Passage 41
Aiming for a Deal on Climate Change
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. In Copenhagen, Denmark, the United Nations Climate Change Conference opened this week. Around fifteen thousand delegates and (1) observers from nearly two hundred countries are there. Some call it "the last best chance" for an agreement to fight climate change.
Yvo de Boer is the top climate official at the United Nations.
YVO DE BOER: "The time for formal statements is over. The time for (2) restating well known positions is past. The time has come to reach out to each other. I urge you to build on your achievements, take up the work that has already been done and turn it into real action."
But there are questions about how much can be done, and how an agreement would be put into (3) action.
The twelve-day conference ends next Friday. Late next week, leaders from more than one hundred countries are expected at the talks, including President Obama.
Delegates hope to set new targets to reduce (4) greenhouse gases -- the pollution blamed for trapping extra heat in the atmosphere. An existing agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, ends in two thousand twelve. Many countries have offered new (5) proposals for cuts, including the United States and China.
China is now the leading producer of greenhouse gases. But the United States and other industrialized nations were the top (6) polluters for years. So they are under extra pressure to reduce emissions from cars, factories and other sources.
In Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday (7) declared carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases a threat to public health. That clears the way for the administration to set limits, unless Congress acts first.
But developing countries are also being urged to do more. And they, in turn, want help. (8) They criticized a proposal for industrialized nations to pay developing countries ten billion dollars a year over three years. The World Bank says dealing with climate change will require hundreds of billions a year in public and private financing.
In New York, the United Nations secretary-general reacted to a dispute over e-mails stolen from the University of East Anglia in England. Critics say the messages show (9) climate change scientists discussing ways to discredit other theories about global warming. But Ban Ki-Moon said Tuesday that the evidence is "quite clear" that humans are the main cause of temperatures rising faster than expected.
Modern climate records date back to eighteen fifty. The United Nations weather agency says two thousand to two thousand nine was the warmest decade on record. And it said this week that final results will likely show two thousand nine was the fifth-warmest year on record.
(10) Current estimates show record warmth this year in large parts of southern Asia and central Africa. The agency reported that the only parts of the world with cooler than average conditions this year were the United States and Canada.
Passage 42
Bringing Light to Homes in Poor Countries
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
More than one and a half (1) billion people around the world live without electricity. Finding better ways to bring light to the poor is the goal of researchers like David Irvine-Halliday.
In the late nineteen nineties, the Canadian professor was working in Nepal when his return flight was (2) canceled. A delay gave him time to take a fourteen-day hiking trip in the Himalayas.
As he tells it, one day he looked in the window of a school and noticed how dark it was. This is a common problem for millions of children around the world -- and not just at school, but also at home.
Many families use kerosene oil lamps. There are many problems with these lamps. They produce only a small (3) amount of light. They are dangerous to breathe. And they are a big fire danger, causing many injuries and deaths each year.
Kerosene costs less than other forms of lighting, but it is still (4) costly in poor countries. Professor Irvine-Halliday says many people spend well over one hundred dollars a year on the fuel.
When he returned to Canada, he began researching ways to provide safe, clean and (5) affordable lighting. He began experimenting with light-emitting diodes, LEDs, at his laboratory at the University of Calgary in Alberta. As a professor of (6) renewable energy, he already knew about the technology.
Light-emitting diodes are small glass lamps that use much less electricity than traditional bulbs and last much longer.
Professor Irvine-Halliday used a one-watt bright white L.E.D. made in Japan. He found it on the Internet and connected it to a bicycle-powered (7) generator. He remembers thinking it was so bright, a child could read by the light of a single diode.
In two thousand, after much research and many experiments, he returned to Nepal to put the systems into homes. His Light Up the World Foundation has now (8)equipped the homes of twenty-five thousand people in fifty-one countries.
