Our saying at English @ the Movies today is "wait for backup." It is from a movie called "Wind River" about a girl who dies in a remote part of Wyoming. Watch the video, take the quiz and see if you get the right answer!
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Friday, September 8, 2017
What It Takes: Oprah Winfrey, Part 2
00:00:02 OPRAH WINFREY: "Hattie Mae, this child is gifted," and I heard that enough that I started to believe it. 00:00:08 ROGER BANNISTER: If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another chance. 00:00:14 LAURYN HILL: It all was so clear. It was just, like, the picture started to form itself. 00:00:19 DESMOND TUTU: There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life. 00:00:32 CAROL BURNETT (quoting CARRIE HAMILTON): “Every day I wake up and decide, today I'm going to love my life. Decide.” 00:00:35 JOHNNY CASH: My advice is, if they're going to break your leg once when you go in that place, stay out of there. 00:00:40 JAMES MICHENER: And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for, but boy, you’d better not miss them. 00:00:52 ALICE WINKLER: This is What It Takes, a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement’s recorded collection. On this episode, we bring you the second part of our conversation with Oprah Winfrey. It was recorded in 1991 by the Academy of Achievement. If you haven’t heard Part One, you might want to go back and take a listen first, but to recap, Oprah described her early childhood in Mississippi, her precocious ability to speak in public, her multiple traumas of rape and molestation, and the life lesson she finally learned and feels is her greatest success, the ability to say no. 00:01:30 Now onto the stories of her life in broadcasting, with wisdom, humor, and inspiration sprinkled throughout. It is Oprah, after all. 00:01:39 OPRAH WINFREY: Who really did give me the break? Well, there were several people. I was one of two students picked from each state in 1971 to go to the White House Conference on Youth. I don't know who sponsored it, but there was this big White House Conference on Youth, and they picked two people from each state all around the world, and so you were put in this whole big convention with all these people from all over the world. 00:02:00 Well, I was being interviewed by a local radio station, and a year later — this was — I was 17 at this time — there was a contest being sponsored in town called the Miss Fire Prevention Contest, and the guy who'd interviewed me at the radio station — his name was John Heidelberg — remembered me. He thought — he just remembered that I'd given him a nice interview and I was a kid, and they needed a teenager, so he said, "Why — what about that girl that was here last year?" 00:02:30 Yes. And so I was all of a sudden representing this radio station in the Miss Fire Prevention Contest, where all you had to do is walk, parade around in an evening gown, answer some questions about your life. You know, it was just — it was one of those little, teeny, tiny beauty pageants. Well, nobody expected me to win the pageant because we were still Negroes at the time, and — I've been colored, Negro, black, now I'm African American. So we're still Negroes, and I was the only Negro in a pageant of all red-haired girls, and it's the Miss Fire Prevention Contest, so the Lord knows I'm not going to win, so I was very relaxed about it. 00:03:05 I thought, "Well, I got a new gown, and this is great." So when it came time for the question-and-answer period, they asked, "What would you do if you had a million dollars?" And one girl said, "If I had a million dollars, I'd buy my mom a Frigidaire, my dad a truck." Someone else, if they had a million dollars, they'd buy their brother Bubba a motorcycle “because he's always wanted one,” and they'd give it to the poor. And I said — all totally relaxed because I'm not going to win anyway — "If I had a million dollars, I would be a spending fool. I'm not quite sure what I would spend it on, but I would spend, spend, spend. Spending fool." 00:03:41 Well, I ended up winning, and there was another question about what I would like to do with my life, my career. Well, everybody wanted to be a nurse or a teacher, and I made this big speech about broadcast journalism, mainly because I had seen Barbara Walters that morning on The Today Show. So I thought, "Now, see, what can I be? I can't be a nurse. Can't be a teacher because that's what they were," so I said I wanted to be a broadcast journalist because I believed in the truth, was interested in proclaiming the truth to the world. 00:04:10 Now, I won the contest. Well, what a shock, Negro me! And that was the beginning of my broadcasting career, because when I went back to the radio station to pick up my Longines watch and my digital clock, they asked me would I like to hear my voice on tape. They said, "Would you like to hear your voice on tape?" Just sort of as a little treat for me. "Come here, and let's listen to your voice now," and I started to read. Now I've been reading since I was three. They couldn't believe how well I read, and I was hired there. 00:04:37 Somebody said, "Sit down and read," and they said, "Come hear this girl read," and then someone else — and before I knew it, there were four guys standing in the room listening to me read, and I was hired, 17 years old, in radio. At the time, I was still a senior, so I had to only work after school, so I’d finish, get there by 3:30, and I’d do on-the-air newscasts. Well, all my friends just hated me because they're cutting grass. 