Using the VOA Learning English videos that are subtitled. Get the book and materals here - http://eflclassroom.com/store/products/voa-workbook/

1. VOA
LearnEnglish with the News
Stories about the world around you

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3. How To Use This Book And The Videos
This workbook and the videos can be used many ways by teachers. They are strong
listening and multimodal, text supported language learning materials.
Here is one very straight forward way to use these materials.
Focus on listening skills
1. Play the video with audio only, hiding the screen.
2. Let the students listen once without any pen or paper. Ask a few questions to test
comprehension. Who/What/Where/When/Why/How…..
3. Next, give them the text sheet and ask them to try and fill in the words before they
listen a second time.
4. Play the audio only again, asking students to check / correct their answers.
5. Watch the video with subtitles again, checking their answers and stopping the
video to focus on key points.
6. Have students complete the 6 W Question sheet at the end of this book.
Focus on reading / writing skills
1. Hand out the worksheet and ask students to read and fill in with possible answers.
2. Students turn over the worksheet and watch the video.
3. Ask students to check their worksheet for the correct answers.
4. Play the video again, pausing the video at the correct answers.
5. In small groups, get students to retell the story. Once student starts with a
sentence and then the next student continues.
6. Have students rewrite the story in their own words using the story writing sheet
at the end of this book.
Get the videos HERE
© 2012 by ImPress
ISBN: 0743357862
Printed in the Canada

4. Table Of Contents
Saving The Arctic’s Polar Bears 1
Picturing A Future For Kodak 2
Building Art Out Of Legos 3
A Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea 5
Pet Brings Smiles To The Retirement Home 7
Kenyan Marathon Runners 8
Crushed Autos As Art 9
Young American Farmers At Work 10
A Fountain Of Chocolate, A Rush Of Joy 11
A Stylist Makes Food Look Pretty 12
A New Generation Of Buddhism 14
New Hope For A Young Burn Victim 15
MLK Jr Memorial By A Chinese Artist 16
A Desert Museum 18
Visiting The National Arboretum 19
The World’s Oldest Barber Still Going Strong 20

5. Table Of Contents
Using Computer Games To Support Democracy 21
New York Celebrates 400 Years 22
Levi Strauss Puts His Mark On The West 24
Restauranteur Now Serves The Homeless 26
Chinese American Youth Orchestra 27
Digital Libraries Find Room For Books 29
Horses Rule Houston For A Day 30
Teachers:
See the answer key/booklet that goes with this activity
book. It is a simple copy of the transcript with the
selected answers/vocabulary highlighted.

6. humans
melting
preserve
home
survive
protect
cubs
northern
Saving the Arctic's 20,000 Polar Bears
Scientists say the world has only
20,000 polar bears. A movie called
"To the Arctic" is part of an effort to
save the animals and their _________.
MERYL STREEP: "Feasting on
rich seal meat has made these the
largest bears in the world. But now
the Arctic is warming, and the sea ice
is __________________ away."
The film follows a polar bear mother and her two cubs.
MERYL STREEP: "This is a cold stark world,
but to polar bear mothers and __________, it's
paradise."
Nature photographer Florian Schulz made a
book about the Arctic.
FLORIAN SCHULZ: "The polar bears won't
be able to ________________ without the ice,
and, right now, scientists are predicting that by
2040 or 2050, somewhere in between then, the
sea ice in the summer will completely go
away."
The movie producers had difficulty working in
below zero temperatures, and with animals
afraid of __________________.
"Next year we're coming back with stronger
cases."
The movie and book are part of a larger project
to _______________ polar bears and the Arctic, says Suzanne Apple of the World
Wildlife Fund.
SUZANNE APPLE: "This area that, that we are focused on called the last ice area in
_________________ Canada, Greenland and Denmark is our research shows that this is
the ice that will persist the longest, so we are hoping to protect and _________________
that."
I'm Steve Ember.
1

7. patents digital
work product
benefits silver
chemical station
manufacture company
Picturing a Future for Kodak
Jim Megargee is a traditional photographer. He
struggles with how photography has changed
from film to ________________.
JIM MEGARGEE: "There's a physical
difference between a silver print and a digital
print. There's just a physical difference to it. It's
something not many people think of. And with a
silver print, it's—that's actually an etching into paper into a _______________ layer.
That's embedded in the paper. With a digital print it's ink on paper."
Kodak is America's largest photographic film company. It may stop making film. But Mr.
Megargee says that does not mean photographers like
him will no longer be able to ______________.
JIM MEGARGEE: "What happens with the
photographer when you lose a material, like that, like
say your favorite film gets taken off the market or,
you know, the company stops making it, there are
other companies. They're not going to replace that
film, but they have maybe a similar _____________."
But stopping the ____________________ of a
product will affect the people who produce it. Ray
Rock works at Kodak headquarters in Rochester, New York.
RAY ROCK: "Personally, [I am] very concerned. I still need a few more years before I
can get full retirement __________________, I—we'll see what happens."
Kodak may continue in business by selling rights to some of the digital imaging
technology it created. Bruce Upbin of Forbes magazine says Kodak will be a different
___________________ from what it once was.
BRUCE UPBIN: "My hunch is it will be mostly an intellectual property company,
meaning it'll just be collecting revenue from licensing its ___________ and technology."
Mr. Megargee says comparing traditional _____________ photography with digital
photography is like comparing watercolors to oil paintings.
JIM MEGARGEE: "It's not unusual to see someone sitting on a computer
____________ Okay, and doing the—trying to make—do the same thing and taking two
or three or four hours."
He is hoping for a continued supply of traditional products to work with.
I'm Steve Ember.
2

8. Thousands
Rectangle
Clay
Adults
Full-time
Museums
Motion
Weekend
Building Art Out of Legos
Legos are not just for children. They can
become works of art in the hands of
______________like Nathan Sawaya.
NATHAN SAWAYA: I don’t notice the time
passing. I just, this is what I do and I enjoy it.
So I can just work for hours without being
interrupted.
Legos are made of plastic. Each piece is called a
brick. Bricks come in different colors and sizes.
NATHAN SAWAYA: I think the most important thing is having a vision in my head
before I start putting down that first brick. And
then it is just a matter of putting the bricks
together to make it look like the vision I have.
Sawaya is one of a very few ___________ Lego
artists in the United States. He creates works of
art from these simple building blocks.
NATHAN SAWAYA: "Although I work
probably every ____________ and I work most
nights, you know, Im doing what I love so it
doesnt feel like work."
For several years, Sawaya worked as a lawyer.
That left him little time for building Legos. But he
found enough time to set up a personal website.
NATHAN SAWAYA: "There was a day when
my website, brickartist.com, it crashed because it
had too many hits. So I realized, all right, it is
time to make a change because there was a viable
market out there to be an artist."
Sawaya says he has no regrets about his new career.
NATHAN SAWAYA: "The worst day as an artist is still better than the best day as a
lawyer. So I dont regret my decision."
His art works have found their way into American _________________. This show was
held at the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich, Connecticut.
NATHAN SAWAYA:When I do the two-dimensional portraits, it is a lot like painting
because Im using the Lego bricks as the paint essentially.
3

9. Sawaya uses Legos like a traditional artist uses bronze, ________________ or paint.
BOY: "The pencil one."
GRANDMOTHER: "Oh, the pencil one! It looks like a man carrying a very big pencil.
See that? Would you like to make something like this?"
BOY: "Yes, but look at that!"
GRANDMOTHER: "I know, thats really neat."
Adults see Lego art differently than children.
WILMA NACINOVICH: "The artist has said that he only used ______________ pieces.
And yet he manages to get this roundness."
The head of the Flinn Gallery, Vivian Chen, has high praise for Sawayas creations.
VIVIAN CHEN: "It is a person swimming in deep water. The legs are kicking and the
arms are doing the freestyle ________________. But what drew people to this is that you
could feel the flow of the water. You could feel the action of the arms."
Some of his larger pieces sell for tens of ________________ of dollars. But he will not
sell this one -- an artist struggling to escape from the body of a lawyer.
NATHAN SAWAYA: "It is still very personal. I put it out there as part of the museum
exhibit so it is touring and people can go and enjoy it. But Im not ready to have it going
to someones house, you know, someones office and never see it again."
I’m Karen Leggett.
WHO?: ____________________________________________________________
WHAT?: ____________________________________________________________
WHEN?: ____________________________________________________________
WHERE?:____________________________________________________________
WHY?: ____________________________________________________________
HOW?: ____________________________________________________________
4

10. leak
century
species
projects
crack
order
historic
humans
A Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Then 'Crack'
Donald Walsh is stepping back in time at
the National Museum of the United
States Navy.
DONALD WALSH: "Our job was to
maintain and operate the bathyscaphe.
The scientists at the Navy lab would
decide what kind of research _________
we have and what kind of equipment we
put on it to make measurements and
sampling under the sea."
In 1960, Mr. Walsh was a young Navy lieutenant. He co-piloted a free-diving vehicle
called the Trieste to the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean.
DONALD WALSH: "What better demonstration of
the safety of this platform than to go to the deepest
place in the ocean and come back and perfectly
intact and in working ______________."
Mr. Walsh says the Trieste looks a little like a
submarine.
DONALD WALSH: "Basically, it is an underwater
balloon. You've got two parts to it. You've got the
balloon here -- which is this long, cylindrical object
-- and that's filled with a lighter-than-water
substance, which is aviation gasoline. Oil floats on
water, so you get, you get buoyancy or lift. And then,
beneath the balloon, like a balloon up in the air, you
have a cabin for the fragile _____________."
There was just enough room for two people: Mr.
Walsh and Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard. On
January 23rd, 1960, the Trieste began its _________
dive. Nine and a half kilometers down, the two men
heard something unusual.
DONALD WALSH: "It got our attention. But we, we didn't know at the time what it
was. We just knew that we're still alive and everything was functioning well. All our
instruments, indicators said that the dive was progressing just fine."
The sound came from a __________________forming in the window. Luckily, it did not
__________ and the Trieste arrived in one piece at the deepest point of the Mariana
Trench. Until recently, no one had returned to that part of the ocean.
5

11. JAMES CAMERON: "As soon as the sub is back on deck at the end of the dive ... "
In March, filmmaker and explorer James Cameron reached the Mariana Trench alone, in
a vessel he designed.
JAMES CAMERON: "We know very little about the_____________ that live down
there. We know very little about the distribution of the biological communities. We don't
know how these animals have adapted to living under this unbelievable pressure that
exists down there."
Mr. Cameron's dive owe much to the dive, a half-_____________ before, by the crew of
the Trieste. I'm Shirley Griffith.
WHO?: ____________________________________________________________
WHAT?: ____________________________________________________________
WHEN?: ____________________________________________________________
WHERE?:____________________________________________________________
WHY?: ____________________________________________________________
HOW?: ____________________________________________________________
6

12. volunteers back
witness friend
staff stroke
loneliness hands
Pets Bring Smiles (and Wags) to Retirement Home
Pat Wells brings her dog to visit people living at the
Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington,
DC.
PAT WELLS: "After 9/11, I wanted to do
something to give _____________."
At first, she went alone. Then, she learned about the
healing effect that animals have on people. So she
started bringing her dog Rikka.
PAT WELLS: "We saw one lady that hadn't come out of her room for two weeks because
she had a ____________. But when we walked into her room, she stood up, she talked to
us. They said she hadn't been so happy in weeks. We visited with people that were
getting amputations the next morning and were scared, but they smiled when we walked
in their room. And, I mean, sometimes it's ____________that's had a stressful time. We
used to have a doctor that would stop everything he was doing, and sit down on the floor
and talk to each dog when we went to his floor."
The ________________ and their dogs visit the
retirement home three times a month.
JAMES STYGART (RETIREMENT HOME
RESIDENT): "I like all dogs, they're a good ________."
Recreational therapist Steven Briefs says the dogs help
the people he cares for.
STEVEN BRIEFS: "Certainly the ones with arthritis that have lost the real function of
their ______________. It gives them a chance even then to pet, as best as they can, to
hold and to share with the owner. It definitely helps with hypertension, less anxiety, more
socialization for the residents - some of them, anyway. More feeling the sense of
companionship, less _______________. It gets them out of the room and coming down to
the recreation center here. And all those things work together to brighten their day, just at
least for the one day."
Volunteers like Tracy Baetz say the visits also help their dogs.
TRACY BAETZ: "He loves being petted, and he loves being around people. And it
calms him down. Just makes me so proud to be able to share that aspect of his personality,
and to be able to ______________ the effect that he has on others."
The American Kennel Club says there are more than 100 animal therapy groups
nationwide. I'm Karen Leggett.
7

13. level
breeze
world
prize
altitude
combined
Going to Kenya to Seek Runners' Winning Formula
Kenyan marathon runners are
world-famous for winning
races. So some foreign athletes
are traveling to Kenya to learn
their secrets. Many of them go
to the small town of Iten -
about 2,400 meters above sea
level and about 350 kilometers
north of Nairobi.
Lornah Kiplagat was born in
Kenya. She has won marathons
throughout the world and holds
several _____________records.
She heads the High Altitude
Training Center in Iten.
LORNAH KIPLAGAT: "The altitude here is, is sorta like perfect. It's not too high. It's
not too low. The weather is never hot, it's always, it's warm, but it's always ___________,
there's a breeze always. There is everything that you need. There is the gym, there is the
pool, the food is good, the nature. So all these things
_____________, definitely has made it the best place to
be in the world."
Top marathon runners can earn millions of dollars a
year by advertising products, and from public
appearances and_________ winnings. After they
become famous, many Kenyan runners build homes in
Iten and train there. The training can be intense because
of the town's high altitude and the hills of the Great Rift
Valley. Charlotte Schonbeck is a runner from Sweden.
CHARLOTTE SCHONBECK: "When you're on the
sea level, you can come to a certain _______ by just
doing the sea level training and everything. But at one
point, you need something extra. And then, I think it's
good to start with the high __________. But you need to be strong on sea level before
you go up here."
I'm Christopher Cruise.
8

14. metal
exhibit
plastic
show
images
Crushed Autos as Art
New York's Guggenheim Museum
has some sculptures made of
automobile parts. The sculptures
are the work of American artist
John Chamberlain. He died in
December of 2011 at the age of 84.
The Guggenheim Museum
organized a _____________ of
Chamberlain's work. Susan
Davidson tells how he reshaped the
cars.
SUSAN DAVIDSON: "He is able to choose the positioning of the colors, the fit of the
shapes that he brings together, the sound that the ___________ makes when he assembles
it."
She says John Chamberlain used common materials in an uncommon way. In addition to
old cars, he worked with urethane foam, ______________ and aluminum foil. His
sculptures were placed away from the museum's walls so people could see them from all
sides. Writer Deborah Bearg says the sculptures offer the
imagination an unlimited number of images.
DEBORAH BEARG: "Every time you're looking,
you're going to see something else. I'm sure if I walk
back through this part of it today, I'll see very different
__________________."
Waynette Ballengee from Louisiana says that, at first, she
did not like the show.
WAYNETTE BALLANGEE: "But as I traveled up the
rotunda, it started to make more sense to me. And I
thought that it became more interesting, as he changed
the way that he worked with the materials."
Declan Kennedy is from Ireland. He likes the building, but not the _________________.
DECLAN KENNEDY: "I think it just looks probably just a lot of scrunched up metal.
So it's not, it doesn't appeal to me."
I'm Steve Ember.
9

15. farm
difficulty
quality
visitors
become
More Young Americans Plant Themselves in Farming
Many young Americans with no farming
experience are entering agriculture. They are
learning about agriculture in college. Emily
Sloss is showing ____________ around
Duke University's new campus farm in
North Carolina.
EMILY SLOSS: "We don't use synthetic
fertilizers or pesticides."
Emily Sloss studied public policy at Duke. Now, she supervises the university's new
campus ____________.
EMILY SLOSS: "Now I'm a farmer. Yeah. Believe it or not."
In its first year, the farm has provided more than two tons of fresh vegetables for student
meals. Nate Peterson directs the dining halls at Duke.
NATE PETERSON: "It's phenomenal. The produce that is coming out of the Duke
Farm and coming into our cafes...is excellent ____________."
Maureen Moody has studied what makes young people
want to _______________ farmers. Now, she herself is
a farmer, at the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food
and Agriculture near Washington, DC.
MAUREEN MOODY: "A lot of people that are
becoming farmers now are not the people you would
traditionally think of as farmers. Me and a lot of people
I know, we didn't grow up on farms."
"I've been eating this food all my life without having
any idea where it comes from."
Movies like "Food Inc." and books critical of American food production have led some
young people to consider a career in agriculture. But Maureen Moody says many who
become farmers have __________________ succeeding.
MAUREEN MOODY: "It's really hard to stick with it after a few years. Some do, and I
think, you know, they figure out a way to make it work. But it's really hard to make any
money and to make a living."
I'm June Simms.
10

16. liquid
equipment
private
favorites
break
higher
A Fountain of Chocolate, a Rush of Joy
Hillary Bradley is putting together
a chocolate fountain for a
____________________ party.
HILLARY BRADLEY: "It's
definitely level on the bottom ...
and level on the top."
Ms. Bradley makes and sells
chocolates. She says people love
her chocolate fountains.
HILLARY BRADLEY: "A
chocolate fountain is a catering ________________ that you put melted chocolate in that
flows through and then you dip wonderful things into it. And then I melt it down and
'cause it has to be at a certain viscosity to go through the fountain. So, I melt it at home
and I bring it here. We put a little bit of cocoa butter in it 'cause the ___________ the
cocoa butter content, the more it's gonna flow."
Ms. Bradley likes to add salty crackers, cookies, and
fruit to a chocolate fountain.
HILLARY BRADLEY: "Totally unlimited, but these
are pretty much the ______________. So the fruits that
are popular are strawberries, pineapple and bananas. So
those three. We also use dried fruits, dried mangoes,
dried apricots, those are really good."
A chocolate fountain this size requires about nine or ten
kilograms of ______________ chocolate. That is
enough to serve up to 150 people.
WOMEN: "I love it, I really love chocolate and having
things to dip in it makes it even more better." "Fabulous,
it was such a great ____________ from the day. I mean,
who doesn't love chocolate?"
I'm June Simms.
11

17. painting
yourself
business
tricks
sandwich
recipe
attractive
Stylist's Job Is to Make Food Look Pretty for the Camera
To Lisa Cherkasky, every detail makes
a big difference. She is looking for just
the right position for this topping on a
salmon ______________. Finally,
everything seems picture perfect.
Cherkasky is a food stylist. Her job is
to make food look tasty.
LISA CHERKASKY: "It helps to
have a good eye, being able to look at
an image, and see if it needs a different
color, needs to be balanced another
way. Also you need to understand food. You need to understand how it works chemically,
how it works gastronomically. It's sort of like making a _______________, I think, or a
sculpture, so it has to be appealing aesthetically."
Today, Cherkasky is styling bread from the Gold Crust Baking Company. Nausika
Lyubinsky is a part owner of the company. Cherkasky prepares the food so that it is
camera-ready. She often employs _________________ or devices designed for other uses.
LISA CHERKASKY: "It might be a paint stripper
because it produces heat but not, it doesn't blow like a
hairdryer so you can warm something. It might be a
grill starter that is used to make grill marks. I use
Armor All that I spray on things to keep it moist."
Cherkasky began to explore food at home when she
was in high school. She later studied at the Culinary
Institute of America and worked in the restaurant
__________________.
LISA CHERKASKY: "And then I was looking to
make a change to get out of restaurant work. And I
started working for Time-Life books in Alexandria. I
started there doing _______________ development,
and styling was part of the job."
She now works with food photographer Renee Comet.
RENEE COMET: "We're all working as a team. If I
don't have a stylist, I can't concentrate on what I need to do. I mean it's ... it's just part, it's
what makes a great photograph. Lisa and I probably have done maybe 30 cook books
12

18. together over the years."
Cherkasky has done work for cookbooks, magazines, newspapers and food companies.
Nausika Lyubinsky's company has a website for showing its products.
NAUSIKA LYUBINSKY: "They see things that, you know, we don't, we're not used to
seeing and it's wonderful. What we wanted to do is make sure these photos are
_______________, that, you know, the chefs say, 'I want that on my menu,' you know,
'mmm' or 'that looks good, I can make a sandwich out of it.' So it's very important."
Cherkasky says her work was difficult for many years.
LISA CHERKASKY: "You couldn't really read anything then. Now you can read.
There is tons to read online now about food styling, but 25 years ago, you teach
____________. You can now take classes, and you can take it online."
It also helps if you love food. Cherkasky says she loves to look at food, eat it and even
read about it. She says food pulls people together.
I'm Mario Ritter.
WHO?: ____________________________________________________________
WHAT?: ____________________________________________________________
WHEN?: ____________________________________________________________
WHERE?:____________________________________________________________
WHY?: ____________________________________________________________
HOW?: ____________________________________________________________
13

19. convert ethnic
tradition monk
followers peace
A New Generation of Buddhism in America
Boys have their hair removed at the start of a
five-day retreat. This gathering gives them a
chance to learn about Buddhism's teachings
and the life of a Buddhist monk. Many
Chinese Americans go to the Hsi Lai Temple
in Los Angeles. Miao Hsi, director of
outreach, says American Buddhism is
divided largely along _____________ lines.
MIAO HSI: "This is why there is Chinese
Buddhism, there is Tibetan Buddhism, there is Japanese Buddhism, and so on. So I think
that right now, we have some form of American Buddhism as well." Kusala Bhikshu is
an American-born clergyman. He says Buddhism has a long history in the United States.
KUSALA BHIKSHU: "And it now has dug its roots
into the soil of America, so there are people, myself
being born in Iowa, people who were born in America
who are coming as a ___________ to Buddhism,
some becoming ordained as Buddhist monks or nuns,
and ... and bringing those teachings to everyday
Americans."
The Dalai Lama may be the world's best-known Buddhist. He enjoys wide respect among
Americans. He has some well-known _________________, including actor Richard Gere.
There are Tibetan Buddhist centers around the United States. This one near Redding,
California, is a teaching and spiritual center. Kusala Bhikshu says his center in Los
Angeles brings together several Buddhist schools. He studied under a teacher from Sri
Lanka. His center is in a Korean-American neighborhood, and was opened by a
____________ from Vietnam.
He says Buddhist teachings differ a little from one tradition to the next. At the Hsi Lai
Temple, the central teaching is the same: a respect for the ______________, a desire to
change because of the American experience, and a search for unity among people of all
beliefs.
MIAO HSI: "Every being is connected. It's like we are connected to this world. So I
think we should be working towards harmonizing with one another. Harmony and
__________ would be something that we should all work towards."
Buddhists say there is a bridge that links the many forms of American Buddhism. It is the
American-born children who share a Buddhist faith and American culture. I'm Mario
Ritter.
14

20. squeeze
burns
cheer
entire
comfortable
A New Life of Hope for a Young Burn Victim
Twelve-year-old Marius Dasianu has
found hope, and a new family, in the
United States.
MARIUS DASIANU: "I do karate, and
I'm going to go [out for] basketball."
Marius was born in Romania. At the age
of nine, his parents died in a house fire.
Marius suffered serious _________ over
75 percent of his body. Americans
Jessica Free and Ashley Ludlow visited Marius at a Romanian hospital. The young
women got their families involved, and received help from the Shriners Hospital for
Children in Los Angeles.
"And then open again. And then _____________ tight..."
Marius had both of his big toes removed and connected to his
hands to replace his fingers. Doctor Katherine Au says Marius
is hopeful about the future. "He lost all of his fingers,
essentially, burned his face, lost his ___________ nose.
And if you talk to him now, he has the most girlfriends, he
was class valedictorian. He does everything. Nothing stops
him."
Marius faces many more operations. His American foster
mother is Lynn Woodward. "He's the most amazing kid you'll ever meet. He inspires
everybody wherever he goes. He makes friends so easily. You know, he makes people
feel __________________. He's got a really amazing set of social skills. He really does."
Marius' older brother, Ionut, brought the boy to America as Marius' legal guardian. Ionut
later married one of the young women who found Marius in the hospital. Lynn
Woodward's husband, Paul, expects many good things for Marius. "It's going to be nice
to see what the future holds, and see him grow to be a man and get married and have
children of his own, and hopefully give us many grandchildren and maybe some great
grandchildren, if we're around long enough."
First, however, a full recovery will require time. Marius' doctor and foster family say his
hopefulness and good ______________will help them all get through it.
I'm Barbara Klein.
15

21. granite
diversified
murdered
racial
land
content
civil
true
Memorial in Washington Designed by a Chinese Artist
MARTIN LUTHER KING: "I
have a dream that one day this
nation will rise up, and live out
the ____________ meaning of its
creed."
Civil rights leader Martin Luther
King Junior helped to change
American history. He led protests
against ____________ separation.
And he taught non-violence, even
when threatened with violence. His efforts helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
MARTIN LUTHER KING: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free
at last!"
Four years later, King was ______________ in Memphis,
Tennessee. Now, a memorial on the National Mall in
Washington will honor him. The memorial is set to open
in August. Harry Johnson heads the Martin Luther King
Memorial Foundation.
HARRY JOHNSON: "I think we are overjoyed here at
the Memorial Foundation. Knowing, understanding and
believing that this is going to come to fruition. And that
we are soon going to have a Martin Luther King
Memorial here on our nation's Mall."
The memorial will occupy ___________ close to the
Washington Monument and other famous memorials.
HARRY JOHNSON:"We have a small water feature on
each side of the Mountain of Despair."
The memorial will have a 1,600-metric-ton ___________
structure called the Mountain of Despair and a 10-meter-
high statue of King himself.
HARRY JOHNSON: "This model was more of what is going to be there. You see he
has a scroll of paper here."
The granite marker is the work of Chinese artist Lei Yixin. Harry Johnson explains why
the artist was chosen.
HARRY JOHNSON: "We chose him because we really believe that Dr. King's message
is true that you should not judge a person by the color of his skin, but by the __________
of his character. In these terms, we are thinking artistic character."
16

22. Johnson says the memorial will be a powerful statement, and show how much progress
the country has made in the area of _________________ rights.
HARRY JOHNSON: "If America was as prejudiced as they say, then would they ever
put an African-American on the Mall? And, the answer would be no. They said now the
Mall is now ________________. Now we have an America that looks like America,
when they look at the Mall. And I think visitors from around the world are going to say it
is about time that you all understand who Dr. King really was and what he means, not to
just America, but indeed the world."
Johnson says President Obama has been invited to speak at the opening of the Martin
Luther King memorial.
I'm Mario Ritter.
WHO?: ____________________________________________________________
WHAT?: ____________________________________________________________
WHEN?: ____________________________________________________________
WHERE?:____________________________________________________________
WHY?: ____________________________________________________________
HOW?: ____________________________________________________________
17

23. exhibits
protect
creatures
urban
wild
shelter
Desert Museum in Arizona Exhibits Native Plants and Animals
The mountain lion is the largest cat native to North
America. It is not often seen in the ___________.
But it can be found at the Arizona-Sonoma Desert
Museum in Tucson, Arizona. This realistic-
looking area was build with man-made materials.
The museum is home to more than three hundred
animal species and one thousand two hundred
kinds of plants. Craig Ivanyi works at the museum.
CRAIG IVANYI: "The Sonoran Desert region is a very special place. Its the lushest
desert on the planet. Instead of being in an ___________ environment, youre immersed
in the desert we represent."
More than five hundred thousand people visit the museum each year. This woman is from
Canada. Many coyotes live in Arizona. This one looks like it is in the wild, not
surrounded by a fence.
CRAIG IVANYI: "All of the ___________ are designed
with barriers, moats, walls or fencing, quite often fencing
thats difficult for visitors to see.
Some parts of the museum have barriers made from glass, like
this one for a prairie dog. Visitors can see animals like a
bobcat, a pig-like creature called a javelina and the black bear.
Common desert __________________ like scorpions and
snakes also can be seen. This Harris Hawk can fly where it
wants to, but has been trained to come back for food. Bird
trainer Dillon Horger says the birds consider the museum
their territory.
DILLION HORGER: "They want to come back with us,
they want to go back into their enclosures, and spend the
night in a safe, secure area where they know they get food and
water and ________________."
Craig Ivanyi hopes the museum will influence people to ______________ the Sonoran
desert.
CRAIG IVANYI: "So they are aware of what kinds of plants and animals are out there
and, hopefully, give them some sort of passion for wanting to save it."
I'm Steve Ember.
18

24. natural
flowers
city
devoted to
grow
fuel
Visiting the National Arboretum in Washington
The United States National Arboretum is
famous for its flowers, trees and plants.
The Arboretum is just a short drive from
the center of Washington, D.C. Yet
visitors often feel like they are far from
the busy____________.
Sam Augusta brought his one-year-old
son to play by the water.
SAM AUGUSTA: We like to come and take a look at the fish, and the lotus
____________ and a lot of the plants. Hes never seen the fish up close like this before.
Joan Love often visits the Arboretum. She says she knows about almost every plant here.
JOAN LOVE: I mean theres so much to see here and so much to do here. But one thing
is, you dont even know youre in Washington, D.C. Youre just here in all this
wonderfulness.
The Arboretum also is home to what were once pieces of the
United States Capitol. These sandstone columns formerly stood
at the eastern entrance to the building. They were given to the
Arboretum when the Capitol was repaired in 1958.
Thomas Elias served as director of the Arboretum for 16 years.
THOMAS ELIAS: The National Arboretum was established in
1927 by an act of Congress as a research and educational facility,
________________ studying plants, and disseminating
information to the American public.
Each year, the Arboretum sends scientists to collect plants from
around the world. Those plants are brought back to Washington
and planted. Some are used to study ways to ___________ plants
with resistance to insects or disease. The Arboretum also has an area with plants that can
be used to make fuels.
THOMAS ELIAS: Its to demonstrate to people and show people what the plants that
can be used to generate bio-fuel or ethanol as a substitute for fuel. So we selected 21
different plants that can be used in some way to generate ____________.
The bio-fuel display has plants like alfalfa, sunflowers and soybeans. The Arboretum has
many areas of interest. But what most visitors say they like best is the calm and
_______________ beauty. Here, they feel far from Washington and the world of politics.
I’m Faith Lapidus.
19

25. Pressure
customers
retire
pain
baby
scissors
World's Oldest Barber Can Still Give 25 Haircuts a Day
Many adults continue working long
after other people have retired. One
example is 99 year old Antonio
Mancinelli of New York State. The
Guinness Book of World Records calls
him the worlds oldest barber.
ANTONIO MANCINELLI: You see
all these people. You cut their hair for
years, and you want to keep going. I
have no way of thinking that I am
going to ____________. I am not
retiring. Im just, keep on going until the end.
Mancinelli has been cutting hair since he was 12 years old. In the 1920s, some barbers
did more than cut hair. They offered other services and treatments.
ANTONIO MANCINELLI: I used to use leeches. People
used to come in there. They had high blood ___________, and I
used to put a leech on them to take some of the blood away.
And, they say they felt better.
Machinelli says he removed growths on skin with a heated pin,
and performed the ancient art of cupping to treat ___________.
Now, he just gives haircuts. His customers are pleased.
CUSTOMER: Great barber. He doesnt use the clippers. You
get a haircut with _______________. Its much better.
Mancinelli says people keep him going.
ANTONIO MANCINELLI: We had one fellow come in here,
in fact. He came in and says, Anthony, you dont remember me.
You used to cut my hair when I was a _______________.
Mancinelli has lived longer than many of his _____________. He worked seven days a
week for 40 years. And he can still cut hair for 25 people in one day.
I’m Jim Tedder.
20

26. election
refugee
support
conflict
legal
Computer Games to Support Democracy
Video games can be fun to play. They also
can teach people how to settle conflicts
peacefully. This is a video game called
Food Force. It can be downloaded from the
Web site of the World Food Program. The
groups Jennifer Parmalee says the game
shows children the difficulty of getting
food to areas of conflict.
JENNIFER PARMALEE: It helps them
feel like they can be part of a solution. Thats something empowering and fun for them.
Another video game is called A Force More Powerful. It takes place in a city similar to
Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia. Ivan Marovic designed the game. Ten years ago, he
organized protests against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
The president resigned after disputed ____________ results in two thousand. He was
arrested on war crimes charges, but died before his trial was
completed.
Marovic says his game shows non-violent ways to help remove
oppressive governments.
IVAN MAROVIC: Like strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience,
street protests, in order to force the regime to either concede or
to step down. Marovic says another goal is to win public
________________. He says the goal is to win the loyalty of
people who support the government. Another goal is to keep up
the interest of your current supporters.
This game deals with the situation in Darfur, Sudan. The
_______________ in Darfur has displaced three million people.
A Web site called Second Life was used to create the Darfur video game. Players can
build their own make-believe world and contact others through voice and text messages.
Scott Sechser works for Linden Labs, which created Second Life. He says the game lets
players come in and see what is taking place in Darfur, listen to a family which left
Darfur and is now in a ______________ camp.
The Second Life Web site is able to change text messages in English to other languages.
Sechser says he has communicated with people from around the world.
Other parts of Second Life help to support democracy and conflict resolution. They
include a courtroom where people can learn about ___________ systems in a democracy.
I'm Bob Doughty.
21

27. control
document
island
land
letter
financial
operator
underground
skyscrapers
New York City Celebrates Its 400th Anniversary
It is hard to believe that New York City
was once a small Dutch settlement. An
old ______________shows that Dutch
settlers did, in fact, pay for this land. The
document can be seen at the citys South
Street Seaport Museum.
Martin Berense is head of the
Netherlands National Archives. He says
the letter tells about a ship arriving in
Amsterdam. The ships ______________
said, The settlement is going well. And, we bought the __________ of Manhattan for
sixty guilders.
The letter is on loan for New Yorks four hundredth anniversary.
Berendse says the ______________ tells about the
settlement, which became New York.
The museum also has a map of the settlement. Another
map shows just how small Manhattan was. That changed
when Britain took _______________. Historian Barry
Lewis says the British filled in part of the East River with
waste because more land was needed.
BARRY LEWIS: We had only about one hundred
thousand people at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. By 1875, the population of Manhattan is over
one-million people. By 1910, over two million people are
living in Manhattan island.
The Brooklyn Bridge was built in eighteen eighty-three
so people could move to Long Island, where _________
was less costly.
Lewis says people crossed the East River by carriage or
boat. Or they walked across the bridge. He says New
Yorks __________________ trains led to the
development of land in areas far from the center of the
city.
Many businesses needed to be in Manhattan. So
developers started building up, creating the skyscraper.
22

28. BARRY LEWIS: People were afraid it would fall down in the first windstorm. And
anyone who had property in the commercial buildings next to it, they were terrified that
no one would rent in their buildings because that thing was next door.
But more and more _________________ were built. Each one was higher than the next.
Lewis says the big reason for so many skyscrapers was money. He says New York was
built by investments in land.
That is not why everything was built. Some structures have improved the look of the city.
Two examples are the Washington Square Arch and the Guggenheim Museum.
But money is still important on the island that began as a trading century four centuries
ago. The area the Dutch settled is now Wall Street, the worlds ________________ capital.
I’m Steve Ember.
WHO?: ____________________________________________________________
WHAT?: ____________________________________________________________
WHEN?: ____________________________________________________________
WHERE?:____________________________________________________________
WHY?: ____________________________________________________________
HOW?: ____________________________________________________________
23

29. known
explorers
show
railroad
beauty
criminals
miners
novel
Levi Strauss Put His Mark on the American West
Many men and women helped to shape
popular images of the American West. Some
of these people can be seen in a __________
at the National Portrait Gallery in
Washington, D.C.
FRANK GOODYEAR: The individuals
who you see pictured along this wall are all
important players in that development.
Frank Goodyear chose the pictures of more than one hundred individuals for the show.
He says people from many different places and occupations influenced the development
of the American West. For example, Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire. His invention
helped separate land for farming. Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901. Years
earlier, he lived in North Dakota.
FRANK GOODYEAR: When Roosevelt became president, he transformed this love of
the West into concrete legislation, setting aside lands for national parks, national forests,
initiating a vigorous national debate about conservation.
Many people have heard of this businessman: Levi Strauss.
FRANK GOODYEAR: Levi Strauss comes to recognize that
great fortunes can be made during the Gold Rush by
supplying miners with the goods that they need, and realizing
that a design for a waist overall is really very popular among
the ______________, and makes a tremendous fortune with
his 501 jeans.
The show has pictures of _______________ like John Wesley
Powell. He was the first white man to travel the full length of
the Colorado River. There are also pictures of artists and
photographers like Eadweard Muybridge.
Goodyear says Muybridge was skilled at taking photographs
of landscapes. His images and others had a major effect on
the eastern United States. Many people there could not
believe the _____________ of the West.
Writer Samuel Clemens also was important.
FRANK GOODYEAR: Sam Clemens, who develops the pen name Mark Twain, really
is the first individual to bring a kind of Western voice to American literature. His
24

30. _______________, Roughing It, really provide a larger American public with some of
the colorful characters and dramatic stories associated with the West.
The West had many colorful personalities: _______________ like Jesse James, and bank
robbers Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Entertainer Annie Oakley was famous for
shooting targets. William Cody, or Buffalo Bill, was _______________ for his Wild
West Show.
Goodyear says the National Portrait Gallery show covers eighty years during a time of
great changes, in both the West and the United States.
During this period, Native Americans and non-natives fought several well-publicized
battles. Workers completed a _______________ across the country. And the modern-day
environmental movement was born.
I’m Mario Ritter.
WHO?: ____________________________________________________________
WHAT?: ____________________________________________________________
WHEN?: ____________________________________________________________
WHERE?:____________________________________________________________
WHY?: ____________________________________________________________
HOW?: ____________________________________________________________
25

31. customers
supervises
eggs
homeless
soup kitchens
not-for-profit
Restauranteur Now Serves the Homeless
Steve Badt prepares meals for people who
have no place to live in Washington, D.C.
Steve Badt starts work early, while most
people are sleeping. He ______________ meal
preparation for more than two hundred people.
Badt left his job in the restaurant industry
seven years ago. He wanted to continue his
education and do something different.
He now works for Miriams Kitchen, a _____________ group. It has been serving meals
to homeless men and women for more than twenty-five years. The government says more
than thirty-six million Americans do not get enough to eat. Many are homeless.
STEVE BADT: "At seven oclock, we will open up the hot
(food) line, and that is what everyone is working on. These
guys over here are cracking ______________, preparing to do
scrambled eggs. We are making biscuits here. These are
cream biscuits. Another volunteer (is) on the griddle with ham.
We have home fries over there going on. And, a fruit salad
over here. Our goal is by 7 a.m. to have all this ready to go to
serve a hot meal.
The work is not easy for the volunteers at Miriams Kitchen.
But Steve Badt has a waiting list of willing workers. Badt
says he wanted to change the way _____________________
like Miriams Kitchen operate. He would like to make them
more energetic, like the restaurants where he was trained.
There is no lack of comments about the food.
STEVE BADT: Seeing them every day in the morning and having them come up to me
and going, Oh, that was a great meal. That feels pretty good. Once in a while, they will
go, That was a great meal, but those biscuits, ehhh! So they are pretty blunt with their
criticism. But I like that. I like opinionated __________________, just like in the
restaurants.
Homeless people come to Miriams Kitchen to seek advice or get help in finding a place
to live. But workers say what the ____________ want most is Steve Badts hot meals.
I'm Faith Lapidus.
26

32. tired
opera
ancient
restaurants
understand
place
changed
practice
A Youth Orchestra for Chinese-Americans Widens Its Reach
A musical program in Oakland, California,
gives children of Chinese-American families a
safe __________ to spend their free time.
Sherlyn Chew says the program is for students
who might have nothing else to do after
school ends for the day.
SHERLYN CHEW: "A lot of our students
are what you call you know, latch-key
children where the parents work long hours in
__________________."
Two of the students are not Chinese: Alejandro Chavez and Tyler Thompson.
Neither Alejandro nor Tyler speaks Chinese. But they have become important players in
the program's orchestra. She says she saw something special in them.
SHERLYN CHEW: "Music for all students should be fun, but it is a discipline. You
have to -- you have to _______________. And both of them were willing to do that."
Tyler Thompson attended a school near his mother's
workplace in Oakland's Chinatown neighborhood.
There, he learned songs in Chinese from Ms. Chew.
SHERLYN CHEW: "One day he said to me he said,
'You know, my mother comes home from work very
_____________ and I would sing her the songs you
teach me and I'm able to make her feel better.' And I
said, you know, what a nice kid."
Ms. Chew discovered that Tyler Thompson could sing
Chinese _______________.
TYLER THOMPSON: "It was a challenge to me at
first to actually, like, understand it."
Tyler says it was also hard for some of his Chinese
friends to understand why he wanted to sing Chinese
opera.
TYLER THOMPSON: "I didn't see any problem with
it but they did, and I know it would probably be the same vice versa if they were, if like, I
heard one Asian kid singing some like really old school R&B [rhythm and blues] songs.
Like I would just be like, you know, 'What do you know about that?'"
27

33. Alejandro Chavez has also done well in the program since Ms. Chew discovered him ten
years ago. Alejandro plays an __________________ instrument called the Sheng.
ALEJANDRO CHAVEZ: "Just being able to say I play an instrument from ancient
China. It's, you know, I have history in my hands."
Alejandro says being part of the orchestra has opened his mind.
ALEJANDRO CHAVEZ: "Well it's taught me not to be, you know, Latinos here, you
know, white people here, you know, so I'm mixed together. It's like that. And it's really
__________________ my life. Really, because if I weren't here, where would I be?"
Ms. Chew says she hopes all her students will learn to better _________________ not
just the music but each other. She also hopes the children will remember everything they
have learned after they leave the orchestra.
I'm Christopher Cruise.
WHO?: ____________________________________________________________
WHAT?: ____________________________________________________________
WHEN?: ____________________________________________________________
WHERE?:____________________________________________________________
WHY?: ____________________________________________________________
HOW?: ____________________________________________________________
28

34. copies different
copyright off-site
files downloads
electronically
cyber weed
Digital Libraries Still Find a Place for Books
A computerized system can find books in
seconds at California State University,
Northridge. The Cal State Northridge
library has more than 1,000,000 books and
2,000,000 magazines and newspapers. The
complete list of publications is digital.
Students can use digital _____________
in their studies. The library's Mark Stover
says most academic journals are now
available ______________________.
MARK STOVER: "I would say that probably 90 percent of the journals that we
subscribe to now come in electronic format. With books and monographs on the other
hand, it's a little bit ______________ story."
The library is digitizing its paper holdings to save them and make them more available.
They include handwritten letters and old newspaper stories. Steve Kutay is the
university's digital librarian.
STEVE KUTAY: "They can be backed up and they can be stored ____________. They
can be very well-protected, but are not necessarily meaningful to us if we don't know 10,
20 years from now, what those __________, what is contained in those files."
Librarian Helen Heinrich says universities are making sure that hard __________ of
books remain in storage, even after they are digitized.
HELEN HEINRICH: "As we know, we all are becoming
so dependent on the Internet, but what if there is a ______
attack and it all goes down one day? So there is always,
there will be a copy of record."
MARK STOVER: "We are going to __________ our
collections. We are going to reshape them and use the
space to repurpose into more learning places for our
students. But I think that print books, especially because of
__________________ issues, are going to maintain their
place for many years to come."
I'm Steve Ember.
29

35. trail
ancestors
parade
chance
fade away
riders
The Day That Horses Rule the Streets of Houston
Every year, a big parade is held in Houston,
Texas. On ____________ day, horses -- not cars
-- control the streets of the fourth-largest city in
the United States.
FAMILY: "We've never seen so many
cowboys and cows and horses all together with
all the trail wagons."
Since 1938, the parade of horses, cowboys and
cowgirls has marked the beginning of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
FATHER WITH SON: "Lots of horses, you like that? It is pretty cool, huh? Yeah!"
GIRL: "I am going to ride them when I get bigger."
The horse _____________ gather in different parts of Texas, some of them hundreds of
kilometers away. They ride into Houston and camp overnight. For Santos Cruz, this is a
__________ to connect with the past.
SANTOS CRUZ: "I wanted to have a feeling of how our
_________________ had to cross this prairie at one time
or another you know, when they--there was no cars."
Gerald Barkley and his friend, Donald Kimble, come to
Houston every year and meet with friends they have made
on the ____________ rides.
DONALD KIMBLE: "We all get together and enjoy
each other and which some of us haven't seen each other
in a year, so that brings out all the good to me."
GERALD BARKLEY: "They promote this way of life
so you know, it doesn't you know, _____________ from
existence."
I'm Ted Landphair.
30

36. WHO is the story about ?
____________________________________________________________________
WHAT happened?
____________________________________________________________________
WHEN did it take place?
____________________________________________________________________
WHERE was it ?
____________________________________________________________________
WHY did __________________________________________________________?
____________________________________________________________________
HOW did _________________________________________________________?
____________________________________________________________________
31

37. Write The Story In Your Own Words
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
32

38. More resources about current events
About the Curator
David Deubelbeiss is professor, teacher trainer and technology
advocate presently living in North Bay, Ontario. He has traveled
and taught EFL around the world. A “working man’s teacher”,
he espouses the philosophy of “When one teaches, two
learn.”Find out more about him through his google profile or his
online teacher professional development website – EFL
Classroom 2.0 . Also catch him on EnglishCentral, a site he’s
building to help teachers and learners around the world.
33