– 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.

On today's show,

Anna Mateo brings us words and their stories.

Jill Robbins has a story on a hospital in Venezuela

where old toys find new life.

And we also have the weekly science report.

We will end the program with a lesson of the day.

This time, Andrew Smith and Joe Robbins discuss

how to correctly use the expressions

supposed to and ought to.

But first.

One by one, volunteers rescue and repair

toys that show the marks of use.

They sold clothing and brush fur and hair.

Add filling and dress the toys.

The workers

are fixing them to again be given to children.

This is the work of the hospital for soft toys,

a project in Venezuela's capital Caracas.

The effort began with a mother's question what do you do with all the toys?

Once children outgrow them?

About 60 volunteers

now meet at least twice a week.

They work on Barbie dolls, toy bears, and baby dolls.

The children have left behind.

The group estimates it has recycled about 70,000 toys

in the past seven years.

Its volunteers work faster around the Christmas holiday.

Hillary Acosta is a 63 year old architect

who represents the hospital for Soft toys.

She said the idea came

from a teacher named Lillian Glueck.

In 2017, Glueck was looking for something

to do with her children's toys as they grew older.

She did not want to

throw them out or let them fall apart.

She decided to wash them,

fix them up and donate them to children

staying in the University Hospital of Caracas.

The effort was popular.

So a few months later,

she opened the hospital for soft toys at her home.

It is a nonprofit foundation that also collects and repairs

other toys and educational games.

The foundation receives donations from other countries

that can include school supplies, diapers, shoes,

food and candy.

All have been welcomed in a country

that has seen years of economic crisis

and renewed political unrest.

After July's election,

Sylvia Haber has volunteered for almost three years.

She is 72 years old.

She said that smoothing

a soft toys, fur or fixing adults hair for another child to care for

is also helpful for the volunteers.

By doing this,

all of us who come here are in therapy,

a therapy of support for one another.

Hiba said.

MiRNA morales

is a 76 year old teacher and volunteer.

She called it one of the best experiences I've ever had.

Maria Pelayo, who is 84 years old,

said the work is not difficult

because all the volunteers know how to make or repair clothing.

On some days it seems there are not enough toys to repair.

But then someone arrives at the door

with more boxes and bags full of toys.

The toys are delivered to hospitals and schools

in poor areas, but also to homes for older people.

Anyone who needs a little bit of affection, Haber said.

Each restored doll comes with a message

advising its new owner to recycle it when they no longer want it.

Hello.

I am your new friend, it says.

I am a doll with experience

because I played with another girl.

Love me and take care of me.

And I will do the same with you.

When you grow up, give me to another girl

who will love me and play with me like you.

I'm Jill Robbins.

And now, words and their stories

from VOA learning English.

In many parts of the world,

temperatures are dropping for the winter season.

But even for those in warm weather,

our show on the word cold

will help your English.

Cold is not just

an adjective describing temperature.

It can also describe stopping something

suddenly and surprisingly.

It also means starting or doing

something without preparation.

These definitions give us several expressions and idioms.

When someone or something stops cold,

it stops completely, suddenly

and perhaps with surprise.

For example, I was surprised

when my car stopped cold on a recent trip.

I had just had it fixed.

With this expression, we often say

the thing or person being stopped.

So in that example I could say

engine trouble stopped my car cold.

When we stop someone cold,

we completely stop them from doing something

suddenly or immediately.

Here's an example.

The sunset was so beautiful

it stopped me cold.

Sometimes we add in my tracks to this expression.

Such as the sunset was so beautiful

it stopped me cold in my tracks.

Other variations of this expression include

to stop someone dead in their tracks

and to stop someone on a dime.

They all mean the same thing.

Something or someone has come to a stand still,

and we can use them the same way.

Now let's talk about how we use

cold in the business world.

Sometimes we need to call

someone who does not know us

and we do not know them.

These are cold calls.

A cold call can also

be a visit to a person or business.

And usually we want to sell something.

For example, a sales

person may have a cold call list

to get new business.

Cold calls, whether on the phone

or in person, are unsolicited.

This means that no one asked

or requested contact

in business and also in life.

If you come to something cold

or come into something cold, you are not prepared.

Here is an example.

Last week I came into the meeting cold.

I hadn't read any of the materials.

However, if you come in

from the cold, you are in luck.

It means you rejoin a group

or a normal society again

after being outside.

