Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. Im June Simms. On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in a major league baseball game. A Hollywood movie that tells the story of this historic event is now openin...
Welcome to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about a man who changed professional baseball in the United States. Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was the first black man...
Im Christopher Cruise. And Im Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life of one of the most famous and powerful women in history. She was a goddess, a queen, and a skilled diplomat and negotiator. She was a g...
SCOTT SIMON, HOST: When Senator Rob Portman of Ohio yesterday became the latest conservative politician to announce his support for same-sex marriage, he disclosed that his son, Will, a junior at Yale University, had told him two years ago that he is...
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of 99: Wear sunscreen! If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reli...
ANNOUNCER: Now, the VOA Special English program AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called Feathertop. It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here is Shep ONeal with the story. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER: The long cold winter was gone at last. At f...
Class of 2009! First Id like you to get up, wave and cheer your supportive family and friends! Show your love! It is a great honor for me to be here today. Now wait a second. I know: thats such a clich. Youre thinking: every graduation speaker says t...
This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith. And I'm Bob Doughty. Today we tell about two recent inventions that have helped to save lives. We will also tell about the people who developed them. Seatbelts Most cars have s...
I coined my own definition of success in 1934, when I was teaching at a high school in South Bend, Indiana, being a little bit disappointed, and delusioned perhaps, by the way parents of the youngsters in my English classes expected their youngsters...
Nothing fits like an old shoe -- especially if that shoe walked the earth five thousand five hundred years ago. Researchers in Armenia found the world's oldest leather shoe, and they say it was in surprisingly good condition. Doctoral student Diana Z...
When I was 11, I remember waking up one morning to the sound of joy in my house. My father was listening to BBC News on his small, gray radio. There was a big smile on his face which was unusual then, because the news mostly depressed him. The Taliba...
I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we continue our travels through Egypt to explore one of the greatest civilizations in human history. Last week, we visited the Nile River valley to see the art an...
I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we visit the Nile River valley to explore one of the greatest civilizations in human history. The people of ancient Egypt developed the first nation-state, which w...
So I'm a woman with chronic schizophrenia. I've spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals. I might have ended up spending most of my life on the back ward of a hospital, but that isn't how my life turned out. In fact, I've managed to stay clear...
I'm Bob Doughty. And I'm Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we travel around the world exploring the history of chocolate. Its story begins with a plant whose scientific name, Theobroma cacao, means food of the gods. For...