VOA慢速英语阅读稿
VOA慢速英语阅读
From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture(农业的）Report.Climate change has caused a rise in sea levels. This has increased the amount of salt in fresh water used on coastal farms. As a result farmers are increasingly unable to use fields close to the sea.Scientists call this process "salinization（盐渍化）." The term（术语）comes from the word "saline" （生理盐水）-- which means a mixture of salt and water. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says salinization is reducing the world's irrigated lands by 1 to 2 percent every year. Irrigation is the process of supplying land with fresh water from other areas.As saline water cannot be used for irrigation, a farm in Netherlands has managed to grow healthy and tasty vegetables in soil irrigated with salt water.But a farmer in the Netherlands is now using a mixture of sea and fresh water to grow healthy and tasty vegetables.Marc Van Rijsselberghe started with an experiment. He put several kinds of plants in saline."We put in a lot of plants in the fields and then we put in, put them in fresh water and in sea water and all the varieties between it, and then we see which variety is surviving and which variety is dying."Mr. Van Rijsselberghe worked on the project with scientists from the Free University of Amsterdam. He divided a farm into eight irrigated areas. Separate pipes pumped fresh and sea water, and a computer program created water with eight levels of salinity."And then computer says ‘go' and then it goes to the fields and dripping irrigation starts to work and we are going to kill plants. That's it."Computerized measuring devices called "sensors" controlled the water levels and the levels of salinity. Mr. Van Rijsselberghe says he was able to harvest vegetables from most of the eight test areas. He says the vegetables were smaller than those grown in fresh water. But he says they also have more sugar and salt, so they taste better."It's a miracle. I mean, it shouldn't be a carrot, it should be dying if we look at the datas that are available in the world at the moment."The farmer grew carrots, cabbage, onions and beetroot. But he found that potatoes grew better than the other vegetables in the combination of sea and fresh water. Mr. Van Rijsselberghe says four kinds of these potatoes were recently sent to Pakistan, where thousands of hectares of land have been damaged by salinization. Farmers in Pakistan will test the Dutch potatoes to see if they can be grown in those fields.And that's the VOA Learning English. For more agriculture and environment stories, go to our website . I'm Caty Weaver.。
voa慢速英语听力原文
美国劳动之歌Most of the world observes Labor Day on May 1. Butthe United States has its workers holiday on the firstMonday in September. Steve Ember and BarbaraKlein have a few songs from the history of theAmerican labor movement.Labor songs are traditionally stories of struggle and pride, of timeless demands for respect and the hopefor a better life.Sometimes they represent old songs with new words. One example is "We Shall Not Be Moved."It uses the music and many of the same words of an old religious song.Here is folksinger Pete Seeger with "We Shall Not Be Moved."Many classic American labor songs came from workers in the coal mines of the South. Mineowners bitterly opposed unions. In some cases, there was open war between labor activistsand coal mine operators.Once, in Harlan County, Kentucky, company police searched for union leaders. They went to oneman's home but could not find him there. So they wai ted outsi de for several days.The coal miner's wife, Florence Reece, remained inside with her children. She wrote this song, "Which Side Are Y ou On?"Again, here is Pete Seeger.Probably the most famous labor songwriter in America was Joe Hill. He was born in Sweden andcame to the United States in the early 1900s. H e worked as an unskilled lab orer.Joe Hill joined the Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies. More than any otherunion, they used music in their campaigns, urgi ng members to "si ng and fi ght."One of Joe Hill's best-known songs is "Casey Jones." It uses the music from a song about atrain engineer. In the old song, Casey Jones is a hero. He bravely keeps his train running in verydifficult conditions.In Joe Hill's version, Casey Jones is no hero. His train is unsafe. Y et he stays on the job afterother workers have called a strike against the railroad company.Pete Seeger and the Song Swappers sing "Casey Jones (The Union Scab)."Another American labor song is called "Bread and Roses." That term was connected with thewomen's labor movement.The song was based on a poem called "Bread and Roses" by James Oppenheim. The poem waspublished in The American Magazine in December of 1911.The following month there was a famous strike by textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts.They won higher pay and better working conditions. Oppenheim's poem gainedmore attention.At that time, conditions in factories were already a national issue. In 1911, a fire at a clothingfactory in New Y ork had taken the lives of 146 people. The victims were mostly immigrantwomen.Here is Pat Humphries with "Bread and Roses."Union activists know that labor songs can unite and help people feel strong. This can be trueeven when the music has nothing to do with unions."De Colores" is a popular Spanish folksong. It talks about fields in the spring, little birds,rainbows and the great loves of many colors.This song is popular with supporters of the United Farm Workers union. We listen as BaldemarV elasquez leads the band Aguila Negra in "De Colores."For many years, folksinger Joe Glazer was a union activist with a guitar. He was also a laborhistorian. Labor's Troubadour was the name of a book he about his life. He believed in organized labor and preserving the musical history of the American labor movement. JoeGlazer died in 2006 at the age of 88.Here is Joe Glazer with "Solidarity Forever," written by Ralph Chaplin.From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。