00:05:00 And my sophomore year in college, someone heard me on the radio and said, "We heard you on the radio. Would you be interested in working in television?" And I turned them down three times, and the third time... I had a college professor; I said, "They keep calling me to be on television, and I know if I do television I'll never finish school." So he said, "Don't you know that's why people go to school? So that somebody can keep calling them. You nitwit." 00:05:28 So I went and I interviewed for the job, and Chris Clark gave me the job. I interviewed for the job in television. Never — I've never even been behind-the-scenes of television. I was 19 at the time, so I decided to pretend to be Barbara Walters because that's how I'd gotten into this in the first place. So I sat there pretending, with Barbara in my head, did everything I thought she would do, and I was hired. It was amazing. 00:05:53 GAIL EICHENTHAL: Funny, you don’t look like Barbara Walters. 00:05:55 OPRAH WINFREY: I don’t look like Barbara! 00:05:56 ALICE WINKLER: That other voice you hear belongs to Gail Eichenthal, who did this interview with Oprah for the Academy of Achievement. Gail followed up by asking whether Oprah felt she’d faced a lot of racism or sexism in her career. 00:06:10 OPRAH WINFREY: I would have to say that I, for the most part, have not been, as far as I know, affected. I — as a matter of fact, it was because of the riots of the '70s that, I think, they were looking for minorities. They were trying to fulfill all of their quotas in programs, and so I was hired as a token and had to take the heat from my college classmates. I went to an all-black college, with them calling me a token, and I used to say, "Yeah, but I'm a paid token." 00:06:40 And I recognized that — and at the time, I didn’t even know it was a pun. I was thinking, "Yeah, but they pay — yeah, they pay me," and was very defensive about it because I've always had to live with the notion of other black people saying, "Oh," for any amount of success that you achieve, they say, "Oh, you're trying to be white. You're trying to talk white. You're trying to be white," and so forth, which is such a ridiculous notion to me, since you look in the mirror every morning and you're black, there's a black face in your reflection. 00:07:11 So I, you know, had to live with that whole thing of, you know, trying to — and it was very uncomfortable for me at first because when I first started as a broadcaster, I was 19, very insecure, thrown into television, pretending to be Barbara Walters, looking nothing like her, and still going to college. So I do all my classes in the morning, from eight to one, and in the afternoon I work from two to ten, and did the six o’clock news, and would stay up and study and all that stuff, you know, until one-, two-, or three o’clock in the morning, and then just start the routine all over again. 00:07:45 And my classmates were so jealous of me that I remember, like, taking my little $115 paycheck and — at the time I thought it was really a lot, but taking $115 and trying to appease them. I would, like, any time anybody needed money, I was always offering, "Oh, you need ten dollars?" Or taking them out for pizza, ordering pizza for the class and things like that, trying to — that whole disease to please. 00:08:09 That's where it was the worst for me, I think, because I wanted to be accepted by them and could not be because, first of all, I didn’t have the time. They wanted me to pledge, and I didn’t have the time to pledge. I was — I didn’t have the time to be a part of all the other college activities or a part of that whole lifestyle, and it was very difficult for me socially. Really, one of the worst times in my life because I was trying to fit in, in school, and be a part of that culture, but also trying to build a career in television. 00:08:37 ALICE WINKLER: That career would build with jobs as a reporter on local TV and radio, and then as host of a Chicago TV talk show. By the time it went national, it seemed to most of America her career was just exploding out of nowhere. She had also, by the way, just been nominated the year before for an Academy Award for playing Sofia in the movie version of The Color Purple. It was her first movie role, and the film was directed by Steven Spielberg. Oprah says her sudden fame was just an illusion. 00:09:08 OPRAH WINFREY: My first Easter speech in the Kosciusko Baptist Church at the age of three-and-a-half was the beginning, and every other speech, every other book I read, every other time I spoke in public was a building block, so that by the time I first sat down to audition in front of a television camera and somebody says, "Read this," what allowed me to read it so comfortably and be so at ease with myself at that time was the fact that I'd been doing it awhile. 00:09:39 If I'd never read a book or I'd never spoken in public before, I would have been traumatized by it. So the fact that we went on the air with the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986 nationally, and people would say, "Oh, but you're — God, you're so comfortable in front of the camera. You can be yourself." Well, it's because I've been being myself since I was 19, and I would not have been able to be as comfortable with myself had I not made mistakes on the air and been allowed to make mistakes on the air and understand that it doesn't matter. 00:10:14 You know, I — there's no such thing to me as an embarrassing moment, no such thing. If I tripped and fell, if my bra strap showed, if my slip fell off, if I fell flat on my face, there's no such thing as an embarrassing moment because I know that there is not a moment that I could possibly experience on the air that somebody else hasn't already experienced. So when it happens, you say, "Oh, my slip fell off," and it's no big deal. 00:10:39 I mean, like, I was on TV the other day and somebody says, "Oh, Oprah, you have a run." Have you not seen a run before in your life? Well, I get them too. Let me tell you. So, I mean, see, I can't be embarrassed. I can't be embarrassed. Now when I first started out, that was not true because I was under the — I was pretending to be somebody I was not. I was pretending to be Barbara Walters, so I'd go to a news conference, and I was more interested in how I phrased the question and how eloquent the question sounded as opposed to listening to the answer. 00:11:11 I was so — which always happens when you're interested in impressing people instead of doing what you're supposed to be doing, and it took me awhile. It took me messing up on the air, on — during a live newscast. I was doing a list of foreign countries, and I — there were all these foreign names, and then Canada was thrown in, and I called Canada “Cuh-nah-da,” and I got so tickled that I called — I go, "That wasn't Cuh-nah-da. That was Canada. Excuse me. That wasn't Canada. That wasn't Cuh-nah-da. That was Canada." 00:11:39 And then I started laughing. Well, it was — it became the first real moment I ever had, and the news director later said to me, "Well, if you do that then you should keep going. You shouldn’t correct yourself and let people know." Well, I know, well, who's ever heard of Cuh-nah-da? So that was, for me, the beginning of realizing that, oh, you can laugh at yourself, and you can make a mistake, and it's not the end of the world. You don't have to be perfect. 00:12:04 Biggest lesson for me for television. Didn't matter. "Oh, sorry. Bra strap's showing." 00:12:08 ALICE WINKLER: But Oprah's newfound desire to be herself wasn’t a big hit with news management, that and her reluctance to thrust a mike into the faces of people in crisis just for a story. 00:12:20 OPRAH WINFREY: I only came to co-host a talk show because I had failed at news, and I was going to be fired, and the news director was paying me 22,000 a year. God only knows what my co-anchor was making. But — was paying me 22,000 a year, and they thought they were paying me too much money to only just do news stories, and so I had been taken off the six o’clock news and was put on the early morning, like, five-thirty cut-ins, and they tried to convince me at the time — they said, "You know, you are — you're so good that you need your own time period, so we're going to give you five minutes at five-thirty in the morning." 00:13:03 And I was devastated because up until that point I had sort of cruised. I really hadn't thought a lot about my life or the direction it was taking. I just — because I had happened into television, happened into radio, sort of happenstanced. I don't believe in luck. I think luck is preparation meeting opportunity, but I felt like I had somewhat prepared myself, but that I had happenstanced into it. 00:13:30 So I thought, okay, I was working in Nashville, and so I moved to Baltimore, and now I'll do this for a while, and then I don't know what I'll do. And so when I was called in and put on the edge of being fired and certainly demoted and knew that firing was only a couple weeks away, I was, like, devastated. I was 22 and, I mean, embarrassed by the whole thing because I'd never failed before. 00:13:54 And it was that failure that led to the talk show. Because they had no place else to put me, they put me on a talk show one morning, and the — I'm telling you, the hour — I interviewed — my very first interview was the Carvel Ice Cream Man and Benny from All My Children. Never forget it. And I came off the air thinking, "This is what I should have been doing," because it was like breathing to me, like breathing. You just talk. 00:14:21 ALICE WINKLER: It came easy and struck a remarkable chord with audiences and guests, who opened up to her, just as she opened up to them. The press, however, was occasionally a little less forgiving, but Oprah told interviewer Gail Eichenthal that her critics have helped her to get better. 00:14:39 OPRAH WINFREY: Now I take criticism very seriously. There have been — I can't say that I'm one of those people who does not read criticism, because I do, and if someone criticizes something and it strikes a nerve with me, I will then move to correct it. I mean, I have written critics who have said things that I thought were very valid. Recently someone criticized us for airing a show on mothers who had gone through postpartum depression and had killed their children, and they were saying that the show should not have aired in the afternoon because there were children watching. 00:15:11 And I have — I mean, I absolutely agree with that. I think that's a very valid point. We should have considered that. That's one of the things I did not think about. I'm thinking that I'm going to help all these mothers who are going through this, but that person was absolutely right, and I've reached a level of maturity in this work myself. There was a time when I first started out that I would say I was far more exploitive. You just put a person on for the purpose of having — I wouldn't do that anymore. 