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Chapter 30FLU WARNINGSa.
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TEXT VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- warnings about the flu season ... and improvements in storm reporting. VOICE ONE: Also, a look back at the life of a news reporter who became a leading environmentalist. (THEME)
VOICE TWO: Health experts in the northern part of the world say this influenza season could be especially bad. People are getting sick earlier than usual. People over age sixty-five and very young children are most at risk of dying if they get the flu. Influenza in northern countries is at its highest between December and March. In the southern half of the world, infections are highest between April and September. Doctors say they are concerned about a new form of the virus that first appeared in Fujian province, China, last year. The Fujian strain caused many cases of the flu in Australia during the recent flu season. And it is now spreading in northern countries.
The influenza virus enters the body through the nose or mouth. It then grows in the body for several days. Signs of influenza include a sudden high body temperature, muscle pain mostly in the back, a sore throat and an unproductive cough. Victims can remain infected for up to seven days after the virus appears. The flu can also lead to pneumonia, a bacterial infection. Hand washing and avoiding crowds are two ways to decrease the chances of getting the flu. There are lots more facts about influenza on the Web site of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The address is c-d-c dot g-o-v.
The name "influenza" comes from Italy in the fifteenth century. People blamed the sickness on the influence of the stars. Experts believe the first pandemic, or worldwide spread, of influenza happened in fifteen-eighty. The Spanish flu that struck in nineteen-eighteen caused an estimated twenty-one million deaths worldwide. The CDC says flu pandemics normally happened every ten to forty years. The last one struck in nineteen-sixty-eight. That flu, first seen in Hong Kong, killed around thirty-four-thousand people worldwide. Experts say it was the mildest flu pandemic of the twentieth century. VOICE ONE: Weather scientists in the United States say their ability to tell the movement of ocean storms has greatly improved. One study compared recent storms in the North Atlantic with estimates of their expected movement. Early results from the study show that the average mistake for such estimates this year was the smallest ever measured. The National Hurricane Center provided information for the study. An official with the center says the ability to forecast where storms will move has improved for each of the past four years. What scientists call the active Atlantic hurricane season, the traditional period for storm activity, ended on November thirtieth. Major ocean storms in the northern half of the world usually develop in late summer or autumn over waters near the Equator.
But it says better forecasts of hurricane movements are a result of better computer programs. Those programs now include better wind information collected by instruments dropped by parachute into storms. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research developed these instruments. The weather experts say their ability to tell the path of a storm has improved one to two percent a year since the nineteen-sixties. In two-thousand, the National Hurricane Center began to use new computer programs to estimate the path for a forty-eight-hour period. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration developed these programs. Scientists say they can now forecast Atlantic storm movements thirty-five percent better than they could before.
Environmental activists have lost a leader. Ben Metcalfe died October fourteenth in his home in the Canadian province of British Colombia. He had a heart attack. He was eighty-three years old. Ben Metcalfe was a founder of Greenpeace and the first chairman of the group. He was one of the first environmental activists to use the media effectively to gain support for their cause. E. Bennett Metcalfe was born on October thirty-first, nineteen-nineteen, in Winnipeg, Canada. At sixteen, in England, he joined the Royal Air Force. He first served in India. Mahatma Gandhi was leading a peaceful independence movement. Britain was defending its colonial rule. But stories say Ben Metcalfe chose to drop bombs on empty fields instead of targets in villages.
used his media connections to report on the protest. He would radio his wife, Dorothy, from the boat and she would call the media. The protest added fuel to anti-nuclear demonstrations in Canada. Mister Metcalfe became the first chairman of Greenpeace. VOICE TWO: The next year, nineteen-seventy-two, he and others sailed to protest French nuclear testing in the Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. That year, he also left his position as chairman. Bob Hunter, a former president of Greenpeace, says the group had gone in a new direction. But he calls Ben Metcalfe a giant and a media genius. And Greenpeace says Mister Metcalfe is one of the reasons the organization exists. VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, George Grow and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: December 9, 2003 
Chapter 31 Resume and Cover Letter a.