We often use this expression

to describe someone like a spy

who was able to come in from the cold

and enjoy a normal life,

come in from the cold

can also be used when someone or something

becomes popular, accepted or active again

after being unpopular or unaccepted

and inactive for a time.

And that's all the time we have for this.

Words and their stories.

Until next time.

I'm Anna Mateo.

The American space agency.

NASA says it has found the likely cause

of a crash that grounded its Mars helicopter.

Ingenuity.

The finding comes after NASA said it had carried out

the first aircraft accident investigation

on another world.

Ingenuity arrived on Mars along with NASA's

Perseverance Explorer, or rover,

in February 2021.

The experimental helicopter took its last flight,

number 72, in January.

That flight ended in a hard landing

on the Martian surface in April 2021.

Ingenuity became the first aircraft to complete a powered,

controlled flight on another planet.

The aircraft was built to test takeoff, short

flight, and landing operations.

The flights on Mars aimed to support

NASA's efforts to build new aircraft

that can fly in the atmosphere of other planets.

Engineers from NASA's

Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California

fully investigated Ingenuity's

last flight on Mars.

They found the cause of the crash

was linked to the helicopter's navigation system.

That camera based system

was not able to collect dependable data

on elements of the Martian surface

to support a safe landing.

A detailed final report on the accident

is to be issued in the coming weeks,

but the engineers have already described their main findings

in a statement published online.

They said the helicopter's last flight

saw the aircraft climb to about 12m where it stayed, or hovered,

while capturing images of the Martian surface.

Data records show ingenuity began its planned descent

after about 19 seconds by 32 seconds.

The helicopter was back on the surface and was no longer

sending communication signals.

The next day, ingenuity team members

reestablished communications

and received images from its last flight.

The images showed the aircraft suffered

severe damage to its rotor blades.

NASA explained that Ingenuity's navigation

system plays an important part in collecting data

about the surface, to ensure the aircraft

can complete a smooth landing.

The helicopter uses a camera that points downward,

capturing information about what is below the craft.

In past flights, the engineers said.

The camera was able to find smooth,

suitable landing possibilities,

but NASA said during the final flight,

the helicopter was traveling in an area

with very few surface features for the camera to capture.

This meant the aircraft's navigation system

could not find enough of these features

to choose a good landing spot.

At the time, ingenuity was operating.

Together with NASA's perseverance rover

in an area of Mars known as Jezero Crater,

the images recovered from ingenuity

suggested the navigation systems inability

to pick up surface features that made

the helicopter descend too fast.

The hard landing on a sand hill is believed

to have caused the helicopter to turn over and roll.

The engineers said images

showed that all four of Ingenuity's rotor blades

broke at their weakest point.

The damaged blades also caused the aircraft to shake.

Events related to the crash led to increased power demand,

which resulted in the loss of communications.

Although the crash ended Ingenuity's flight operations,

NASA said it is still able to provide

and send back weather information

and other kinds of data.

The space agency says this information

could be helpful in designing future aircraft

or other explorers to be sent to Mars.

Teddy Zito's is Ingenuity's

project manager, he said in a statement.

One major thing the team learned was that future

aircraft designed for space travel do not

necessarily need to be large flying machines.

Thanatos added that Ingenuity's longevity

signal tests that not everything needs to be bigger,

heavier, and radiation hardened

to work in the Martian environment.

With this in mind, NASA

engineers have been testing smaller, lighter flying vehicles

with limited electronics in order to produce future helicopters

that can make a large number of smaller

exploration trips.

Santos shared details about one

aircraft NASA is currently developing.

It is called the Mars Chopper.

Rotorcraft.

Thanatos said chopper is about 20 times heavier than engines.

City developers say it would be built to carry several kilometers

of science equipment, while self exploring

distant areas of Mars.

Chopper would also have a much longer travel ability,

flying up to three kilometers in a day.

Ingenuity's longest flight was 704m.

Thanatos said that overall

ingenuity has given us the confidence and data

to envision the future of flight at Mars.

And now it's time for the lesson of the day.

On the Learning English podcast.

My name is Jill Robbins, and I'm joined by Andrew Smith.

I, Andrew. Hi, Jill.

Our lesson is based on our video series Let's Learn English.

The series shows animal tale

in her work in life in Washington, DC.

Here's Anna introducing herself.

Hello, my name is Anna Mateo.

In lesson 28 of level two of the series, Anna and her friend

Kelly are helping with a research project about birds.

They are trying to count the number of birds

they see and hear in an area near their office.

Unfortunately, Anna does not find many birds.

Instead, she finds something else.

Listen to find out what that is.

And we're going to listen for the expressions.

Supposed to and ought to.

And we'll explain

different ways native speakers use those expressions.

But now let's listen to the first part of lesson 28.

Oh, Anna.

There you are.

I am so glad we joined the great city bird count.

Aren't you? No.

Today has been a bust, a flop.

A bummer.

I'm sensing a little disappointment.

A little?

Well, my official birdwatching form is almost full.

I've only seen pigeons.

Lots and lots of pigeons.

But I did write down

some other valuable information.

Did you find a bird's nest? No.

I found ten

ice cream trucks in this five block area.

Their music seems to follow me everywhere.

We're supposed to be counting birds, not ice cream trucks.

This is important scientific work.

Well, when you want ice cream,

my data will be pretty important.

Anna only saw one kind of bird, a pigeon.

And the music from the trucks selling ice cream got Anna's attention.

More than the sound of birds did.

That's why she says no.

Today has been a bust, a flop.

A bummer,

a bust.

A flop, and a bummer

are all informal ways of saying that something you were trying

or hoping to do did not work and

was really very disappointing.

Anna was disappointed, but there is a good reason

she could not count the birds.

Her office in Washington, D.C.

which to tell a secret, is the same as our offices here.

VOA Learning English is in an area with many tourists.

And tourists get hungry.

So there are a lot of food trucks in the area,

and they play music all day long.

And they play the same song

all day long, over and over.

I used to get so sick of turkey in the straw.

Yes, they

do play the same song over and over.

Anna hears this music and sees

that many of the trucks are selling ice cream.

It's hard for her to focus on birds instead of ice cream.

But she is supposed to focus on birds.

We're supposed to be counting birds, not ice cream trucks.

This is important scientific work.

The modal verb supposed to

can be used in two ways.

In this example, Kelly is saying that the expected behavior

is for Anna to find birds.

So we can use supposed to.

When we want to talk about behavior

we expect other people to do.

For example, for rules that we generally expect people to follow.

We can say something like, you're supposed to come to class on time.

Native speakers also use supposed to

as a way of saying what is predicted

or expected to happen in the future.

For example, we might say it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

That means it is likely to rain.

And when you hear

someone talking quickly or a child speaking,

you might hear a poster, as in

you're supposed to eat all your vegetables.

That's right.

That's another example of how our pronunciation changes

when we're speaking quickly.

Now let's listen to the next part of lesson 28.

Keep in mind that Anna is also

very interested in spies.

Spies are people who try to steal secret information

from other countries or from other organizations.

And listen for when Anna uses the modal verb

ought to know birds.

Oh wait, there's another ice cream truck

on a focus on birds.

Oh, but that truck has my favorite

flavor banana.

That man is in the way.

I can't see the price.

I wonder what flavor he's getting.

Strawberry.

He doesn't seem like a strawberry kind of guy.

In fact, he doesn't seem like an ice cream truck kind of guy.

That suit looks expensive.

Maybe he's a spy.

You know what that means.

The ice cream truck driver is a spy.

Two genius.

It's a perfect disguise.

What?

The man in the suit

left his briefcase at the ice cream truck.

I was right.

He is a spy.

And he just dropped off.

Top secret information.

I got to do something.

Something needs to be done.

I need to do something.

I did it.

I took the spies briefcase.

What's that?

The ice cream truck.

It's following me.

It wants the case back.

I have to hide.

This is my life now.

Running scared alone. Oh.

But awful music.

It's following.

Me everywhere.

Hey. You found my briefcase.

You caught me. What?

I mean, I caught you. Well.

I just want my briefcase.

All my poems are in their homes.

You're a poet.

Well, I'm a lawyer, but I write poems, too.

So you're not a spy.

You look. Disappointed.

No. That's okay.

It's not your fault.

Poems are nice, too.

I guess.

Once again, others imagination makes her do something unusual.

In this case, she steals a man's briefcase.

He uses it to carry his papers.

On his lucky, she did not get in trouble.

And honor really ought to think more carefully before she acts.

Yes, and I think that's good advice for most of us.

Now, let's hear that part again.

Where Anna uses the modal ought to.

I was right.

He is a spy.

