Learn Language through the song - | English exercises

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Welcome to Learning English,

a daily 30 minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Ashley Thompson.

And I'm Mario Ritter junior.

This program is designed for English learners.

So we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases,

especially written for people learning

English.

On today's program,

Ashley tells the story of a valuable U.S.

coin.

Bryan Lynn reports on inflationary

pressures on Japan's beloved ramen noodles.

Ashley and John Russell give advice on finding lost iPhones

and finally, the lesson of the day.

But first.

A rare dime bought by an Ohio

farm family in the 1970s was recently sold

for just over $500,000.

In 1975, the United States

Mint in San Francisco produced the coin,

which has a face value

of one tenth of 1 USD.

Our mint is

where a government produces forms of money.

The coin shows the 32nd president

of the United States, Franklin D Roosevelt.

It is one of just two dimes of its kind known to exist

without a special S mark.

Three sisters from Ohio received

the dime after the death of their brother, who had kept it in a bank

for more than 40 years.

The coin sold for $506,250

in an online sale, said Ian Russell,

president of Great Collections,

an auction house based in California.

The only other known example of the 1975 no.

As proof dime sold at a 2019 auction

for $456,000.

It was then sold again months

later to a private collector.

The Mint in San Francisco made more than 2.8 million

special proof sets in 1975.

The sets had six coins and cost $7.

A few years later, collectors discovered

that two dimes from the set

did not have the mint mark.

Russell said the sisters from Ohio,

who did not want to be identified, told him

that they inherited one of those two dimes.

Their brother and mother bought the coin

for $18,200 in 1978,

which would amount to around $90,000 today.

Their parents operated a dairy farm.

They considered the coin a form of investment.

I am Ashley Thompson.

Japanese ramen restaurants are famous

for providing high quality food at a reasonable price.

But continuing inflation,

particularly affecting food products and fuel,

is making it difficult for ramen sellers

to keep costs down.

One of those owners is 26 year

old Tyson Hitchcock.

He opened a ramen restaurant in Tokyo

about a year and a half ago.

Hitchcock told Reuters he has already raised his food prices

three times the price for his top selling special.

Ramen is up 47% since he opened.

Now selling for $8.

But even after raising his prices, Hitchcock

still struggles with rising costs.

Traditionally, ramen shops were supposed

to offer something cheap and tasty.

He said it's no longer cheap food for the masses.

The issues facing Japanese

ramen restaurants are similar to inflation linked problems

experienced by businesses around the world.

In Japan, it became a big campaign issue

in the country's recent general election.

Major political parties promised during the campaign

to enact measures aimed at reducing

rising business costs.

He told Reuters that even though his prices have gone up sharply,

his noodles are still in demand.

Long lines form in front of his shop all day long.

Research by

Japanese credit advisor Tay Koku databank

shows that 49 Japanese ramen restaurant operators

with large debts filed for bankruptcy

in the first seven months of this year.

Rising import costs for businesses

bringing goods into Japan have worsened the problem.

In addition, the country's currency hit

a 34 year low against the dollar

this year and has struggled to rise again.

Experts told Reuters the issues facing Japan's ramen

restaurants are part of wider economic difficulties in the country.

Nationwide bankruptcies in one six month period this year

rose 18.6% over the same period last year

to 4990 cases.

Tae koku databank said

a record number of those were caused by inflation.

Toshihiro Nakajima is the chief economist

at the Dai ichi Life Research Institute.

He told Reuters just like ramen shops,

companies offering goods and services that are in demand

are transferring costs to product prices

and seeing their sales grow.

But he noted that many businesses

struggling to pass on higher costs are not making it.

For now, restaurant owner Hikari said he plans

to keep centering on serving quality tasty food

and hopes the election result will lead to some business improvements.

I'm Bryan Lynn.

Phones hold so much of our digital lives.

Emails, social media and bank accounts.

Photos and more as a result.

If our phones ever get stolen or lost,

we can face major problems in some places.

Phone thefts have increased.

Britain, for example, has some 200 phones

stolen every day in snatch thefts.

When a person steals a phone in a public place,

sometimes right out of an owner's hand,

and escapes quickly.

The government has promised

to take steps against the crime and is meeting with technology

companies and device makers to come up with solutions.

Here are steps you can take before

and after your phone goes missing.

There are things you can do to make it less painful.

If someone steals your phone.

Because some

of these features are more technical in nature.

People often do not think of them

locked down as much as you can.

At a minimum.

Require a password or special scan

to unlock the device.

You can also add similar requirements

to important individual apps

like your banking account, WhatsApp, or signal

to protect your finances or messaging from thieves.

You will probably have lots of important

photos saved on your camera roll.

It is a good idea to back the photos up

along with contacts, calendar, and other files.

Google and Apple offer cloud based backup services,

although the free versions have limited storage space.

You can also backup your files

to an external hard drive, memory card or a laptop.

Some police forces and phone companies

advise turning off message previews.

This prevents thieves trying to break into your accounts

from seeing reset or login codes.

When the phone is locked.

To do this on an iPhone, for example,

go to notifications in your settings

and choose Show Previews.

You can also go down the app list

to turn previews off for individual apps,

but leave them on for less risky ones

like news or weather.

Recent iOS and Android updates

include a number of new elements

designed to make thefts less profitable.

IPhone users can turn on stolen

device protection, which makes it a lot harder

for iPhone thieves to change key functions and settings.

Many thieves will want to wipe

the data off and reset so they can resell it.

But with this feature on, they will need a face

or fingerprint scan to do so.

Apple also recently updated

its Activation Lock feature to make it harder

for thieves to sell parts from stolen phones.

Android phones, meanwhile,

can now use artificial intelligence to detect motion, indicating

someone took a device out of your hand

and is racing away on foot or a bike.

The program then locks the screen immediately.

There is also a feature called Private Spaces

that lets you hide sensitive files on your phone.

Take note of your phone's serial number,

also known as an IMEI number.

It can link you to the phone.

If it does eventually get recovered,

call it up by typing asterisk.

Pound zero 6 pound on your phone's keypad.

If you have already lost your phone,

you can also find it in other places

like the box it came in.

If you are unlucky enough

to have your phone stolen, notify police.

Call your insurance company if you have a policy that covers the device.

Inform your phone company so they can freeze your number

and issue a replacement SIM card or eSIM.

Notify your bank so they can watch out

for unusual activity.

Try to find your phone

with the Find My Device feature.

For iPhones, go to icloud.com forward slash

find from a web browser.

Android users should go to

WW dot google.com forward

slash Android forward slash find.

Samsung also has its own service for Galaxy phones.

These services will show your phone's current

or last known location on a map.

The service is also handy if you cannot find

your phone somewhere in the house.

Apple says even if a phone cannot connect

to the internet or has been turned off,

it can use Bluetooth to contact any nearby Apple devices

by using the same network behind

its AirTags tracking devices.

Google says newer pixel phones can be located

for several hours after they have been turned off.

Using similar technology,

you can get the

phone to play a sound, even if it is on silent.

You can also put the phone in last mode,

which locks it and displays a message and contact details on the screen.

For anyone who finds it, last mode on

iOS also suspends any Apple Pay cards and passes.

If the device shows up in an unfamiliar location on the map

and you suspect it has been stolen,

experts say it is better to contact police

rather than trying to get it back yourself.

Cyber security company Norton says confronting a thief

yourself is not recommended.

If you cannot find your phone.

There are some final steps to take.

Log yourself out of all accounts

that might be accessible on the phone.

Then remove your phone from your list of trusted devices

that you use to get multifactor authentication codes.

But make sure you can get

those codes somewhere else, such as email.

Then, as a final step,

you can erase the phone remotely so that there is no chance

of any data falling into the wrong hands.

However, take note.

Apple says that if the iPhone is offline,

the remote erase will only happen

the next time the phone comes back online.

But if you find the phone before it gets erased,

you can cancel the request.

Google warns that SD memory cards

plugged into Android phones might not be remotely erased,

and after the phone has been wiped,

it will not show up with Find My Device.

I'm Ashley Thompson.

And I'm John Russell.

You are listening to the VOA

Learning English podcast.

You just heard this week's technology report from John Russell

and Ashley Thompson.

Now John joins me to talk more about the report.

Hi, Mario.

Thanks for having me on the show.

Near the end of the report, the term

multi-factor authentication appears.

Can you talk more about it? John?

It's a long technical term.

Definitely not the easiest vocabulary to learn.

That said, we can start to understand what it means

by analyzing pieces of the words.

It starts with multi,

which suggests more than one or many.

That's right.

So the term multifactor suggests more than one factor.

How might our listeners understand authentication.

If we pay careful attention to the first part of the word.

We can get an idea about its meaning in this case.

The word begins with authentic,

a term suggesting that something is real or genuine.

So multifactor authentication

suggests that you use several methods or factors to prove

you are genuinely the owner of a device or an account.

Can you give some examples?

Sure.

You might log in to an account with a password

and then use another code that is sent to your phone.

You can also even do a face scan or fingerprint

scan as your second form of identification.

There are a number of ways to set up multifactor authentication.

What is important is that it adds an additional layer of security.

Thanks for coming on the show today, John.

Thanks for having me. See you next time.

VOA Learning

English has launched a new program for children.

It is called Let's Learn English with Anna.

The new course aims to teach children American English

through asking and answering questions

and experiencing fun situations.

For more information, visit our website.

Learning English Dot VOA News.com.

Hello, my name is Anna Mateo.

My name is Andrew Smith.

And I'm Jill Robbins.

You're listening to the lesson of the day

on the learning English podcast.

Welcome to the part of the show where we help you do more.

With our video series, let's learn English.

This series shows Anna Mateo in her work

and life in Washington, D.C..

In lesson 45 of the series,

Anna and her roommate go on a road trip to see famous places

in the United States and their plan is ambitious.

Ambitious.

That's spelled a m b I t

I o U.S.

means that a plan or goal is on a large scale,

or perhaps difficult to do.