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TEXT AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster, advice on getting a job. RS: It's a question several listeners have asked us, so we turned to a human resources consultant for answers. AA: Sharon Armstrong runs a company that helps people find jobs. She says the first step is to draft a short resume -- no more than two pages. ARMSTRONG: "It should be customized to the company or position you're going for. By that I mean it should use the lingo of the industry. It should be clear and targeted, easy to read, on good bond paper, and it should be perfect. There should be no spelling and no grammar mistakes. So you should use spell check and then have two or three friends at a minimum review it before you send it out." RS: "You say 'customized.' How do you know that language, the language of the company?" ARMSTRONG: "If it isn't your industry, you talk to people, you do informational interviews, you read their reports, you get your hands on everything that you can that would give you any type of information that will lead you to a good cover letter and resume." R: "How do you structure a resume? What sections are necessary in a resume?" ARMSTRONG: "I think the first thing that I'm seeing in a lot of good resumes, the very first area that you would have, is called a qualifications summary, where you identify three or four important skills that you have that will be appealing to the new employer." AA: "Give us an example." ARMSTRONG: "I actually wrote one. Let's say someone is going for a project manager job. The summary up at the very top would read: 'Project manager skilled at coordinating complex information management projects; proven ability to develop and maintain client relationships; proficient at negotiating vendor contacts; particularly adept at analyzing information for patterns and trends and summarizing complex issues concisely; can-do attitude.' "So in the first couple of seconds an employer is going to read the top of that and then they're going to know whether they should continue to read. So you want to grab them right away with something strong." RS: "What other sections should follow?" ARMSTRONG: "Right after the qualifications summary, I would do work experience, unless you just recently completed a degree, in which case you want to probably highlight your education. But I would do the experience, then the education, then skills -- either computer skills or interpersonal skills -- and then a tag line at the bottom about references, just to kind of close it and end it." AA: "Should you include references, or do you just put the standard 'references upon request.'" ARMSTRONG: "I would put the standard, quite honestly, because again this is the resume first going out, you don't know even if there's interest." AA: "Let's talk a little bit about a cover letter." ARMSTRONG: "Should be no more than one page, it should be addressed to a specific person. It shouldn't be a 'to whom it may concern.' So you should have title for the person and the correct spelling of their name -- people are very sensitive about that -- and the company name correctly spelled as well. In the cover letter you should come right to the point, identify the position that you're interested it, how you heard about it." AA: "Now what are some things to avoid?" ARMSTRONG: "Ones that go on and on, two or three pages -- avoid that. Ones that reiterate what's in the resume." AA: "Do you begin with 'greetings' -- what works?" ARMSTRONG: "I think you go right to the point: 'Dear Mister Smith, I recently heard of your opening,' and then you go on. In fact, I did bring a sample one for you: 'I'm applying for the Web developer position that was advertised in the local paper this week. The position seems to fit very well with my education, experience and career interests. Your position requires skills in various types of programming and software used in Web development. My academic program in computer studies emphasized ... 'And then you go on to indicate exactly what is targeted, not only in your academic program but also in your work experience. 'My enclosed resume provides more details on my qualifications. My background and career goals seem to match your job requirements well. I'm confidant that I can perform the job effectively.' "And then (add) a little assertiveness at the end. Telling me they're going to give me a call, asking me specifically or an interview, telling me in clear terms how to reach them and when to reach them, either by e-mail or by phone, and good times to reach them. And I would also customize it by doing some research about the company, so that each letter cannot be just a cookie-cutter approach. It has to be a specific letter to that specific company. People rarely do that, and it makes such a difference." AA: "And the language to use -- plain, simple English?" ARMSTRONG: "That's a good point, Avi, because people will write it in a very stilted way that they would never talk. It's so odd, you know, 'attached please find my ... ' You say 'enclosed is my resume.' Or just something that is a normal way that you would talk." RS: Sharon Armstrong is a consultant in Washington. She calls her business Human Resources 9-1-1. Nine-one-one is the telephone number Americans call in an emergency. Next week Ms. Armstrong will walk us through a job interview. AA: You'll find today's program, plus our archives, on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: July 14, 2002
Chapter 32 IMF Report on Amrc. Fınancıal Polıcy
