across a large area proportions – n. the relationship that exists between something and its size antibody – n. a cell that fights infection fake – adj. false, not true biosphere – n. all living things smog – n. thick pollution premature – adj. appearing or taking place before expected

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President Duterte Changes and Defends Philippine Drug War

  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is changing his deadly war on drugs. The change came after the killing last October of a South Korean businessman by Philippine police officers working on the drug war. The police agency blamed for killing the businessman has been suspended from anti-drug efforts. Duterte has put the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in charge of anti-drug efforts. Duterte said the Philippine military would also assist efforts to stop illegal drug selling and use in the Philippines. The businessman, Jee Ick-joo, was picked up by police and quickly killed, according to news reports in the Philippines. The news reports said police led his family to believe Jee was still alive for several weeks, as they continued to ask for ransom payments. Police offered no evidence that the businessman had any connection to illegal drugs.   Duterte criticizes corrupt police Duterte spoke this week to 400 police officers reportedly under investigation for corruption and other misconduct. He said corrupt police would be sent for two years to a southern island that is a stronghold of Islamist militants. Duterte also spoke about former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria’s recent column in the New York Times. The column was titled, “President Duterte Is Repeating My Mistakes.” Duterte called Gaviria an “idiot” for warning that “throwing more soldiers and police at the drug users does not work.” Gaviria wrote in the New York Times column that doing so is “not just a waste of money, but also can actually make the problem worse.” Reuters news agency reported that Duterte said his war on drugs is different than Colombia’s because “shabu,” or methamphetamine, is the common drug choice in the Philippines. The drug damages the brain. Duterte said the effects of cocaine, the drug of choice by Colombia’s sellers and users, are not as bad. Last week, Catholic Bishops in the Philippines wrote a letter that was read at church services. The letter called on Catholics to speak out against the violent drug war. “Let us not allow fear to reign and keep us silent,” the bishops wrote. Human Rights Watch has been critical of Duterte’s war on drugs. The group says that more than 7,000 Filipinos have been killed in the war on drugs since Duterte became president in June of 2016.  Human Rights Watch has asked for the United Nations to investigate. Phelim Kine, the Asian director for Human Rights Watch said that “the Philippine police won’t seriously investigate themselves, so the UN should take the lead in conducting an investigation.”   Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by Reuters and other news sources.  Ashley Thompson was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   ransom - n. money that is paid in order to free someone who has been captured or kidnapped misconduct - n. bad behavior idiot - n. a very stupid or foolish person methamphetamine - n. a powerful, addictive, stimulant that affects the central nervous system cocaine - n. a drug that is used in medicine to stop pain or is taken illegally for pleasure reign - n. to rule conduct - v. to carry out  

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Students Compete in Real-Life Test of ‘Hyperloop’ Transportation

  A system to transport bullet-shaped people movers at super-fast speeds recently got its first real-world test. The system, called Hyperloop, was the idea of American businessman Elon Musk. He created and owns the aerospace company SpaceX, as well as electric carmaker Tesla. Musk decided to hold an international competition for people to build working models of the proposed transportation system. Its vehicles would travel through low-pressure tubes, what Musk calls a Hyperloop. His goal is eventually to  provide transportation between cities that is faster, safer and costs less than current high-speed trains. Musk says Hyperloop could carry people from Los Angeles to San Francisco - a distance of 600 kilometers in 30 minutes. Driving that same distance in a car would take nearly six hours. A high-speed train trip would take about two hours. Hyperloop would be designed to reach a top speed of about 1,200 kilometers an hour. Currently, the fastest train in the world is being tested in Japan. So far, it has reached a top speed of 603 kilometers per hour. The system, which is still in early development, uses vehicles known as pods. An electromagnetic force causes the pods to “float” on air inside a series of steel tubes. Air would then be forced out of the tubes to reduce pressure and lower the resistance for the vehicles. A total of 26 engineering teams recently gathered in Los Angeles to test their Hyperloop model vehicles. The vehicles were sent through a 1,600-meter-long vacuum tube built by SpaceX. Musk said the competition was meant to get engineers thinking about how to create completely new methods of transportation.  “What this is really intended to do is to encourage innovation in transport technology. To get people excited about new forms of transport - things that may be completely different from what we see today.” The top speed award went to a 35-person team from Germany’s Technical University of Munich. Josef Fleischmann is a member of the WARR Hyperloop team. He said it was exciting to win after working on the model for the past 18 months. “Well, it went pretty well. We went down all the way, reached 93 kilometers per hour. So all of our subsystems worked. We’re pretty happy.” Another team, rLoop, was made up of 140 young engineers from all over the world. All of them cooperated on the project remotely. The group’s lead engineer, Tom Lambot, said many members met their teammates for the first time at the competition. “The first time we tested the vehicle was when we came to the competition. And it was also the first time some of us that have been working on this for a year-and-a-half ever met in person.” Among other things, the pod vehicles were tested for efficiency, stabilization and braking – being able to stop quickly. Cameras recorded video of the tests from inside the tubes. The highest overall rating went to a team from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Delft Hyperloop team member Mars Geuze said his group was able to build a comfortable, nice-looking vehicle that also performed well.   “We designed a completely integrated vehicle, even with a passenger compartment, with lighting and an interior.” An engineering team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won third place for design and construction. It was also given the top award for safety and reliability.   SpaceX says the next Hyperloop competition – which will focus on top speed – will be held later this year. I’m Bryan Lynn.   George Putic reported this story for VOANews.com. Bryan Lynn adapted it for Learning English. His report also includes information from the Associated Press. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. What are your thoughts on this proposed new form of transportation? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   electromagnetic – adj. relating to the science dealing with the relationship between electricity and magnetism vacuum – n. empty space where there is no air or other gas remotely – adv. from a distance, away from others stabilization – n. in a steady state with little movement braking – n. system used for slowing or stopping a vehicle comfortable – adj. physically pleasant, relaxed integrated – adj.  different parts working together as a unit reliability – adj. how trusted something is to perform correctly

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