外刊阅读VOA慢速英语《超级老人拥有年轻的大脑》
超级老人拥有年轻的大脑Super-agers Have Young BrainsAs we age,our ability to think and remember starts to deteriorate.随着年龄的增长，我们的思考和记忆能力开始衰退。
But not everyone.但并非所有人都如此。
Some of us have brains that age more slowly.有些人大脑衰老的速度会慢一些。
Enter the super-ager!也就是超级老人!Super-agers are people over the age of80who have the brain structures and abilities of much younger people.超级老人是指80岁以上却有着年轻人的大脑结构和机能的人。
Eighty-seven-year-old Bill Gurolnick is a super-ager.87岁的比尔·古洛尼克就是一位超级老人。
"What do I feel like?If I was to give a number,I probably feel like I'm about my early70s..."“我感觉怎么样?如果用数字形容，我觉得我大概是70岁……”Scientists know that parts of the brain decrease in size with age.But in super-agers that process is much slower.科学家们知道大脑的某些部分随着年龄的增长而缩小。
但对于超级老人，这个过程要慢得多。
Emily Rogalski is a neuroscientist at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine,in Chicago,Illinois. In a recent study,she showed that super-agers have young brains.The area of the brain responsible for attention and memory--the cortex--was shown to be thicker in super-agers.艾米丽·罗加尔斯基是美国伊利诺斯州芝加哥市西北大学范伯格医学院的神经科学家。
VOA慢速英语文字
OneDEVELOPMENT REPORT- UN Study Says Gains Would Outweigh Cost to End Child LaborBy Jill MossThis is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report.The International Labor Organization says child labor limits economic development. It says educating children instead of forcing them to work would create huge gains for developing countries. The International Labor Organization is part of the United Nations. The agency proposes that child labor be substituted with education by two-thousand-twenty.A three-year study by the agency compared the costs against the gains from ending child labor. Researchers found that paying for education in developing nations could bring seven times the return on investment.The researchers also note the other gains that would come from removing the worst forms of child labor. Ending slavery and the sale of children for sex would reduce injuries and sickness.The International Labor Organization estimates that about two-hundred-fifty-million children are involved in child labor. Of these, it says one out of every eight may be working with dangerous chemicals, breathing poisons or selling sex.The cost to replace child labor with education is estimated at seven-hundred-sixty-thousand-million dollars. But the U-N agency says the project should be seen as a long-term investment. It says the costs would be higher than returns mostly during the first fifteen years. For example, poor families would have to live at first without the wages earned by their children.To help balance this problem, the labor agency proposes that governments provide financial help to poor families with school-age children. Several nations including Brazil and Mexico already have support programs in place. The study says governments would also need to invest in new schools, books, equipment, and teacher training.Juan Somavia is the director general of the International Labor Organization. He says the proposal is not only a good social policy, but also a wise economic plan. He says each additional year of education for an older child adds eleven percent per year to future earnings.The labor agency says all parts of the world would gain by ending child labor. The study estimates that countries in North Africa and the Middle East would gain more than eight dollars for every one dollar invested. Asian countries would gain more than seven dollars for every dollar invested. And Latin American countries would gain over five dollars.This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen.TwoDEVELOPMENT REPORT - Poor Nutrition in the Developing WorldBy Jill MossI'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report.A new World Bank report warns that children who do not get enough good food in the first two years of life suffer lasting damage. They may be underdeveloped or under weight. They may suffer from poor health or limited intelligence. In addition, poorly nourished children are more likely to drop out of school and earn less money as adultsThe report is called "Repositioning Nutrition as Central to Development." It notes that too little food is not the only cause of poor nutrition. Many children who live in homes with plenty of food suffer for other reasons. For example, the study says that mothers often fail to give their newly born babies their first breast milk. This milk-like substance is called colostrum. It is full of nutrients that improve a baby's ability to fight infections and disease.Severely malnourished children in Niger (WFP photo) The study also links malnutrition to economic growth in poor countries. A lack of nutrition in early childhood can cost developing nations up to three percent of their yearly earnings. Many of these same countries have economies that are growing at a rate of two to three percent yearly. The study suggests that poor countries could possibly double their economic growth if they improved nutrition.Africa and South Asia are affected the most by poor nutrition. The study says about half of all children in India do not get enough good food. The World Bank study also notes that rates of malnutrition in South Asia are almost double those in central and southern Africa. Other parts of the world are also severely affected, including Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Guatemala and Peru.The study recommends that developing countries change their policies to deal with malnutrition. Instead of directly providing food, the study suggests educational programs in health and nutrition for mothers with young babies. It also recommends cleaner living conditions and improvements in health care.World Bank nutrition specialist Meera Shekar was the lead writer for the report. She said theperiod of life between pregnancy and two years is extremely important. Governments with limited resources should take direct action to improve nutrition for children during this period.This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are online at I'm Steve Ember.ThreeAGRICULTURE REPORT- Raising Chickens——By Gary GarriottThis is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.Raising chickens or other birds for their eggs and meat is a popular family and business activity almost everywhere in the world. The birds eat grain, seeds and grasses. They also eat small pieces of food that people throw away. Many of these materials would be wasted if the birds did not eat them. Chicken eggs and meat contain high quality protein and other substances important in the human diet.For many centuries, chickens were allowed to run free to find food for themselves. Then people used fences to keep small groups of birds from running away. After the chickens were kept inside a fence, people had to provide food for them.Early in the last century, raising flocks of thousands of birds became a successful business for many people. But the size of these flocks caused some serious problems, including pollution caused by chicken waste.Disease is one of the biggest problems in large flocks. The birds are kept close together all the time. So if one bird becomes sick, the sickness spreads. All the chickens in a flock can die from a serious disease. Avian flu, for example, can in some cases also spread to humans.Diseases that affect chickens are different in different areas of the world. One current example in Asia is an outbreak of avian flu in South Korea. Troops have been helping to kill and bury chickens and ducks that became infected at farms in North Chungcheong Province.To help prevent disease, experts advise these steps: Feed the birds a balanced diet. This will help them resist infections. Do not add adult birds to your flocks. If you must add adult birds, keep them separate from the flock for five to fifteen days to make sure they are healthy.Cover the floor of the buildings where the chickens are kept with material like straw, rice husks or sawdust. Change this material often.After you sell the chickens, completely empty the building where they were kept. Clean and wash the building. Then leave it empty for four weeks before putting in new chickens.Diseases affecting birds are not simple to understand and treat, so expert medical advice is important. You can get more information about caring for chickens and other birds fromV olunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at v-i-t-a dot o-r-g.This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Steve EmberFourECONOMICS REPORT - Holiday ShoppingThis is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report.About two-thirds of the economic activity in the United States is created by people who spend money -- consumers. And much of that activity is created this time of year, as consumers buy gifts for Christmas and other holidays. Government economists say big department stores make about fourteen percent of their sales in the month of December. That may not seem like a lot. But December sales are almost twice the monthly average for the rest of the year.The holiday shopping season traditionally starts the day after Thanksgiving. It is called Black Friday. Storekeepers used to record profits in black ink and losses in red ink. So being "in the black" on the Friday after Thanksgiving means a good thing, a return to profit.But it also means that people face crowded stores, which is the other idea of a "Black Friday,"a day they do not like. It used to be the busiest shopping day of the year. In recent years the busiest day has been the Saturday before Christmas.People who do not like crowded stores have another choice. Americans are buying more on the Internet. The Census Bureau says they bought almost fourteen-thousand-million dollars in goods online in the last three months of last year. Still, that was less than two percent of total retail sales.The National Retail Federation said it expected holiday sales in the United States to increase by five-point-seven percent over last year. The trade group said it expected sales of abouttwo-hundred-seventeen-thousand-million dollars.Another group, the Conference Board, measures how consumers feel about the economy. In November it said its Consumer Confidence Index increased by ten points, to eighty. That was good news for sellers. But it is still below the starting level of one-hundred set innineteen-eighty-five.Holiday shopping is also important to the stock market. Last week, the Commerce Department said retail sales were higher than expected in November. That report helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average to close above ten-thousand for the first time in eighteen months. Last Friday, though, the University of Michigan released its consumer confidence report. The first report for December showed an unexpected decrease in current conditions.This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty.FiveECONOMICS REPORT-The Dow Jones Industrial Average——By Mario RitterThis is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Doctors always measure the heartbeat of a patient when examining the patient's health. The heartbeat of America's stock markets is the Dow Jones Industrial Average（道琼斯工业平均指数）.No other measure of stock value is as widely known. Sometimes it is simply called the Dow. It is published by the Dow Jones Company, an influential publisher of international financial news.The Dow Jones Company is a product of Wall Street, the area in New York City that is the financial center of the United States. Three reporters, Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser, started the company in eighteen-eighty-two. At first, they published a handwritten newsletter for financial workers. It was very successful. By eighteen-eighty-nine, the newsletter became the Wall Street Journal newspaper.The Dow Jones Company began publishing the Dow Jones Industrial Average ineighteen-ninety-six. The list had twelve stocks. It represented the biggest industries in the American economy at the time. Today, the Dow lists thirty stocks. They are often called"blue-chip" stocks（蓝筹股）. These stocks represent an ownership share in companies that are considered strong. These well known companies include Coca-Cola, Eastman Kodak, McDonald's and General Electric.When you read the Dow Jones Industrial Average, you quickly see that it is not the average price of thirty stocks. For example, the Dow recently increased to more than ten-thousand for the first time in more than eighteen months. Ten-thousand does not seem like the average price of thirty stocks.In fact, the Dow Jones Industrial Average does not represent a price but a mathematical average. When the Dow goes up, it gains points, not dollars.The Dow Jones uses what is called a flexible divisor to keep changes in individual stock prices from affecting the whole average too much. The Dow system generally divides stock prices by the flexible divisor. The result is the number we see in newspapers and on television news reports.Today, the Dow is just one of many stock averages. The Standard and Poor's Five-Hundred Index averages five-hundred stocks. Still others measure foreign stock exchanges.While stock averages are good research tools, many people consider them the heartbeat of finance. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter.SixTeen Taught by Mom Wins Top Science CompetitionWritten by Nancy Steinbach I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Education Report.A sixteen-year-old boy from California (加利福尼亚, 加州) has won first prize in the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology. Michael Vis cardi of San Diego does not go to high school. His mother teaches him at home.His mother has a doctorate in neuroscience (神经系统科学( 指神经病学、神经化学等)); hisfather is a software engineer.Michael does, however, attend advanced math classes at the University of Californ ia, San Diego. He worked on his project with his professor.The project involved a mathematical problem first developed in the nineteenth cen tury by the French mathematician Lejeune Dirichlet. The winning research shows soluti ons to the problem. One of the judges said the young man’s work could lead to new developments in heat flow and other areas of physics. One possible use is in designing the shape of airplane wings (飞翼).The Siemens Westinghouse competition awards a top prize of one hundred thousa nd dollars for college to one individual and one team. The team prize this year went t o two students from Arizona (亚利桑那州), Anne Lee and Albert Shieh. They will sha re one hundred thousand dollars in college money.They improved computer programs used to study large amounts of genetic inform ation. The two did their work at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoe nix (菲尼克斯), Arizona Their research could lead to finding genetic changes that caus e some disorders.The Siemens Foundation joined with the College Board and six universities to sta rt the competition in nineteen ninety-eight. This year, more than one thousand six hund red students took part.Experts from the universities judge competitions in six areas of the country. The i ndividual and team winners from those areas then compete nationally. They demonstrate(示范) their research projects to a group of university professors and scientists. The to p winners were chosen last week.The Siemens Foundation created the competition to improve student performance i n math and science in the United States. It is open to American high school students who develop independent research projects in the physical or biological (生物学) scienc es or mathematics.This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Inte rnet users can read and listen to our reports at . I’m Faith Lapidus.SevenDevelopment Report – YoungPeople Are Subject of World Population DayWritten by Jill MossThis is the VOA Special English Development Report.The world has more than six thousand million people. Almost half are under the age oftwenty-five. This year's World Population Day on July eleventh dealt with the subject of young people and the problems many face. Poverty, crime, barriers to education and jobs, AIDS -- the list goes on.A message from the United Nations secretary-general said the lives ofyoung people are shaped by forces beyond their control. Yet today'syoung people also know more about the lives led by others their agearound the world. Kofi Annan says as a result many are demandingaction to narrow the divide between rich and poor.He says there is a clear need to answer the calls for measures to improve the lives of all. He says information and services related tosexual and reproductive health are especially important for youth empowerment. He noted that these are often overlooked.Kofi Annan says providing for young people is not just a moral duty, but an economic necessity.The United Nations Population Fund has estimated that about half of all unemployed people are between fifteen and twenty-four years old. And it says many young people who do find work are World population is expected to grow by more than 40 percent by 2050trapped in low-wage jobs with few chances to learn skills.The Youth Employment Summit Campaign was launched in two thousand two. This ten-year campaign known as YES aims to create programs and polices that lead to more jobs. Young activists lead the campaign with support from the U.N. Population Fund and other organizations.The next world meeting of the YES Campaign will be held in September in Kenya. About two thousand representatives, from more than one hundred twenty countries, are expected to attend. Half will be young people.The International Labor Organization says people younger than sixteen should not work. But the I.L.O. also says it recognizes this is not a lways possible. A family’s economic survival may depend on the labor of its younger members.Still, the U.N. agency reported in May that child labor has decreased worldwide for the first time. The levels fell by an estimated eleven percent between two thousand and two thousand four. The report said the end of child labor is within reach. And it called on countries to work to end the worst forms of child labor within ten years.With the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss, this is Shep O'Neal.。
VOA慢速英语 英语阅读好帮手
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.Getting a job can be especially difficult for someone with a prison record. So a prison training program in the American Northwest prepares women to start their own businesses.(SOUND)The program is called Lifelong Information for Entrepreneurs, or LIFE. The training combines business and social skills. The women learn how to manage their time, set goals and settle conflicts peacefully.Saresa Whitley is serving five years for assault at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, a women's prison in Oregon. She has a job waiting for her when she is released in January. But she also plans to start a small business with the knowledge gained from the months of class.SARESA WHITLEY: "When I was talking about knowing if my business is viable or not, through a profit-and-loss model, I was like …Wow, I didn‟t even know the word viable before, and now I do.‟ I‟ve learned a lot, I‟ve learned a lot about how to write a business plan, about effective communications s kills, how to listen, something I didn‟t know how to do before.”Cynthia Thompson is serving time for stealing someone's identity. She says the lessons learned in the program are important not just for the inmates, but also the communities they will re-enter.CYNTHIA THOMPSON: “I think the goal of it is to produce people that are being part of the community, paying their taxes and being volunteers. Not just necessarily successful small businesses, but just successful, accountable people in the community.”MercyCorps Northwest started the training program four years ago. MercyCorps is an international development organization. Doug Cooper is assistant director of MercyCorps Northwest.DOUG COOPER: "We were looking for ways that we could apply our expertise around economic development and small business management to populations that could use it. It's identical to what we do internationally, except we apply it here in Oregon and Washington."MercyCorps Northwest has just started a LIFE program at a women‟s prison in Washington state. Doug Cooper says he hopes the idea will spread to prisons throughout the country.The group says just three of the one hundred graduates of its training program have returned to prison. Graduates of the LIFE program have started businesses like cutting hair and selling goods at farmers markets.One woman who served time for theft now runs an automobile repair business. Lori does not want her last name used. She says she worries what people might think if they knew she had been inprison. Lori stayed in contact with a MercyCorps mentor after she left prison. Together they found answers to questions about running a small business.LORI: “What works, what doesn‟t? And is it worth having a website of your own, and what avenues of advertising can you exploit for free? Those are the type of things that I found invaluable.”And that‟s the VOA Special English Education Report. I'm Christopher Cruise.From:/englishlistening/voaenglish/voaspecialenglish/2011-06-30/147827.html。
voa慢速英语短篇 -回复
voa慢速英语短篇-回复VoA Slow English: The Impact of Climate Change on Wildlife and EcosystemsIntroduction:Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, with far-reaching consequences for both humans and the environment. In recent years, scientists have been studying the impact of climate change on wildlife and ecosystems, and the results are concerning. This article will examine the effects of climate change on various species and habitats, and discuss possible solutions to mitigate the damage.Body:1. How does climate change affect wildlife?Climate change disrupts the natural balance in ecosystems and poses a grave threat to wildlife species. Rising temperatures can force animals to move to cooler regions, causing shifts in their distribution patterns. Some species may not be able to adapt ormigrate quickly enough, leading to habitat loss and potential extinctions.2. What are the consequences for marine life?The world's oceans are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Warming sea temperatures, ocean acidification, and sea-level rise are all impacting marine life. Coral reefs, for example, are suffering from coral bleaching due to higher water temperatures, which can result in the loss of entire ecosystems. Additionally, melting ice in the polar regions threatens the survival of polar bears and other ice-dependent species.3. How does climate change affect forests?Forests are essential habitats for countless species, but they are also at risk due to climate change. Rising temperatures and altered precipitation patterns can increase the frequency and intensity of wildfires, which destroy animal habitats and contribute to deforestation. Furthermore, changes in temperature and rainfall can impact the timing and success of plant reproduction, which affects the availability of food and resources for wildlife.4. What are the effects on migratory birds?Migratory birds rely on predictable weather patterns and food availability during their long-distance journeys. Climate change disrupts these patterns, making it difficult for birds to find suitable breeding and feeding grounds. Changes in springtime temperature and vegetation growth can also lead to a mismatch between peak food availability and bird arrival, causing declines in population size and breeding success.5. How can we protect wildlife and ecosystems?To protect wildlife and ecosystems from the effects of climate change, several strategies need to be implemented. First, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is crucial. This can be achieved through transitioning to renewable energy sources, promoting energy efficiency, and adopting sustainable agricultural practices. Second, protecting and restoring natural habitats is essential to ensure species have suitable areas to thrive and migrate. Finally, creating and promoting national and international cooperation in conservation efforts is necessary to ensure the long-term survivalof wildlife and ecosystems.Conclusion:Climate change poses a significant threat to wildlife and ecosystems around the world. It is imperative that we take immediate action to mitigate its effects. By reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting natural habitats, and fostering global cooperation, we can create a sustainable future for both humans and the incredible diversity of life on our planet. Only through collective efforts can we hope to reverse the devastating impact of climate change on our environment and secure a better future for all.。
VOA慢速英语原文
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Recently the United States Supreme Court decided a big case about political speech. The question was this: With political speech, do corporations have the same rights as people?By a vote of five to four, the conservative majority on the court decided yes. Companies, labor unions and other organizations may now spend as they wish on independent efforts to elect or defeat candidates.The ruling is based on the idea in the United States and many other countries that a corporation is a legal person.Historian Jeff Sklansky says a slow shift to personhood for American companies began with the Supreme Court ruling in eighteen nineteen. It said states cannot interfere with private contracts creating corporations.In the ruling, Chief Justice John Marshall described a corporation as an "artificial being" that is a "creature of the law."The ruling was unpopular. It came as Americans resisted big corporations like the First Bank of the United States, chartered by Congress. Some states passed laws permitting themselves to change or even cancel corporate charters.After the Civil War in the eighteen sixties, the Fourteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution. It provides that no state may "deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law ... " If a corporation is legally a person, then states cannot limit corporate rights without due process of law either.At first, corporations were not fully recognized as persons. But Jeff Sklansky at Oregon State University says that changed.JEFF SKLANSKY: "The general direction of the Supreme Court and the federal courts in general was to recognize corporations as persons with the same Fourteenth Amendment rights as individuals."Yet corporations have a right that real people do not: limited liability. For example, a corporation can face civil or criminal fines and individual lawbreakers can go to jail. But limited liability means the actions of a corporation are not the responsibility of its shareholders.Jeff Sklansky says the nineteenth century development of limited liability helped shape the modern corporation.JEFFREY SKLANSKY: "That is also crucial to allowing corporations a kind of independent personhood and separating ownership from control or ownership from management. So that [the idea is] I can invest in a corporation without becoming liable and for all its debts. That's a really big deal. Without it, anything like the modern stock market, I'd say, is impossible."And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Next week, more on corporations and the law. I'm Steve Ember。
voa慢速英语短篇新闻
voa慢速英语短篇新闻VOA慢速英语短篇新闻通常包含一些简短的故事和新闻，旨在帮助英语学习者提高语言水平。
这些新闻通常涉及日常生活、文化、历史和社会事件等方面，通过慢速的语速和简单的语言，使学习者更容易理解和学习。
以下是一个典型的VOA慢速英语短篇新闻示例：Title: The Power of FriendshipOnce upon a time, there was a young girl named Alice who had a best friend named Bob. They met at school and quickly became inseparable. Alice and Bob shared a love of music and spent many hours playing their guitars together.One day, Alice learned that she would be leaving the city for a few months to visit family. She was very sad and didn't want to leave her friend behind. Before she left, she gave Bob a special gift - an acoustic guitar with their initials on it.When Alice returned, she found that Bob had learned to play theguitar and they could now play together even more than before. The power of their friendship had brought them closer together and made their bond even stronger.这个短篇新闻讲述了一个关于友谊的故事，通过慢速的语速和简单的语言，使学习者能够更容易地理解和学习。
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No.1This is the VOA Special English Education Report.A program in the eastern United States invites young people into a prison to try to scare them away from prison. The goal is to teach them to avoid bad choices and bad influences that could put them behind bars for life.Students can take a tour of the prison, in school groups or by themselves. At the end, the young people sit down for a discussion with some of the inmates.The program is called Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy, or PATT. It takes place at the Maryland Correctional Institution-Hagerstown, a medium-security prison for men. Sal Mauriello is a case specialist there.SAL MAURIELLO: "We have a group of eleven inmates who are in the PATT program. They tellthe youth what they went through as a child, what their crimes consist of. They try to teach them about peer pressure. They try to teach them about bad choices."The Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy program also includes an essay-writing contest. Tomi Dare is a seventeen-year-old student at Hagerstown Community College. Shesaw an announcement for the contest on her college website. To enter, students had to write about peer pressure and why they do not do drugs. The prize: five hundred dollars for school.In her essay, Ms. Dare wrote about her own experience growing up as anAfrican-American girl interested in sports.T OMI DARE: "Drugs and alcohol not only slow a person down, it doesn't make you feel like you are a winner. It doesn't make you feel like you are the best. As an athlete, I'm 6-2 [188 centimeters], so I feel that I should be above peer pressure because I'm bigger than everybody that I’m around."So I was talking about that and I was talking about how I consider myself a queen. Andif I’m royalty, I need to not put substances in my body. Drugs and alcohol are not whata queen should be taking."The scholarship is presented by the Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy program.Prison spokesman Mark Vernarelli says most teens who visit come to understand what even one bad decision can mean.MARK VERNARELLI: "A lot of men and women serving life in prison in the state of Maryland didn't pull a trigger or plunge a knife into anybody. They were accessories to a crime. Theydrove the getaway car. They were with the perpetrator who did the main part of the crime. And yet they got the life sentence as well. "Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy began in nineteen eighty-eight. PATT is one of Maryland's oldest programs to keep young people from a life of crime. But there are also others.MARK VERNARELLI: "We found that girls really need special sit-down sessions sometimes more than the boys do, so we have a program for girls only. We have a program that travels across the state, which talks about the dangers of gang affiliation."We have an excellent program where the inmates actually lead a tour and they have the children eat the meal in the prison cafeteria with the inmates."Mark Vernarelli says the Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy also gain from the program. It offers them a chance to help repay society for their crimes, and keep others from following in their footsteps.And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. I'm Steve Ember.No.2This is the VOA Special English Health Report.An outbreak of cholera in Haiti continues to spread sickness and worry. Health officials are worried that the capital could suffer a major outbreak of the disease.So far most cases in Port-au-Prince have been found in people who arrived in the city already sick. But now health officials have confirmed the first case in a boy who had not left the city for at least a year. And there are other suspected cases in the Haitian capital. Cholera causes diarrhea and vomiting. It robs the body of fluids. People can get cholera if they eat foods or drink liquids containing the bacteria that cause the infection.Cholera is not hard to treat. Basically, patients drink a solution of salt, sugar and water. The problem is that help is not always available quickly. If cholera is not treated, it can kill within hours, especially in people already in weakened conditions.The earthquake in January displaced large numbers of people. It forced them into crowded, dirty conditions in tent camps -- in other words, the perfect environment for cholera.The outbreak in Haiti has already killed several hundred people. The country's last major outbreak of the disease was more than one hundred years ago.Disease-control experts from the United States confirmed the first cases of cholera in Haiti on October twenty-first in the Artibonite area. The outbreak was mostly limited to that area until a powerful storm struck Haiti last Friday.Hurricane Tomas caused heavy rains and flooding and some deaths. The number of cholera cases had been dropping last week but then rose sharply after the storm.Medical workers in Haiti are now trying to spread the message not to use river water without some form of purification. People are being urged to take steps like adding a small amount of bleach to the water or boiling it for at least a full minute.Workers are also struggling to provide clean bottled water and water purification tablets.People are being urged to wash their hands carefully with soap and purified water after using the toilet or changing a baby's diaper. The same advice goes for before eating, and before and after preparing food. If no soap is available, then ash can be used instead. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can read transcripts and download our programs at . We're also on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning English. I’m Faith Lapidus.No.3This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, formerly called the Development Report.Before we changed the name, we went on our Facebook page and asked for story ideas. Some of you suggested that we talk about ICT, information and communication technology.Well, the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency, released its latest ICT Facts and Figures report last week.Since two thousand five, the number of Internet users worldwide has doubled to more than one and a half billion people. At least two billion are expected to be online by the end of this year.The ITU says more than seventy percent of new Internet users this year will be indeveloping countries. Still, only twenty-one percent of the population of the developing world is online -- compared to seventy-one percent in developed countries.Susan Teltscher is head of the agency's Market Information and Statistics Division in Switzerland.SUSAN TELTSCHER: "There are still very huge divides when it comes to accessing the Internet, especially high-speed Internet. In developing countries, you have only one out of five people using the Internet. If we look at certain regions like in Africa, for example, the figures are even lower. In Africa we have not even ten percent of the population using the internet."Less than sixteen percent of homes in developing countries are wired for the Internet. But, on the other hand, Ms. Teltscher says mobile phone usage has reached sixty-eight percent in developing countries.The world has almost seven billion people. Nine out of ten now have access to mobile networks.The ITU estimates that mobile subscriptions will reach five billion three hundred million this year. The majority are in the developing world. And Susan Teltscher says more and more people in developing countries are using their mobile phones to connect to the Internet.SUSAN TELTSCHER: "Because it's so difficult to put in place the cable infrastructure and the fiber infrastructure, the mobile networks really offer a great opportunity for them to connect to the Internet over the wireless networks."Ms. Teltscher says mobile technology is already improving lives in developing countries. She points to examples like banking by phone, e-health services and farm reports by text messaging. And the possibilities will only grow as broadband, or high-speed, connections become more widely available.ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Toure calls broadband "the next truly transformational technology." He also calls it the most powerful tool available in the race to meet the Millennium Development Goals by twenty fifteen.And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. Join us online at or on Facebook or Twitter at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.。