DAVID IRVINE-HALLIDAY: "The one-time cost of our system -- which consists of a small solar panel, a little motorcycle-sized battery and a couple of LED lamps, (9) which basically live forever, as well as the solar panel -- is less than one hundred dollars. So, one year of kerosene would pay for a solid-state lighting system."
(10) Now his aim is to develop a lower-cost lighting system. In January, David Irvine-Halliday is leaving the University of Calgary. He has also decided to give up leadership in the Light Up the World Foundation to start a company in India.
Passage 43
Studying in the US: Foreign Graduates and Jobs
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
We answered a question last week about how American college students find jobs after they graduate. Now, we discuss foreign graduates. The (1) process for employing foreign workers in the United States is long. It involves different government (2)agencies. It also inv
olves a hot political issue.
For example, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that President Obama signed into law in February dealt with this issue. It included conditions against foreign workers displacing (3)qualified Americans at companies that receive federal stimulus money.
Job cuts have slowed in some industries. But the economic downturn has cost millions of jobs and (4)recovery will take some time.
Foreign graduates need a job offer to get an H-1B visa. This is a non-immigrant visa for work in the person's area of specialty. The employer is the one who applies for it. The visa is good for three years and may be (5)extended for another three years.
Cheryl Gilman directs visa services at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She noted that H-1B visas were still (6)available for next year. This tells her that the recession is preventing employers from (7)sponsoring as many foreign nationals as they have in the past.
Sixty-five thousand H-1Bs are awarded each year to graduates with a bachelor's degree. Bill Wright at the Department of Homeland Security says fewer than forty-five thousand (8) applications for these visas had been received as of this week.
There was more demand for twenty thousand other H-1Bs for those with advanced degrees. In addition, (9)thousands of the visas are awarded to other groups, such as university researchers.
Amy Ramirez is an administrator at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. She says foreign students who work for their school or at an internship probably have the best chance for a job after graduation.
She points out that many foreign graduates ask to stay for what is called optional practical training. This lets them accept temporary employment in their area of study for twelve months after graduation.
Many times, the employer will then apply for an H1B. But Amy Ramirez and Cheryl Gilman both say foreign students should understand that visa rules change often. (10) That can make it difficult to plan ahead for what to do after graduation.
Passage 44
White Firefighters Win Closely-Watched Employment Case
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
The United States Supreme Court began its summer break this week. One of the last decisions of its term will likely (1)cause employers to take greater care in how they choose workers to promote.
The case involved tests that the city of New Haven, Connecticut, gave to firefighters in 2003. Minorities were heavily involved in the testing process because of (2)disputes over earlier examinations. But the only firefighters who qualified for (3)immediate promotion to lieutenant or captain were whites and two Hispanics, no blacks.
City officials believed that offering promotions based on the results would (4)violate the 1964 discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
But it not only bars “disparate treatment”. It also bars “disparate impact”--actions that are not meant to discr
iminate but in fact disproportionately harm minorities.
The city (5)canceled the test results, fearing legal claims by minorities who failed the exams. Instead, white and Hispanic firefighters who passed went to court. Their case reached the Supreme Court, and in a five-to-four decision on Monday they won.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion. “The City”, he said, (6)“rejected the test results solely because the higher scoring (7)candidates were white.” Fear of legal action alone, he said, “cannot justify an employer's reliance on race” if it hurts qualified individuals.
Writing for the dissenters(异议人士), Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said the white firefighters who scored high “understandably attract this Court's sympathy.” But, she said, they had no right to a promotion.
The majority found that the city failed to prove a disparate impact violation. But the court did not rule on the constitutionality of the provision itself. Still, Kevin Russell, a lawyer who (8)specializes in Supreme Court cases, says the ruling puts all employers to a task. (9)They have to make sure a test is truly unlawful before changing it.
Three judges on a federal appeals court had earlier sided with the city of New Haven. Their ruling, now reversed by the Supreme Court, was not unusual. (10)But the case got special attention because one of the judges was Sonia Sotomayor.
