쌍둥아빠의 티스토리

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

On Wednesday, President Obama signed into law the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

BARACK OBAMA: "These reforms represent the strongest consumer financial protections in history -- in history."

Together, the changes represent the biggest rewrite of financial rules since the Great Depression. At the heart of the two thousand three hundred pages in the bill are promises to protect average Americans.

Congress agreed to create a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But the Federal Reserve will pay for it. The central bank will budget about five hundred million dollars a year.

Travis Plunkett is legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer rights group. He says this new independent office will have a lot of responsibility -- and that is a good thing.

TRAVIS PLUNKETT: "We're going to have one federal consumer financial protection bureau. If it succeeds, people will know it. If it fails, people will know it. And they will try to hold it accountable."

The bureau will set rules for the marketplace and enforce existing laws. One goal is to keep home buyers from getting bigger loans than they can pay for. But two areas where the bureau will not have power is over auto lenders or banks with assets of less than ten billion dollars.

Financial interests spent millions fighting the bill. The House of Representatives passed its version in December. Last week the Senate voted final approval with the aid of three Republican senators.

House Minority Leader John Boehner called the financial reform bill "ill-conceived."

JOHN BOEHNER: "I think it’s going to make credit harder for the American people to get, clearly harder for businesses to get."

But President Obama says Wall Street took irresponsible risks that threatened the financial system.

Under the new law, banks no longer can own or invest in certain trading operations. The government has new powers to seize failing financial companies. These include businesses that, during the financial crisis, were considered "too big to fail."

And President Obama says the law does something else.

BARACK OBAMA: "Finally, because of this law, the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street's mistakes. There will be no more tax-funded bailouts. Period."

Regulatory agencies will write hundreds of new rules for banks and other financial companies. This follows years of deregulation.

Opponents in Congress say they will try to block some measures in the new law. But even if those efforts fail, it is too soon to know just how strong the new rules will be.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter.  You can comment on our program at voaspecialenglish.com.  And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and iTunes at VOA Learning English.  I'm Steve Ember. I'm Steve Ember.

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Mike Henry has a two-hectare farm in Palmer, Alaska. About a year and a half ago, his goat Millie was giving him a hard time. She did not want to be milked.

She kicked her back legs and stepped into the bucket that was supposed to catch her milk. But there was no milk to catch. All Mike Henry got was tired hands from his attempts to milk her.

But he also got an idea. He designed a goat milking machine that does not require any electricity or motors. The Henry Milker is a hand-operated vacuum pump. A person attaches a tube to the goat and, after a little pumping, the milk begins to flow. A gauge measures the pressure of the suction.

The process uses a closed system to keep hair and dirt out of the milk. The milk goes directly from the goat into a container that is then placed in the refrigerator to keep the milk cold.

Mike Henry has sold his invention to hundreds of people, mainly small farmers who also hold other jobs -- just as he does. Mr. Henry is an executive director in the Anchorage School District in Alaska.

He considered spending more than one thousand dollars for an electric milking machine. But that seemed like a lot of money to milk just one goat. So he began to develop a device of his own. He worked with parts that he bought from an auto supply store and a Wal-Mart store.

He tried the invention on Millie. How did she react? She gave a little milk. As the months passed, he improved the device. Milking Millie became easy. Mike Henry began to think other people who owned just a few goats might be interested in his invention.

So he offered one on eBay, an Internet marketplace. The first one sold for forty-five dollars. Interest grew. Today, he receives orders from as far away as Australia and New Zealand.

The regular price is one hundred forty-nine dollars. Recently he has offered the system for one hundred nineteen dollars, plus shipping and handling charges, at goatfinder.com.

The system is advertised as safe enough for children to use. The ad also says it is not a production milker and not designed to replace commercial machines.

The average milking time with the Henry Milker is ten minutes. Mike Henry says Millie now gives about two liters in half that time.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. What is your secret to gaining the cooperation of a goat at milking time? You can comment at voaspecialenglish.com or on Facebook or Twitter at VOA Learning English. I’m Bob Doughty.

STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.

FRITZI BODENHEIMER: And I’m Fritzi Bodenheimer with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of the most important scientific discoveries of the last century -- the development of HeLa cells. Reporter Rebecca Skloot explores this in her book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” The book is a history of science, professional morals and the human story behind a famous line of cells.

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STEVE EMBER: For much of his career, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland had been working to find a way to grow human cells outside the body. George Gey and his team of researchers wanted to grow cancer cells in a laboratory. They believed scientists could study this illness to understand its causes and find a cure.

Dr. Gey tested many different human cells in many kinds of liquid. But the cells always died quickly. However, one day in nineteen fifty-one, his search came to an end. Cancer cells from a patient at the university’s hospital were more than just surviving. These cells were growing faster than anyone had ever seen before.

Dr. Gey discussed his findings with other scientists. He provided them with some of these HeLa cells to use in their own research. He began giving the cells to researchers across the country, free of charge. Soon, scientists in labs around the world were using these cells. Later, the production of this line of cells by companies would grow into an industry worth millions of dollars.

FRITZI BODENHEIMER: This kind of cell-line is called “immortal.” This means the cells can keep growing and reproducing indefinitely. Normal cells reproduce for a limited time before dying.

For the first time, scientists around the world had a limitless number of cells they could use to test the effects of diseases, medicines and chemicals.

Jonas Salk used these HeLa cells to test the first vaccine for polio. HeLa cells have gone to the moon to test the effect of zero gravity. They have been used to study cancer, AIDS, genetic testing, and drugs for illnesses including influenza, herpes and Parkinson’s disease. And, these HeLa cells are still being made, sold and used in research today. One scientist estimated that if all the HeLa cells ever grown were gathered together, they would weigh more than fifty million metric tons.

STEVE EMBER: At this point, you may be wondering just where these famous HeLa cells came from. The first clue is in the name, HeLa. The cells were taken from the cervix of a woman named Henrietta Lacks. The word HeLa uses the first two letters of her first and last name.

Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman who was a cancer patient at Johns Hopkins University hospital. These cells were taken from her tumor without her knowledge or permission. Henrietta Lacks died of cancer in nineteen fifty-one leaving behind a husband and five children.

FRITZI BODENHEIMER: It was not until the nineteen seventies that Henrietta Lacks’ family learned that her cells had been taken and used by scientists. Learning about the existence of these HeLa cells was an emotional and difficult experience for the family.

For the scientists who used these cells, HeLa was just a name. But for the family, Henrietta Lacks was a real person whose absence they continue to feel deeply. It was also not easy for the family to accept that her cells had fueled an industry worth millions of dollars. Yet the Lacks family had very little money, education or health insurance.

STEVE EMBER: Henrietta Lacks’ husband and children found out about the experiment done on her when scientists contacted them. The scientists wanted to do research on the family to learn more about the HeLa cells. The scientists conducted this research without their informed permission.

The case of Henrietta Lacks brings up several moral issues. Henrietta Lacks did not give her permission for the cells to be taken from her tumor. And the question remains whether her family had a legal or moral right to receive payment after something of monetary value was made from their mother’s cells.

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rebeccaskloot.com

FRITZI BODENHEIMER: Rebecca Skloot is a science reporter. She first learned about HeLa cells in a biology class when she was sixteen years old. She became very interested in Henrietta Lacks and wanted to know more about her life. But there was almost no information about the person behind these famous cells.

Years later, Ms. Skloot began research for a book about Henrietta Lacks, her cells and their influence on medical and scientific history. The book would take her ten years to research and write. She interviewed many doctors, scientists, lawyers, reporters and experts on medical ethics. She also became very close friends with the Lacks family.

Rebecca Skloot tells this complex story by going back and forth between subjects and time periods. Her book involves three stories. One is an explanation of science, medicine and professional morality. Another is the story of Henrietta Lacks’ life. And the third is the reporter’s story as she becomes close to the Lacks children and helps them learn more about their mother’s influence on medical science.

STEVE EMBER: One story line in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is like a history lesson.

Rebecca Skloot explains about scientific and medical developments. Readers can better understand how informed consent and the question of morality in medical experiments have changed over time.

Today, there are laws in the United States that protect a patient receiving medical treatment. Doctors are required to fully inform a patient about his or her illness. The patient must agree to any treatment. But this practice of informed consent is relatively new.

FRITZI BODENHEIMER: In nineteen fifty-one, Henrietta Lacks did agree to be treated for her cervical cancer. But she was not told that a doctor had taken cells from her body for testing. Rebecca Skloot points out that this was not an unusual medical practice during this period.

Johns Hopkins hospital provided care for poor people who could not pay for medical treatment. She says the common belief among doctors at the time was that they could use their patients in their research in exchange for free treatment.

STEVE EMBER: Rebecca Skloot discusses several well known cases where doctors failed to use moral judgment. One famous example is the Tuskegee syphilis study, which began in the nineteen thirties. The United States Public Health Service and Tuskegee Institute in Alabama studied the effects of the disease syphilis on a group of poor African-American men.

The men were not fully told why they were being studied or what tests were being done to them.

Later, when penicillin was widely available, the researchers denied the men the drug that could have cured their illness. The study lasted for forty years. Most of the men died from syphilis, or problems from the disease. The study was finally shut down after an employee told a reporter about the experiment. The reporter then informed the public.

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FRITZI BODENHEIMER: Rebecca Skloot also did careful research to describe Henrietta Lacks. She writes about Henrietta’s childhood on a tobacco farm in Virginia, her marriage and her move to Baltimore, Maryland. She learned from Henrietta’s friends that she loved to dance and to paint her fingernails and toenails red.

Ms. Skloot had a difficult time gaining the trust of the Lacks family. But she slowly became friends with the family, especially Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah. She helped the family understand the importance of the HeLa cells and accept that the scientific community has gained so much from their use.

Rebecca Skloot says the Lacks family tested everything she thought she knew about faith, science, reporting and race. Ms. Skloot says her book is a result of what she learned along the way.

STEVE EMBER: Rebecca Skloot has established an organization called the Henrietta Lacks Foundation. She has donated some of the money she has earned from the book to the organization. The aim of the foundation is to provide money for family members of Henrietta Lacks. The money will help them get a good education and health care insurance – things that Henrietta herself never had.

Rebecca Skloot says she hopes that scientific companies that have gained from HeLa cells will give back to the family whose ancestor changed the history of medicine.

FRITZI BODENHEIMER: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Fritzi Bodenheimer.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. You can comment this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

This is the Special English Health Report.

South African researchers at the international AIDS conference in Vienna, Austria have announced major progress in the fight against the disease.  The researchers say their study shows a vaginal gel substance reduced the risk of HIV infection among women who used it.

The gel contains tenofovir. This is a common anti-retroviral drug used to treat people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The study was done by South African scientists with the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa. It involved almost nine hundred sexually active women between the ages of eighteen and forty.

All were from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.  Half were given the gel containing tenofovir.  The other half were given a gel without an active substance.  They were told to use the gels twelve hours before sexual intercourse and again within twelve hours after sex.

Both groups were told the gels were experimental. They were advised to use another form of HIV prevention.

The study lasted thirty months. Women who used the tenofovir gel reduced their risk of HIV infection by thirty-nine percent. And the study found that the women who used the gel more often had even better results.  Women who used the gel more than eighty percent of the times when they had sex had fifty-four percent fewer HIV infections.

The scientists say the tenofovir gel was also effective against another sexually spread disease.  The gel reduced the rate of infection of herpes simplex-two by fifty-one percent.

Health experts say the results of the study show that tenofovir gel can empower women.  They say it will enable them to protect themselves from HIV infection when involved with sexual partners who refuse to wear condoms.

However, researchers say they will study why the gel did not protect in all cases.  Some scientists say the amount of tenofovir in the gel may be too low. Others say some women may have had sex with infected men who had very high amounts of the virus. Still others said some women may have had vaginal conditions that made them more likely to become infected. The researchers also say they will carry out more studies to confirm the results.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report written by Caty Weaver. Transcripts, MP3s and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com.  I’m Fritzi Bodenheimer.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

We answered a question last week about how American college students find jobs after they graduate. Now, we discuss foreign graduates. The process for employing foreign workers in the United States is long. It involves different government agencies. It also involves a hot political issue.

For example, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that President Obama signed into law in February dealt with this issue. It included conditions against foreign workers displacing qualified Americans at companies that receive federal stimulus money.

Job cuts have slowed in some industries. But the economic downturn has cost millions of jobs and recovery will take some time.

Foreign graduates need a job offer to get an H-1B visa. This is a non-immigrant visa for work in the person's area of specialty. The employer is the one who applies for it. The visa is good for three years and may be extended for another three years.

Cheryl Gilman directs visa services at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She noted that H-1B visas were still available for next year. This tells her that the recession is preventing employers from sponsoring as many foreign nationals as they have in the past.

Sixty-five thousand H-1Bs are awarded each year to graduates with a bachelor's degree. Bill Wright at the Department of Homeland Security says fewer than forty-five thousand applications for these visas had been received as of this week.

There was more demand for twenty thousand other H-1Bs for those with advanced degrees. In addition, thousands of the visas are awarded to other groups, such as university researchers.

Amy Ramirez is an administrator at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. She says foreign students who work for their school or at an internship probably have the best chance for a job after graduation.

She points out that many foreign graduates ask to stay for what is called optional practical training. This lets them accept temporary employment in their area of study for twelve months after graduation.

Many times, the employer will then apply for an H-1B. But Amy Ramirez and Cheryl Gilman both say foreign students should understand that visa rules change often. That can make it difficult to plan ahead for what to do after graduation.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Earlier reports in our Foreign Student Series are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Food that has come in contact with floodwaters can sicken anyone who eats it. Water from floods may contain animal and human waste. It can also contain other pollutants like chemicals from agriculture and industry.

AP

Rescue workers evacuate residents from flooded areas in Jianong in Sichuan province, southwest China, on Sunday

After a flood, food safety specialists at the United States Department of Agriculture have this advice:

Throw away anything that is not stored in a waterproof container if there was a chance of contact. Food containers that are not waterproof include those with screw caps, snap lids, pull tops and crimped caps.

Also, throw away boxes of juice, milk or baby formula if they have come into contact with floodwater.

The Department of Health in the state of Minnesota says you should throw away anything in soft packaging. And the Extension Service at North Dakota State University offers other advice:

Do not save plastic bags of food even if boxes or containers inside the bags appear dry.

Do not eat fresh produce from the garden if it has come in contact with floodwater. To be safe, have the soil tested.

And throw away screw-topped or crimp-topped jars and bottles even if they have never been opened.

Glass jars and bottles of home-canned foods should be thrown out as well. Experts say the containers cannot be effectively cleaned after a flood.

Throw away damaged metal cans or hard plastic containers. Do not use cans that are swollen or leaking, or that are rusted or crushed.

But food safety experts say that some unopened, undamaged all-metal cans can be saved. First, remove any labels. The paper may contain dirt and germs from the floodwater. Wash the cans with soap and water, and brush or wipe away dirt. Use hot water and water that is safe for drinking if they are available.

Next, place the cans again in water and heat the water to one hundred degrees Celsius. Boil the cans for two minutes.

Another way to disinfect the cans is in a freshly made solution of chlorine bleach. Use eight drops of unscented liquid bleach for every four liters of water. Use drinking water or the cleanest, clearest water available. Place the cans in the solution for fifteen minutes.

Let sanitized cans air-dry for at least one hour before opening or storing them. And relabel the cans with a marking pen to list their contents and any dates when the foods are best used by. Experts advise using the cans as soon as possible.

And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report. You can read, download and comment on our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Fritzi Bodenheimer.

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

The Spanish-American War took place in the late eighteen hundreds during the administration of President William McKinley. This week in our series, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell the story of that war.

HARRY MONROE: Unlike other presidents of the late eighteen hundreds, William McKinley spent much of his presidency dealing with foreign policy. The most serious problem involved Spain.

Spain ruled Cuba at that time. Cuban rebels had started a fight for independence. The Spanish government promised the Cuban people equal rights and self-rule -- but in the future. The rebels did not want to wait.

President McKinley felt Spain should be left alone to honor its promises. He also felt responsible for protecting the lives and property of Americans in Cuba. When riots broke out in Havana, he ordered the battleship Maine to sail there.

One night in early eighteen ninety-eight, a powerful explosion sank the Maine. More than two hundred fifty American sailors died. There was some evidence the explosion was caused by an accident in the ship's fuel tanks. But many Americans blamed Spain. They demanded war to free Cuba and make it independent.

KAY GALLANT: President McKinley had a difficult decision to make. He did not want war. As he told a friend: "I fought in our Civil War. I saw the dead piled up. I do not want to see that again." But McKinley also knew many Americans wanted war. If he refused to fight Spain, his Republican Party could lose popular support.

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William McKinley in June of 1898

So, he did not ask Congress for a declaration of war right away. He sent a message to the Spanish government, instead. McKinley demanded an immediate ceasefire in Cuba. He also offered his help in ending the revolt.

By the time Spain agreed to the demands, McKinley had made his decision. He asked Congress for permission to use military force to bring peace to Cuba. Congress agreed. It also demanded that Spain withdraw from Cuba and give up all claims to the island.

The president signed the congressional resolution. The Spanish government immediately broke relations. On April twenty-fifth, eighteen ninety-eight, the United States declared war on Spain.

HARRY MONROE: The American Navy was ready to fight. It was three times bigger than the Spanish navy. It also was better trained. A ship-building program begun fifteen years earlier had made the American Navy one of the strongest in the world. Its ships were made of steel and carried powerful guns.

Part of the American Navy at that time was based in Hong Kong. The rest was based on the Atlantic coast of the United States.

Admiral George Dewey commanded the Pacific Fleet. Dewey had received a message from the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt. If war broke out, it said, he was to attack the Spanish naval force in the Philippines. The Spanish force was commanded by Admiral Patricio Montojo.

KAY GALLANT: The American fleet arrived in Manila Bay on May first. It sailed toward the line of Spanish ships. The Spanish fired first. The shells missed. When the two naval forces were five thousand meters apart, Admiral Dewey ordered the Americans to fire. After three hours, Admiral Montojo surrendered. Most of his ships were sunk. Four hundred of his men were dead or wounded.

American land forces arrived several weeks later. They captured Manila, giving the United States control of the Philippines.

HARRY MONROE: Dewey was suddenly a hero. Songs and poems were written about him. Congress gave him special honors. A spirit of victory spread across the nation. People called for an immediate invasion of Cuba.

Unlike the Navy, America's Army was not ready to fight. When war was declared, the Army had only about twenty-five thousand men. Within a few months, however, it had more than two hundred thousand. The soldiers trained at camps in the southern United States. One of the largest camps was in Florida. Cuba is just one hundred fifty kilometers off the coast of Florida.

KAY GALLANT: Two weeks after the Spanish-American War began, the Army sent a small force to Cuba. The force was ordered to inspect the north coast of Cuba and to take supplies to Cuban rebels. That invasion failed. But the second one succeeded. Four hundred American soldiers landed with guns, bullets, and supplies for the rebels.

Next, the Army planned to send twenty-five thousand men to Cuba. Their goal was the Port of Santiago on the south coast. American ships had trapped a Spanish naval force there earlier.

One of the commanders of the big American invasion force was Theodore Roosevelt.

Roosevelt had resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy when the war started. He organized a group of horse soldiers. Most of the men were cowboys from America's southwest. They could ride and shoot well. Some were rich young men from New York who simply shared Roosevelt's love of excitement. The group became known as Roosevelt's "Rough Riders."

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Theodore Roosevelt, center, with the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill, Cuba, 1898

HARRY MONROE: As the Americans landed near Santiago, Spanish forces withdrew to positions outside the city. The strongest force was at San Juan Hill.

The Spanish soldiers used smokeless gunpowder. This made their artillery hard to find. The Americans did not have the smokeless powder. But they had Gatling machine guns which poured a stream of bullets at the enemy.

When the machine guns opened fire, American soldiers began moving up San Juan Hill. Several American reporters watched. Later, one of them wrote this report:

"I have seen many pictures of the charge on San Juan Hill. But none seem to show it as I remember it. In the pictures, the men are running up the hill quickly in straight lines. There seem to be so many men that no enemy could stand against them.

"In fact," said the reporter, "there were not many men. And they moved up the hill slowly, in a close group, not in a straight line. It seemed as if someone had made a terrible mistake. One wanted to call to these few soldiers to come back."

KAY GALLANT: The American soldiers were not called back. They reached the top of San Juan Hill. The Spanish soldiers fled. "All we have to do," an American officer said, "is hold on to the hill and Santiago will be ours."

American Commander General William Shafter sent a message to Spanish Commander General Jose Toral. Shafter demanded Toral's surrender. While he waited for an answer, the Spanish naval force tried to break out of Santiago Harbor. The attempt failed, and the Americans took control of the port.

The loss destroyed any hope that Spain could win the war. There was now no way it could send more soldiers and supplies to Cuba.

General Toral agreed to a short ceasefire so women and children could leave Santiago. But he rejected General Shafter's demand of unconditional surrender. American artillery then attacked Santiago. General Toral defended the city as best he could. Finally, on July seventeenth, he surrendered. The United States promised to send all his soldiers back to Spain.

HARRY MONROE: In the next few weeks, American forces occupied Puerto Rico and the Philippine capital of Manila. America's war with Spain was over. It had lasted just ten weeks. The next step was to negotiate terms of a peace treaty. The negotiations would be held in Paris.

The victorious United States demanded independence for Cuba. It demanded control over Puerto Rico and Guam. And it demanded the right to occupy Manila. The two sides agreed quickly on the terms concerning Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam. But they could not agree on what to do about the Philippines.

Spain rejected the American demand for control. It did not want to give up this important colony. Negotiations on this point of the peace treaty lasted for days.

That will be our story next week.

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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and images at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.

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This is program #145 of THE MAKING OF A NATION

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Today we begin the first of two programs about classical music composers at work today in the United States. Some continue the traditions of European music from centuries ago. Others take a more experimental approach to their music.

(MUSIC: Symphony No. 1/Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra)

VOICE ONE:

Ellen Taaffe Zwilick was the first woman composer to win a Pulitzer Prize

We start with Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Her music is often described as complex but accessible, appealing to wider audiences. In nineteen eighty-three she became the first female composer to win a Pulitzer Prize. She won it for her Symphony Number One.

She says this is a special time to be a composer. Thanks to technology, more music is available to more people than at any time in history.

Ellen Zwilich began her musical exploration playing the piano, violin and trumpet. She started writing music as a child. She studied music at Florida State University and later moved to New York City to study violin and composition.

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VOICE TWO:

AP

Composer Elliott Carter at a news conference at Carnegie Hall in New York in January 2008

One of Ellen Zwilich's teachers has been a big part of American classical music for over seventy years: Elliott Carter.

This is Elliott Carter's Double Concerto for Harpsichord, Piano and Two Chamber Orchestras.

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He began his musical studies at Harvard University in the nineteen thirties and went on to study in Paris.

His early works were influenced by composers of the classical period of the late seventeen hundreds and early eighteen hundreds. But he later broke away from this neoclassical sound to create a freer and more expressive modernist sound.

Elliott Carter has written over one hundred thirty works, many of which he composed after the age of ninety. He is one hundred one years old.

(MUSIC: ''Facades"/Philip Glass)

VOICE ONE:

AP

Philip Glass performs one of his works before the Dalai Lama is introduced at the University at Buffalo in New York in September 2006.

The music of Philip Glass is often described as minimalist, though not by him. He would rather people describe his music as having repeating structures.

Philip Glass experiments with many different sounds. He has written operas, concertos and symphonies. He has worked on projects with singers, dancers and artists. He has also written music for many movies, including "Koyaanisqatsi," "Kundun" and "The Hours."

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VOICE TWO:

Becoming a composer generally starts with musical training and education.

There are many well-known music schools in the United States. These include the Juilliard School in New York City and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Others include the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

Boston is also the home of the New England Conservatory of Music, the nation's oldest independent music school.

And it is not just Americans who study at these schools. At the Manhattan School of Music in New York, for example, an average of thirty-five percent of the students come from outside the United States.

VOICE ONE:

Carol Aicher is a professor at the Manhattan School of Music. We asked her how success is defined for a composer today.

Success, she says, is all about getting your music played. Having established groups hire composers to write new music is important, but that is not enough.

Professor Aicher explains that many composers have exciting premieres, where their music is played in public for the first time. But she says the real measure of success is whether or not their music gets replayed. For example, performance groups might buy the rights to play the work live. Or the music might get recorded and sold on CD or online.

Carol Aicher says most composers teach at music schools to add to their income.

(MUSIC: "Secret and Glass Gardens"/Jennifer Higdon, pianist Maria Mazo)

VOICE TWO:

AP

Jennifer Higdon, a 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner, teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia

Jennifer Higdon clearly fits the description of a successful composer. Her works are played by orchestras and at music festivals around the world, and this year she won a Pulitzer Prize.

Yet she came relatively late to music. She taught herself to play the flute at the age of fifteen. She began her musical schooling three years later. Soon, she became interested in composing. She currently teaches composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

VOICE ONE:

For a classically trained composer, Jennifer Higdon's musical influences might surprise you.

JENNIFER HIGDON: "The Beatles. That's probably the first influence. Lennon and McCartney, because I listened to so much of it growing up. I actually didn't grow up listening to classical music."

VOICE TWO:

She is known for choosing unusual instruments and sounds. In a recent concerto piece called "On a Wire" she had the musicians play a bowed piano. They took the hairs off the kind of bow used to play a violin or cello and placed them inside the piano, under the strings.

JENNIFER HIGDON: "It makes for this haunted sort of sound. It's a little bit like a wine glass, when you play a wine glass. It's very unusual."

VOICE ONE:

One of her more widely performed works is "blue cathedral." She says the work is a poem about the people who cross our paths in a lifetime. It was influenced by her brother's death from cancer.

(MUSIC: "blue cathedral"/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra)

VOICE TWO:

We asked Jennifer Higdon how she goes about planning a new work.

JENNIFER HIGDON: What I do is I always know who I am writing for, I always know the ensemble or the soloist. And I know how long a piece they want. Then I daydream a lot, trying to figure out what might be interesting for that group to do."

VOICE ONE:

She writes down her ideas with a pencil in a music notebook. She considers not only what would be interesting for the musicians to play, but also what would be interesting for the audience to hear.

JENNIFER HIGDON: "There's a lot of sketching that goes on, and a lot of times I don't know where things are going to fit in the texture. I may come up with an idea and it may end up being something in the middle of the piece. When I wrote 'blue cathedral' there is a huge English horn solo in the middle of it, and that's actually the first idea I came up with."

Next, she plays some ideas on the piano before entering the beginnings of a composition into a computer.

VOICE TWO:

Jennifer Higdon says the classical music world still has a way to go in supporting more women composers, as well as conductors. She considers composers like Ellen Zwilich and Libby Larsen to be mentors who opened up possibilities to her.

JENNIFER HIGDON: "I was very lucky because my parents never discouraged me. They never said you can't do it because you're a woman, so it never occurred to me that I couldn't do it."

VOICE ONE:

But she says things are starting to look better for women composers.

JENNIFER HIGDON: "We're starting to see a little bit of a change. I suspect my winning the Pulitzer this year will probably alter quite a bit because it meant that I was in the news enough that there’s some little girl out there who says 'Oh! I can do that!'"

VOICE TWO:

Jennifer Higdon is currently working on an orchestral piece for the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming. The music will celebrate the festival's fiftieth anniversary next year.

Ms. Higdon says one important thing about her work is her general goal when writing music.

JENNIFER HIGDON: "I write music for people who may have no experience with classical music. I often think you don't need to have a [music] degree, you don't even need to have been to a concert hall."

VOICE ONE:

Jennifer Higdon says she is always thinking about her audience when she is composing.

JENNIFER HIGDON: "What if this was someone coming to the music for the very first time? Maybe they've never heard classical music. So give it a chance, see what you think. There is some cool stuff out there."

(MUSIC: "String Poetic"/ Jennifer Higdon, violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Reiko Uchida)

VOICE TWO:

Our 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 our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for more about contemporary American composers on THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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Recording of "On a Wire" provided courtesy of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Rift Valley fever mainly affects farm animals. But the virus can also infect humans, and South Africa has been experiencing an outbreak. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases reported two hundred twenty-five confirmed human cases as of July second. Twenty-five of the people died.

South Africa launched an expanded program to watch for public health threats during the World Cup. Health officials said last week that there were no cases of Rift Valley fever in tourists. The majority of farms affected by the outbreak are outside areas generally visited by travelers.

Most of the cases have been found in farm workers in two provinces: Free State and Northern Cape.

Most human infections with Rift Valley fever are caused by direct or indirect contact with diseased animals. Infected mosquitoes can also pass the disease to humans. So can drinking unpasteurized or uncooked milk from infected animals.

Most human cases of the disease are minor. Some patients do not get sick at all. Others may get flu-like symptoms such as fever, muscle and joint pain and headaches. Patients normally recover within seven days.

But patients with more severe forms can go blind. Some develop encephalitis, a brain disease that can lead to headaches, coma or seizures. And some patients bleed to death.

The World Health Organization says Rift Valley fever was first discovered in Kenya in nineteen thirty-one. In the year two thousand, it was identified in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. These were the first reported cases of Rift Valley fever outside of Africa.

Current vaccines to protect against Rift Valley fever are limited to use in animals. But researchers are working to develop the first human vaccine.

In a new study, scientists in the United States tested vaccines made with two kinds of inactivated virus. They said tests in mice showed that their new vaccines are safer than live-virus vaccines and appear to work just as well. Using live virus in vaccines can increase the risks.

The researchers are at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of North Carolina. Their study appeared in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, published by the Public Library of Science,.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. You can read and listen to all of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and iTunes at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.