Anna and Marcia hope to see famous places all over the U.S..

So their plan is ambitious because the U.S.

is a very large to see all the things they want to see.

They will be traveling for weeks.

That's true.

They plan to drive north from Washington, D.C.

to New York City and then head west all the way to California.

So that's what we call a coast to coast trip

all the way from one ocean to the other.

In this case, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,

that's a trip of almost 4000km.

And then they have to drive back.

I guess we could call that a coast to coast to coast trip.

I never

thought of it that way, but I guess you're right.

Let's listen to Anna and Marcia talk about some of the things they will be seeing.

Hi, Marcia. Hi.

I packed my bags and I am ready to go.

Did you make a list of all the places you want to see?

I did, I want to see New York City and the statue of Liberty.

And I want to see Mount Rushmore, Mount Rushmore.

And don't forget the Grand Canyon.

Let's not forget California's redwood forest.

There are so many places to see.

We will be driving for a long time.

So we might get bored. Bored?

No way.

We can talk or not talk.

We can play word games.

We can sing. You know, Marcia.

Our trip is like that famous American song.

This land is your land.

This land is my land.

From California to New York.

Ellen.

From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters.

This land was made for you and me.

Marcia

and Anna were singing the song called.

This land is your land.

It was written by an American folk singer named Woody

Guthrie in 1940.

Guthrie wanted to express the idea that the US should offer

equal opportunity and rights to every person in the country.

Great idea.

Now let's see if their trip gets off to a good start.

Will we be stopping soon?

We won't be stopping soon.

I'm hungry.

Marsha, we've just left D.C..

We'll be eating lunch in about two hours.

Can you wait, I guess.

Here, have an apple.

It's organic.

Thanks.

Unfortunately for Marsha,

Anna accidentally throws the apple

out of the window of the car.

So Marsha will have to wait a little longer before she can eat.

She will have to wait, but our listeners can notice right now.

A special way we can talk about the future in English.

It's called the future. Continue us tense.

Listen again.

Marsha.

We just left. D.C.

will be eating lunch in about two hours.

Instead of saying we're going to eat in two hours, anuses.

We'll be eating lunch in about two hours.

That's because it takes some time to eat for actions in the future.

That takes some time to do.

We can use the modal will plus the verb

plus the main verb with ING.

For example, listen to this exchange.

What will you be doing tomorrow afternoon?

I'll be working from noon until 6 p.m..

We often use the future continuous

when we specify or say,

the amount of time we expect the activity to take.

If we don't know or care about the length of time,

then we can just use the expression going to like.

In this exchange.

Do you have any plans for the weekend?

I'm going to try to clean my room.

And maybe go to a movie here.

The speaker either does not know or does not care

about expressing how long the actions will take.

Now listen to this part of lesson 45

and see if you can hear the future continuous tense.

How many times do you hear it used?

Listen carefully.

We will be entering North Dakota any minute now.

North Dakota.

We are going in the wrong direction.

We want to go to South Dakota.

No problem.

I will just exit the highway.

We will be going south in just a minute.

They're done.

We're going south. Okay.

We will be stopping for gas and a bathroom break in about an hour.

Ana used the tense three times.

We will be entering North Dakota any minute now.

We will be going south in just a minute.

Okay.

We will be stopping for gas and a bathroom break in about an hour.

And most native speakers joined together

the two words we and will with the contraction.

Instead of saying we will, people say, Will.

We combined the subject and the

word will together like this.

I'll you all.

He'll, she'll

we'll and they'll.

Now let's listen to one more quick example from lesson 45.

Okay.

We will be arriving in New York City very soon.

I can't wait to see the Big Apple.

You can hear the future continuous

when Marcia says we will be arriving.

She expresses an expectation about the time

by using the word soon.

Also, we should note that the Big Apple

is a nickname for a New York City.

Other cities in the US have nicknames too.

Chicago is called the Windy City

because its politicians talked so much.

Detroit is called the Motor City

because many American cars and trucks are built there,

and Denver is called the Mile High City

because it is about one mile or

1600m above sea level.

It's fun to learn the nicknames of cities.

I grew up in a city they called the.

Crossroads. Of America.

Listeners, what are the nicknames of some cities or towns in your country?

Write to us at Learning English at VOA News.com and let us know.

And now, before we go, here's one

last example of the future continuous.

This is from a song written in 1938,

and it uses the future continuous in its title.

It's a song about seeing people again

after you have missed them.

Jill, do you know what song I'm talking about?

I think I do. Is it? I'll be seeing you.

It sure. Is.

Are you going to sing it for us?

Maybe just the first part so our listeners can get the idea.

It goes like this.

I'll be seeing you

in all the old familiar places

that this heart of mine embrace

is all day through a little high for me.

And we'll be seeing you.

In a sense, soon.

On the next lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast.

Thanks for listening. I'm Jill Robbins.

And I'm Andrew Smith.

And that's our program for today.

Join us again tomorrow to keep learning

English through stories from around the world.

I'm Ashley Thompson.

And I'm Mario Ritter, junior.

Please choose the correct answer for each question below: