Just listen

b. project of - involved - appeared in - contains - to create-
Project organizers say they have chosen books that show the similarities and differences in ways of life around the world. The aim is _9_______ a greater understanding of other people's cultures and beliefs. The International Children’s Digital Library is also an attempt to use technology to strengthen libraries around the world.

The digital library is a _10_______ the University of Maryland and the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive is building an electronic library of Internet sites and other digital collections as a cultural record.

The children's library project is supported by the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Library of Congress and other organizations are also _11_______. The first materials _12_______ two-thousand-two.

The goal is to have all ten-thousand books online in two-thousand-seven. _13_______ So far, the collection _14_______ more than five hundred books.

Here is the address of the International Children’s Digital Library: www.icdlbooks.org. Again, www.icdlbooks.org.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember.

By Nancy Steinbach Broadcast: June 17, 2004
Chapter 77

Learning to Read

WHILE LISTENING

Before listening to the text fill in the blanks with the given words. Then check your answers

while listening.

This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report.

a. In another method -the most common methods - the sounds of letters - instead of others - during the teaching - one of the most important - recognize the sound
For most American children, summer is a time away from schoolbooks. But it is not supposed to be a time away from reading. _1______________________ issues in American education is how to teach children to read. _2______________________depend on phonics.

This system teaches children to connect words with the sounds of the letters that form those words.

Children often learn _3______________________ before they learn to read. With phonics, children are taught to “sound out” words they do not know. For example, to learn the word “cat,” children first learn to _4______________________ of the letter C. Then they learn the sounds of the letters A and T used together. Finally, they join these sounds to form the word.

_5______________________ of teaching phonics, children learn to recognize the whole word first. They write the word enough times until they remember it. Schools often present this method _6______________________ of reading, not before. Then the children learn to study words for their sounds. This helps them understand why some letters are used in a word _7______________________.

b. for this reason- over the years - the best way - a few years ago
Experts say phonics makes it possible for children to sound out many words that they do not recognize by sight. However, the sound of a letter is not always the same in every word. _8______________________ many teachers add other methods to teach reading.

_9______________________ a committee studied many reading methods. The National Reading Panel urged teachers to use phonics in their programs. And in two-thousand-two President Bush signed an education law called No Child Left Behind. It includes a program called “Reading First.” The goal is to increase the reading skills of American children. The program is based on the suggestions of the National Reading Panel.

_10______________________ there has been a lot of debate among teachers, parents, and politicians over ways to teach reading. Another method is called whole language. Children are taught ways to learn new words not so much by how they sound as by how they are used. Supporters of phonics say this requires too much guessing. But a lot of experts say _11______________________ to teach reading is to combine phonics and whole language methods.

This VOA Special Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember.

By Jerilyn Watson Broadcast: June 10, 2004


Chapter 78

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES

WHILE LISTENING

Listen to the story. If you have trouble understanding the story, listen to the story again. While you are listening, write down vocabulary words that you don't understand. Use your dictionary to find the meanings. After listening, write a short report on the story.
Answer these questions:
1. What are the main events in the story?

_________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Who are the characters (people) in the story?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Where does the story take place?
_________________________________________________________________________________

4. What kind of story is it? (Funny, serious, sad, and so on)
_________________________________________________________________________________

5. Did you enjoy the story? Why or why not?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Summarize the story, by using your own words/ sentences?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Speeches

www.aboutwomyn.com

Chapter 79

I've Been to the Mountain- M. Luther -Part 1-

WHILE LISTENING

Fill in the blanks while listening. Then check your answers.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered this speech in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968 — the day before he was assassinated. License to reproduce this speech granted by Intellectual Properties Management, 1579-F Monroe Drive, Suite 235, Atlanta, Georgia 30324, as manager for the King Estate. Write to IPM re: copyright permission for use of words and images of Martin Luther King, Jr.

• 
  Thank you very _1___________, my friends.
  
• 
  As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous _2___________ and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about.
  
• 
  It's always good to have your closest friend and _3___________ to say something good about you.
  
• 
  I'm delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a _4___________ warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow.
  
• 
  And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and _5___________ view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin And in spite of its _6___________, I wouldn't stop there.
  
• 
  And I would _7___________ them around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal __8__________ of reality. But I wouldn't stop there.
  
• 
  And I would see _9___________ around there, through various emperors and leaders.
  
• 
  I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and _10___________ life of man.
  
• 
  I would even go by the way that the man for whom I am named had his __11__________.
  
• 
  I would come on up even to 1863, and _12___________ a vacillating President by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation.
  
• 
  I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his _13___________.
  
• 
  Strangely enough, I would _14___________ to the Almighty, and say, "If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy."
  
• 
  Now that's a strange _15___________ to make, because the world is all messed up. Trouble is in the land; _16___________ all around.
  
• 
  And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are _17___________.
  
• 
  The masses of people are _18___________ up.
  
• 
  And another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been_19___________ to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the _20___________ didn't force them to do it.
  
• 
  Men, for years now, have been talking about war and _21___________.
  
• 
  But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between_22___________ and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today.
  
• 
  And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and done in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of _23___________, their long years of hurt and _24___________, the whole world is doomed.
  

Chapter 80

I've Been to the Mountain. -M. Luther -Part 2-

WHILE LISTENING

Fill in the blanks while listening. Then check your answers.

• 
  We __1_____________ a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho.
  
• 
  It's a winding, meandering road. It's really __2_____________ for ambushing.
  
• 
  You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles -- or rather _3______________ feet above sea level.
  
• 
  And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about _4______________ feet below sea level.
  
• 
  And he was acting like he had been robbed and _5______________, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure.
  
• 
  But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he _6______________ the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"
  
• 
  The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in_7______________, what will happen to me?"
  
• 
  Let us _8______________ tonight with a greater readiness.
  
• 
  Let us _9______________ a greater determination.
  
• 
  And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of_10______________ to make America what it ought to be.
  
• 
  We have an __11_____________ to make America a better nation.
  
• 
  And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman __12____________.
  
• 
  And the next minute I felt something_13______________ on my chest.
  
• 
  And that__14_____________ had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery.
  
• 
  It came out in the New York Times the next morning that if I had _15______________ sneezed, I would have died.
  
• 
  Well, about four days later, they _16______________ me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital.
  
• 
  I've_17______________ what those telegrams said.
  
• 
  It said simply, Dear Dr. King, I am a__18_____________ student at the White Plains High School."
  
• 
  I read in the paper of your_19______________, and of your suffering.
  
• 
  Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in __20_____________, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters.
  
• 
  If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in __21_____________, when we decided to take a __22_____________ for freedom and ended segregation in inter-state travel.
  
• 
  If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in _23______________, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up.
  
• 
  And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back__24_____________ it is bent.
  
• 
  If I had sneezed - If I had sneezed I wouldn't have been here in _______________, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, __25_____________ the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill.
  
• 
  If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great __26_____________ there.
  
• 
  If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a __27_____________ rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering.
  
• 
  It really doesn't _28______________ what happens now.
  
• 
  And to be sure that all of the bags were _29______________, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully.
  
• 
  And we've had the plane protected and _30______________ all night."
  
• 
  We've got some difficult days _31______________.
  
• 
  But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the _32_____________.
  
• 
  And I don't mind.
  
• 
  Longevity has its place. But I'm not _33______________ about that now.
  
• 
  And He's _34______________allowed me to go up to the mountain.
  
• 
  But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the __35_____________ land!
  
• 
  I'm not_36______________ any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!
  

Chapter 81

I Have a Dream- Martin Luther King

WHILE LISTENING

Fill in the blanks while listening. Then check your answers.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still_1___________ crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of _2___________. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of _3___________ in the midst of a vast ocean of _4___________ prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an _5___________ in his own land. And so we've come here today to _6___________ a shameful condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were _7___________ a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the _8___________ rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is _9___________ today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred _10___________, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "_11___________ funds. "But we _12___________ to believe that the bank of justice is _13___________. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of _14___________ of this nation. And so we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon _15___________ the riches of freedom and the _16___________ of justice.We have also come to this hallowed spot to _17___________ America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to _18___________ in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of_19___________ gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.

Now is the time to rise from the dark and _20___________ valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of _21___________ injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make_22___________ a reality for all of God's children.

It would be _23___________ for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's _24___________ discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off __25__________ and will now be _26___________ will have a rude awakening if  the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the

Negro is granted his _27___________ rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of _28___________ emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of _29___________ our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must ever _30___________ our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical _31___________. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro _32___________ must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our _33___________. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march _34___________. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the __35__________ horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the _36___________ and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot _37___________ vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to _38___________.

No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great _39___________ and tribulations.

Some of you have come fresh from narrow _40___________ cells.

Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of _41___________ suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of _42___________, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream _43___________ rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will _44___________ and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created _45___________

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of _46___________.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a _47___________ sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be _48___________ by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, _49___________ in Alabama, with its vicious _50___________, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every _51___________ shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be _52___________ and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the _53___________ that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.