President Obama has nominated her to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. Her Senate confirmation hearings are set to begin July thirteenth.
Passage 45
How to Do It: Making Paper by Hand
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
The earliest process of making paper was done almost five thousand years ago in Egypt and the Nile Valley. In those days, paper was made from (1)strips of the papyrus plant.
Modern paper-making began in China about two thousand years ago. This process produced paper from cloth, straw, wood or the bark of trees. The raw materials are struck over and over until they become (2)loose. Then they are mixed with water.
After the water has been (3)removed, the flat, thin form remaining is permitted to dry. This becomes a sheet of paper.
Large machines started to be used for making paper near the end of the sixteenth century. Today, paper-making is a big business. But it is still possible to make paper by hand, since the steps are the same as using big machines.
You should choose paper with small amounts of printing. Old (4)envelops are good for this reason. Colored paper also can be used, as well as small amounts of newspaper. Small pieces of rags or cloth can be added. These should be cut into pieces about five centimeters by five centimeters.
Everything is placed in a container, covered with water and brought to a boil. It is mixed for about two hours with some common (5)chemicals and then allowed to cool. Then it is left until most of the water dries up. The (6)substance left, called pulp, can
be stored until you are ready to make paper.
When you are ready, the pulp is mixed with water again. Then the pulp is (7)poured into a mold. The mold is made of small squares of wire that hold the shape and thickness of the paper. To help dry the paper, (8)the mold lets the water flow through the small wire squares.
After several more drying steps, the paper is carefully lifted back from the mold. It is now strong enough to be touched. (9)The paper is smoothed and pressed to remove trapped air. You can use a common electric iron used for pressing clothes.
There are many other technologies for people making paper using small machines. Internet users (10)can do a search and find directions for making homemade paper. You can also order information about making paper from the group Enterprise Works/VITA. Its Web site is https://www.doczj.com/doc/8f15333272.html,.
Passage 46
Experts Urge Limits on Widely Used Pain Drug
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
The United States government might place new restrictions on a commonly used painkiller. Taking too much acetaminophen （醋氨酚） can cause liver damage and even death.
Last week, a group of experts advised the Food and Drug Administration that the drug needs more controls and better (1)directions for use. Acetaminophen, also called paracetamol, is found in Tylenol, Excedrin and other products that do not require a doctor's prescription. These products are used for pain, fever, colds and sleeplessness.
Their easy (2)availability is part of the problem. People can (3)accidentally take too much acetaminophen if they take several medicines that all contain it. The experts recommended reducing the largest non-prescription dose of acetaminophen from one thousand milligrams. They said that is too much. They said adults should not take more than six hundred fifty milligrams at a time. The experts also said people should take less than four thousand milligrams of acetaminophen in a single day.
Tylenol is one of the most popular painkillers containing acetaminophen. Acetaminophen overdose is a (4)leading cause of liver damage in the United States. Researchers say it resulted in fifty-six thousand (5)emergency room visits a year during the nineteen nineties. There were almost four hundred sixty deaths a year from liver failure.
The committee was especially concerned about prescription drugs that (6)combine acetaminophen with stronger painkillers. The experts recommended banning combination drugs like Percocet and Vicodin.
Still, the experts were divided in their votes. The agency is not required to follow the advice of its committees, but generally does.
Acetaminophen is valued as a pain and fever reducer for adults and children. It does not cause stomach problems or (7)bleeding like aspirin, ibuprofen and some other competing drugs can.
But experts say taking even small amounts over the recommended dose can cause liver damage. Some people suffer harm from smaller amounts than others. (8)Al
cohol use with acetaminophen is especially bad for the liver.
Signs of liver injury include nausea, vomiting and a lack of energy. But (9)these may not develop for two or three days after an overdose --too late to prevent damage.
People should ask a health professional about drug combinations that could be harmful. And (10)they should make sure they know what is in the medicines they take and how much of each drug is safe to take.
Passage 47
Out of Class Early: College in Three Years
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
The last time the United States Education Department asked young people how long they took to finish college was in 2001. Fifty-seven percent graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in four years. Thirty-nine percent took five years.
And what about the others, the (1)remaining four percent? They did it in three years. To some people, that is a smart idea.
In February, Senator Lamar Alexander warned higher education leaders that they risk (2)rejection unless they lower the cost of attending college. The Republican senator is a former education secretary and former president of the University of Tennessee. He suggested offering a three-year bachelor's degree that would save money as well as time.
Many students can already graduate in three years. They take bigger class loads and classes in the summer. And they have college credit from passing Advanced (3)Placement tests in high school. A.P. credits can mean fewer required classes.
Others who want to graduate in three years must pay for the same education as four-year students, but in a shorter period of time.
Three-year graduates, though, can enter the job market sooner. That adds another year of (4)wages to their lifetime earnings.
In 2005, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, began a program called "Degree in Three." Students take full loads of classes, including two or three summers.
Cindy Marini, assistant director of (5)academic advising, says twenty-eight programs currently offer a bachelor's degree in three years. These include business and (6)nursing. As of March, about fifty of the eighteen thousand students at Ball State were taking part in the Degree in Three program.
Students in the three-year program at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, take more classes each (7)semester than the other students. But the cost for a year is the same for all, more than fifty thousand dollars.
Bryan McNulty, the (8)communications director, says Bates has offered a three-year bachelor's degree since the 1960s. But he says (9)only one or two students usually choose it each year, and no one did in the graduating class in May.
Still, other schools are preparing their own programs. These include Hartwick College in New York State and the University of Houston-Victoria in Texas. And lawmakers in Rhode Island (10) are considering a bill that would require state schools to offer the choice of a three-year degree.
Passage 48
Microsoft, Google Take
Aim at Each Other
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Google, the Internet search leader, will now offer a free operating system for personal computers. The company hopes to (1)loosen Microsoft's hold on the market. Microsoft Windows is on more than ninety percent of PCs.
Google is basing the new product on its Chrome Web (2)browser and the Linux open-source operating system. The Google Chrome OS is expected to be (3) available in the second half of next year.
At first, it will be aimed at net-books. These are smaller, simpler machines designed mainly for Internet use.
Google's chief (4)executive, Eric Schmidt, says Chrome will pay for itself. It will do that, he says, by reducing the cost of computers and increasing the number of people who search the Internet. Google earns most of its money from sales of advertising on its search engine.
But the recession has hurt the advertising market. And now Microsoft has (5)targeted Google's main business. Microsoft says its new Bing search engine offers a better way to search the Internet. Ads for it make fun of how Web searches often give people a lot of useless results.
COMMERCIAL: "Find a cure at https://www.doczj.com/doc/8f15333272.html,. It's not just a search engine. It's the first-ever decision engine. From Microsoft."
A Web traffic report last Friday from StatCounter said Bing twice passed Yahoo in usage in the United States in its first few weeks. Yahoo is the second biggest search engine.
But no one has the answer to how much market share Bing will (6)claim from Yahoo or Google in the long term. Microsoft, in its struggle against Google, tried (7)unsuccessfully last year to buy Yahoo for more than forty billion dollars.
Google and Microsoft are also competing in business software. Google offers Google Docs. (8)These applications are free and on the Web. They compete with Microsoft Office, a hugely popular product. Next year, Microsoft plans a new version of Office that is both Web-based and free.
Also, Microsoft plans to launch its seventh version of Windows this October. And (9) the company is preparing to open its own stores, like its competitor Apple. In fact, some Microsoft stores could open right next to Apple stores in the coming months.
The recession has cut sales of PCs and software. But there may be hopeful signs for the industry. Intel is the leading maker of computer processors. This week Intel reported that its results for the past three months were better than expected. And (10) it predicted more good news in the current quarter. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember
Passage 49
California Gets a Budget
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
The recession may be easing, but American states are still feeling the pain. Most of the fifty states began their budget year July first. Almost all states require (1) balanced budgets. Already, some (2) predict new deficits(赤字).
Congress included state aid in the two-ye
ar stimulus(刺激) plan approved in February. But states have had to find other ways to fill budget holes.
The recession has hit especially hard in California, home of the world's eighth largest economy and one out of eight Americans.
On Tuesday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new budget to solve his state's deficit. But spending cuts in the eighty-five billion dollar budget might still not be enough to solve long-term problems.
This was what Governor Schwarzenegger said last week when he (3) proudly announced a deal with lawmakers.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: "The budget that would have no tax increases, a budget that is cutting spending--we deal with the entire twenty-six billion dollar deficit, round fifteen billion dollars in cuts that we are making."
That was in (4) addition to fifteen billion in cuts passed in February.
But the Republican governor angered some Democrats when he vetoed(否决) several additional spending items before he signed the budget. The money will be held as an (5) emergency reserve. The governor himself compared the budget to the old Western movie "The Good,the Bad and the Ugly."
Education faces the biggest reductions. Prisons and health care also face big cuts. California's finances have become so bad, this month the state began to buy goods and services with promises to pay later. Now, California has a budget. The state can seek (6) loans to pay its bills until more tax money comes in later this year.
But California also has the lowest credit rating of any state. All of the rating agencies still rate California as worthy of (7) investment. However, downgrades have increased its borrowing costs.
Some people blame Californians themselves for the (8) current troubles of the Golden State. There is debate over "budget by ballot"-- putting tax questions to popular votes. Voters in the last few years, and most recently in May, have rejected several ballot measures that would have raised taxes.
California may rewrite its tax system. (9) The state depends heavily on income tax. But those revenues fall sharply in bad economic times.
Critics say even with the budget agreement, (10) California is still in trouble. They say some of the cost cuts are simply accounting tricks that cannot be repeated next year.
Passage 50
Studying in the US: Reviewing the Steps
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
For ten months, we have talking about coming to study in the United States. This week, we complete that (1) series and repeat some of the advice.
You should begin planning at least two years early.
Decide what kind of school interests you: Big or small, city or rural, public or (2) private, two-year or four-year?
Two-year colleges, also known as community colleges, have not always gotten a lot of (3) respect. Yet they are the largest part of the American higher education system. They often serve older and part-time students and those needing special help. But other students begin at a community
college to save money, then finish at a four-year college or university.
On Tuesday, President Obama announced a plan to invest twelve billion dollars in community colleges over the next ten years. The goal is to help an (4) additional five million students earn degrees or (5) certificate. The president said jobs requiring at least an associate degree are expected to grow twice as fast in the coming years as jobs requiring no college experience.
To help with your college search, try to attend education fairs and visit an Education USA Advising Center. You can find the nearest one at https://www.doczj.com/doc/8f15333272.html,. Also visit school Web sites and sites where students share their (6) experiences, like CollegeClickTV and https://www.doczj.com/doc/8f15333272.html,.
Apply to at least three schools. Make sure they are accredited. To do that, go to https://www.doczj.com/doc/8f15333272.html,--c-h-e-a dot o-r-g.
As soon as you are accepted, make an appointment for a visa interview at an American (7) embassy or consulate. The State Department says it is working to reduce visa delays that have affected foreign science students and researchers over the past year.
(8) Financial aid can be limited for international students. To reduce costs, (9) you might look into online classes or a foreign campus of an American school. During our Foreign Student Series we also talked about student life in the United States and programs to help international students. For example, writing centers can help teach the rules of American academic writing.
All the reports in our series--including programs on admissions tests--can be found at https://www.doczj.com/doc/8f15333272.html,. Thanks to everyone who sent us questions. If you have a question, (10) we might answer it in a future program. Click on Contact Us or write to special@https://www.doczj.com/doc/8f15333272.html,. Be sure to include your name and country.