We Really Need to Talk About Your Friends

  Now, Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English. Each week, this program tells about words and expressions in American English. Sometimes we give examples through conversations, stories and even songs -- whatever we can use to help you improve your understanding of American English! Today we start by asking a question: What sort of friends do you have? The answer is probably -- all different kinds! So, we will talk about different expressions that we use for different kinds of friendship. You've got a friend in me, You've got a friend in me, When the road looks rough ahead, And you're miles and miles from your nice warm bed. You just remember what your old pal said, Boy, you've got a friend in me … When Randy Newman sings "you've got a friend in me," he simply means that he is a good friend of yours.  But what do you call someone who is not really a friend? You just, kind of, know them. Acquaintances are people you know, but not well. When using this word, there is often a distance between two people. We often use it when we want to state that the person is not a true friend. It doesn't mean that  you have bad feelings about the other person. You are simply acquainted with them. In other words, you know his or her name but that's about it. An acquaintance could one day be a friend if the two of you spend time together and you find that you have things in common. As the adjective suggests, a distant friend is someone you consider a friend, but not a close one. Maybe time or distance has come between you. Or perhaps you know them in a limited way. Again, calling someone a distant friend does not mean you have bad feelings for them. Distant friends could also be mutual friends -- people you know through other people. Mutual friends are friends you have in common, or share, with someone else. When we don't want to use the word "mutual," Americans often just say a friend of a friend. For example, I could say, "Oh, I don't know her well at all. She's just a friend of a friend ... of a friend." You can add as many “of a friends” as you think necessary. Your childhood friends are the people you grew up with. Many people grow apart from their childhood friends. But some people remain close with those people who were among their first friends. Fast friends are people who become friends soon after they first meet. It's as if you were meant to be friends with each other.  These days, there are people who are friends through social media.  As social media developed, the word "friend" has also become a verb, as in this example: "After she stole my client list, I unfriended her on my social media accounts. She cannot be trusted." Now, if you have friends who are important in the community or are extremely wealthy or powerful, you might say that you have friends in high places. These friends have power and influence. They can help you when you're in trouble or when you need something. Not all of us are lucky enough to have friends in high places. And that is okay. Sometimes it's more fun to have the opposite. 'Cause I've got friends in low places, Where the whiskey drowns And the beer chases my blues away. And I'll be okay. If someone is no longer your friend, you can call him or her an ex-friend. The two of you may have had a “falling out”, meaning a disagreement or fight. And now you are “on the outs,” meaning no longer talking to each other. There's another kind of friend that I'm sure we've all had at one point: the fair-weather friend. First, what exactly is "fair weather"? When weather conditions are fair, they are really nice. Everything from taking a walk to doing home repairs and playing sports is easier to do in nice weather. There's no driving rain, heavy snow or strong winds to make things difficult. As an adjective describing things, the term fair-weather means something is designed for nice weather use only. For example, in boating, a fair-weather sail is only good for sailing in good weather. And a fair-weather tent is only meant to be used when camping in mild, dry conditions.  Well, the same can be said for a fair-weather friend. Such a person is only there during easy, carefree times. But as soon as things get difficult, they are nowhere to be found. We should note that this idiomatic usage describing a type of friend is much more common than the actual meaning. One online reference guide gives us another definition of a fair-weather friend as "one who is helpful, friendly or available” but only when it is convenient for them. So, this friend will help you if he or she gets something out of the relationship. If not, you are on your own! Another online guide defines fair-weather as "insincere and temporary." Americans often use "fair-weather" when talking about sports. When a team is doing well, fair-weather sports fans jump on board. They want to talk about the team morning, noon and night. But at the first sign of a losing streak, a fair-weather fan jumps ship! So, a fair-weather friend will not see you through the bad times. That is why we have close friends and even best friends. This person will help you through thick and thin. They are often the wind beneath our wings, as the song says, meaning they lift us up and help us get to where want to go. And who doesn't want a friend like that? And that's Words and Their Stories. I'm Anna Matteo!   WRITING PROMPT: Do you have a word like "fair-weather friend" in your language? Let us know in the Comments Section! Or simply practice with some of these expressions by describing one of your friendships. Why can’t we be friends? Why can’t we be friends? Why can’t we be friends? Why can’t we be friends? I seen you around for a long, long time. I remembered you when you drank my wine. Why can’t we be friends? Why can’t we be friends? Why can’t we be friends? Anna Matteo wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow edited the story.

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Rights Group Says Afghanistan Failing to Educate Girls

Human Rights Watch is giving the government in Afghanistan and international donors a failing grade in their efforts to educate Afghan girls. In a report released on October 17, the rights group found that about two-thirds, or nearly 66 percent, of Afghan girls do not attend school. The report says efforts to educate Afghan girls have weakened as security in the country worsens and international donations decrease. The findings come nearly 16 years after the United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan. The goal of the operation was to remove the Taliban from power for sheltering al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. The new report is called I Won’t Be A Doctor, And One Day You’ll Be Sick: Girls’ Access To Education In Afghanistan. It is based 249 interviews with girls, ages 11 to 18 years, from four parts of Afghanistan. More girls are attending school in Afghanistan today than under the Taliban. But the Western-supported Afghan government is far from reaching its target of educating all of the girls.  The government estimates that 3.5 million children are out of school, and 85 percent of them are girls. Only 37 percent of adolescent girls can read, compared to 66 percent of adolescent boys. The barriers girls face in Afghanistan to get an education are many, the report says. Afghanistan is a country where coed education is not a choice. Boys and girls are almost always taught separately. The government provides fewer schools for girls than boys at both the grade school and high-school levels. Fewer than 20 percent of teachers are female in more than half of Afghanistan’s provinces. Human Rights Watch says this creates a barrier because many families who won’t let their daughters be taught by male teachers. Many girls are forced to remain at home, the group notes, because of "discriminatory attitudes that do not value or permit their education.” In addition, with one-third of girls marrying before age 18, many are required to leave school. Still, many Afghan families are doing all they can to educate their daughters, the report notes. Human Rights Watch contacted families that moved across cities and even the countryside to find a school for their daughters. Other families separated to give their girls the chance to study. In some situations, older brothers traveled to Iran to work illegally to pay school costs for their younger sisters back home. Even when school is free, there are other costs families face when sending their children to school. When money is limited, many families choose to send their sons instead of their daughters to school. About one-fourth of all Afghan children work to help their families survive extreme poverty. And many of the girls ask strangers for money, weave or sort through waste rather than study. The Taliban and other militants now control or are seeking to control more than 40 percent of Afghanistan’s districts. Fighting between Taliban and government forces has pushed thousands of families from their homes. And more than one million Afghans have been displaced within the country. In areas under its control, the Taliban often limits girls to only a few years of schooling or bans them from education completely. In disputed areas, girls who want to go to school face increased security threats. The conflict has brought lawlessness as militias and criminal organizations have grown. The report said girls who attend school in those areas face threats including sexual abuse, kidnapping and acid attacks. They also face targeted attacks and threats against girls’ education. Human Rights Watch praised efforts by the Afghan government and international donors to develop community-based education, or CBE. In CBE programs, classes usually take place in homes. This gives children, especially girls, a chance to receive an education in areas far from government schools. But the group noted that these programs are operated by non-governmental organizations and depend completely on money from foreign donors. And, that makes their financing unpredictable. So they can end at any time without notice. Among Human Rights Watch's suggestions is the expansion of CBE programs. The group is urging the Afghan government to make them part of its education system and guarantee long-term funding. I'm Jill Robbins. And Alice Bryant.   Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported this story. Alice Bryant adapted the report for VOA Learning English. The editor was George Grow. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   interview – v. a meeting at which people talk to each other in order to ask questions and get information adolescent – adj. a young person who is developing into an adult coed – adj. having both male and female students province – n. any one of the large parts that some countries are divided into weave – v. a young person who is developing into an adult : a young person who is going through adolescence district – n. an area or section of a country, city, or town acid – n. an area or section of a country, city, or town

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Pakistan Builds Afghan Border Fence in Effort to Reduce Terrorist Attacks

  The Pakistani military is building a fence along the 2,600-kilometer border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The military is also setting up forts and other defensive positions on mountain tops in the area. The work will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Pakistani officials hope it will effectively increase security on both sides of the border. Afghanistan opposes the fence project. Afghan officials have long disputed the border created in 1893, when Pakistan was a British colony. Officials do not recognize it as an international border. The Afghan government says a fence would add to the problems of divided families and tribes, mainly ethnic Pashtuns, living along the dividing line. Pakistan dismisses Afghan objections over the border. Pakistani officials say their country took possession of the area when Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947. On Wednesday, the Pakistani army flew reporters to the tribal border areas of South Waziristan and North Waziristan. The two areas share a more than 300-kilometer border with Afghanistan. They are part of the Federal Administered Tribal Areas, known as FATA. Until a few years ago, they were known for sheltering militants blamed for terrorist attacks on both sides of the border. Pakistani commanders now say security operations have neutralized the threat of militancy in almost all of FATA. Pakistan new border defense Crews are building four-meter high chicken wire fences in the border area. On top of the fences, crews are adding barbed wire. Major-General Nauman Zakaria, a local army commander, met with reporters at a newly-built fort. The commander used the term “paradigm change” to describe the new defenses. “There will not be an inch of international border (here), which shall not remain under our observation by December of 2018,” he said. Zakaria noted that Pakistani troops occupy over 150 positions in the area under his command. He said Afghan forces have only 21 posts on their side because of capacity issues and a lack of armed forces members. Drone aircraft and other modern equipment are being deployed so Pakistani officials can make sure the border area is being watched 24 hours a day. Officials expect the new defenses to be ready within the next two years. It will cost Pakistan an estimated cost of $532 million. About 180 of the 750 forts the army plans to build along the border have been either completed or are being built. Military officials say they have already fenced off more than 40 kilometers of territory where militants are likely to cross the border. Stronger border controls have been added at the two main border crossings of Torkham and Chaman to document identities of daily crossers. Area military commanders admit the fencing plan will divide villagers around Chaman. But they say the government plans to offer financial help to some Pakistani families to get them to move. Yet the country remains under international pressure. Both Afghanistan and the United States say Pakistan has been helping the Taliban and its ally, the Haqqani militant group. They say militants are using Pakistani territory to plot attacks against the Afghan government. Afghan officials also say militant leaders are on the Pakistani side of the border and are being protected by the Pakistani spy agency. Pakistan strongly rejects the claims. It says security operations have cleared all areas of militants on its side of the border. In turn, Pakistan says militants have taken refuge in ungoverned Afghan areas and are plotting cross-border raids. Speaking in Angoor Adda, General Zakaria said the fence will answer both sides’ concerns "once forever" and help Pakistan have a stable relationship with the neighbors he described as "Afghan brothers." I'm John Russell. And I'm Susan Shand.   Ayal Guz reported this story for VOANews.com. George Grow adapted his report for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   barbed wire – n. wires with very sharp points paradigm – n. a model for something that may be copied inch – n. a small amount; a form of measurement capacity – n. one’s mental or physical ability complement – n. something that completes or makes perfect drone – n. an unmanned airplane or ship stable – adj. firmly established; not changing We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.  

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Are US Federal Courts Harder on Native American Offenders?

  On a hot day in 2016, Tracey Beaver and three friends drove to the town of Grants, New Mexico to buy alcoholic drinks. On the return trip, Beaver lost control of his truck and hit a wall on the side of the road. Two of his passengers were thrown onto the road and killed. The two were sisters. Their mother was one of the emergency medical workers who went to help those injured in the accident. Police tested Beaver’s blood alcohol level and found it was two times the legal limit. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the deaths.   Beaver is a member of the Ramah Navajo tribe. Many Native Americans live on Indian reservations, which are under the control of a federal agency in the United States, not a state government.  Most crimes on Indian reservations go to   state or tribal court. But because the federal government has control over serious crimes in Indian Country, Beaver’s case went to a federal court.  Beaver had a long history of alcohol abuse and driving violations before the accident. He is now serving a 10-year prison sentence after he admitted guilt in court to the involuntary manslaughter charges. Brian Pori is the New Mexico federal public defender who represented Beaver during his trial. He says that if the case had been in a state court, Beaver would likely have been charged with a fourth-degree felony and given a sentence of only three years in prison. “The facts of the case are just chilling and heartbreaking,” said Pori. “Under the United States' sentencing guidelines, he was facing a sentence of about five years. The judge doubled that sentence because of the facts of the case. And this is something that happens over and over throughout the U.S.” An unfair system Many Native Americans and Alaska Natives say they often are targeted by police.  Targeting is especially easy in South Dakota, said Shane Boudreaux, a Lakota tribe member from the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Boudreaux said that in South Dakota, each county has its own vehicle license plate prefix number. For example, the number “67” is used for vehicles from Todd County, while “65” is for Oglala Lakota County. Both areas lie completely inside reservations, which often have high rates of poverty. In addition, some drivers may not have up-to-date driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations or auto insurance policies. Boudreaux said that most tribal members do not have enough money to pay for a lawyer. If they are arrested and charged, they depend on public defender systems, which are often underfinanced and overworked. There are also differences in the ways juries are chosen in tribal, state and federal courts. So Native Americans charged in federal court are more likely to face a jury of non-Natives, whose decisions could be driven by racial prejudice. Growing numbers in prison Jeffrey Ian Ross is an expert on Native Americans in the criminal justice system. He told VOA that differences in tribal, state, and federal courts do not receive a lot of attention in criminology. “Very few people have studied this sort of thing,” he said. Earlier this year, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reported on the numbers of Native Americans and Alaska Natives in local jails from 1999 to 2014. In the middle of 2014, about 10,400 such men and women were in prison. This was almost two times as many people as those in jail 15 years earlier. The report found that the numbers increased every year at a rate of about 4.3 percent. “The American Indian population in the jail has doubled, but the actual residential population hasn’t grown in the same way,” said Todd Minton, who wrote the report. “What that means is that American Indians are more likely to be incarcerated.” Native American youths are 30 percent more likely than white youths to be sent to juvenile courts than have charges dropped. That information comes from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. It also said they are 10 percent more likely to be held in jail than released while awaiting a trial. The Campaign for Youth Justice notes that Native youths make up only one percent of all young people in the United States. However, 70 percent of young people given to the Federal Bureau of Prisons are Native American. Because of these concerns, the U.S. Sentencing Commission asked a federal group in 2015 to examine claims that Native Americans are more likely to face more severe prison sentences than other people. In its final report of May 2016, the Tribal Issues Advisory Group found there is not enough information to prove or disprove the claims. The group urged the commission to set up a process to collect better data. It also asked the commission to support Congress in motivating states to collect better data specific to Native Americans. This was not the first time the commission examined the problem, said New Mexico lawyer Brian Pori. “They’ve done this for the past 20 years and have found over and over again, ‘Yes, the sentences appear to be more severe, but we don’t know how much because we don’t have good enough comparison data,’” he said.  “Well, to me, that’s no real response at all,” he added. I’m Phil Dierking.   Cecily Hilleary reported this story for VOANews.com. Phil Dierking adapted her report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Are there unfair court systems in your country?  We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   involuntary manslaughter - n. the crime of killing another human being unlawfully but unintentionally. reservation - n. an area of land in the U.S. that is kept separate as a place for Native Americans to live chilling - adj. very disturbing or frightening felony - n. a serious crime license - n. an official document, card, etc., that gives you permission to do, use, or have something prejudice - n. an unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc. incarcerate - v. to put someone in prison juvenile - adj. relating to or meant for young people data - n. facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze, or plan something response - n. something that is said or written as a reply to something

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British Navy Submarine Designs Look Like Real Sea Creatures

