Learning English Podcast - Writing Contest, Asteroid Strike

Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30 minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak. 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, Brian Lin has the Science Report on NASA's space strike mission that may have reshaped an asteroid. Next, Andrew Smith and Joe Robins present the lesson of the day. But first, Jill reads one of the w

inning entries from our Teach US about Ukraine Writing contest. My name is Katrina. Dennis and I work at the gymnasium of Vasily Anka. War is always a tragedy. It ruined lives, separated families and destroyed cities. Like many life changing events, war could also be viewed as a way to teach us important things to cities and ancient Athenian historian and general once wrote, War is a stern teacher. And today we are going to share three important lessons the war in Ukraine has taught us. Voluntee

r work and donations are important. If there was one important lesson to share, it would have been this. Volunteer work and donations are important. Let's be honest, we often pay little attention when someone asks us to donate money, clothes, food or blood to someone in need. We may feel that our help would be too small and we spend even less time on volunteer work thinking that it takes time and energy and may not be useful. Ukrainians may argue with that. We understand that even the smallest a

mount of money can help to buy armor and weapons for our army. And the more people decide to help, the safer our soldiers feel and the more protected the country becomes. But you should not forget about people in need. If you donate your clothes, food or blood to those who were seriously wounded or lost their homes, you will help them survive. Your small act of kindness will also help them save some of their resources to move on. Volunteer work also matters a lot for Ukrainians. You can help by

removing parts of fallen buildings or by cooking free meals for soldiers. Your participation will greatly help others. If you want to do something, do it. Sometimes we do not say good things to others. We may be too shy to give a compliment or we do not know if the person will like what we say. Maybe our words will be out of place. Sometimes we do not get around to visiting certain places. Who needs to spend their time going to a historical place, a park, or an old cafe? These places have existe

d for so long. They would not disappear, would they? Since the start of the war, Ukrainians have known the harsh reality. We know that you may never see someone again. They may flee to another city for safety. Their house may collapse. Or they can go to war and never come back. And the place you always wanted to visit may be destroyed by a missile. We rarely tell our family members and friends how happy we are to have them in our lives. You may never have another chance to tell them how much you

love and value them. But if you tell them something kind, your words will support and encourage them in such uncertain times. That is why we remember the rule. If you want to say something good or go somewhere nice, do it now. Do not wait until tomorrow. There is always a reason to be grateful. Lastly, we take many things in our lives for granted. We expect to sleep well at night, eat healthier meals, have a place to live and go to school or work. We get used to them so much that they become ro

utine and even boring before we know it. We are looking for something new and fresh and something unusual. But people in Ukraine know the value of routine and boring things in their daily lives. When the noise from missiles keeps us awake, we begin to appreciate a good sleep. When we have to study remotely or we lose our workplace due to the war. We appreciate the time with our classmates, teachers or colleagues as we spend our days and nights in a bomb shelter or move far away from our homes. W

e begin to appreciate the place we live in, the meals we cook and eat. This may be one of the most important lessons from the war so far. We should appreciate these small but very important things in our lives. In his 28 song Ukrainian Songwriter Recording School for the group, What you need is easy to get what you do not need is hard to get. And now, after going through the war and losing so many different things, we can agree that the simplest ones are the most important in our lives. These we

re the three most important lessons from the war in Ukraine. We hope they will inspire you to value the simplest things in your life. These are the places you always wanted to visit to do small acts of kindness for people in need, and to show your love and gratitude to your closest people. I'm Jill Robbins. A new study suggests that an asteroid strike by an American spacecraft likely changed the shape of the targeted object. NASA's crashed the DART spacecraft into the asteroid. The more folks in

2022, the asteroid strike happened about 11 million kilometers from Earth. The experiment tested a method for changing the orbit of some asteroids to prevent them from possibly crashing into our planet in the future. NASA's has said its studies of the crash showed it was successful because the force of the strike changed the asteroid's orbit around a larger asteroid. Didymos. NASA's US measurements also found the strike reduced the orbital period of the Morpheus by 33 minutes. Such a major cras

h would normally create a large crater in the targeted object. But a new study presents evidence that the crash made more than a hole. It likely changed the shape of the whole asteroid. Astronomer is at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Carried out the research. A study detailing the findings recently appeared in the publication Nature Astronomy. The team used a computer simulation system to study the changes to the more photos that resulted from the crash. The system aimed to recreate the

breakup of space objects that have been hit. The researchers said their simulation method has been used in the past to recreate space objects crashing into each other. For example, the team said it confirmed the results of a Japanese spacecraft collecting a sample from the real GU asteroid in 2019. Sabina Rado Khan is with the Physics Institute of the University of Bern. She helped lead the project. Rado Khan describes the simulation process in a statement as computationally intensive. In total,

she said, 250 simulations were completed, which reproduced the first 2 hours after the asteroid strike. The researchers used all available information about NASA's operation. These included the predicted shape of the more photos data on the strike itself, as well as the size of the cloud. The crash left behind in addition, the team aimed to estimate unknown details about the asteroid and the surrounding area. Then what we did is check which of the simulation run outcomes most closely match, obs

erved reality. Roger Khan said. She added that results of the research provided clear evidence that the crash turned the more force into a relatively weak rubble pile. Asteroid Roger Khan explained. This meant that the object is currently being held together by the asteroid's extremely weak gravity rather than a solid and strong mass. The research year noted that the results of the simulation and the team's examinations partly explain why the crash was so effective in changing the path of the as

teroid, Roger Khan said. The results also persuaded the team that the likelihood is that the crater grew to encompass the entire body itself, so that more force ended up being completely reshaped. It is therefore unlikely that a crater still exists after the crash. The researchers said the existence of a crater can be investigated further by a European space agency, ESA spacecraft. The spacecraft, called Hara, is preparing for a possible launch in October. ESA says Haras cameras and instruments

will carry out detailed studies of the Morpheus and the asteroid it orbits. Did Imo's. During the operation, the spacecraft will aim to collect the most data yet on such an asteroid system. I'm Brian Lin. Brian Lin is with me now to talk more about the Science Report. Thanks for being here, Brian. Of course, Dan, Glad to be here. This week's report describes new research related to NASA's planetary defense test mission. We learned that mission likely reshaped the targeted asteroid more than expe

cted. How are these results likely to affect similar NASA's missions in the future? Yes, as you mentioned, the researchers who carried out the study said they think the evidence is strong that the asteroid strike largely reshaped it. And the team said this outcome was important because it shows such crashes can significantly change the makeup of these objects. The NASA team had expected the strike would only leave a crater. So the idea that it was fully changed will certainly lead NASA's to make

some adjustments in its own future asteroid related missions. And the researchers noted this same asteroid system will be explored in a future European Space Agency mission. What more can you tell us about that? So, yes, that mission will involve ESA's Hera spacecraft, which has a target launch date for this October. And if the launch does happen, then it will take another two years for Hera to reach the asteroid system. But the leaders of that mission made clear this latest study has been very

helpful to them in planning Hera's flight. They say the research has given them ideas for more things to look out for and also what specific observations to make. Okay, Thanks again for joining me, Brian. You're welcome. Thank you. Dan. VOA Learning English has launched a new program for children. It is called Let's Learn English With Honor. The new course aims to teach children American English through asking and answering questions and experiencing fun situations. For more information, visit

our website. Learning English taught VOA News.com. Hello, my name is Ana Mateo. My name is Andrew Smith and my name is Jill Robbins. You're listening to The Lesson of the Day on the Learning English Podcast. Welcome to the part of the show where we help you do more with our series, Let's Learn English. This series shows Anna Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. In a recent Lesson of the Day podcast, we talked about Ana going to the store to buy food for a dinner party in Lesson 39, whi

ch is called. It's unbelievable. We see Ana shopping online. She sees an advertisement on television and as you can imagine, learns an important lesson about advertising. Winter weather in Washington, D.C. can be really windy and wind messes up my hair. It is really windy today. Oh, look at my hair. Will it be windy this weekend? I'll listen to the news. I. I am tired of my untidy hair. Are you tired of your untidy hair? Yes. Yes, I am. And it's uncomfortable. And uncomfortable. Yes. Yes, it is.

Hey, is that cute? Hi. I'm Pete, and I have the perfect product for you hair. Be good. Just spray hair. Be good on your hair. Wrap in a towel and you are done. Hair be good works and it's inexpensive. One can costs only $10. So go online and order your hair. Be good today. Hair be good. Sounds perfect. And I can trust Pete. I am buying some right now. Okay. I will order one can of hair. Be good for $10. I'll pay with a credit card. My delivery will arrive in two days. Awesome. We should add tha

t in. Let's learn English. You can find lesson plans with many activities and explanations like the ones we give you in this podcast. For example, there is a pronunciation practice video about the feeling Ayana describes for her untidy hair. One of the new words in this lesson can cause problems for English learners. That word is uncomfortable and it's opposite comfortable. When you say this word, you do not pronounce some of the letters that you see in the written word. In this lesson, you hear

Ana say that her hair is uncomfortable. Are you tired of your untidy hair? Yes. Yes, I am. And it's uncomfortable and comfortable. Uncomfortable. Hey, that sounds like one of those reduced forms we've been teaching in some of our earlier podcasts. Yeah. Are you happy? It wouldn't be a lesson of the day without a reduced form. That's right. Let's listen to more of the story. I want to find out if the hair product helps Ana fix her hair. I'll use it before I go to work. Okay. Hair. Be good. Make

my untidy hair tidy. No, Make it fabulous. Oh, hi, Ana. Hello, Amelia. Ana, you look different. Thanks. I used a new product called Hair B. Good. Well, it's not. It's not what? Good. Your hair does not look good. Oh. Oh, no. This is not good. Why don't you go home and take care of this? Good idea. Listeners, we need to describe for you now how Ana's hair looks in the video. It's standing up straight from her head in all different directions. You could say it's even more untidy than it was before

. It looks very strange. Now you can guess that Ana will be very unhappy with Pete when she meets him on her way home from work. Let's listen. Hi, Ana. Hello, Pete. Is something wrong? This is wrong. What did you do to your hair? Hair? Be good. Did this to my hair. Oh, you bought it? Yes, I bought it. You said in your ad it was a perfect product. This is not perfect. This is imperfect. It's unbelievable. I believed your ad, Pete. It was just honest. I hope this doesn't damage their friendship. A

nd by the way, you probably figured out that untidy means not neat. In this lesson, you hear Ana use adjectives with negative prefixes. Prefixes are those little to or three letter pieces that come before a word and change its meaning. The prefixes in this lesson are the letters I in in the letters U and on the letters de-ice. This. And the letters. I am him. Hey, we had an example of this in our previous podcasts when we talked about Ana and the guy from the country disagreeing. That's true. We

did. And like I said before, Ana is really unhappy with Pete because she believed his TV ad. She didn't know it was a dishonest ad, one that was not really telling the truth. So it was unbelievable. Thanks, Jill, for those examples of how those prefixes give the opposite meaning to an adjective. Like when Ana tells Pete that the product in his advertisement does not work. Yes, I bought it. You said in your ad it was a perfect product. This is not perfect. This is imperfect. In this example, imp

erfect means the opposite of perfect. The prefix is I am or im. I suppose our listeners are wondering why there are so many prefixes to make the meaning opposite. Dr. Jill, do you have a linguistic explanation for that? Of course I do. One reason is that English words were borrowed from several different languages. One of them is German. Words from German use a prefix UN or U.N., and a lot of words come to us from Latin through other languages like French. Those words from Latin use the prefix i

n or in OC. But what about the other prefixes like I am as an imperfect Perfect comes from Latin, doesn't it? Yes, but the prefix in or I in changes to m, or I am before adjectives that begin with p, b, and m, as in impossible and imperfect. So there it changes because of the sound of the next letter. That makes sense. There are some important words that take the I am m like import immunized in mortal and important do. There are two other prefix sound changes like that. The prefix in I in chang

es to i l or il before the letter l as in illiterate or not able to read. That's right. If you are literate, you can read. And if you are illiterate, you cannot read that prefix. Also gives us words like illegal and illogical. And isn't there one more prefix? I r ior the letters i n in changes to ere the four words that begin with r as in irresponsible, which means careless. Right. So we get irregular and irrelevant. But let's get back to our story. Will Honore forgive Pete? Kind of. You don't b

elieve everything we see in ads, do you know, Pete? Just the ones with my friends. Your hair will be okay. Just watch it a couple of times. Thanks. Thanks a lot, Pete. Here, here's your product. You should call it hair. Be really, really bad. Until next time, Pete. Till next time. I found out. I guess it will take a little time for her to forgive him. But she's learned not to believe everything she sees on television. That gives me an idea, Andrew. Let's ask our listeners to write to us about so

me advertising they learned that was not 100% true. Write to us at learning English at VOA News.com. Or in the comments on our YouTube video. And here's a useful vocabulary word for our listeners. An advertisement. That is very untrue. We call that a scam. S c. A m. So perhaps you have encountered some scams, but hopefully not. And whether you find us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WAM or on our website. Learning English. Dot VOA News.com. We hope you have enjoyed the lesson of the day on the

Learning English podcast. And thanks for listening. I'm Dr. Jill. And I'm Andrew Smith. And that's our program for today. Join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak.