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VOICE ONE:
People have been following a dream to California for more thanone-hundred-fifty years. Around thirty-six-million people live therenow, more than in any other state. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOASpecial English. This week — California and its people.
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VOICE ONE:
At first, the dream was to find gold. In eighteen-forty-eight, aman named James Marshall was working at a sawmill. It was on theAmerican River, about one hundred kilometers northeast of SanFrancisco. He found a piece of bright metal where the river flowedthrough the sawmill. It was gold.
People who rushed to California the following year,eighteen-forty-nine, became known as “forty-niners.” A few foundgold and became rich. Others found jobs and stayed in California.
In eighteen-fifty California became a state.
VOICE TWO:
As years passed, more and more people came to the Golden State.There was lots of sunshine. The weather was warm most of the year.Ocean beaches and mountains were nearby. Jobs could be found in thecities and on farms. Going to California became a dream of manypeople in the cold, crowded cities of the East and Middle West.
Some of the newcomers dreamed of Hollywood. They came to find ajob in the movie capital of the world. But these young men and womenwere like the early settlers who searched for gold. Only a fewbecame stars or successful Hollywood movie writers.
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VOICE ONE:
The newcomers in California found that nature put some problemsin their dream. One of them is earthquakes. In nineteen-oh-six anearthquake destroyed the city of San Francisco. It killed hundreds,perhaps thousands, of people.
Most recently, a powerful earthquake in Southern California innineteen-ninety-four killed about sixty people in the Los Angelesarea. It caused twenty-thousand million dollars in damage tobuildings and roads.
Fires are another problem. In late autumn, dry winds race acrossthe desert into Southern California. Any fire can suddenly become amajor wildfire.
In late October, major wildfires burned across areas of SanDiego, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. More than three-thousandhomes were destroyed. More than twenty people were killed.
VOICE TWO:
California is more than one-thousand kilometers long andfour-hundred kilometers wide. Mount Whitney, in the Sequoia NationalPark, is the highest mountain in the forty-eight connected states.It is more than four-thousand-four-hundred meters high.
California also has the lowest place in the United States. It isin Death Valley National Park, in the eastern desert near the borderwith Nevada. The place is called Badwater Basin. It is eighty-sixmeters below sea level. In fact, it is the lowest place anywhere inthe Americas.
The coastline of California begins at the border with Mexico. Itextends one-thousand-three-hundred-fifty kilometers north, to thestate of Oregon. The central and southern California coast has manybeautiful, sandy beaches. The big waves of the Pacific make theseareas great places to surf.
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VOICE ONE:
The first Europeans to see the California coast were explorersfrom Spain and Portugal almost five centuries ago. The peninsulathat extends into Mexico made them think it was an island. Infifty-thirty-nine a member of one sailing party recorded the name as”California.” California was the name of an imaginary island in abook, a romance novel, that was popular in Spain.
Spain claimed the new land and later built religious settlementsto spread Christianity among the native people. Mexico won itsindependence from Spain in the eighteen-twenties. But Mexico lostCalifornia in a war with the United States about twenty-five yearslater.
The discovery of gold in California soon followed.
VOICE TWO:
Today, California has the largest economy of all the fiftystates. In fact, it has one of the largest economies in the world.
In the area of education, California has more state colleges anduniversities than any other state. The California State Universitysystem has more than twenty colleges and universities. TheUniversity of California, another system, has schools in ninecities.
California also has more than one-hundred community colleges.These offer two-year study programs to any student who completeshigh school.
California is rich in natural resources. It has wide areas offarmland. It has large forests. And it is has oil, natural gas andother valuable minerals.
California gets most of its water from rain and snow that fall inits northern and central mountains. But much of its best farmland isdry. So the state sends water from the mountains through pipelinesand canals to farms and also to cities along the coast.
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VOICE ONE:
America’s largest city is New York. After that is Los Angeles,with about four-million people. San Diego, on the border withMexico, is the second largest city in California. It hasone-million-two-hundred-thousand people. San Jose and San Franciscoare the third and fourth largest cities. San Jose is near theso-called Silicon Valley, home to many high technology companies.
The state capital is Sacramento.
VOICE TWO:
In October, voters in California dismissed their state governor,Gray Davis, a Democrat. To take his place, they elected ArnoldSchwarzenegger, the movie star and former champion bodybuilder.Mister Schwarzenegger is a Republican who was born in Austria. Hetook office last Monday.
Mister Davis had been elected for a second term last November.But Republicans used a recall law passed almost one-hundred yearsago to call for a vote to remove him. Many Californians were angryat Mister Davis because he raised taxes.
Mister Davis said the state did not have enough money to pay forimportant government services. He blamed an economic recession andan energy crisis for a budget deficit of thousands of millions ofdollars.
Many people were especially angry at a big increase in thevehicle tax. Governor Schwarzenegger, as his first official act,cancelled that increase.
VOICE ONE:
California lawmakers passed the recall law in nineteen-eleven.The law permits people to recall elected officials even without anycharges of wrongdoing. Now, for the first time, the law has beenused to remove the governor.
Some other states also have recall laws, but make the processmore difficult.
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VOICE TWO:
Many famous Americans were born in California. Here are a few ofthem: President Richard Nixon. Poet Robert Frost. Writers JackLondon and John Steinbeck. Guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia. Moviemaker George Lucas. Actors Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio.Actress Mariel Hemingway. Astronaut Sally Ride. Tennis playersSerena and Venus Williams. And golfer Tiger Woods.
VOICE ONE:
People continue to follow their dreams to California. The StateDepartment of Finance expects the population to grow by nearlysix-hundred-thousand this year. About half the population growth isfrom people who arrive from other countries and states.
The Department of Finance says about seventy percent of these newarrivals come from other countries. The largest number is peoplefrom Mexico. Almost eleven-million people of Mexican ancestry livein California.
Asian-Pacific ties are also strong. San Francisco, for example,has one of the largest Chinese populations outside Asia. Chineseimmigration to California began in large numbers after the GoldRush. In the eighteen-sixties, thousands of Chinese worked on thefirst railroad across the state. But there also were anti-Chineseriots.
VOICE TWO:
Twelve percent of people in the United States live in California.
California’s population is expected to reachthirty-six-million-five-hundred-thousand next year. At the currentgrowth rate, California will reach fifty-four-million people in justover twenty years.
With so large a population, some fear what may happen to theCalifornia dream.
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VOICE ONE:
Our program was written by Frank Beardsley and produced by CatyWeaver. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more aboutlife in the United States, on the VOA Special English program THISIS AMERICA.