  New images released by Britain’s Royal Navy show how future submarines could look and move like real sea creatures. The designs were created by young British engineers and scientists. They were challenged by the Royal Navy to imagine how future underwater war machines might look. The engineers and scientists are members of the group UKNEST. This not-for-profit organization promotes science, engineering and technology for British naval design. The group kept the same requirements used in advanced submarines used today. But the designers added new technological ideas to make them easier and less costly to build, as well as more effective in battle. Current submarines were designed to perform many roles as a single piece of equipment. But the Royal Navy of the future is expected to operate a family of submarines. This would include many shapes and sizes to carry out different operations. Some submarines would be manned and others unmanned. The designs included a “mothership” that would act as a major command and control center supporting other submarines and ships. This submarine, with a crew of about 20 people, would be shaped like a manta ray with wide wings to guide it through the sea. The futuristic mothership would travel to British-controlled waters worldwide, docking with other underwater bases. The future Royal Navy might also use eel-like unmanned underwater vehicles. The designers imagined these submarines as capable of curving around objects like an eel and disguising themselves as sea lifeforms. They could be launched from the mothership and travel hundreds of miles in near silence. Some of the naval equipment would be engineered with materials to dissolve after a period of time to avoid being captured by enemies. One image even shows flying missile weapons shooting out of the water like sharks or dolphins. ​ The submarine design project was called Nautilus 100. It was named after the U.S. Navy’s USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. Britain’s Minister for Defense Procurement, Harriet Baldwin, praised the project. “These remarkable designs display the great promise of our young engineers and scientists and the great ambition of the Royal Navy.” She added that the futuristic concepts are an example of what Britain’s navy could produce to meet future military challenges. Commander Peter Pipkin is a robotics officer with the Royal Navy. He said that with more than 70 percent of the planet covered by water, there will be more competition between nations in the future to live and work at or under the sea. For this reason, he said the Royal Navy is looking 50 years into the future to find new ways to protect British interests around the world. “If only 10 perb cent of these ideas become reality, it will put us at the cutting edge of future warfare and defense operations," Pipkin said. I’m Bryan Lynn.   Bryan Lynn wrote this story based on information from the Royal Navy website. 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   challenge – v. invite a person to compete in a contest or fight dock – v. join together with another ship disguise – v. change the appearance of something so it cannot be recognized dissolve – v. break down or disappear ambition – n. goal or aim to do or be something concept – n. an idea of what something could be  

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'The Exact Science of Matrimony' by O.Henry

  Our story today is called “The Exact Science of Matrimony.”  It was written by O. Henry.  This story was adapted by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. Here is Barbara Klein with the story.   Jeff Peters and Andy Tucker could never be trusted.  One day, the two men decided to open a marriage business to make some quick and easy money.  The first thing they did was to write an advertisement to be published in newspapers.  Their advertisement read like this: “A charming widow, beautiful and home-loving, would like to remarry.  She is only thirty-two years old.  She has three thousand dollars in cash and owns valuable property in the country.  She would like a poor man with a loving heart.  No objection to an older man or to one who is not good-looking.  But he needs to be faithful and true, can take care of property and invest money with good judgment.  Give address, with details about yourself.  Signed: Lonely, care of Peters and Tucker, agents, Cairo, Illinois.” When they finished writing the ad, Jeff Peters said to Andy Tucker: “So far, so good.  And now, where is the lady?” Andy gave Jeff an unhappy look.  “What does a marriage advertisement have to do with a lady?” he asked. “Now listen,” Jeff answered.  “You know my rule, Andy.  In all illegal activities, we must obey the law, in every detail.  Something offered for sale must exist.  It must be seen.  You must be able to produce it.  That is how I have kept out of trouble with the police.  Now, for this business to work, we must be able to produce a charming widow, with or without the beauty, as advertised.” “Well,” said Andy, after thinking it over, “it might be better, if the United States Post Office should decide to investigate our marriage agency.  But where can you hope to find a widow who would waste her time on a marriage proposal that has no marriage in it?” Jeff said that he knew just such a woman. “An old friend of mine, Zeke Trotter,” he said, “used to work in a tent show.  He made his wife a widow by drinking too much of the wrong kind of alcohol.  I used to stop at their house often.  I think we can get her to work with us.” Missus Zeke Trotter lived in a small town not far away.  Jeff Peters went out to see her.  She was not beautiful and not so young.  But she seemed all right to Jeff. “Is this an honest deal you are putting on, Mister Peters?” she asked when he told her what he wanted. “Missus Trotter,” said Jeff, “three thousand men will seek to marry you to get your money and property.  What are they prepared to give in exchange?  Nothing!  Nothing but the bones of a lazy, dishonest, good-for-nothing fortune-seeker.  We will teach them something.  This will be a great moral campaign.  Does that satisfy you?” “It does, Mister Peters,” she said.  “But what will my duties be?  Do I have to personally reject these three thousand good-for-nothings you speak of?  Or can I throw them out in bunches?” Jeff explained that her job would be easy.  She would live in a quiet hotel and have no work to do.  He and Andy would take care of all letters and the business end of the plot.  But he warned her that some of the men might come to see her in person.  Then, she would have to meet them face-to-face and reject them.  She would be paid twenty-five dollars a week and hotel costs. “Give me five minutes to get ready,” Missus Trotter said.  “Then you can start paying me.” So Jeff took her to the city and put her in a hotel far enough from Jeff and Andy’s place to cause no suspicion. Jeff Peters and Andy Tucker were now ready to catch a few fish on the hook.  They placed their advertisement in newspapers across the country.  They put two thousand dollars in a bank in Missus Trotter’s name.  They gave her the bank book to show if anyone questioned the honesty of their marriage agency.  They were sure that Missus Trotter could be trusted and that it was safe to leave the money in her name. Their ad in the newspapers started a flood of letters – more than one hundred a day.  Jeff and Andy worked twelve hours a day answering them.  Most of the men wrote that they had lost their jobs.  The world misunderstood them.  But they were full of love and other good qualities. ​Jeff and Andy answered every letter with high praise for the writer.  They asked the men to send a photograph and more details.  And they told them to include two dollars to cover the cost of giving the second letter to the charming widow. Almost all the men sent in the two dollars requested.  It seemed to be an easy business.  Still, Andy and Jeff often spoke about the trouble of cutting open envelopes and taking the money out. A few of the men came in person.  Jeff and Andy sent them to Missus Trotter and she did the rest.  Soon, Jeff and Andy were receiving about two hundred dollars a day.  One day, a federal postal inspector came by.  But Jeff satisfied him that they were not breaking the law. After about three months, Jeff and Andy had collected more than five thousand dollars, and they decided it was time to stop.  Some people were beginning to question their honesty.  And, Missus Trotter seemed to have grown tired of her job.  Too many men had come to see her and she did not like that. Jeff went to Missus Trotter’s hotel to pay her what she was owed, and to say goodbye.  He also wanted her to repay the two thousand dollars that was put into her bank account. When Jeff walked into the room she was crying, like a child who did not want to go to school. “Now, now,” he said. “What’s it all about?  Somebody hurt you?  Are you getting homesick?” “No, Mister Peters,” she said.  “I’ll tell you.  You were always a good friend of my husband Zeke.  Mister Peters, I am in love.  I just love a man so hard I can’t bear not to get him.  He’s just the kind I’ve always had in mind.” “Then take him,” said Jeff.  “Does he feel the same way about you?” “He does,” Missus Trotter answered.  “But there is a problem.  He is one of the men who have been coming to see me in answer to your advertisement.  And he will not marry me unless I give him the two thousand dollars.  His name is William Wilkinson.” Jeff felt sorry for her.  He said he would be glad to let her give the two thousand dollars to Mister Wilkinson, so that she could be happy.  But he said he had to talk to his partner about it. Jeff returned to his hotel and discussed it with Andy. “I was expecting something like this,” Andy said.  “You can’t trust a woman to stick with you in any plan that involves her emotions.” Jeff said it was a sad thing to think that they were the cause of the breaking of a woman’s heart.  Andy agreed with him. “I’ll tell you what I am willing to do,” said Andy.  “Jeff, you have always been a man of a soft and generous heart.  Perhaps I have been too hard and worldly and suspicious.  For once, I will meet you half-way.  Go to Missus Trotter.  Tell her to take the two thousand dollars out of the bank and give it to this Wilkinson fellow and be happy.” Jeff shook Andy’s hand for a long time.  Then he went back to Missus Trotter.  She cried as hard for joy as she had done for sorrow. Two days later, Jeff and Andy prepared to leave town. “Wouldn’t you like to go meet Missus Trotter once before we leave?” Jeff asked Andy.  “She’d like to express her thanks to you.” “Why, I guess not,” Andy said.  “I think we should hurry and catch the train.” Jeff was putting all the money they had received in a belt he tied around his body.  Then Andy took a large amount of money out of his pocket and asked Jeff to put it together with the other money. “What’s this?” Jeff asked. “It’s Missus Trotter’s two thousand dollars,” said Andy. “How do you come to have it?” Jeff asked. “Missus Trotter gave it to me,” Andy answered. “I have been calling on her three nights a week for more than a month.” “Then you are William Wilkinson?” Jeff asked. “I was,” Andy said. Download activities to help you understand this story here. Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. Have you ever done anything dishonest? What was that experience like? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ QUIZ   _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   publish – v. to have something you wrote included in a book, magazine, or newspaper investigate – v. to try to get information about (someone who may have done something illegal) reject – v. to refuse to love, care for, or give attention to (someone) federal – adj. of or relating to the central government​ inspector – n. a person whose job is to inspect something partner – n. one of two or more people, businesses, etc., that work together or do business together ​

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Owner of New York Eatery Works for Egyptian TV

  Hatem El-Gamasy owns Lotus Deli, a small business in Queens, New York. His store sells sandwiches, coffee, beer, cigarettes and other products. El-Gamasy, an Egyptian-American, is known as “Timmy” to his customers. But to people thousands of kilometers east of New York, he is considered someone knowledgeable about United States foreign policy and the Middle East. He has spoken about those and other subjects on Egyptian television. El-Gamasy worked as an English teacher in Egypt before moving to the U.S. nearly 20 years ago. He attended Teaching English as a Second Language classes at St. John's University in New York. He started working at an eatery to pay for his studies, food and housing. Eventually, he got married and bought his own store. Over the years, El-Gamasy had written opinion pieces. But Egyptian broadcasters generally ignored his commentaries. That changed last year. Many experts thought Hillary Clinton would become the next U.S. president. But El-Gamasy predicted that Donald Trump would win the presidential election. Nile TV, an Egyptian television station, heard about the prediction and spoke with El-Gamasy. After the interview, other broadcasters and news agencies began to contact him. In September, The New York Times newspaper published a story on El-Gamasy. It provided details of his day job to the whole world. Some internet discussion boards described his experience as an example of the "American Dream" – the idea that hard work leads to good things. But news operations and social media forums across the Middle East were critical of El-Gamasy. They questioned his credibility. In the month since The Times' story, Egyptian TV stations that used his commentary the most – CBC eXtra News, ONtvLIVE, and Nile News – stopped calling. "Oh, the political analyst Mr. Gamasy is just a sandwich guy; he's a pancake guy; he's this and this, nothing else," El-Gamasy said. "As if owning a small business is something I should be ashamed of … I have nothing to regret." When he's not working at his store or discussing politics, El-Gamasy spends hours working on his poetry and short stories. He recently published a book in English. El-Gamasy says one of his favorite books is Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. "It [the Alchemist] teaches you, like, If you have a dream, don't give up on it. You need to pursue that dream." El-Gamasy still follows White House and Department of State briefings on foreign policy. "Politics is like a running river," he said. "Nothing stops." Whether more opportunities arise or not, El-Gamasy says he has already found success as a small business owner "in one of the greatest cities" on earth. I’m John Russell.   Ramon Taylor reported on this story for VOANews.com. John Russell adapted his report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   discussion board – n. a public computer system on the Internet that lets people read and leave messages for other users (also called message board) customer – n. someone who purchases a product or service interview – n. a meeting at which people talk to each other in order to get information opportunity – n. a chance sandwich – n. two pieces of bred with something between them

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China Bans Use of Uyghur, Kazakh Books, Materials in Xinjiang Schools

Chinese officials in Xinjiang have banned the use of ethnic minority languages in schools in at least one area of the autonomous region, Radio Free Asia reports. Local education officials sent an order to schools in Yining county in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. The order bans the use of any school books or teaching materials written in the languages of the mostly Muslim Uyghur and Kazakh ethnic groups. It also said that any materials in those languages must be placed in “sealed storage." The document’s letterhead referred to the education department of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region government. The document’s wording may suggest that the ban could spread to a wider area. The document states: "Schools must not flout these rules by continuing to use ethnic minority-language materials. Any found doing so will be reported to a higher level of government." Luo Dan is the official named on the document as the contact person for the Yining county education bureau. Luo confirmed to Radio Free Asia that the order is real and is being carried out. In Luo's words, "The use of all Uyghur and Kazakh-language textbooks and teaching materials in language and literature has ceased." 'All Chinese now' RFA spoke to an ethnic minority citizen of Xinjiang who asked to remain unidentified. He said official government policy commands respect for minority languages. But he said that for several years, the government has increasingly restricted the use of minority languages in the education system. In his words, "Right now, math, physics and chemistry are all taught in Chinese. There are still some Uyghur and Kazakh-language textbooks around, but they are gradually disappearing. "It's all Chinese now," he said. China says Uyghurs have carried out terrorist attacks in recent years. But experts outside China say it is government has inflated the threat from Uyghurs. Those experts say China’s increasingly repressive policy in the northwest has led to the growing violence there. Hundreds have died in the violence since 2009. I'm Caty Weaver.   Qiao Long and Yang Fan produced this report for RFA's Mandarin Service. Luisetta Mudie translated and edited the piece. Caty Weaver adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   autonomous region - n. an area of partial self-rule within a larger country under a central government seal - v. to prevent access to something or someplace letterhead - n. the name and address of an organization (such as a company) that is printed at the top of a piece of paper used for writing official letters​ refer - v. to mention (someone or something) in speech or in writing​ flout - v. to break or ignore (a law, rule, etc.) without hiding what you are doing or showing fear or shame​  

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Young People in Puerto Rico Await a Return to School

  15-year-old Alanys Arroyo and her little brothers have been at a school in western Puerto Rico for weeks, but they are not in class. The Associated Press says they have been living in the school, which is now being used as a shelter. Hurricane Maria flooded their family's home and destroyed most of their belongings. Her family is far from their friends after being moved from another shelter. Arroyo was an honor student in the 10th grade when the hurricane hit on September 20. She has been trying to keep up with her studies by reading about the history of the United States and Puerto Rico but said it is hard to pay attention. "The days are long," she said, "I miss studying." Like Arroyo, most of Puerto Rico's young people are becoming frustrated about missing school. Hurricane Maria caused widespread flooding and has resulted in at least 48 deaths. Less than 20% of the people have electricity, and 35% are still without drinking water. The storm also destroyed the electrical power system for the island affecting all of the schools. Puerto Rico has 1,113 public schools with 345,000 students. About 167 schools have served as community centers where children and older people spend part of each day and receive meals. The education department announced Wednesday that it was raising the number of these schools to 190. An additional 99 schools are being used as shelters for about 5,000 people. People are sleeping in classrooms like the Arroyo family. Officials are now working on a plan to reopen the schools. About 70 schools are too damaged to reopen. Some have been hit by landslides. Many schools now have no regular water service. Few, if any, have power. Teachers were expected to return to their schools Monday to prepare for the reopening of classes. But Puerto Rico's Education Secretary Julia Keleher now agrees that was too soon and only some schools will open. The start date for the whole system has been pushed to October 30 or later. Universities and trade schools also are closed or on limited schedules. This has forced some young people to wait until they reopen or move to the U.S. mainland to continue their studies. Nineteen-year-old Luis Sierra was studying to be a chef. Now, instead, he is at a school that is serving as a shelter in the town of Toa Baja. His school says it will not reopen until August. "I've lost this year," he said. Many students and young people have left for the mainland U.S., although the exact number is not known. Students have had only about six weeks of class since the academic year started August 14 because of damaging storms. Schools, political leaders offer help Law schools including Florida A&M and the University of Connecticut have agreed to accept students from Puerto Rico. Miami-Dade County Public Schools has offered to adapt the learning materials and change bus routes to help the incoming children. Florida Governor Rick Scott has said displaced teachers will not have to pay for documents to work in his state. He ordered that license fees for certain professionals, such as real estate agents and barbers, be suspended for people fleeing the storm. Puerto Rico’s education secretary Keleher would like to get children back to class as soon as possible. But there are competing needs, she said. Kids need their education and parents need them in school so they can go back to work. But schools need repair and cleaning and about 10 percent are still being used as shelters. "You ask yourself: Is it my rush to get that family out? Because if that family is the family of the child that I am educating, who am I serving here by getting them out faster?" Keleher said in interview with The Associated Press. "We have the goal but it's not the goal at the cost of human beings who are impacted along the way." One district has already pushed the end of the school year from May 31 to July 15 and may have to extend it further and make the school day longer. When they do go back to school, many kids will be dealing with the emotions of losing everything to the floods. Some teachers and staff are dealing with the same issues, said Damarys Collazo. She is the principal of the Eleanor Roosevelt School in the Hato Rey area of San Juan. She says she will try to act like life is normal but realizes that may not be possible for everyone. The reality, she says, is that we are facing a crisis like they have never experienced. I'm Alice Bryant. And I'm Jonathan Evans.   This story uses content from two reports by the Associated Press. Alice Bryant adapted the material for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   honor student – n. a student whose work has earned grades above a specific average during a semester or school year frustrated – adj. very angry, discouraged, or upset because of being unable to do or complete something landslide – n. a large mass of rocks and earth that suddenly and quickly moves down the side of a mountain or hill schedule – n. a plan of things that will be done and the times when they will be done license – n. an official document, card, etc., that gives you permission to do, use, or have something real estate – n. the business of selling land and buildings barber – n. a person whose job is to cut men's hair impact – v. to have a strong and often bad effect on something or someone district – n. an area established by a government for official government business

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What It Takes: William McRaven

