I'm Nikki strong and this is vaa one the [Music] hits welcome to learning English a daily 30 minute program from The Voice of America I'm Ashley Thompson and I'm Dan novette this program is designed for English Learners so we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases especially written for people learning English coming up on the program Jill Robbins reports on a female presidential candidate in Sagal Dan friedell has a story on an AI robot that helps find sick tulips in the Netherlands
Gina Bennett has this week's ask a teacher lesson and we listen to a story by Mark Twain called The Californians Tale But first sagal's only female presidential candidate may have little chance of winning Sunday's election but activists say her presence alone is important they argue that the candidacy of an Babar gam is helping create gender equality in the West African nation G is a 40-year-old business executive who runs her family's food company she has made the economy a center of her campa
ign economic difficulty has driven thousands of sagales on sometimes dangerous travel in search of a better life outside Africa gum appears to be a voice for both women and young people groups hard hit by unemployment and Rising prices she has promised to create millions of jobs and a bank for women she says such actions will help women gain economic independence she told the Associated Press the young girls I meet ask for my support they do so because they know that when a woman comes to power
she will put an end to their suffering I'm not going to forget them G is the first female candidate to run for president in over 10 years few expect her to win but activists say her candidacy demonstrates how women are moving ahead in the struggle for equality we have to be there even if we don't stand a chance said celba an activist and sociologist we don't stand a chance in these elections but it's important that we have women candidates women who are in the race Sagal had its first female pri
me minister in 2001 and in 2010 a law that required all political parties to introduce gender parity in elections helped increase female involvement in politics women's rights have evolved at the political level over the last 10 years and particularly since the gender parity law came into Force said boso sambe a former parliamentarian in 2012 two women ran for president and while they earned less than 1% of the vote each experts say their participation was important women in Sagal now make up mo
re than 40% of parliament one of the highest levels of representation in Africa gum told the AP women must be able to express themselves without hindrance while preserving our cultural identity and valuing the traditional values that have shaped our Society comm's supporters say they are proud to back a female candidate and hopeful for a change in the next government our children are dying at Sea because of unemployment and job insecurity activist Aisha baah said at a recent demonstration she ad
ded women are tired I'm Jill Robbins [Music] [Applause] [Music] Theo Works days nights and weekends in the tulip fields in the Netherlands and never complains of sore muscles how is this possible Theo is an artificial intelligence or AI robot that looks for diseased flowers each spring the work prevents viruses from spreading among the valuable plants the robot looks for troubled tulip bulbs and destroys them if necessary they are removed from the healthy ones in a processing center after the Ha
rvest there are 45 robots like Theo working in the tulip fields of the Netherlands their job becomes important as the winter turns to Spring and peak season nears people come from around the world to see the colorful flowers Alan viser family has been growing tulips for three generations this is the second season that he has used a robot he said it is very costly the same as a sports car about $200,000 in the past knowledgeable Farmers would walk the fields looking for tulips that showed signs o
f sickness I prefer to have the robot because a sports car doesn't take out the sick tulps from our field he said yeah it is expensive but there are less and less people who can really see the sick tulips the robot has been trained to see the sick plants red stripes show up on the leaves of infected plants the robots roll through the fields very slowly about 1 kilometer per hour looking for sick tulips viser called the work precision agriculture as he explained how the robots work he said the ro
bots have cameras and take thousands of photos of the Tulips the AI software considers the photos and Design decides which tulips need to be killed the robot has learned to recognize this and treat it Visser said h2l robotics is the company that makes the robots Eric deong is the managing director he said the robots use GPS coordinates to be sure they are killing the correct tulip among many tulips in the field he said all of the knowledge they use in the computer program that informs the robot
comes from tulip Farmers Farmers like Theo vandervort he is the farmer that the robot is named after vandervort retired after 52 years of looking for sick flowers in his Fields it's fantastic he said it sees just as much as I see I'm Dan [Laughter] [Music] [Music] friedell hello this week on ask a teacher we answer a question from Lola hello I'm Lola from Madrid my question is about the pronunciation of the word l i v e sometimes the pronunciation is live and others live the same with the word l
i v e s why thank you very much thank you for writing Lola this is such a good question l i v is an example of a heteronym or word that have the same spelling but different pronunciations and meanings there are nearly 100 heteronyms in English but let's get to your question about the word spelled l i v e today it can be either an adjective an adverb or a verb when it is used as an adjective or adverb we use the I sound like live I love live music are you watching the game live when it is used a
s a verb we use the I sound like live where do you live we live just outside the city as for the word spelled l i v e s it can be either a plural noun from the singular life or third person singular verb when it is a plural noun we use the I sound cats have nine lives when it is used as third person singular we use the I sound she lives with her mother so in order to know which pronunciation to use for l i v e and s you want to look carefully at how it is used in a sentence please let us know if
this explanation has helped you Lola do you have a question about American English send us an email at learning English at voan news.com and that's ask a teacher I'm Gina Bennett [Music] Gina Bennett is here now to talk with us about this week's aset teacher hi Dr Gina hi Dan this week's program talked about why the word l i can be said two ways live and live you mentioned that it's an example of a heteronym I've never heard that word before that's right heteronyms are words that have the same
spelling but different pronunciations and meanings l i v e is pronounced live when the word is used as a verb and live when it is used as an adjective or adverb the program said there are nearly 100 heteronyms in English this could be one reason pronunciation and spelling in English can be so difficult you're exactly right Dan some languages are phonetic or pronounced the way they are spelled this means that each letter of the alphabet represents only one sound that's definitely not the case for
English it is not no English has 44 sounds but only 26 letters so one letter represents more than one sound there are even different letters that represent the same sound in fact there is only one letter that only makes one sound in English can you guess what it is H is it the letter V yes nicely done V is also the only letter that is never silent in English interesting thanks for coming on the show Gina and thanks for talking with me today [Music] Dan our story today is called The Californians
tale it was written by Mark Twain here is Shep O'Neal with the story when I was young I went looking for gold in California I never found enough to make me Rich but I did discover a beautiful part of the country it was called the stanislau the stanislau was like heaven on Earth it had bright Green Hills and deep forests where soft winds touched the trees other men also looking for gold had reached the Stannis laow Hills of California many years before I did they had built a town in the valley w
ith sidewalks and stores Banks and schools they had also built pretty little hous mes for their families at first they found a lot of gold in the Stannis laow Hills but their good luck did not last after a few years the gold disappeared by the time I reached the Stannis law all the people were gone too grass now grew in the streets and the little houses were covered by Wild rose bushes Only The Sound of Insects filled the air as I walked through the empty town that summer day so long ago then I
realized I was not alone after all a man was smiling at me as he stood in front of one of the little houses this house was not covered by wild rose bushes a nice little Garden in front of the house was full of blue and yellow flowers white curtains hung from the windows and floated in the soft Summer Wind still smiling the man opened the door of his house and motioned to me I went inside and could not believe my eyes I had been living for weeks in rough mining camps with other gold miners we sle
pt on the hard ground ate canned beans from cold metal plates and spent our days in the difficult search for gold here in this little house my spirit seemed to come to life again I saw a bright rug on The Shining wooden floor pictures hung all around the room and on little tables there were seashells books and China vases full of flowers a woman had made this house into a home the pleasure I felt in my heart must have Shone on my face the man read my thoughts yes he smiled it is all her work eve
rything in this room has felt the touch of her hand one of the pictures on the wall was not hanging straight he noticed it and went to fix it he stepped back several times to make sure the picture was really straight then he gave it a gentle touch with his hand she always does that he explained to me it is like the finishing Pat a mother gives her child's hair after she has brushed it I have seen her fix all these things so often that I can do it just the way she does I don't know why I do it I
just do it as he talked I realized there was something in this room that he wanted me to discover I looked around when my eyes reached a corner of the room near the fireplace he broke into a happy laugh and rubbed his hands together that's it he cried out you have found it I knew you would it is her picture I went to a little black shelf that held a small picture of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen there was a sweetness and softness in the woman's expression that I had never seen before
the man took the picture from my hands and stared at it she was 19 on her last birthday that was the day we were married when you see her oh just wait until you meet her where is she now I asked oh she is away the man sighed putting the picture back on the little black shelf she went to visit her parents they live 40 or 50 miles from here she has been gone 2 weeks today when will she be back I asked well this is Wednesday he said slowly she will be back on Saturday in the evening I felt a sharp
sense of regret I am sorry because I will be gone by then I said gone no why should you go don't go she will be so sorry you see she likes to have people come and stay with us no I really must leave I said firmly he picked up her picture and held it before my eyes here he said now you tell her to her face that you could have stayed to meet her and you would not something made me change my mind as I looked at the picture for a second time I decided to stay the man told me his name was Henry that
night Henry and I talked about many different things but mainly about her the next day passed quietly Thursday evening we had a visitor he was a big gray-haired minor named Tom I just came for a few minutes to ask when she's coming home he explained is there any news oh yes the man replied I got a letter would you like to hear it he took a yellowed letter out of his shirt pocket and read it to us it was full of loving messages to him and to other people their close friends and Neighbors when the
man finished reading reading it he looked at his friend oh no you are doing it again Tom you always cry when I read a letter from her I'm going to tell her this time now you must not do that Henry The gray-haired Miner said I am getting old and any little sorrow makes me cry I really was hoping she would be here tonight the next day Friday another old minor came to visit he asked to hear the letter the message in it made him cry too we all miss her so much he said Saturday finally came I found
I was looking at my watch very often Henry noticed this you don't think something has happened to her do you he asked me I smiled and said that I was sure she was just fine but he did not seem satisfied I was glad to see his two friends Tom and Joe coming down the road as the sun began to set the old miners were carrying guitars they also brought flowers and a bottle of whiskey they put the flowers in vases and began to play some fast and Lively songs on their guitars Henry's friends kept giving
him glasses of whiskey which they made him drink when I reached for one of the two glasses left on the table Tom stopped my arm drop that glass and take the other one he whispered he gave the remaining glass of whiskey to Henry just as the clock began to strike midnight Henry emptied the glass his face grew whiter and whiter boys he said I am feeling sick I want to lie down Henry was asleep almost before the words were out of his mouth in a moment his two friends had picked him up and carried h
im into the bedroom they closed the door and came back they seemed to be getting ready to leave so I said please don't go gentlemen she will not know me I am a stranger to her they looked at each other his wife has been dead for 19 years Tom said dead I whispered dead or worse he said she went to see a parents about 6 months after she got married on a way back on a Saturday evening in June when she was almost here the Indians captured her no one ever saw her again Henry lost his mind he thinks s
he is still alive when June comes he thinks she has gone on her trip to see her parents then he begins to wait for her to come back he gets out that old letter and we come around to visit so he can read it to us on the Saturday night she is supposed to come home we come here to be with him we put a sleeping drug in his drink so he will sleep through the night then he is all right for another year Joe picked up his hat and his guitar we have done this every June for 19 years he said the first yea
r there were 27 of us now just the two of us are left he opened the door of the pretty little house and the two old men disappeared into the darkness of the [Music] stanislau you have just heard the story The Californians tale it was written by Mark Twain and and adapted by Donna DeSantis your Storyteller was Shep O'Neal this is Shirley [Music] Griffith [Music] oh [Music] and that's our program for today join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world I'm As
hley Thompson and I'm Dan [Music] Novak [Music]
Comments