00:15:34 I was in the middle of a show with some white supremacist skinheads, Klu Klux Klan members, and in the middle of that show I just had a flash. I thought, "This is doing nobody any good. Nobody. This is — " I mean, and I had rationalized the show by saying, "Oh, people need to know that these kinds of people are out here." I won't do it anymore. I just won't do it. There are certain things — I won't do Satanism of any kind, any kind of Satan worship, I won't do — I no longer want to give a platform to racists. I just don't, because I think no good can come of it. 00:16:07 And so if you don't know that it exists, I'm sorry, you won't hear it here. But that's growth for me. I did a show — I taped a show last year with a guy who was a mass murderer who killed 80 people, and I did the whole interview, and I had the families on of some of the people he killed. In the middle of it I thought, “I shouldn’t be doing this. This is not going to help anybody. It's a voyeuristic look at a serial killer, but what good is it going to do anybody?” And we didn't air it. 00:16:34 GAIL EICHENTHAL: You obviously are in the public eye, and in a way that most people cannot relate to, and I'm just wondering how you've adjusted to that, to the fact that when Oprah sneezes, it's usually printed in People magazine, you know, or whatever... 00:16:48 OPRAH WINFREY: Oh, it's certainly “Oprah Eats a Piece of Bacon.” I don't know about sneezing, but if she eats a piece of bacon, it's an — I think I've adjusted pretty well. I think I'm really — actually I'm probably one of the most balanced people I know to live under such a microscope, I think. And I think that you have to put it all in perspective and understand who you really are, and who I really am is not some person who's, you know, just on television every day. 00:17:12 That is something that I do, and what I think is important is for people to — not to look at my life or anybody else's life, particularly celebrities, because I think adoration is unhealthy. And, you know, when you look at the list of people that students choose to admire in this country, I think that there are so many people who do such incredible things! Incredible things. I mean, I was — you know, last year I met the guy who split the neutrons in two, and they do things, you think, "My God." 00:17:12 They do things to atoms that you can't even pronounce, and I think, "Well, you know, wouldn't it be wonderful if those kinds of people got publicity. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we paid attention to some of the more humanitarian things that are going on. Things that are really of value," and I think just because, you know, you can do a video and you can dance really well or you can sit on a talk show and you can talk to people, that is not necessarily to be held in the highest of esteem, you know, because that isn't what makes life meaningful. It really is not. 00:18:17 GAIL EICHENTHAL: What characteristics do you think are most important for having a fulfilling life? And I'm not going to say successful because I really don't mean financially successful. But I mean a fulfilling life, successful life, in a profession. 00:18:30 OPRAH WINFREY: I think the most important thing to get ahead falls back to what I truly believe in, and then that is the ability to seek truth in your life. You can be pursuing a profession because your parents say it's the best thing. You can be pursuing a profession because you think you'll make a lot of money. You can be pursuing a profession because you think you're going to get a lot of attention. None of that will do you any good if you're not being honest with yourself, and the honesty comes from — your natural-born instinct will tell you when you're doing something, whether or not this feels right. 00:19:01 You feel a sense of accomplishment and a fulfillment and worthiness to the world in such a way that you know you're doing the right thing. You don't have to ask anybody. When you're doing the right thing you don't have to say, "Do you think this is okay?" It's like — and it works on every level, whether or not you're going to a party or you're choosing a dress or you're choosing a friend. If you ever have to say, "Do you think this is okay?" — chances are it is not, because that's your instinct trying to get you to ask yourself that question: “Maybe this isn't okay?” 00:19:35 And so from the very first day I did my very first talk show, I felt — I knew it. I knew it was the right thing to do. I felt the same thing about acting, too, only I was so terrified that it was a little more difficult for me. 00:19:52 GAIL EICHENTHAL: What’s the turn-on for you in acting? 00:19:55 OPRAH WINFREY: For me, the turn-on is the ability to express another person's life. I think if you can internalize and then manifest externally the essence of another being, that is the ultimate in understanding. What it takes to take somebody else's life, make it your own, and put it out there is the ultimate — you understand things about people that you could never imagine. You — it's like, almost for a while getting to live somebody else's life. 00:20:33 The most powerful scene in The Color Purple, for me, was the scene where Sofia walks through the cornfield and proclaims herself to Celie, defines and proclaims herself, where she says, "All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my cousins. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my uncles, but I ain't never thought I had to fight in my own house." 00:21:00 I did that scene in one take because it was the essence, I thought, of my life. And very liberating to live it through Sofia because, at the time that I spoke it, I wasn't there yet, because what she is saying is, “I fought people all my life, and I'm not going to fight in my own house anymore, in my own space anymore. I'm going to have what I deserve.” And it's taken me awhile to get to where Sofia was, but it was so liberating. 00:21:34 It was all, I think, a part of the process of growth for me to recognize it can be done. 00:21:40 ALICE WINKLER: And the person who gave Oprah that opportunity to act for the first time, to embody characters, and to continue her process of healing from childhood trauma, was none other than Quincy Jones, music and film producer extraordinaire. 