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.   00:00:51    ALICE WINKLER: This is What It Takes, a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement. I’m Alice Winkler. On May 1 of 2011 — it was just a little before midnight — President Obama stood at the White House and made a statement that the American people had been waiting for, for nearly ten years.   00:01:14    PRESIDENT OBAMA: Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda.   00:01:25    ALICE WINKLER: The president then retold the story of the September 11 attacks — the immeasurable loss and heartbreak they caused. And he acknowledged the talent and bravery of those who had conducted the operation on Osama bin Laden's compound.   00:01:41    PRESIDENT OBAMA: We give thanks for the men who carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism, patriotism, and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country, and they are part of a generation that has borne the heaviest share of the burden since that September day.   00:01:57    ALICE WINKLER: The unit that carried out the raid and killing of Bin Laden, Navy SEAL Team Six, was under the command of Admiral William McRaven, head of Joint Special Operations and himself a Navy SEAL. Admiral McRaven has since retired from the military and is now the chancellor of University of Texas. Just after he made that transition in 2014, he came to the Academy of Achievement to talk to students, and to record an interview about the path his life had taken.   00:02:30    On this episode, you’ll hear excerpts from that conversation, interspersed with excerpts from a speech he made, an inspiring call to make a difference in the lives of others.   00:02:51     WILLIAM MCRAVEN: I would say, I was asked to talk a little bit about how you go about changing the world. On your road to success and on your road to greatness, there are going to be some things you control and some things you don’t control. You know, you don’t control those kind of sweeping hands of destiny that somehow will change your trajectory one way or the other, but you do control the little things in life that may, in fact, have a greater impact on your legacy than you expect.   00:03:24     ALICE WINKLER: Admiral McRaven was shaped early on in his life by men who were swept up by other hands of destiny. His father, a World War II spitfire pilot — and a professional football player, by the way — and his father’s circle of close friends, all veterans of World War II.   00:03:42    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: And so we had family friends like Tex Hill, and Tex Hill was a very famous pilot, fighter pilot during World War II. He had 28 confirmed kills, both as a Navy fighter pilot, and then he also was part of the legendary Flying Tigers, and we had friends that — from all walks of life within the military that all retired kind of in the same area, so I was raised on — you know, from this greatest generation. They had a tremendous impact on me.   00:04:10    ALICE WINKLER: His father also gave him a love of history and of math. His beloved mother, Anna, taught him to love poetry and writing.   00:04:18    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: My mom was born and raised in Texas, and she was independently minded, but she was also — I want to say kind of a woman of the '50s in terms of her style. She was a very gracious, good Christian woman, but also she had the classic kind of starched hair, and she smoked, and she had her cocktails at five o’clock, but she was just a fabulous mother.   00:04:45    And I was raised more on poetry than I was on books, so my mother gave me the classic 101 Famous Poems, and I can remember almost on a — at least on a weekly basis we would, you know, go through and read one of the poems, and her favorite poem was Rudyard Kipling's If, you know, "If you can keep your head about you when others are losing theirs and blaming it on you."     00:05:06     My father also liked Teddy Roosevelt, so I read a lot of books on Roosevelt, as well, and so it was this kind of confluence of poetry and more biographies that I was raised on.   00:05:20     ALICE WINKLER: Rudyard Kipling, Teddy Roosevelt, and, as his sister once spilled during an interview, a lot of James Bond.   00:05:28     WILLIAM MCRAVEN: Recognizing that I kind of grew up in the '60s — born in 1955, but really, formative years were in the '60s — and, of course, James Bond came into vogue in the early '60s, and so I saw every James Bond movie. So — I wish she hadn’t made that comment, but now it is out there in the public forum, and the answer is yes, I was absolutely a huge James Bond fan, and John Wayne. I watched every John Wayne film and every James Bond film.   00:05:54    ALICE WINKLER: And if you know your Bond, you might guess that Thunderball, with all its underwater chase and fight scenes, was a particular favorite, and you'd be right.   00:06:04    M: Group Captain Pritchard here will be your Air Force Liaison.   00:06:07    JAMES BOND: Sir, I respectfully suggest that you change my assignment to Nassau.   00:06:10    M: Is there any other reason besides your enthusiasm for water sports?   00:06:15    JAMES BOND: Perhaps this, sir.   00:06:17    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: I loved Thunderball because I actually wanted to be a marine biologist initially, but I think Thunderball got me a little bit off track because I liked the action scenes in Thunderball. I started scuba diving when I was 13 years old, so Thunderball, to me, was very exciting because of all the underwater scenes. I think that kind of helped propel me in a different direction than being a marine biologist.   00:06:39     ALICE WINKLER: A path that included hundreds of real-life, death-defying missions by sea, by air, and by land. As a commander, he planned not only the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan but other high-profile operations, like the rescue of Captain Phillips, taken hostage by a band of Somali pirates. So when you think about it, in some strange twist of fate, the movie that helped inspire Bill McRaven to eventually become a Navy SEAL resulted in a famous rescue operation at sea with parachutes, a warship, and sharpshooters that, in turn, inspired a Hollywood movie, starring Tom Hanks as Captain Phillips.     00:07:24     William McRaven’s life might have ended up much less dramatic if he’d followed his earlier career aspirations in journalism.   00:07:34     WILLIAM MCRAVEN: Well, I started off in pre-med. Did not do so well in pre-med, and then I went to accounting. Did even worse in accounting. I went to journalism because I knew there were good-looking women in journalism, and so that was something I figured would be a good pursuit, and as it turned out, I could write. So writing came fairly naturally to me, and while I struggled in pre-med and I struggled in accounting, I got into journalism, and we were writing, you know, ten-page papers three or four times a week, and I loved it.   00:08:02     I enjoyed writing. It was, again, a skill that came relatively easy to me. So the courses were easier than the ones I'd been in, and I had a phenomenal time over the next two years, my last two years at the University of Texas. I had — I was actually in news reporting, so I learned how to do what I think is the best writing, in terms of, it had to be clear, it had to be concise, you had to check your facts. And all those things served me well when I later joined the military.   00:08:29    People always ask me, "Was it of any value to you?" And I said, "Absolutely!" Being able to convey your ideas, certainly in the military, whether it's in a speech or a briefing or just a discussion, is critically important. I think it's critically important for any walk of life, but particularly in the military because you have to be able to, you know, instill a little bit of leadership in the troops, and you do that by conveying your ideas clearly and concisely so they understand what we call “commander's intent.”   00:08:54     ALICE WINKLER: So journalism played a role. James Bond played a role. The fine men who fought in World War II played a role, but Admiral McRaven gives much credit for his career to a young Green Beret whose name he doesn’t even remember.   00:09:12     WILLIAM MCRAVEN: And I don't know his name, but he was dating my sister at the time, and this was probably 19 — I want to say either the early '70s or the late '60s — '69 or maybe '70. And he came to the house, and what was interesting back then — because the Vietnam War was going on — most Army officers didn’t wear what we call their “Class A” — so, their standard uniform. But my sister was getting ready, the doorbell rang, and I think I was 16 or 17 years old, I guess, at the time, and he came to the door, and he was wearing his Class A's with his green beret. And, of course, I had seen the John Wayne movie The Green Beret, and I was enamored with the Green Berets.   00:09:44    So he came in, and we began talking, but at the time, my mother was trying to get me a Navy ROTC scholarship, and so, in talking with this Green Beret, who had done a number of tours in Vietnam, he said, "Well, if you want to be the best there is in the Navy, you need to go be a Navy SEAL."  Well, back in 1970, you know, I'd never heard of Navy SEALs. Frankly, most of the public had never heard of Navy SEALs, but when I had a Green Beret telling me to go be a Navy SEAL, I figured that was pretty good advice.   00:10:07     ALICE WINKLER: Admiral Bill McRaven's keen these days to talk about the difference one person can make, and the difference the little things can make. He stressed it in his now-famous commencement address to the University of Texas in 2014, a viral phenomenon, with 3,500,000 hits on YouTube. In his speech to the student delegation at the Academy of Achievement Summit, and in this interview, he used the example of George Bailey to make much the same point. George Bailey, if you recall, is the tenderhearted character in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, played by Jimmy Stewart.   00:10:44     In the movie, Admiral McRaven reminds us, George Bailey is considering ending his life. To show George what the world would have been like without him, without his small acts of kindness, the angel Clarence leads him to the cemetery and shows him the tombstone of his younger brother, Harry.     00:11:04    CLARENCE: Your brother, Harry Bailey, broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine.   00:11:09    GEORGE BAILEY:    That's a lie! Harry Bailey went to war! He got the Congressional Medal of Honor! He saved the lives of every man on that transport!   00:11:14    CLARENCE: Every man on that transport died. Harry wasn't there to save them because you weren't there to save Harry.   00:11:22    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: And the angel says something that, again, I think was very important for the movie. He says, "But you don't understand, George. You weren't there to save your younger brother from falling through the ice, and because of that, your younger brother wasn't there to save the 500 men on the ship." So, not only in the course of this movie — the point being, you did one brotherly act that saved your brother. Your brother went on to save 500 people. What started in Bedford Falls kind of changed the lives of those 500 people.   00:11:52    I remember, when I was in high school, I was trying to break the high school mile record. It was 4 minutes, 32.7 seconds — I remember it distinctly. And I was having a lot of trouble. And I had come close a number of times but just couldn’t quite get past it, and I was coming up on my last event, my last track meet. And I got a call one night on a Thursday night; the track meet was on a Friday. And I got a call from Coach Jerry Turnbow, and Coach Turnbow had been the head coach at Roosevelt High School the year before.   00:12:21    He'd left to go on to another high school. I didn’t even think Coach Turnbow knew who I was. And he called me at home, and I was stunned. I mean, this guy was a guy, to me, that lived on Mount Olympus, and he calls, and he says, "Bill, look, I understand you're trying to break the mile record." He said, "Look, just give it everything you got. Run as hard as you can, and if you've done that, you'll — you're going to be successful." Well, the next day I went out and I did, in fact, break the high school mile record, and nobody cared.   