– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Hello and welcome to Learning English,

a daily 30 minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Anna Matteo.

And I'm Bryan Lynn.

This program is aimed at English learners.

So we speak slowly and we use words and phrases,

especially written for people

learning English.

Today on the show,

Anna Matteo brings us words and their stories.

We also have the weekly Science Report.

And John Russell takes a look ahead

to some major sky events we can expect in 2025.

But first,

researchers in Russia's

Siberia area are showing the public what they say

are the 50,000 year old remains

of a baby mammoth

melting permafrost

led to the animal's discovery.

They are calling it the best preserved

mammoth body ever found

named Yana by the scientists.

The female mammoth weighs more than 100 kilograms

and is 120 centimeters tall.

Scientists believe that Yana

was one year old when she died.

Her remains are among several

mammoth carcasses that have been recovered.

Yana was found among the melting permafrost lost at

but a crater in the far eastern

Russian area of Yakutia,

known as the gateway to the underworld.

Scientists have found remains

of other ancient animals there,

including bison horses and dogs.

Permafrost is soil that remains frozen

for a period of years or more

as the permafrost in Siberia melts.

Discoveries of prehistoric animals

are becoming more common.

Scientists at Russia's

Northeastern Federal University

will study Diana's remains.

The university has a research center

and museum specifically for mammoths signed.

Scientists at the university described

the find as exceptional.

They said Yana would give researchers

additional information about how mammoths lived

and how they changed to survive in their surroundings.

I'm Anna

Matteo.

The world will have to wait until 2026

for the next total solar eclipse.

However, the sky promises plenty

of other big events in 2025.

The New Year starts off with a six planet parade in January

that people will be able to see for weeks.

The smallest planet, Mercury, will join the crowd

for a seven planets line in February.

The Planetary Society's chief scientist,

Bruce Betts, said about the visible planets.

People should go out and see them

sometime during the next many weeks.

I certainly will.

Here is a look ahead to the major Sky events.

In 2025,

the moon will disappear for more than an hour

over north and south America on March 14th.

The event will be followed two weeks

later by a partial solar eclipse.

People in Maine, Eastern Canada,

Greenland, Europe, Siberia, and northwestern Africa

will be able to watch the show in September.

There will be an even longer total lunar eclipse over Europe,

Asia, Africa and Australia two weeks later.

A partial solar eclipse will take place

in the area over the South Pacific, including New Zealand

and parts of Antarctica.

Three Supermoons are coming this year in October,

November and December.

The full moon will look especially big and bright.

Those three months as it orbits closer to earth than usual.

November's supermoon will come closest,

passing within 356,980 kilometers from Earth.

Last year had four supermoons ending in November.

This month, six of our seven neighboring planets

will line up in the sky to form a long arc.

All but Neptune and Uranus

should be visible with the eye just after sunset.

Weather permitting, the parade will continue for weeks.

Mercury will make a short appearance by the end of February.

The planets will slowly exit

one by one through spring.

Geomagnetic storms painted the sky with beautiful colors

in unexpected places last year.

Space weather experts predict more of these storms this year.

Such storms could produce even more

northern and southern lights.

The reasoning for that prediction is that the sun has reached

its solar maximum during its current 11 year cycle.

The cycle could continue through this year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration's Sean Doll urges everyone to follow

space weather news so as not to miss any colorful shows.

The Perseid and

Geminid meteor events or showers

are well known crowd pleasers.

The Perseids will take place in August.

The Geminids come in December.

But do not forget about the smaller meteor showers,

including the Lyrids in April,

the Orionids in October

and the Leonids in November.

Areas away from cities where night skies are

darker are best for watching the events.

Generally, meteor showers are named for the constellation

which they appear to come from.

They take place whenever the earth moves through

paths of debris left behind by comets

and sometimes asteroids.

I'm John Russell.

And now words and their stories.

From VOA learning English,

One of the most popular sports

in the United States is American football.

In the U.S..

Football is a sport that involves a lot of contact.

What people around the world call football.

Americans call soccer.

For today's show, we talk about some idioms and expressions

that come from America and football.

The American sport mainly involves

carrying or throwing the ball, but there are times

when a player must use their feet to kick the ball.

The kicker can kick field goals to get points.

In addition to that, the game starts

with a kickoff and after scoring points,

a team will kick off to the other side,

beginning their turn on offense.

The term kickoff is commonly used to describe Vibe,

the start of an event or project.

For example, we could say experts from all over the world

attend the kickoff of the new Language museum.

You can use it as a phrasal verb as well.

For example, some

people often like to kick off the New Year with a resolution

or promise to yourself to reach a goal

or to do something.

Football also has the term punt.

Punting is another sort of kick

a team uses when they cannot score.

The punter kicks a ball with the top of his foot.

Punt like kick

can be both a noun and a verb.

When you punt the ball,

you put it in play for the other team.

The same can be said for punting in life.

When we punt something, we give our task job

or responsibility to someone else.

For example, if I'm not good at a certain task

or I just don't want to do it, I can punt it to someone else.

It can also mean to delay a decision.

If I'm not sure about taking a trip, for example,

I can punt the decision until later.

Another way to say this in

American English is to table it.

If you are not ready to think about something,

it can or must wait until later

in football.

The kicker not only starts the game with a kickoff,

but also kicks field goals.

To do this, the kicker must kick the football

between the goalposts at either

end of the football field.

If he succeeds, his team gets three points.

Kicking a field goal can be difficult.

If the kicker is far from the goalposts

or if the weather in an outdoor

stadium is windy, rainy or snowy.

But imagine if the goalposts were moving

that would make kicking the ball between them much more difficult.

We can face this problem in everyday life.

Imagine if you are given a task at work

with specific goals to reach.

For example, if you are a social media manager,

you could be asked to increase followers

by 10,000 by the end of the month.

But when the end of the month comes,

your boss tells you that now you need to add

20,000 followers, not 10,000.

In this case, your boss has moved the goal post.

Sometimes a person moves

the goal posts on purpose.

They have a reason for doing so.

If the goalposts keep moving,

it is difficult or even impossible to reach the goal.

So if you say that someone has moved

the goal posts, you are accusing them of changing the rules

or end goals to make it difficult for you to succeed.

We can also say to move

the target to mean the same thing.

A moving target is a change

in goal or result,

a desired goal and or objective

that changes all the time is difficult

or perhaps even impossible to reach.

Both expressions to move the goalposts

and to move the target can be used in the same way

and in similar situations.

However, moving the goalposts

is a classic football expression.

While moving, the target can refer to several sports,

and that's words and their stories.

Until next time I'm Anna Matteo.

VOA Learning English has launched a new program for children.

It is called Let's Learn English with Honor.

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 taught VOA News.com.

As we

enter the New Year, we take a look back

at some of the biggest space stories

of 2024.

Nearly one year ago, a private spacecraft completed the first U.S.

moon landing in more than 50 years.

The American Space Agency

Nassar announced the Spacelab door, called Odysseus,

had touched down on the lunar surface.

February 22nd.

Odyssey was developed by the Texas

based company Intuitive Machines.

The spacecraft carried out

several science experiments before

powering down permanently on the moon in late March.

NASA's said Odysseus

had successfully captured data

to help the agency better understand the moon's invasion month

and improve landing precision and safety.

Japan's space agency, JAXA,

announced in January 2024

that its slim spacecraft

had successfully landed on the moon.

But the lander touched down the wrong way

up, causing some communication

and power problems.

Japanese space officials reported

that they stayed in communication with Slim through late April.

They said the spacecraft

was able to collect valuable data

about the touchdown and surrounding area.

One purpose of the mission

was to demonstrate new precision landing technology.

JAXA said.

The experiment was successful because Slim was able to land

within ten meters of its planned target.

But in May, China launched its Chang'e

six spacecraft to the moon's far side.

In late June, Chinese space

officials announced the spacecraft had returned to Earth

with rock and soil samples

collected on the lunar surface.

The successful return made China

the first country to ever collect

and bring back lunar samples

from the far side of the moon.

The area is known as the far side

because it always faces away from Earth.