And he just dropped off top secret information.

I got to do something.

Something needs to be done.

I need to do something.

The modal ought to can be used in more than one way.

As Anna uses it here,

she is making a strong suggestion.

In this case, it is a suggestion to take action

to stop someone from spying.

But native speakers also use ought to as a way

to make suggestions that are not so strong.

They often use it to just give advice in an informal way.

For example, if I see a really good movie,

I can suggest that Jill see it.

So I can simply say, hey Jill,

you ought to see this movie.

Did you notice Andrew said order because he was speaking quickly?

So you can use it to make a strong suggestion

and express disapproval at the same time.

For example, if students misbehave and don't listen to their teacher,

the teacher might say to them, you ought to start listening.

Otherwise you're going to fail. This class.

In this case, the teacher uses ought to as a way

of scolding the students

to scold is to strongly tell

someone that their behavior is bad.

At the end of lesson 28,

Anna guesses that the man's favorite flavor of ice cream is strawberry,

and then she makes a little joke using an expression about birds.

What's your favorite flavor?

Banana.

Well, my favorite flavor is strawberry.

How do you know that?

A little bird told me.

When we say a little bird told me.

That is an expression that means we have a special

or secret way of knowing something about someone.

And in

this case, Anna's joke has sort of a double meaning,

because Anna was spying on the man when he bought the ice cream.

But at the same time, she could not find any birds for the research project.

There is always a lot of humor and funny situations

in the Let's Learn English series.

And remember that each lesson comes with a lesson plan

you can download for free from our website.

Andrew, you know, this episode reminds me we made friends

with one of the ice cream truck drivers and

he was so nice.

Anyway, a little bird is telling me we ought to finish this lesson of the day.

What do you say?

I say okay.

And listeners, remember that you can also find us

on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

Thanks for listening.

I'm Andrew Smith.

And I'm Jill Robbins.

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
volunteer /ˈvɒl.ən.tɪər/ B1	noun - a person who freely offers to take part in an activity or task without being forced or paid verb - to offer to do something without being forced or paid
repair /rɪˈpeər/ A2	verb - to fix something that is broken or damaged noun - the act of fixing something that is broken or damaged
toy /tɔɪ/ A1	noun - an object for children to play with
recycle /riːˈsaɪkəl/ B1	verb - to convert waste into reusable material
foundation /fɑʊnˈdeɪʃən/ B1	noun - an organization that provides money or support for a specific purpose
donation /doʊˈneɪʃən/ B1	noun - something given to a charity or organization, typically money
crisis /ˈkraɪ.sɪs/ B2	noun - a time of intense difficulty or danger
affection /əˈfek.ʃən/ B1	noun - a gentle feeling of fondness or liking
restore /rɪˈstɔːr/ B1	verb - to return something to its original condition
disappoint /ˌdɪs.əˈpɔɪnt/ B1	verb - to fail to fulfill someone's hopes or expectations
focus /ˈfoʊ.kəs/ A2	verb - to pay particular attention to something noun - the center of interest or activity
supposed /səˈpoʊzd/ A2	adjective - expected or believed to be true
ought /ɔt/ B1	modal verb - used to express a recommendation or moral obligation
expression /ɪkˈspres.ʃən/ B1	noun - a word or phrase that conveys a particular meaning
spy /spaɪ/ A2	noun - a person who secretly collects information about enemies or competitors verb - to secretly watch or investigate someone

Key Grammar Structures

• We're supposed to be counting birds, not ice cream trucks.

  ➔ Modal verb 'supposed to' expressing obligation/expectation.

  ➔ The phrase indicates an expected duty. They are **'supposed to'** focus on birds, but are distracted by ice cream trucks. It implies a deviation from the planned activity.

• You ought to see this movie.

  ➔ Modal verb 'ought to' expressing strong advice/recommendation.

  ➔ The speaker is strongly recommending that Jill watch the movie. **'Ought to'** implies a moral or logical reason to do so.

• I did it. I took the spies briefcase.

  ➔ Past simple tense to describe completed actions.

  ➔ The speaker uses the past simple **'did'** and **'took'** to describe actions that have already happened – successfully completing a task and taking the briefcase.

• What's your favorite flavor?

  ➔ Wh-question using 'What' to elicit information about preference.

  ➔ This is a direct question asking about someone's **'favorite flavor'**. It uses the wh-word **'What'** to request specific information.