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TEXT This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. A new report warns that the rising United States budget deficit and trade imbalance threaten world economic security and growth. The International Monetary Fund released the report last week. The Bush administration says tax cuts have helped economic recovery, and deficit cuts are planned. Charles Collyns was among several I-M-F officials who researched and wrote the report. Mister Collyns notes that the federal financial balance has changed in the last few years. He says the two-thousand budget year had a surplus of two-and-one-half percent of the gross domestic product. That is the total value of goods and services produced in the country. But in fiscal year two-thousand-three the budget had a deficit of almost four percent of the gross domestic product. Mister Collyns says additional spending gave immediate and much needed support to the American economy. But he says there are long-term problems if large federal deficits continue. The I-M-F team says budget estimates show large deficits for the next ten fiscal years. The report says these deficits would lead the United States to borrow more money. It says foreign debt could equal forty percent of the economy in a few years. This would be a record level for a large industrial nation. The I-M-F says growing debt and increased borrowing may force international loan rates to rise. It says this would restrain private investment, especially in the purchase of government bonds. Mister Collyns says this process is already happening. He says it is partly to blame for the fall in the value of the American dollar during the last year. The I-M-F experts say the result in the end is lower worldwide productivity and earnings growth. The report says the American government must raise taxes and limit spending to avoid this. Administration officials noted that President Bush has already said he will work to reduce the deficit by half during the next five years. Mister Bush spoke about the economy in his weekly radio message last Saturday. He said business investment has increased and the unemployment rate is falling. He said American stock market wealth increased in the past year. And he again called on Congress to make his tax cuts for Americans permanent. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty.
Chapter 33 Long-Lıfe Concrete Brıdges
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TEXT This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Each year, road accidents kill a million people and injure millions more. The economic costs are greatest for developing countries. Earlier this year, the United Nations called for a campaign to improve road safety. One way to avoid accidents is better driving. Another is better roads and bridges. Engineers in the United States have designed ten new concrete mixtures that they think could make bridges last longer. Professor Paul Tikalsky leads the experiments by a team at Pennsylvania State University. He says bridges made of concrete now last about twenty-five to thirty-five years. But he says the new mixtures might extend that to seventy-five or even one-hundred years. Concrete is made of stone, sand, water and cement. The materials in the cement hold the concrete together. Ancient Romans built with concrete. Yet strengthened concrete bridges did not appear until the late eighteen-hundreds. People keep looking for new ways to improve concrete. Professor Tikalsky says it is one of the most complex of all chemical systems. The new mixtures designed by his team contain industrial waste products. He says these make the concrete better able to resist damage from water and salt over time. One of the products is fly ash. This is released into the air as pollution when coal is burned. Professor Tikalsky says particles of fly ash are almost exactly the same size and chemical structure as Portland cement. This is the most costly material in concrete. So using fly ash to replace some of it would save money. Over the next two years, engineers will study ten bridges in Pennsylvania. These were built from the different cement mixtures designed by Professor Tikalsky’s team. He says longer-lasting bridges could save the state more than thirty-five-million dollars a year. And he says the materials would be environmentally friendly. The federal government is paying for part of the research. Engineers anywhere can use the technology. Professor Tikalsky says some of the ideas have already been put to use in China, the Philippines and other countries. You can find more about this research on the Pennsylvania State University Web site. The address is www.psu.edu. Again, the site is www.psu.edu. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Chapter 34 Health Care in the United States
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Medicare act argue that it is not true.
TEXT VOICE ONE: In recent years, health care spending in the United States has grown to fifteen percent of the economy. The care is often described as the best in the world, but the cost is a big problem. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. This week our program is about health care in the United States. VOICE ONE: Forty years ago, a Chicago businessman had an operation for cancer. Doctors could offer no further treatment. The cancer spread. The man died about a year later. His medical care cost about ten-thousand dollars. Six years ago, an office administrator in Washington, D.C., had an operation for cancer. Later she had treatment with radiation and powerful chemicals. Today she feels fine. Her doctors say she will probably live many more years. But her care cost several hundred thousand dollars. Yüklə 1,83 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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