00:12:52    Nobody but me, and I will tell you, that phone call fundamentally changed my life, because I realized that if I could work hard and break the high school mile record, what else could I go on to do? Could I, in fact, be a Navy SEAL? And so I look back on my life, and I think about that one phone call and how it fundamentally changed everything about my life.   00:13:15    Twenty years later, I was now a Navy commander. I was home on leave, and my father, who always seemed to engage people in the strangest locations, had been at the barbershop, and he bumped into a fellow there, and the fellow's son wanted to be a Navy SEAL. So my dad came home and he said, "Hey, I met this guy at the barbershop, and his son wants to be a SEAL. Can you give him a call and talk to him?" I said, "Sure, happy to do that."   00:13:40    So I called and talked to the young man. He was a junior in high school, and I talked to him for about 45 minutes, talked to him about the pros and cons of being a SEAL. And then I never heard from the guy again, until 18 years later, and we were in Afghanistan, and we were doing a hostage rescue mission. Sixty-two-year-old American had been taken by the Taliban, and he was held in a pretty strong point high up on a mountain in the Hindu Kush.   00:14:02    And the Navy SEALs went in, climbed up about 9,000 feet, got into a pretty good firefight with the Taliban, and managed to save the 62-year-old American and return him to his wife. Well, the next day the Navy commander who was in charge of the mission brought in the senior chief, who was actually on the ground and ran it. And they came into my office, and both of them had kind of a funny look on their face. And the senior chief turned to me and said, "Sir, you probably don't remember me, but 18 years ago you called me at home, and you told me what it was like to be a Navy SEAL, and I've been in the teams now for the last 15 years."   00:14:42    Well, I went back and looked at his record. He had, in fact, won the Silver Star and a number of Bronze Stars of Valor. He had gone on to save a lot of people's lives, dozens, maybe hundreds of lives through his acts. One phone call.   00:15:02    ALICE WINKLER: The small things matter so much, Admiral McRaven said. It’s the first thing you learn when you enter the military.   00:15:09    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: Every morning, you have a uniform inspection. And in the military uniform that we wore, you had a brass buckle, and you had to polish that brass buckle to the point where there were no smudges, that there was, you know, no corrosion, that the brass buckle was perfect. And you would spend hours every night polishing that brass buckle, and then immediately after the inspection they’d have you go jump in the surf zone, and now your buckle would be corroded.   00:15:36    But the point they were trying to teach you, much like the bed, is the little details matter, because the brass buckle and the bed later equated to your weapons system. So when we would go out on operations, your weapon — in the case when I first started, we carried an M16 — and you'd go out and you'd be on an operation all night long. You'd come back at about four or five o’clock in the morning, and you're really tired. You're cold, wet, and you're tired, and all you want to do is take a shower and get in bed.   00:16:02    But what's important is, you have to stop and clean your weapon first, and you just can’t do a cursory cleaning of it, particularly not if it's been in the salt water. You've got to do a very thorough cleaning, and if you don't do that, and then the next morning you go out on another operation, now your weapon is corroded.   00:16:16    ALICE WINKLER: And it won’t work when you get into combat, and you find yourself in a life-threatening situation. If all military training is grueling, training for special ops is that on steroids. There’s a kind of popular view out there that those special ops guys are kind of rogues, full of bravado, but while they are cocky and adventurous, says McRaven, what makes them special is their excruciating devotion to detail, to planning, and to rehearsal, so that even the hardest things become simple when they’re in combat.   00:16:52    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: The purpose of the training is to weed out those both weak-minded and weak physically before you really even begin the hard SEAL training, so there's a lot of demand placed on you physically, but there's also a lot of demand mentally. They put you in situations where you are either not going to succeed, or you're not going to succeed as well as you thought you were going to succeed.   00:17:16    So they will — for example, they used to play a little bit of mind games. They'd say, "Okay, we're going to have a four-minute — or a four-mile run on the beach." And as you were closing in on that last couple hundred meters, they'd go, "Oh, no. This isn't the finish line. The finish line is another couple hundred yards down the beach." And there were a lot of guys that went, "Come on. I was just coming to the finish line." No, the finish line is further on, and so you learned that, you know, maybe there is no finish line, and you learned how to deal with failure, and you learned kind of what is really inside you, because you were tested physically every day.   00:17:49    You were cold, you were wet, you were miserable, and you still had to perform at a certain level. And frankly, once I got through with basic shield training — we call it BUD/S, Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training — I walked away with a belief that there wasn't anything else I was going to encounter in life that was going to be any harder than the last six months. And I will tell you, for the most part, that's been true.   00:18:12     I've never been colder, and I've never been more miserable. I've never been more tired. So that's really where the training, I think, helped. But it's true of a lot of military training, whether you're an Army Ranger — Ranger training is very similar; Special Forces, Green Beret training is very similar; Air Force Special Tactics training is very similar. So any time you are tested, I think you learn a lot about yourself, and I think I was all of 22 years old, so I learned it early.   00:18:35     ALICE WINKLER: At the time Bill McRraven joined in 1977, there were very few Navy SEALs, only about 500 enlisted men and 200 officers. So they were pretty much unknown to the public, and of course, their missions were secretive. Even McRaven’s parents didn’t quite get what he was up to.   00:18:54    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: I know my mother didn’t understand what I was doing, because in the Air Force back then, the special services officers were those that took care of the golf course and the gymnasiums and the — and did those sorts of things on an Air Force base. And I remember about eight years after I had become a Navy SEAL, I was home, and my mother was having a small party, and I overheard a conversation with her and one of her friends, and one of the friends said, "Well, so what's Bill doing now?"   00:19:23    And my mother took kind of a deep breath, and she said, "Well, he's in special services," and I could tell the tone in her voice was — there was a little bit of disappointment. And so, after the party was over, I said, "Mom, what do you think I do?" And she goes, "Well, you told me you were in special services." I said, "No, Mom. I’m in special operations." She said, "Well, what’s the difference?" "Well, I’m jumping out of airplanes, and I'm diving underwater, and I’m blowing things up, and I'm — " And I think she would have appreciated it if I’d had stayed in special services rather than special operations.   00:19:55    ALICE WINKLER: Bill McRaven’s mom didn’t live long enough to see her son achieve the high-ranking status he did, and she didn’t see him vanquish America’s enemy number one on May 1, 2011. McRaven himself almost didn’t make it that long. When the sweeping hands of destiny came knocking on September 11, 2001, McRaven was at home, recuperating from a traumatic injury he suffered during a parachute training operation.   00:20:23    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: Yeah, we were doing a free-fall operation out in Southern California, outside San Diego, and as I was descending, I noticed that there was a jumper below me on my right side and two jumpers below me on my left side. And the jumper below has got, in terms of free fall — they always have the right-of-way. So he was probably about 500, 600 feet below me, and he opened his parachute. So in relative terms, he was coming up while I was going down.   00:20:50    So as he opened his parachute, I kind of hit his parachute. It stunned me. I rolled off him. I rolled off his parachute and was a little stunned, but I — so I pulled my ripcord, knowing that I was getting to the altitude where you need to pull it. And the pilot chute, which comes out of the back of the parachute, wrapped around one leg; and then the risers, the webbing that is part of the parachute, wrapped around the other leg; and I was falling kind of head-down towards the ground.   00:21:18    The good news was that it opened. The bad news was, when it opened it essentially broke me in two, so it broke my pelvis. It broke my back. You know, ripped a lot of muscles out, and — but the good news was, I did get to the ground, and they came and picked me up in an ambulance and took me to the hospital and plated me and pinned me and got me back together again. You know, when I look at the injuries that the young kids are sustaining today, mine was like a scratch.   00:21:47    ALICE WINKLER: While he was recovering, they moved his hospital bed into his house on base quarters in San Diego.    00:21:54    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: So I was literally lying in a hospital bed in my living room when 9/11 happened. And I was watching it on TV, just as everybody else was, and watching, you know, the people of New York have to deal — and then later the Pentagon, but I was watching the towers fall on TV and just kind of going through in my mind, what were the people of New York thinking? How were they going to be able to deal with this? And to watch the people of New York and the nation kind of come together and be very clear that this act of terrorism was not going to interrupt our way of life in a grander scheme, and that we were going to recover from this, was, I thought, one of the most awe-inspiring moments of my life.   00:22:38    And I knew right then and there that the world was about to change. It was pretty obvious. And part of my concern, as a Navy SEAL and military officer, was, you know, I'm not going to be in a position to help the nation because I'm pretty banged up. But I was very fortunate. I healed. Took me a long time to heal, but I healed enough to be able to get to the White House, and then General Wayne Downing had been selected by the President of the United States to run the office of combating terrorism, and General Downing gave me a call and said, "Hey, how'd you like to come work for me?"   00:23:10    He knew I'd been in a parachute accident. It was going to be a staff job at — on the National Security Council staff — so I jumped at the chance and spent two years there and had an opportunity while I was there to kind of heal. And then, after that, I went back to an operational unit and kept moving.   00:23:24    ALICE WINKLER: Now to back up here for a moment and fill in an important piece of information, William McRaven was in demand not just because he was an outstanding SEAL or an outstanding officer during Desert Storm and Desert Shield. He had quite literally written the book on special ops during his time at Naval Postgraduate School, and he helped create the school's special ops curriculum. His master's thesis, The Theory of Special Operations, looked at why special operations often work against all odds.   00:23:57    It was published under a different title as a book in 1996 and is considered a special ops bible around the world.   00:24:06    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: The reason people call special operations forces in is because they looked at it initially as a conventional problem, and they said, "Well, you know what? An infantry battalion can't go do this, or an air strike can't go do this." So they have eliminated a conventional approach, and now they've come to us. So then it really becomes, "Okay, what is the creative solution to this problem? And how can I apply what skillset we have differently than the infantry battalion or the airstrike?"   00:24:31    So you absolutely have to be creative, but I think you have to be creative within a framework. If you try to be too creative, the laws of war, the frictions of war will bring you down just like they will an infantry battalion. The Germans, for example, used gliders to get into Eben-Emael, because the Germans came against the Belgians as part of the initial movement into Belgium and into France.   00:24:56    They used gliders because they were quiet, and they knew that the Belgians wouldn't hear them coming. They could put a lot of men in gliders and get on the target quickly. But the Italians used little mini-submarines to go against the British shipping in Alexandria. So the thought that special operations are, again, cavalier isn't true. Do we have a creative aspect of us? Absolutely. You have to be creative. You have to look at what tools are out there. Mini-submarines, gliders, parachutes, whatever it is to get you to the objective, and then you have to be very good on-target with the talented people you bring.   00:25:33     ALICE WINKLER: The guiding principles in McRaven’s book, based on case studies he did of successful special operations from around the world, are: security, simplicity, repetition, speed, surprise, and purpose. Most of the creativity exercised in special operations comes under the category of surprise.   00:25:56    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: The rest of the stuff is — I don't want to say pro forma, but the issue is you have to be able to get on target, and you have to be able to do that before the enemy knows you're there. And so, when I talk about, in the thesis, this point of vulnerability — when you look at an operation, you want to bring that point of vulnerability, the point where the enemy knows where you are and the enemy can stop you from getting to the target — you want to bring that as close to mission success as you can, as close to the target as you can.   00:26:26    So you want to close that gap. You close that gap by surprise. You gain surprise through things like, again, gliders or mini-subs or ships that look like different ships, as the British did during the raid on Saint-Nazaire. So this is the creative piece. How do I get to my objective before the enemy knows I’m there, in a manner that we know will be effective but generates that surprise that now, once I'm on target, your force is probably going to be better than the enemy's force?   00:26:53    But you have to get there because if the enemy spots you two minutes away or three minutes away, their ability to engage you and you not being able to get to target changes the whole dynamics of the mission.   00:27:02     ALICE WINKLER: Admiral McRaven naturally can’t say much more about the operation to get Bin Laden than has already been made public, but he said during this interview that he did look to his own book for planning the raid.     00:27:16    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: Our part of the mission was really pretty straightforward. I mean, it is — it's kind of viewed as the sexy piece. You know, we flew from Afghanistan into Pakistan and got Bin Laden and came back, and there's an attractiveness to that aspect of it, but that was a pretty straightforward mission for us. In fact, I would tell you it was a — I mean, it had a political aspect of it and an angst aspect of it that was higher than the rest of the missions we do, but from the standpoint of a pure military operation, it was pretty straightforward.   00:27:45    What I've said before is, the credit really belongs to the CIA, who, in fact, located Bin Laden, and the president and his national security team, who made the decision — the president, who made the decision to go after Bin Laden, when we — when our intelligence really, at best, had us at about 50/50. So the president made a decision to — you know, to risk American lives, and frankly, to risk his political fortune, I think, to do the right thing for America, and I'm always very appreciative that he did that.   00:28:14     And I think those were the real stars of this mission. I mean, I’m very proud of what my guys did, but that's the sort of thing we do pretty much every day.   00:28:23     ALICE WINKLER: Not to diminish the bravery it took from the men with boots on the ground and in the helicopters, but as McRaven reminded the audience in his speech at the Academy of Achievement Summit in 2014, there are other kinds of bravery, as well, that are crucial to recognize.   00:28:43    WILLIAM MCRAVEN: Sometimes it’s just simple acts of courage. My command sergeant major is a fellow named Chris Faris. Now command sergeant major is the senior enlisted that is with the commander of an organization. Chris Faris served with the Delta Force during the famous Black Hawk Down incident in Mogadishu. He fought in Bosnia; he fought in Kosovo; he fought in Iraq; he fought in Afghanistan. An incredible warrior.   00:29:10    But he was a fairly personal fellow and kept a lot of things inside. And one day we went to have an all-hands meeting with our soldiers and their spouses, and one of the spouses got up and said, "Look, I'm having a lot of difficulty with my husband. He's come back from Iraq. He's a changed person. He's not relating to me. He's not relating to the kids. I just don't know what to do." And frankly, I didn’t have an answer.   00:29:34     And then Chris all of a sudden stood up, and he said, "Well, let me tell you. I've been having problems with my family for the last 20 years," and he began to give this story, this kind of raw, emotional story about his relationship with his wife and the difficulty he had with the kids, and before long, another wife stood up and said, "I've got these problems as well." Chris went on — Chris and Lisa, his wife, went on to tell this story dozens of times over the next three years. And in the course of doing that, they saved hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives as families came forward and talked about their problems and dealt with their problems, as men and women that were going to commit suicide decided not to do that because they knew there was somebody there that cared about them that had gone through the same thing.   00:30:20    With all the courage that he'd shown on the battlefield, that small act of courage changed everything.   00:30:32     It is a very difficult thing, and I've been married for 36 years, and I think my wife would echo this, you know — and we haven’t had to deal with it nearly as much as these young kids have, but, so you think about these young soldiers that came in right after 9/11 in the special operations community, and they have been fighting continuously since 9/11. So every time they would go on deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan, their wife or their husband had to say, "What if they don't come home? What’s going to happen?" And that stress and that strain were incredible.   00:31:01    ALICE WINKLER: With all the stunning acts of heroism that you can read in William McRaven's bio, one of the things he says he feels proudest of is the work he did to improve the physical, mental, and emotional care of soldiers and their families during his tenure as a four-star admiral. That tenure ended in 2014 when he retired and was recruited by his alma mater to be the chancellor of the University of Texas.   00:31:31     It's a job, he says, that requires leadership and management, two areas he has a lot of experience in, and it's a job that offers him a second chance to make change in the world. "It's the American Dream come true," says Chancellor McRaven.   00:31:49     WILLIAM MCRAVEN: I’m living the American Dream; I mean, I really believe that. I was raised in a great household with two wonderful parents and two great sisters. I think what I find interesting about the American Dream, as well as — to kind of quote Bubba Watson: “My dreams didn’t go this far.” I never dreamed of being a four-star admiral in charge of U.S. Special Operations Command because we didn’t have it. And, to me, the American Dream was the opportunity for me to be able to be in the right place at the right time, and then do the right thing.   00:32:20     Not once, not twice, but a lot of times it kind of moved me along this path to be where I am today. But there was nothing that stopped me, and for me, the American Dream as I look at it today — and this is one of the exciting things about being the chancellor, is I look at the changing demographics and the changing kind of social fabric we have, and I think, the human capital that we have — in the Hispanics, in the Asians, in the African Americans, in the women that are out there — give them an opportunity to get an education, and it will change everything.     00:32:53     So — and I've seen this firsthand in Iraq and Afghanistan, in particular, where the female population that we spent a lot of time in Afghanistan trying to get them into schools, and were very successful at doing that, I guarantee you that will change everything about Southwest Asia. As the women begin to grow up and they have this great education, and you see the incredible character of women like Malala from Pakistan, it's all about education.   00:33:18    I honestly believe that. It is — if we can educate our young kids coming out of high school, we will buy down fear. We will buy down bigotry. We will buy down, you know, all the bad things if we just do a good job of educating.   00:33:35     And finally, while I like to think I've had a fairly successful career and life, and my father before me was fairly successful — he was a professional football player with the then-Cleveland Rams back in the late '30s, went on to be a World War II fighter pilot — I will tell you the most accomplished McRaven was my grandfather.   00:33:54     He was a country doctor in a place called New Madrid County in Missouri, and he got his medical degree young. This was in the early 1900s. And he got his medical degree and then promptly went off to serve in World War I in France, spent three years in World War I, came back in 1918, and for the next 20 years he served the people of New Madrid County. And then World War II broke out, and he went off and served in World War II, and then came back and finished out his life serving in New Madrid County.   00:34:22    Now the people of New Madrid County are pretty poor, and they would come to Dr. Mac, and they didn't have a lot of money, and he wouldn't accept anything, and sometimes they'd bring him chickens or eggs or a little piece of ham, and — but he really didn't take anything from the people of New Madrid County. And when he died, he didn’t have much to his name, but 1,200 people came to his funeral.   00:34:49     The children that he had brought into the world, the mothers and fathers that he had saved from the Great Depression, and from the flu and from the fever, and his continuous acts of compassion, saved thousands of lives. So my point is, on your way to greatness, there are going to be things that you control and things that you don't control. The little things that you can control — those small acts of encouragement, of courage, of compassion — those small acts will invariably be your legacy and probably have a bigger effect on the world.   00:35:31     ALICE WINKLER: That’s William McRaven, retired four-star admiral, now chancellor of the University of Texas, speaking to students at the Academy of Achievement Summit. The speech and his interview with the Academy were recorded in 2014. You can hear about hundreds of paths to greatness at achievement.org, and if you haven’t yet subscribed to this podcast, well, what are you waiting for? On the next episode, The Force awakens, which is to say, just in time for the release of Star Wars 7, What It Takes brings you George Lucas, who reveals his interpretation of The Force.   00:36:12     You’re going to want to tweet that one out or tell someone at a dinner party. I’m quite sure of it. I’m Alice Winkler, and this is What It Takes.   00:36:30     What It Takes would not be possible without generous funding from The Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation.   END OF FILE

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