00:21:56 OPRAH WINFREY: Quincy Jones discovered me, and it's so interesting to me because when I was working as a television newswoman in Baltimore — and, really, all I wanted to do was be an actress, but I was doing television, and I felt at the time, "Well, I can't quit this job because this is what everybody else wants to do, and if I quit this job, what am I going to do?" And I was going to a speech coach at the time that the station had sent me to. 00:22:24 They — you know, they — the broadcasting school, they sent everybody to the same woman, and I was telling her, "You know, I really don't want to do this. What I really want to do is act." And she says, "My dear, you don't want to act because if you wanted to act you'd be doing it. What you want to be, my dear, is a star, because if you wanted to act, you'd be waiting tables in New York. You'd be — " and I thought, "Now why am I going to wait tables if I'm already working in TV?" So I said, "Well, what I think is going to happen is I will be discovered, because I want it so badly somebody's going to have to discover me." 00:22:54 And she said, "You just dream. You dream. You're a dreamer." So when it happened, I called her up. I said, "You will not believe this! I got discovered!" And it really was a discovery. It's like one of those Lana Turner stories, only it wasn't a drugstore. He was in his hotel room, saw me on TV. It was unbelievable. So the interesting thing about that is that I truly believe that thoughts are the greatest vehicle to change, power, and success in the world. 00:23:28 Everything begins with thoughts. I mean, the chairs that we're sitting in, the room that we're in, all started because somebody thought it. So I thought up The Color Purple for myself. I know this is going to sound strange to you. I read the book. I got so many copies of that book. I passed the book around to everybody I knew. If I was on the bus I'd pass it out to people. And when I heard that there was going to be a movie, I started talking it up for myself. I didn't know Quincy Jones or Steven Spielberg or how on earth I would get in this movie. 00:24:01 I'd never acted in my life, but I felt it so intensely that I had to be a part of that movie. I just — I really do believe I created it for myself. 00:24:10 ALICE WINKLER: After spending so much time listening to this interview with Oprah, it is not hard to believe that she willed herself into a part in The Color Purple, that she willed herself into becoming the preeminent talk show host of all time, and everything that came after for her: the studio, the magazine, the TV network, and the tremendous wealth. Oprah Winfrey is one of the wealthiest people in America. Yet still, she said... 00:24:37 OPRAH WINFREY: What other people view as successful is not what my idea of success is, and I don't mean to belittle it at all. I think it's really nice to be able to have nice things. What material success does is provide you with the ability, I think, to concentrate on other things that really matter, and that is being able to make a difference not only in your own life but also in other people's lives. That's really all it's good for. It's because you don't — you no longer have to focus your attention on how you're going to pay your car note and whether or not you're going to sign your last name so that when the check gets there, they can send it back to you, and you can say, "Oh, forgot to sign it." 00:25:13 You know, you don't have to play those games anymore, so you really have the time and the attention to focus on other things. And the big question for me in my life is, now that I have achieved some material success, is what do I do with it? How do I use this to make a difference? 00:25:32 GAIL EICHENTHAL: And? 00:25:33 OPRAH WINFREY: And, for me, education is about the most important thing, because that was — that is what liberated me. Education is what liberated me. The ability to read saved my life. I would have been an entirely different person had I not been taught to read when I was, at an early age. My entire life experience, my ability to believe in myself, and even in my darkest moments of sexual abuse and being physically abused and so forth, I knew there was another way. 00:26:11 I knew there was a way out. I knew there was another kind of life because I'd read about it. I'd read about it. I knew there were other places, and there was another way of being, and so it saved my life. So that's why I now focus my attention on trying to do the same thing for other people. 00:26:37 ALICE WINKLER: Oprah Winfrey talking to the Academy of Achievement in 1991. Thank you for listening. Next time you find yourself looking for a shot of inspiration or some great life stories from another towering figure, visit us again. I’m Alice Winkler. This is What It Takes. And I can’t resist leaving you with one last little clip of Oprah talking about one of her favorite things. Who knows? I just like to think maybe it’s where the idea for her famous segment started. 00:27:12 OPRAH WINFREY: I love bubbles. Now that's the one big luxury I've given myself, is that now that I've attained some material success, I will use an entire half a bottle of bubble bath at one time, and I'm really particular about the kind of bubbles too. Like, I don't want the kind that drip down off of your arm, poor quality bubbles. I like the kind that covers your arm and stays. 00:27:39 ALICE WINKLER: Funding for What It Takes comes from the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation.
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September 8, 2017
A look at the best news photos from around the world.
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Powerful Earthquake Shakes Southern Mexico
One of the most powerful earthquakes ever to hit Mexico shook the southern part of the country Thursday night. Mexican officials said Friday at least 32 people had died. The 8.2-magnitude earthquake was stronger than the 1985 quake that killed thousands and destroyed large parts of Mexico City. Hundreds of buildings collapsed or were damaged. Smaller quakes have followed. Officials closed schools Friday in at least 11 states to check them for safety. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chiapas state. It was near the point of collision between three tectonic plates, the Cocos, the Caribbean and the North American. The USGS said the quake struck at 11:49 p.m. local time Thursday. Rodrigo Soberanes, who lives near San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, told the Associated Press that his "house moved like chewing gum." The quake caused buildings to move violently in Mexico’s capital more than 1,000 kilometers away. In neighboring Guatemala, President Jimmy Morales spoke on national television to call for calm while emergency crews checked for damage. “We have reports of some damage and the death of one person, even though we still don’t have details,” Morales said. I'm Ashley Thompson. The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story magnitude - n. a number that shows the power of an earthquake chewing gum - n. a type of soft candy that you chew on but do not swallow collision - n. a crash in which two or more things or people hit each other
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Thursday, September 7, 2017
Common Transition Words
In 1963, President John Kennedy gave a famous speech at American University. In the speech, Kennedy said the following lines: "Our problems are manmade; therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings." Today's report is not about global problems. Nor is it about human destiny. Instead, it is about something much more exciting: transition words. What are transitions? Transitions are words that show relationships between ideas. According to grammar experts Susan Conrad and Douglas Biber, transitions are most common in academic writing. These transition words have different uses. They can suggest that a result, clarification, or example is coming. We will now look at each of these uses in greater detail. #1 Expressing a result Transition words that show a result include therefore and thus. The words you heard at the beginning of this report give you one example of therefore: "Our problems are manmade; therefore, they can be solved by man." In the quote, the word therefore connects two statements: "Our problems are manmade" and "they [our problems] can be solved by mankind." The word therefore suggests "for that reason" or "because of that..." Thus has a similar meaning. Academic writers often use it as a way to show a summary or conclusion. You might read a paragraph that begins with the words "Thus, we conclude that..." In this case, the word thus is referring to ideas or arguments presented earlier in the written work. In general, the writer is saying that the reasons already presented lead them to their conclusion. #2 Restating or clarifying an idea A second use of transitions is to restate or clarify ideas. Common examples include in other words and i.e. Consider this example from a past Everyday Grammar program: "Adverbials can appear at different places in a sentence. In other words, they are movable." In the example, the second sentence restates and clarifies the idea that comes in the first sentence. This added example helps to make the point more memorable and easier to understand. I.e. can also restate or clarify an idea. Writers often use it in parenthetical statements or phrases. The Everyday Grammar writer could have written the following words: "Adverbials can appear at different places in a sentence (i.e. they are movable). This sentence has a similar meaning to the first sentence, although it is different stylistically. #3 Giving an example A final group of transition words show that the writer is about to provide an example. Common words include for example and for instance. Consider how President Ronald Reagan uses for example in his address to the United Nations in 1988: "That is why when human rights progress is made, the United Nations grows stronger-and the United States is glad of it. Following a 2-year effort led by the United States, for example, the U.N. Human Rights Commission took a major step toward ending the double standards and cynicism that had characterized too much of its past." Reagan's second sentence, although lengthy, supports the point that he makes in the first sentence. This is a useful pattern to use both in writing and formal speaking. Movability The transitions we have discussed today can appear at different places in a sentence.* This movability is important to understand for students of writing. Think back to Reagan's speech. He used for example in the middle of his sentence. "Following a 2-year effort led by the United States, for example, the U.N. Human Rights Commission took a major step toward ending the double standards and cynicism that had characterized too much of its past." Reagan could have used for example at another place in the sentence – the very beginning, for one. Such a sentence would have sounded like this: "For example, following a 2-year effort led by the United States, the U.N. Human Rights Commission took a major step toward ending the double standards and cynicism that had characterized too much of its past." Do not use transitions too often Now that you have learned about transitions, you should practice using them. However, do not use them too often. Your reader or listener might lose interest if you use too many transitions. Also, you should be careful about using the transitions we have talked about today while speaking. They are polite and acceptable; however, they can make you sound very formal. With time and practice, you will learn how and when to use transitions correctly. And now, it is time for us to transition to the end of our report. I'm John Russell. And I'm Alice Bryant. John Russell wrote this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. * Transitions such as i.e. and e.g. are less movable because they often appear in parenthetical statements. _____________________________________________________________ Words in the Story transition – n. writing words or phrases that provide a connection between ideas, sentences and paragraphs. academic – adj. of or relating to schools and education restate – v. to say (something) again or in a different way especially to make the meaning clearer adverbial – n. a word that describes a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a sentence and that is often used to show time, manner, place, or degree double standard – n. a situation in which two people, groups, etc., are treated very differently from each other in a way that is unfair to one of them cynicism – n. cynical beliefs: beliefs that people are generally selfish and dishonest movability – n. capable of being moved
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Facebook: Sources Likely in Russia Bought Ads During US Campaign
Facebook says an operation likely based in Russia spent $100,000 to buy advertisements promoting political and social issues in the United States. The company said about 3,000 ads were bought by people operating nearly 500 fake Facebook accounts. The ads ran between June 2015 and May 2017, within the period of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. In a blog post, Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos said most of the ads did not specifically name the U.S. election or any candidates. Rather, they appeared aimed at “amplifying divisive social and political messages” on a range of major issues. These included LGBT rights, race relations and gun control. A Facebook investigation found the fake accounts were related to each other and “likely operated out of Russia.” The company said it does not allow “inauthentic” accounts and all were removed. Facebook also said it had identified another 2,200 ads bought for about $50,000 that “might have originated in Russia.” These included ads bought by accounts with IP addresses in the U.S. that were set to the Russian language. Facebook said the behavior shown in the ad buys is similar to methods used by what it calls “false amplifiers” who operated during the 2016 campaign. Methods included the posting of fake stories on social media to misinform and confuse the public. Earlier this year, Facebook announced several new policies intended to prevent users from spreading misinformation and fake news. The company said it is continuing to investigate possible ways Russian sources may have used its service as a way to influence the 2016 election. It added that it is cooperating with a federal investigation into the issue led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller’s investigation is also looking into any possible contacts between then-candidate Donald Trump’s presidential campaign team and Russian officials. I’m Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this for VOA Learning English, based on reports from Facebook, VOANews.com, Reuters and the Associated Press. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. _________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story promote – v. make people aware of something fake – adj. false, not true amplify – v. increase in strength divisive – adj. causing disagreements between people LGBT – acronym lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender inauthentic – adj. not real originate – v. cause something to exist confuse – v. make something difficult to understand
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Federer, Nadal Once Again Will Not Play Each Other at US Open
This is What’s Trending Today. Switzerland’s Roger Federer and Spain’s Rafael Nadal have played each other dozens of times through the years. Their rivalry has included memorable matches, including finals, at all but one of the world’s Grand Slam championships. They have never played each other at the U.S. Open. Fans of the sport hoped that this year, two of the world’s best would finally face off at Flushing Meadow in New York. Those hopes ended Wednesday night, however. Just hours after Nadal won a spot in the semifinal round of the tournament, Federer lost in four sets to Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro. After his loss, Federer said of del Potro, “He came up with the goods when he needed to...and I helped him a little bit sometimes, too, maybe.” Federer also said that, unlike just about everyone else, he did not spend any time at all thinking about a possible matchup with Nadal. This is the sixth time in which they were one game away from playing each other in New York. It happened in 2009, when del Potro himself beat Nadal in the semifinals, and then Federer in the final. Federer entered the quarterfinals undefeated in Grand Slam play this season. He won titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. But he hurt his back at a tournament last month, which limited his preparation for the U.S. Open. Before the U.S. Open began, Nadal was honest as can be when asked whether he hoped to face Federer. The answer was no, because he would prefer to play someone who is easier to beat. Nadal will next face del Potro on Friday in the semifinal. The other semifinal game includes two men who have never been this far at any major: Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain versus Kevin Anderson of South Africa. On the women’s side, the four remaining players are all Americans. It is the first time that has happened at the U.S. Open in 36 years. Venus Williams will play Sloane Stephens in one semifinal game, and Madison Keys will play CoCo Vandeweghe in the other. And that’s What’s Trending Today… I’m Caty Weaver. The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story dozen - n. a group of 12 people or things rivalry - n. a state or situation in which people or groups are competing with each other match - n. a contest between two or more players or teams face off - phrasal verb. to be involved or become involved in a conflict, dispute, or competition matchup - n. a contest between athletes or sports teams.
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UN Considering Oil Embargo Against North Korea
Members of the United Nations Security Council are considering new sanctions for North Korea in reaction to its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. However, experts say the support of China is critical to increase pressure on the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday, “The U.N. Security Council should respond further and take necessary measures.” But, Wang said “sanctions and pressure” must be tied to “dialogue and negotiations.” China has said that increased restrictions will not ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula. U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping about North Korea on Wednesday. Trump said Xi agreed on the need to answer North Korea’s nuclear test, saying, “He does not want to see what is happening there either.” On Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the 15-member UN Security Council would negotiate a version of a resolution to place new sanctions on North Korea. She said the U.S. would seek a vote by Monday. On August 5, the UN Security Council approved resolution 2371. It came as the result of two long-range missile tests that North Korea carried out in July. The UN Security Council barred North Korea from exporting coal, iron, lead and seafood, along with other restrictions. The measures were aimed at cutting about one-third of North Korea's $3 billion in export income. However, now there are calls to cut North Korea’s fuel imports in an effort to build pressure on its leaders. The proposed resolution VOA received a copy of the new proposed resolution on North Korea on Wednesday. The proposal calls for stopping North Korean cloth and clothing exports, and seeks to put limits on North Koreans working in other countries. But the biggest restriction would ban the sale of oil, refined petroleum products, and natural gas liquids to the North. Support from Russia and China is needed for an oil embargo to work. Both countries are permanent members of the Security Council. They also are energy exporters to North Korea. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not offer support to the idea of blocking North Korea’s oil imports. Putin spoke during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at an economic meeting in Vladivostok, Russia. China provides North Korea with most of its oil and gas. Joseph DeTrani is a former special diplomat to the six party talks. They were nuclear talks including both Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the U.S. DeTrani says the leverage that the Chinese “have on crude oil is immense.” But he says an oil embargo would destabilize North Korea’s economy, something China opposes. Although China and North Korea have had strained relations, DeTrani says Chinese public support for an oil ban is unlikely. “China doesn’t want to make North Korea a total enemy. They want to have some leverage. They don’t want to totally alienate the leadership in Pyongyang.” Richard Bush is with the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center. He says China has to walk a fine line in its policies towards its eastern neighbor. Bush says China wants to influence North Korea to stop its nuclear and missile tests. At the same time, China worries that a complete oil embargo would cause the country to collapse. That situation would create a refugee crisis on China’s border. Instead, Bush says China may try to create some flexibility in possible new sanctions by setting a limit for yearly oil imports, or by slowly decreasing them. He says China “wants to preserve its own freedom of action and flexibility, but at the same time be responsive to the concerns of the international community.” Yun Sun is a China expert at the Stimson Center in Washington DC. She says China has not shown that it is willing to cut off the North’s oil supplies. She said it might press for oil exports to be considered a humanitarian exception to UN Security Council sanctions. I’m Mario Ritter. Jenny Lee reported this story for VOA News with contributions from Margaret Besheer and Steve Herman. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story critical – adj. very important, without which nothing can be done leverage – n. influence that can be used to get a desired result alienate – v. to cause to become isolated or apart from the group walk a fine line – idiom to try to deal with two opposing issues or sides to avoid conflict flexibility – n. the quality of being able to adjust or make small changes exception – n. a case where a rule does not apply We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.
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Italian Program Prepares Immigrants for Jobs as Beekeepers
A group in Italy is preparing immigrants, mostly from Africa, for jobs as beekeepers. The group then helps to set-up meetings between these migrants and honey producers who need employees. International aid groups say European Union (EU) efforts to reduce the flow of migrants entering Europe is leaving some businesses short on workers. The aid group Oxfam says Italy alone will need over 1.6 million workers over the next 10 years. To deal with this issue, the Italian Cambalache Association created a project called “Bee My Job.” It trains migrant workers and refugees in beekeeping and finds them jobs in Italy’s agriculture industry. Since being launched in 2014, the program has trained over 100 people, mostly from African nations south of the Sahara Desert. Learning about bees Bee My Job has helped people like Abdul Adan. He had never worked with bees before he migrated to Europe. In fact, his only interaction with a bee was when he was stung by one as a child back home in Senegal. The insect stung Adan in the mouth while he was eating fresh honey. Today, he has become one of the program’s most successful trainees. He now seems very much at ease with the bees. He doesn’t cover his hands as he touches the insects’ homes and inspects their progress. “I said I have never done bee work, I was really scared that the bees would sting me and people would laugh and look at me, but afterward I… said I will learn, and maybe one day I can do it in my country.” Adan now works as a beekeeper in Alessandria, Italy. Mara Alacqua is the head of the Italian Cambalache Association. She says the Bee My Job project is never short on trainees. “Our beds are always full,” Alacqua said. “Every time a person leaves the project, and so we have a spare place, that place is covered straight away within two days’ time.” As part of the program, the migrant workers also take language classes. This has been helpful for Adan who now speaks Italian. A difficult life Almost 95,000 immigrants and refugees have arrived in Italy this year. However, in the past two months, the number of new-arrivals has dropped to more than 50 percent of what it was last year. Some observers have linked the drop to increased action by the Libyan coast guard to stop boats carrying immigrants to Europe. Before arriving in Italy, Abdul Adan lived Libya. While there, Adan says, he was held hostage, tortured, and forced to work as a slave. He later escaped on a boat to Italy. “To do our work with bees, it’s not a work that is hard,” he says. “I had already passed through stages that are harder than working with bees. If I tell you the Libyans who took us for work, you know how much we had to eat? One piece of bread a day, and we worked hard.” Beekeeping threats Francesco Panella is president of a group called Bee Life EU. Panella has worked as a beekeeper for more than 40 years. He feels that migrant workers are important for Italy. “In reality, we have a huge problem in our country,” he says. “On one side, there is a huge problem with unemployment. But the other issue, it’s not at all easy to find workers for agriculture.” Panella added that Italian agriculture is based on the work of foreigners. Both of his children are immigrants. One works in Great Britain, while the other is in the United States. He says that he thinks about this when he offers work to migrants. One of the main threats to the training program is a drop in honey production. Panella notes that Italy’s honey production this year is down 70 percent from average harvests. He thinks rising temperatures and chemical pesticides are partly to blame. While the program is helping migrants find work, life far from home can still be hard. “I feel very lonely,” said Adan. “Sometimes when I think of my family, it makes me want to go back home, but that’s the story of immigration. … Maybe one day I can go back to my country, or one day I can bring my family. No one knows what the future holds.” I’m Dan Friedell. Ricci Shyrock originally wrote this story for VOANews.com. Phil Dierking adapted this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Do you think stopping immigration leaves businesses without workers? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story beekeeper – n. a person who raises bees honey – n. a sweet viscid material elaborated out of the nectar of flowers in the honey sac of various bees sting – v. to prick painfully pesticide – n. a product for killing insects or other creatures
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