In October, the European space Agency,

ESA, said it had successfully launched

a spacecraft called Hara to explore

an asteroid struck in an earlier Nasser test mission.

Harris trip to the asteroid

is expected to take about two years.

Hara is headed to the asteroid.

The more photos, NASA's

crashed its DART spacecraft EFT into the Space

Rock in 2022,

about 11 million kilometers from Earth.

NASA's said.

Its mission successfully showed it was possible

to change the orbit of asteroids

that might threaten Earth in the future.

Hara aims to closely examined Amorphous

to get more details on how the strike by DART

affected the asteroid.

The data that NASA's collected

is to be used together with information gathered by ESA

to develop future planetary defense plans,

NASA's announced the successful launch

of its Europa Clipper spacecraft in October.

The Explorer is designed to search for possible signs of life

on Jupiter's moon Europa.

Jupiter is the largest planet

in our solar system and has numerous moons.

But icy Europa has been identified

by scientists as a good candidate

for having the right conditions to support life.

Several studies have suggested the moon

likely contains a large ocean

beneath its icy surface.

NASA's said the Europa clipper

would fly past Mars, then back toward Earth,

using the gravity of each planet

to increase its momentum.

These kinds of gravity assists

are expected to provide the needed push

to get the spacecraft to Jupiter by 2030.

In early June, Boeing

successfully carried out a test mission for NASA

by transporting two American astronauts,

Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams

to the International Space Station.

I assess the two were expected

to stay in space for only a week,

but ongoing ing technical issues with the Starliner

spacecraft prevented a return trip.

Nasser announced plans in August

to have Starliner returned to Earth

without the astronauts.

The current plan is for Wilmore

and Williams to return on a SpaceX

Dragon spacecraft sometime in late March or April.

SpaceX has now completed six launch

tests of its huge Starship rocket system.

Four of those tests

were carried out in 2024.

The last test took place in November.

The Starship Rocket and Spacecraft system is designed

to be a completely reusable vehicle

to transport astronauts and supplies.

It has

successfully demonstrated that ability

in its most recent experimental flights.

During one of the tests in October.

Starship's Super heavy booster rocket

was caught and secured

by a huge structure that includes metal arms.

A short time later, Starship's second stage

safely splashed down in the Indian Ocean.

Idina Did you hear Honest having a party?

No, I didn't.

It's this weekend. Yes.

And you just gave me an example of what I want to talk about today.

What are we talking about today?

Restating, using intonation to clarify what you heard.

And you did that by raising your voice

at the end of a sentence like this.

It's this weekend,

so it's not really in the question form

where we usually change the order of the subject and verb.

Instead, here we are using the same word order,

but adding rising intonation to clarify, we heard correctly.

That's something really useful for people learning English, isn't it?

You bet.

And let's learn English.

Lesson ten We see Ashley going over to on his house.

Let me guess.

She'll ask about how to get there.

You just did it again.

I'm really good at this.

Let's listen.

Hi. Today, my friend Ashley is coming over.

I am showing her my new apartment.

That's Ashley calling Booth.

Hi, Ashley.

Hi, Anna. I am coming to your apartment.

Where is your apartment?

My apartment is near the Columbia Heights Metro.

It is near the Columbia Heights Metro?

Yes. Exit the Metro and turn right.

Then at the bus station, turn left, then walk straight ahead.

How many times did you hear Ashley restate

what she heard using rising intonation?

I think she did it twice.

It is near the Columbia Heights Metro and exit Metro.

Turn right.

Turn left. Then go straight ahead.

I'm Gena Bennett

and you're listening to Voice of America's Learning English Podcast.

I think there's another good point we can teach from this lesson, Dr.

Jill.

What's that, Gena?

The verb forms are all in the imperative.

Sometimes we call it the command form.

I get confused when someone gives me directions using a different form.

I know what you mean.

So this is just the simple verb.

No endings.

Exit turn. Go.

Let's hear how Anna says it again.

Yes. Exit the metro and turn right.

Then at the bus station.

Turn left, then walk straight ahead.

I noticed Anna tried to help Ashley with some more information.

A landmark to look for.

Listen to what she says about a coffee shop.

Okay. Exit Metro.

Turn right.

Turn left, then go straight ahead.

Yes. My apartment is near a coffee shop.

Okay.

See you soon.

Hi, Ashley.

Hello, Ana.

Which coffee shop?

There are three coffee shops.

Okay.

My apartment is across from a big department store.

A big department store.

Ah, I see.

It must.

Hey, Jill, did you notice

Ashley did that thing again with raising her voice

at the end of a sentence to make sure she understood about the department store.

Hi, Ashley.

Hello, Ana.

Which coffee shop?

There are three coffee shops.

Okay.

My apartment is across from a big department store.

A big department store?

Ah, I see it in the next lesson.

Lesson 11.

We see Marcia is helping Anna find things in her neighborhood.

There's the usual question you hear

when someone is asking directions, that begins with.

Where is Marcia?

Before we get ice cream, I need to return three books to the library.

Where is the library?

It is on this street.

On the corner.

That's right.

You can ask that way.

Or you can use another expression.

Anna needs to mail some letters.

So she asks

Ana, What are those in the books,

Marcia?

These are letters to my family and friends back home.

Four letters.

Is there a post office near here?

I'm Jill Robbins and you're listening

to Voice of America's Learning English podcast.

Marcia helps Ana, but doesn't send her to the post office.

Let's listen.

No, no.

The post office is far from here, but there is a mailbox across from the store.

Awesome. Let's go, Marcia.

Now I need to buy stamps.

Do you have cash? No.

Is there a bank near here?

There is a bank behind you.

Now I have cash.

I can buy stamps.

That or sell stamps.

Wait here.

I have stamps. Wow.

You're fast.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Letters for sending my words, my love to my family

and friends back home.

Do you have more cash?

I do.

I flew.

I love my new neighborhood.

Everything is near our apartment.

Even hair salons and ice cream.

Until next time

I notice she helped her with two things.

She needed money and stamps.

That reminds me, Gena.

Are you driving to Honor's party on Saturday?

I plan to.

Why do you need a ride?

You guessed it.

That's another kind of question.

I asked you a yes no question,

but I really wanted to ask for more information.

Like your question leads to another one.

Can you give me a ride?

Sure. I'd be glad to.

If you don't mind riding on the back of my motorcycle.

Sounds like fun.

See you on Saturday.

And that's all the time

we have for today's show.

But join us again tomorrow for another VOA Learning English program.

I'm Bryan Lynn and I'm Anna Matteo.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
researchers /rɪˈsɜːrtʃərz/ B2	noun - people who study something carefully in order to discover new facts or test ideas
remains /rɪˈmeɪnz/ B1	noun - the parts of a dead body or plant that are left after everything else has decayed
melting /ˈmeltɪŋ/ A2	verb - to turn or cause to turn from a solid to a liquid by heat
permafrost /ˈpɜːrməˌfrɒst/ C1	noun - a layer of soil that remains frozen for at least two consecutive years
preserved /prɪˈzɜːrvd/ B1	adjective - kept in its original condition
mammoth /ˈmæməθ/ B1	noun - a very large, hairy elephant that lived during the Ice Age
scientists /ˈsaɪəntɪsts/ B1	noun - people who study and learn about the world
weighs /weɪz/ A2	verb - to measure how heavy something is
recovered /rɪˈkʌvərd/ B1	verb - to get something back after it has been lost or stolen
ancient /ˈeɪnʃənt/ B1	adjective - very old
surroundings /səˈraʊndɪŋz/ B2	noun - the things that are around something
eclipse /ɪˈklɪps/ B2	noun - an occasion when the sun or moon is completely or partially hidden by the earth's or moon's shadow
parade /pəˈreɪd/ B1	noun - a public procession celebrating an event
visible /ˈvɪzɪbl/ B1	adjective - able to be seen
storms /stɔːrmz/ A2	noun - violent disturbances of the atmosphere with strong winds and usually rain, thunder, lightning, or snow
debris /dəˈbriː/ B2	noun - scattered pieces of waste or remains
idioms /ˈɪdiəmz/ C1	noun - a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words