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And learn from a master printer, Lou Stovall in Washington. Transcript of radio broadcast: 31 August 2009

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., you can see a colorful and expressive print called “Revolt on the Amistad.” The small sign next to the work says the artist’s name is Jacob Lawrence.

And he did design the image. But who made the print? Today, we answer that question as we explore the world of printmaking. Then, we visit the expert printmaker who made this work of art.

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VOICE ONE:

To make a print, an artist creates an original image with a form made of wood, metal or plastic. The artist reproduces prints of this original image using liquid colors and paper. There are many methods of printmaking. Often prints are numbered to show how many were made in the edition or series.

The oldest form of printmaking is the woodcut. Woodcut prints may have been used in the Middle East as early as the fifth century to make cloth designs. They were also used starting around the ninth century in China to print documents.

VOICE TWO:

As you might have guessed, woodcut prints are made out of wood. The printmaker first draws an image onto a smooth piece of wood. Then he or she cuts away pieces from the surface.

When the wood has been cut, liquid color called ink is painted onto the surface. It is then pressed on a piece of paper. The areas the printmaker cut away will be lower on the surface of the wood. These parts do not get any ink. But the raised part of the wood does receive the color. A different piece of cut wood is used for every color in the final image. This is called an indirect method because the ink is put on the cut form before it goes on the paper.

VOICE ONE:

This method of printmaking became popular in Europe in the sixteenth century. Woodcuts were also a widely used artistic form in Japan from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Japanese prints from this period were called ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world.”

Many of these images showed natural scenes of the Japanese countryside. Others showed pictures of city life including popular actors, fat sumo wrestlers, and beautiful women. These prints were popular with the middle class people living in towns. Because the prints were mass-produced and not original works, they were not costly. People could own artwork for a reasonable price.

These ukiyo-e prints had a great influence on many artists in Europe during the nineteenth century. Painters like Edgar Degas and Vincent Van Gogh used the sharp lines and off-centered look of these prints in their paintings.

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VOICE TWO:

Lithography is another form of printing. Lithos comes from the Greek word for stone. The artist draws an image with oily ink onto a piece of stone or other flat surface. Next, the stone is covered with a chemical mixture. This chemical will fix the painted image into the stone. When printing begins, the stone is kept wet and then covered with oily ink. The area where the original image was drawn will then attract the oily printer’s ink. But the blank areas will reject the ink and will instead attract water. This method works because oil and water do not mix.

VOICE ONE:

The lithographic process was invented in the late eighteenth century by the German writer Aloys Senefelder. Mister Senefelder wanted to find a low-cost way to reproduce his plays. But he soon realized the artistic possibilities of his lithographic printing method.

French artists in the nineteenth century became very interested in using lithography. For example, the French artists Honore Daumier and later Henri Toulouse Lautrec were masters of this process. They would draw directly on
the stone and a printmaker would do the rest of the work. Lithography is used commercially as well. Picture books, newspapers and packaging all over the world are printed using this process.

VOICE TWO:

Etching is yet another printing process. With this method, the printmaker cuts or etches an image onto a piece of metal. The artist uses a fine sharp knife to cut through the metal. This metal form is chemically treated before being covered with ink and then pressed onto paper.

Some artists like this process because they can draw on the metal as easily as if they were using a writing pen. Experts say the greatest artist ever to use this method was Rembrandt. This Dutch artist lived in the seventeenth century. The detailed perfection of his etchings of nature and religious stories is extraordinary.

VOICE ONE:

Finally, we come to a more modern form of printmaking called silkscreen printing. This method is based on the stencil. A stencil is a thin sheet of metal or plastic out of which a design has been cut.

With silkscreen printing, a stencil is attached to a fine piece of stretched silk or nylon cloth. Under the cloth and stencil is a piece of paper. Liquid paint is passed over the cloth and stencil. The paint goes through the open areas of the stencil cut out onto the paper. For every color in the print, the printmaker makes a different stencil. Of all the printing forms we have described, silkscreen is the only direct method. This means the ink goes directly onto the paper.

Andy Warhol was one artist who made silkscreen prints famous in the nineteen sixties. He made prints with subjects like movie stars and soup cans.

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VOICE TWO:

The Workshop is on a quiet tree-filled street in Washington, D.C. This is where well-known master printmaker Lou Stovall makes his art. Let us go back to the “Revolt on the Amistad” print we told about at the beginning of this story.

LOU STOVALL: “The artist is Jacob Lawrence and the silkscreen print maker is myself, Lou Stovall. The image depicts the revolt on the Spanish slave ship “La Amistad”, the action of the fight…you see the swaying ropes, the roiling water. It gives you a real sense of a fight, the drama that’s involved. And that’s one of the things Jacob was noted for. His level of expression is so profound that even with a few strokes, he can pick up the action and show it to you”.

VOICE ONE:

Lou Stovall makes prints for many artists. They come to him with an original image they have created. Then, Stovall uses his artistic skills to translate that work into a print version. It is important that he work to remain true to the spirit of the original work. He makes very careful decisions about color, shape and line so that he can make the best print possible. Some of his silkscreen prints are so detailed it is hard to believe they are not paintings.

VOICE TWO:

Lou Stovall’s studio is large and very organized. The walls are covered with prints, signs and photographs. One whole wall contains his music collection. A large silkscreen table sits in another area of the room.

Nearby, many shelf surfaces hold recently made prints so that they can dry before other colors are added. Stovall has been working in this studio for more than thirty years. He has taught the silkscreen method to many other artists.

VOICE ONE:

Lou Stovall also makes his own artwork here. Sometimes he makes detailed drawings of flowers and nature. He says he likes the cleanliness of ink drawing on paper. He often makes his drawn images into a series of prints. One of his prints is called “For Ascending Larks.” It is a circular image with many layers of flying birds. His idea for the original drawing came from a piece of music by the English composer Ralph Vaughn-Williams. Listen as Lou Stovall tells about this music and the meaning of his picture.

LOU STOVALL: “The name of the work was ‘The Lark Ascending,’ which I thought was probably one of the most beautiful pieces of music I had ever heard. It inspired me to make a drawing which was a flock of varied birds which represented mankind and humanity. So, it’s every shape, size color description of bird that I could think of. I think there are roughly twelve birds in the entire image. I dedicated it to the hunger movement so that we would recognize world hunger and try to do something about it.”

VOICE TWO:

Not all of Lou Stovall’s art shows recognizable subjects. Some prints look like layers of colorful spills of paint. These “monoprints” are not planned out in the same way as his other works. He says it is exciting to make this kind of expressive print.

VOICE ONE:

Lou Stovall’s prints and artwork can be found in museums and private collections all over America. Some of his art is sold in galleries. Other times, collectors buy his art directly from him. But Lou Stovall says money is not the main reason he makes art. He says there is a magic that happens when creating art. And he says the most important reason artists make their work is to share it with the world.

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VOICE TWO:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

Glass artist Tim Tate makes art with a message of healing. Transcript of radio broadcast: 15 September 2009

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, you can see a large heart-shaped sculpture made of blown glass. The deep red colored heart is topped with a burning flame also made of glass. It is called the “Sacred Heart of Healing” and was made by the artist Tim Tate. How did he make this interesting glass form? Today we answer this question as we explore the art of making glass.

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VOICE ONE:

Throughout history, people from cultures around the world have been making glass. People first found and used glass made by nature. For example, lightning can create tubes of glass when it strikes sand that has the right combination of minerals. Glass pieces produced by lightning are called fulgurites.

Obsidian is a kind of black glass formed when the heat of a volcano melts the silica material in sand. Ancient cultures broke off pieces of obsidian to make knives and weapons such as arrows. The ancient Aztec civilization in current day Mexico used obsidian for making hunting tools and jewelry. The Aztecs made extremely sharp knives and weapons from obsidian. This is one reason experts say they never developed the use of metal.

VOICE TWO:

Glass is considered a physical state of matter. It may look solid, but it is a liquid as well. This is because glass has the hardness of crystal materials while also having a disordered arrangement of molecules like a liquid.

The chemical quality of glass is what makes up its color. Impurities in glass such as iron can give it a green or brown color. Adding chemicals to the glass can give it different color intensities and effects. For example, adding copper to glass can make it blue, while adding tin can make it white.

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VOICE ONE:

It is hard to say exactly when humans first started making glass. The Roman historian Pliny said that Phoenician sailors accidentally discovered how to make glass over three thousand years ago. The sailors landed on a beach and started a cooking fire near some containers of the mineral natron. The next day, they realized that the sand and natron under the fire had melted then cooled into glass. Other experts say glass making first started four to five thousand years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, present day Iraq and Syria.

VOICE TWO:

One of the earliest methods developed for making glass containers is called core-forming. A glassmaker places a rounded piece of clay material on the end of a long metal stick. Once the clay dries, the glassmaker dips the form in a container of hot liquid glass until it is covered. The artist can then add a second color of glass to make designs over the first layer of glass. Once the glass form cools completely, it is taken off the metal stick. The clay inside is carefully cut out to form a glass container.

VOICE ONE:

Another ancient method of making glass that is still used today is called casting. Casting involves making a clay form in which the shape of the glass container is carved. Then, the artist puts small pieces of glass material inside of the clay form. When it is cooked at a very high temperature, the glass pieces melt and take the shape of the clay form. Once the solid glass object cools, an artist uses special tools to carve an opening in the container.

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VOICE TWO:

But it was another method of making glass –the blown glass method– that changed the glass industry of the ancient world. It was first developed in the Roman Empire about two thousand years ago. This new technology made glass production faster and less costly. A glass container made by casting or core-forming could take a few days to make. With glass blowing, an artist could make many containers in a day.

VOICE ONE:

Glassblowing involves gathering hot liquid glass on the end of a metal pipe called a blowpipe. The glass reaches a temperature of about one thousand degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the glass is a bright orange color. The glassblower must turn the pipe constantly so that the thick liquid glass does not fall off the end. He or she then blows through the pipe so that the glass expands into a rounded bubble form. The blown piece of glass can be worked and formed to create many different kinds of shapes. To reshape the glass, it must be continually reheated to stay soft.

VOICE TWO:

In modern terms, the hot oven that the glassblower uses to quickly reheat the glass is called a “glory hole.” The artist can shape the hot glass using metal tools such as jacks, tweezers and shears. Or, he or she can place the hot glass on a metal table called a marver to shape the form by rolling it back and forth. Watching an expert glassblower is an exciting experience. The artist moves as quickly and as gracefully as a dancer.

VOICE ONE:

In thirteenth century Italy, the government ordered glassblowers in Venice to move to the island of Murano. The aim was to reduce the threat of fires from the glassmakers’ furnaces. It was also useful for the glassmakers to be together so that they could control the secrets of their trade. Each generation of glassmaker would pass along the secrets of the trade to the next generation.

Murano glass became famous around the world. It is still a center for glass production today. In fact, the Murano glassblowing tradition has been a major influence on one of the most famous American glass artists today, Dale Chihuly. Chihuly trained in Murano in the nineteen sixties. His electrically colorful and fluid glass works can be seen in museums around the world.

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VOICE TWO:

The Washington Glass Studio is located near Washington, D.C., in Mount Rainier, Maryland. This is where the artist Tim Tate works and teaches. Here he tells about his “Sacred Heart of Healing” sculpture that we talked about earlier.

TIM TATE: “My name is Tim Tate and I am a glass sculptor. In the Smithsonian, there is a blown glass heart with a flame coming out of the top. The image in the flame is a hand and off of each fingertip are different natural healing techniques. The first heart I made was when my mother was extremely ill and after she passed away I made the heart larger. For me, it was a memory piece. For years afterwards I made these large sacred hearts. Some of them were clear with things inside, some were very colorful.”

VOICE ONE:

Making these hearts is not easy. Tate works with a team of glass artists at a studio in the state of North Carolina.

Tim Tate is also the director of the Washington Glass School. He says he loves teaching glass skills to students because he learns so much from them. And, he likes to work near the other glass artists in the school because they can exchange ideas and methods.

Tate first became interested in glass by watching glassblowers as a young child. As an adult, he developed his love of glass making for very different reasons.

TIM TATE: “When I was just a small kid I went to Corning Glass works and watched the glass blowers there and was really mesmerized by that. And then, years ago when I first found out that I was HIV positive, my initial reason for doing glass was I wanted to leave one glass vase for my nephew and nieces to remember their uncle by. My initial reason was a sense of legacy.

“And then, I kept living and twenty-three years later, I am in many museums around the world. I just got good at it, because I knew I had to hurry because I was supposed to die.”

VOICE TWO:
Tim Tate makes glass that is meant to be sculptural. He says the message in his work is usually about healing.

TIM TATE: “My messages in all of these is all about healing. Either healing ourselves, or society’s healing, or healing through making art, or healing through viewing art. So, that’s what my content tends to be about.”

VOICE ONE:

Tim Tate also makes sculptures that he calls reliquaries. These works are made of clear blown glass containers with different objects inside. He has a big collection of interesting small objects such as maps, tools, game pieces, and dolls for putting inside the containers.

One reliquary is called “Dice.” It is filled with hundreds of small red cubes for playing games of chance. The surface of the container is covered with writing that has been cut into the glass. The message tells about different methods for guessing about the future. It says that good health can sometimes be a matter of luck.

Tim Tate is also working on a series of blown glass sculptures inside of which are small televisions playing videos. In these detailed works, the ancient art of glass meets the modern world of technology.

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VOICE TWO:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m ­­­­­Barbara Klein. You can learn about other artists on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

The battles are often forgotten, but the Union victory might not have been possible without its naval victories. Transcript of radio broadcast:
09 September 2009
[audio:http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/specialenglish/2009_09/audio/Mp3/se-nation-101-abraham-lincoln-part-eight-10-sept-09_0.Mp3]

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.

The American Civil War in the eighteen sixties was fought not only on land. There was a great deal of fighting between the Union and Confederate navies.

This part of the war — the sea war — is often forgotten, but it was important. The Union victory might not have been possible without the successes of its navy.

Many battles took place just off the coast of the United States. Many others took place farther away, in international waters.

This week in our series, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe talk about the naval side of the Civil War.

VOICE ONE:

As soon as the war started, President Abraham Lincoln wanted to block the South’s major ports. He wanted to prevent the South from shipping its agricultural products to other countries in exchange for industrial goods.

Lincoln’s plan was good. But it had one major weakness. The Union navy was too small for the job.

The Confederate seacoast was long. It extended from Chesapeake Bay to Mexico, a distance of five thousand six hundred kilometers. There were not enough ships in the Union navy to blockade all of it. Many months would pass before the Union could build up an effective naval force.

VOICE TWO:

The Confederacy had no navy at the start of the Civil War. The Confederate government had little money to create one. And the South had no factories to build one.

For a while, the Confederacy was able to get warships from Britain. Then the Union put diplomatic pressure on Britain to stop this support. For the most part, the Confederacy depended on privately owned ships to get goods in and out of the South.

About twenty of these private ships flew the Confederate flag. Most were very successful in the beginning.

The Florida, for example, captured more than thirty ships before being captured itself off the coast of Brazil in eighteen sixty-four. The Alabama captured more than sixty ships. It was finally sunk in a battle with the Kearsarge off the coast of France.

The Shenandoah sailed in the Pacific Ocean. It captured forty ships. After the war ended, the Shenandoah tied up in Liverpool, England.

VOICE ONE:

In addition to these victories, the Confederacy claimed responsibility for several new naval technologies during the Civil War. One was the first modern submarine.

This ship was ten meters long. It sank four times while being tested. It was raised each time and put back into service. One night, it fired its torpedoes at a much larger Union ship and sank it. But the explosion was so great that it tore apart the submarine. And it sank, too.

The Confederacy also developed very effective underwater explosive devices for use in the harbors.

VOICE TWO:

Even with its victories and technologies, however, the Confederacy could not stop the Union navy. The Union navy was bigger to begin with and grew much faster.

During the first two years of the Civil War, the Union captured several southern ports: Fort Hatteras and Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Port Royal, South Carolina. Pensacola, Florida. And — perhaps most importantly — New Orleans, Louisiana.

New Orleans lay near the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was the largest city in the south. It was the largest seaport. It had become a busy industrial center, producing war equipment for Confederate forces. If the Union could capture New Orleans, it would control the Mississippi River.

President Lincoln appointed navy officer David Farragut to lead the attack on New Orleans.

VOICE ONE:

To reach the city, Farragut had to sail his ships past two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River. He shelled the forts for six days and nights. But the forts were so strong that the shells caused little damage. He decided not to wait any longer.

One dark night, Farragut led seventeen Union warships up the river in a line. The Confederate forces heard them and began to fire. One ship was sunk. Three others were damaged so badly that they could not continue. But thirteen made it safely past the forts.

When Farragut reached New Orleans, he found the city defenseless. Several thousand Confederate soldiers had fled. They knew they could not defend against the bigger Union force. Only civilians remained. Farragut captured New Orleans without a fight.

The Confederate flag was lowered. And the United States flag was raised over the city.

VOICE TWO:

Several weeks before Farragut captured New Orleans, a new kind of navy battle was fought off Hampton Roads, Virginia. It was the first battle between iron ships.

On the Confederate side was the Virginia. It had been built from what remained of a captured Union warship called the Merrimack. The Virginia was like no other warship ever seen in the world.

It was eighty meters long. The part that showed above the water line was built of wood sixty centimeters thick. This part was covered with sheets of iron ten centimeters thick.

Ten windows were cut into it. Behind each window was a cannon. In a battle, the windows would open, the cannons would fire, and the windows would close again. At the front was a sharp point of iron that could smash through the sides of wooden ships.

The Virginia could not move fast. And it was difficult to control. It took almost thirty minutes to turn around. Still, there seemed to be no way to stop this iron monster. It already had destroyed two Union warships. And it was coming back for more.

VOICE ONE:

The Union ship chosen to fight the Virginia was the Monitor. It, too, was covered with iron. But it was much smaller than the Virginia. And it carried only two cannons.

These two cannons, however, were on a part of the ship that could turn in a complete circle. They could be aimed in any direction.

The Monitor and the Virginia faced each other on the morning of March ninth, eighteen sixty-two. They moved in close — very close — then began to fire.

A Confederate cannon ball hit the iron side of the Monitor and bounced away. Union sailors cheered. The cannons of the Virginia could do no damage! But the Union sailors soon discovered that their cannons could do no damage, either.

VOICE TWO:

The men inside the two ships suffered from noise, heat, and smoke. The roar of their own cannons was extremely loud. Even louder was the crash of enemy cannon balls and explosive shells on the iron walls.

Some of the men suffered burst eardrums. At least one man was struck unconscious from the force of a cannon ball against the iron. The men quickly learned to stay away from the walls.

Smoke from the cannons filled the ships. Then it floated out over the water. At times, the two ships could not see each other.

VOICE ONE:

The Virginia and the Monitor fought for three hours. Neither ship scored an important hit. Neither suffered serious damage.

Then the cannons of the Virginia fell silent. The Confederate ship had used up its gunpowder. It also had used up much of its fuel. It was lighter now and was floating higher in the water. A well-aimed cannon ball could hit below its iron covering and sink it.

The Confederate captain decided to withdraw. The Union captain, too, was ready to break off the battle. He decided not to follow.

Neither ship could claim victory. But the Monitor had kept the Virginia from destroying more of the Union’s wooden warships.

The Virginia itself was to live just two more months. Union forces seized the Confederate navy base at Norfolk, where the Virginia was kept. And the iron monster was sunk to keep it from falling into Union hands.

VOICE TWO:

The battle at Hampton Roads between the Virginia and the Monitor was undecisive. It did not have much effect on the final result of America’s Civil War. But it was still an important battle. For it marked the beginning of the end of the world’s wooden navies.

We will continue our story of the Civil War next week.

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ANNOUNCER:

Our program was written by Frank Beardsley and Christine Johnson. The narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs can be found along with historical images at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION — an American history series in VOA Special English.

Most famous scientists have been men. But women have been actively discovering and researching, solving problems and creating new ways to do things. Transcript of radio broadcast:
12 May 2009
[audio:http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/specialenglish/2009_05/audio/Mp3/se-exp-women-science-13may09.Mp3]

VOICE ONE:
I’m Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Bob Doughty with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about female scientists around the world and some of the problems they face.
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VOICE ONE:
Women have been making scientific discoveries since ancient times. More recently, women scientists have developed drugs to treat diseases like cancer, diabetes and malaria. Women have made important discoveries about the human body and improved their country’s effectiveness in fighting wars.
Twelve women have won the Nobel Prize in science, one of the highest honors in the world. Some female scientists never married. Some worked with their husbands. Others raised large families. But it has been difficult for women to be successful scientists.
VOICE TWO:
In the early eighteen hundreds in England, Mary Anning became one of the first women recognized for her discoveries about the ancient history of the Earth. Mary and her father collected fossils in their village on the southern coast of Great Britain. Fossils are plants or parts of animals that have been saved in rocks for millions of years.
When she was only twelve years old, Mary became the first person to find the almost complete skeletons of several animals that no longer existed on Earth. She never became famous for her discoveries because she often sold her fossils to get money to support her family.
VOICE ONE:
In eighteen ninety-one, a young Polish woman named Marie Sklodowska traveled to Paris, France to study physics. She did so because she could not get a college education in Poland. She began working in the laboratory of a man named Pierre Curie. Marie and Pierre Curie married and made many discoveries together. They received the Nobel Prize in physics in nineteen-oh-three along with another scientist. Marie Curie became the first person to be awarded a second Nobel Prize in nineteen eleven, this time in chemistry. Marie Curie was one of the few women at the time who became famous as a scientist.
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen-oh-six, a little girl named Maria Goeppert was born in Germany. She learned to love science from her father. She married an American scientist. Joseph Mayer and Maria Goeppert moved to the United States in nineteen thirty. Mister Mayer became a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
But Maria Goeppert-Mayer worked without pay as a volunteer. Later she became a professor of physics at the University of Chicago in Illinois. In nineteen sixty-three, Maria Goeppert-Mayer won the Nobel Prize in physics along with two other scientists.
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VOICE ONE:
During World War Two, many American women worked in factories. Their inventions improved fighter planes, containers for fuel and cameras. But after the war, women were expected to stay at home and have babies while their husbands went back to work in factories and laboratories. Women who continued to be scientists were often told it was not natural for women to work outside the home.
VOICE TWO:
Even today, many experts say women scientists often are not treated fairly. Women receive fewer patents for their inventions. A patent forbids others from copying an invention and makes the invention valuable in the world of business. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, anything a woman invented belonged to her husband under the law. But even in two thousand two, fewer than eleven percent of patents were awarded to women in the United States.
The National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio includes only six women on its list of two hundred thirty-five inventors. One of them is Stephanie Kwolek. She worked for the chemical company DuPont when she invented a cloth named Kevlar. It is five times stronger than steel. It is used to make clothing that stops bullets fired from a gun.
It is also used in space. Miz Kwolek works to improve science education for all children.
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VOICE ONE:
Professor Tebello Nyokong
Tebello Nyokong
Several organizations in the United States are helping women in science. The L’Oreal company and the United Nations agency UNESCO honor women in science around the world. Since nineteen ninety-eight, fifty-two women scientists from twenty-six countries have been recognized for their work.
Professor Tebello Nyokong of Lesotho is one of this year’s award winners. Her research concerns the development of drugs to treat cancer. As a young girl, Professor Nyokong says she went to school on some days and took care of sheep on other days. She did jobs that were usually done by boys.
She said this had a good effect, because she was permitted to explore as she grew older. She says the biggest problem was feeling very alone as a woman in science. Professor Nyokong says she wants to support young women in science so they do not have to experience this.
VOICE TWO:
Many women scientists have had to find ways to be good mothers and scientists at the same time. Christiane Nusslein-Volhard of Germany shared the Nobel Price for physiology or medicine in nineteen ninety-five. She directs the Max Planck Institute of Developmental Biology in Tubingen, Germany.
Doctor Nusslein-Volhard says women in Germany often stop working as scientists when have children. So she started an organization that gives money to young women scientists who need help paying for someone to care for their children and homes.
Doctor Nusslein-Volhard has said she hopes life will become easier for women scientists in Germany while Angela Merkel is the chancellor. The leader of Germany has a doctorate degree in physics.
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VOICE ONE:
Many programs in the United States support girls who want to become scientists. Girls Go Tech is a Web site started by the Girl Scouts of America at girlsgotech.org. The Web site includes ideas about jobs in science and information for parents who want to help their daughters remain interested in science.
Girls can listen to programs about women in science at a Web site called Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ON THE AIR! It is at womeninscience.org. You can hear more than fifty women who work in many different jobs connected to science. For example, Donna Lee Shirley led the team that built the vehicle to explore the planet Mars. Jeanette Berringer is a zookeeper in Rhode Island. She studied in Madagascar to learn how to take care of lemurs. Leanne Daffner uses technology to protect famous works of art.
Shirley Ann Jackson grew up in Washington, D.C. when black children and white children attended different schools. She became the first African-American woman to earn a degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
VOICE TWO:
Last year, a woman won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Françoise Barre-Sinoussi was honored with another scientist for research leading to the discovery of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. She works at the Institute Pasteur in Paris, France. She supports many young scientists, including those from poor countries. Doctor Barre-Sinoussi said recently that “there is always hope in life because there is always hope in science.”
VOICE ONE:
Last month, Rita Levi-Montalcini became the first Nobel Prize Laureate to reach the age of one hundred. But when she was a girl, she had to persuade her father to let her study science. Then she had to do her research secretly in her home because she was Jewish. Jews were not permitted to be scientists during the nineteen thirties in Italy.
After World War Two, she worked for many years in the United States. In nineteen eighty-six, Rita Levi-Montalcini shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering processes that control the growth of cells and organs.
When Doctor Levi-Montalcini was a young woman, she dreamed of working in Africa with Doctor Albert Schweitzer. She was not able to do that then, but now she says she has returned to that dream. She and her sister started an organization that provides money to young African women who want to study science. Some of these science students work in Doctor Levi-Montalcini’s laboratory in Italy. She says her message to them is: “Do not fear difficult moments. The best comes from them.”
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Bob Doughty.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Everyone dreams. But only some people remember their dreams. Transcript of radio broadcast:
19 May 2009
[audio:http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/specialenglish/2009_05/audio/Mp3/se-exp-pirates-update-27may09_0.Mp3]

VOICE ONE:
I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Do you dream? Do you create pictures and stories in your mind as you sleep? Today, we are going to explore dreaming. People have had ideas about the meaning and importance of dreams throughout history. Today brain researchers are learning even more about dreams.
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Woman sleepingVOICE ONE:
Dreams are expressions of thoughts, feelings and events that pass through our mind while we are sleeping. People dream about one to two hours each night. We may have four to seven dreams in one night. Everybody dreams. But only some people remember their dreams.
The word “dream” comes from an old word in English that means “joy” and “music.” Our dreams often include all the senses – smells, sounds, sights, tastes and things we touch. We dream in color. Sometimes we dream the same dream over and over again. These repeated dreams are often unpleasant. They may even be nightmares — bad dreams that frighten us.
VOICE TWO:
Artists, writers and scientists sometimes say they get ideas from dreams. For example, the singer Paul McCartney of the Beatles said he awakened one day with the music for the song “Yesterday” in his head. The writer Mary Shelley said she had a very strong dream about a scientist using a machine to make a creature come alive. When she awakened, she began to write her book about a scientist named Frankenstein who creates a frightening monster.
VOICE ONE:
People have been trying to decide what dreams mean for thousands of years. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed dreams provided messages from the gods. Sometimes people who could understand dreams would help military leaders in battle.
In ancient Egypt, people who could explain dreams were believed to be special. In the Christian Bible, there are more than seven hundred comments or stories about dreams. In China, people believed that dreams were a way to visit with family members who had died. Some Native American tribes and Mexican civilizations believed dreams were a different world we visit when we sleep.
In Europe, people believed that dreams were evil and could lead people to do bad things. Two hundred years ago, people awakened after four or five hours of sleep to think about their dreams or talk about them with other people. Then they returned to sleep for another four to five hours.
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VOICE TWO:
Early in the twentieth century, two famous scientists developed different ideas about dreams. Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud published a book called “The Interpretation of Dreams” in nineteen hundred. Freud believed people often dream about things they want but cannot have. These dreams are often linked to sex and aggression.
For Freud, dreams were full of hidden meaning. He tried to understand dreams as a way to understand people and why they acted or thought in certain ways. Freud believed that every thought and every action started deep in our brains. He thought dreams could be an important way to understand what is happening in our brains.
Freud told people what their dreams meant as a way of helping them solve problems or understand their worries. For example, Freud said when people dream of flying or swinging, they want to be free of their childhood. When a person dreams that a brother or sister or parent has died, the dreamer is really hiding feelings of hatred for that person. Or a desire to have what the other person has.
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung worked closely with Freud for several years. But he developed very different ideas about dreams. Jung believed dreams could help people grow and understand themselves. He believed dreams provide solutions to problems we face when we are awake.
He also believed dreams tell us something about ourselves and our relations with other people. He did not believe dreams hide our feelings about sex or aggression.
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VOICE ONE:
Today we know more about the science of dreaming because researchers can take pictures of people’s brains while they are sleeping.
In nineteen fifty-three, scientists discovered a special kind of sleep called REM or rapid eye movement. Our eyes move back and forth very quickly while they are closed. Our bodies go through several periods of sleep each night. REM sleep is the fourth period. We enter REM sleep four to seven times each night. During REM sleep, our bodies do not move at all. This is the time when we dream. If people are awakened during their REM sleep, they will remember their dreams almost ninety percent of the time. This is true even for people who say they do not dream.
VOICE TWO:
One kind of dreaming is called lucid dreaming. People know during a dream that they are dreaming.
An organization in Canada called the Dreams Foundation believes you can train yourself to have lucid dreams by paying very close attention to your dreams and writing them down. The Dreams Foundation believes this is one way to become more imaginative and creative. It is possible to take classes on the Internet to learn how to remember dreams and use what you learn in your daily life.
There is a great deal of other information about dreams and dreaming on the Internet. There is even a collection of more than twenty thousand descriptions of dreams called the DreamBank. People between the ages of seven and seventy-four made these dream reports. People can search this collection to help understand dreams or they can add reports about their own dreams.
VOICE ONE:
Scientists have done serious research about dreams. The International Association for the Study of Dreams holds a meeting every year. At one meeting scientists talked about ways to help victims of crime who have nightmares. Scientists have also studied dreams and creativity, dreams of sick people and dreams of children. The group will be meeting next month in Chicago, Illinois. An Australian professor named Robert Moss will talk about how dreams have influenced history.
For example, he says Harriet Tubman was able to help American slaves escape to freedom because she saw herself flying like a bird in her dreams. Mister Moss also teaches an Internet course to help people explore and understand their dreams.
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VOICE TWO:
Scientists who study dreaming often attach wires to the head of a person who is sleeping. The wires record electrical activity in the brain. These studies show that the part of the brain in which we feel emotion is very active when we dream.
The front part of the brain is much less active; this is the center of our higher level thinking processes like organization and memory. Some scientists believe this is why our dreams often seem strange and out of order.
Researcher Rosalind Cartwright says the study of dreams is changing because scientists are now spending more time trying to understand why some people have problems sleeping. Miz Cartwright says for people who sleep well, dreaming can help them control their emotions during the day. Researchers are still trying to understand the importanceof dreams for people who do not sleep well and often wake during the night.
VOICE ONE:
Other researchers are studying how dreaming helps our bodies work with problems and very sad emotions. Robert Stickgold is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard University in Massachusetts. Doctor Stickgold says that when we dream, the brain is trying to make sense of the world. It does so by putting our memories together in different ways to make new connections and relationships. Doctor Stickgold believes that dreaming is a biological process. He does not agree with Sigmund Freud that dreaming is the way we express our hidden feelings and desires.
Scientists believe it is important to keep researching dreams. Doctor Stickgold says it has been more than one hundred years since Sigmund Freud published his important book about dreaming. Yet there is still no agreement on exactly how the brain works when we are dreaming or why we dream.
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Steve Ember. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Somali pirates have demanded and received millions of dollars for the release of seized ships and hostages. Transcript of radio broadcast:
[audio:http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/specialenglish/2009_05/audio/Mp3/se-exp-pirates-update-27may09_0.Mp3]
VOICE ONE:

I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a wave of crime taking place in the warm waters off the east coast of Africa.

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VOICE ONE:

The weather was good on the morning of April eighth. One sailor described the sea as being as smooth as glass. The container ship, Maersk Alabama, was sailing through the Gulf of Aden to the port of Mombasa, Kenya, on the east coast of Africa. The American-operated ship carried thousands of tons of agricultural materials for the World Food Program and other aid organizations.

But, for days, a small boat had been following the Maersk Alabama. In it, four heavily armed Somali men were watching and waiting. Now, the pirates saw their chance. They moved to board the ship.

Captain Richard Phillips sounded a warning and the crew took positions in several parts of the ship. Soon the pirates had climbed on board.

Their goal: hijack the ship and hold the crew hostage until the ship’s owners paid for their release.

VOICE TWO:

One of the pirates pointed a gun at Captain Phillips and demanded that he order the crew to surrender. But the crew avoided capture by hiding in places like the engine room for many tense hours. As the pirates spread out searching for hostages, the crew was even able to capture one of the Somalis.

Now the captain had something to negotiate with. He offered the pirates a deal. He suggested the pirates could escape using one of the ship’s lifeboats. They could hold him until the crew released the captured Somali. Then, they were to let him go. The pirates agreed.

The three Somalis climbed into the lifeboat with the captain. Then, the crew released the captured man. But the pirates did not keep their word. Once they were reunited with their partner, they fled with their hostage. Captain Phillips had saved his crew and ship–but at the cost of his freedom and possibly his life.

VOICE ONE:

The crew followed the lifeboat holding Captain Phillips and his captors. Soon they were joined by the U.S.S. Bainbridge, a United States Navy warship.

The Somalis held Captain Phillips for five days. He made an unsuccessful attempt to escape by jumping into the ocean. But he was recaptured. The lifeboat ran out of fuel and had to be pulled by the U.S.S. Bainbridge. The situation grew increasingly tense as more United States warships entered the area. The pirates threatened to kill their hostage if they were attacked.

Agents bring piracy suspect Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse to the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Agents bring piracy suspect Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse to the New York office of the FBI
Then, shortly after sunset on April twelfth, Navy special operations forces feared that Captain Phillips’ life was in immediate danger. With orders from President Obama to act in such a situation, they opened fire, killing three Somalis. The remaining pirate surrendered.

Federal officials have brought Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse to New York City to face trial. He is the first person to be tried on piracy charges in the United States in more than one hundred years.

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VOICE TWO:

East African pirates are a growing threat to international shipping. About twenty thousand ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year on their way to the Suez Canal.

The International Maritime Bureau reports there were one hundred eleven pirate attacks in waters near the Somali coast last year. That is almost double the number from two thousand seven. But already this year, pirates have carried out more than eighty-four attacks in the waters of the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast.

Piracy has a high economic price for ship owners and operators. The Congressional Research Service estimates that pirates were paid more than thirty million dollars for the release of ships and crews they held last year. Other estimates are even higher.

A United Nations resolution permits international naval forces to fight piracy in Somali waters. About twenty countries have sent warships to the area to protect merchant ships. Slowly, the international community is working toward a legal process to try piracy suspects close to where they operate.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime says Kenya has agreed to be the first nation in the area to try Somali piracy suspects. In December, the East African nation agreed to deploy police on international warships who would bring suspects to Kenya for trial. The U.N. crime agency is now seeking support for the plan from the United States Congress. Agency chief Antonio Maria Costa says other nations in the area may join the effort. But, he says, the plan’s success depends on international support.

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VOICE ONE:

Piracy became a serious problem off the coast of Somalia after the collapse of the government in nineteen ninety-one. The country could not police its own waters. Foreign fishing ships began illegally catching huge amounts of high-value tuna and shrimp in Somali waters. One report estimates Somali fishermen lost one hundred million dollars to foreign fleets.

Somali officials say some fishermen armed themselves and began demanding money from fishing ships near the Somali coast about ten to fifteen years ago. Those first attempts at demanding a “tax” of foreign ships evolved into highly organized hijacking operations. There are reports that pirates cooperate with each other to seize ships.

Pirates hijacked the Sirius Star off the coast of Kenya and moved it to waters off Somalia
The Sirius Star
Many Somali pirates are based in the lawless ports of the Puntland area. They use small boats with powerful motors to chase down slower merchant ships. The pirates have machine guns and rocket-powered bombs. They are also said to use global positioning and communications devices. Most attempts to hijack ships fail. However, recent reports say they currently hold about twenty ships and about two hundred fifty hostages.

Last November, Somali pirates seized a Saudi oil tanker carrying two million containers of oil. The Sirius Star is the biggest ship ever hijacked. The attack took place far from the coast showing the pirates’ ability to carry out long distance raids. In January, the pirates claimed that they released the Sirius Star and its crew after three million dollars was paid.

VOICE TWO:

Piracy is not just a problem in the western Indian Ocean. There is a possibility of pirate attacks wherever there is poverty, shipping traffic and relatively little law enforcement. The coast of Nigeria has long been a high risk area. Most of the attacks reported in Nigerian waters are on ships linked to the oil industry.

Another area of increasing danger is off the coast of Peru in the Pacific Ocean. Seven incidents were reported there in the first three months of this year.

However, piracy had decreased in the Straits of Malacca and the eastern Indian Ocean where it has traditionally been a problem.

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VOICE ONE:

Pirates have probably existed as long as valuable goods have been transported by sea. Pirates robbed ancient Greek and Roman ships.

From the fifteen hundreds to the seventeen hundreds, pirates from Britain attacked French and Spanish ships carrying riches. Some were known as “privateers.” They were given special letters by the British government to attack the ships of enemy nations. But privateers did not work for the government. Their support came from private investors who shared in the captured riches.

VOICE TWO:

Over two hundred years ago, the United States struggled with piracy in the Mediterranean Sea. A group of small states on the coast of North Africa was seizing American ships and holding their crews hostage. The Barbary States, as they were known, demanded payment for the release of hostages and safe passage of American ships. President Thomas Jefferson refused to pay. He sent the United States Navy on its first foreign expedition to punish the states of Morocco, Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers.

The First Barbary War stopped piracy against American ships for a time. But it was not until eighteen fifteen and the Second Barbary War that the power of the Barbary pirates was broken. Commodore William Bainbridge was a hero of that war. Today, the modern destroyer, the U.S.S. Bainbridge, honors the American naval officer in name and in spirit. The warship will forever be linked to the dramatic rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.