2022-06-14 New US Rules for Charter School Financing Face Pushback
President Joe Biden’s administration is considering new rules on federal financing of public charter schools. Charter schools are different from traditional public schools. They operate similarly to private schools, but…
2022-06-14 What Is a ‘Bear Market?’
A major measure of the U.S. stock market, the S&P 500 Index, decreased 3.9 percent Monday. That means the index has fallen about 22 percent below its recent high in…
2022-06-14 Famous Hong Kong Floating Restaurant Towed Away
Jumbo Floating Restaurant on Aberdeen Harbor in Hong Kong was towed away on Tuesday after being closed by the pandemic. The owners of the famed eating place could not find…
2022-06-14 New York Court Rules That an Elephant Is Not a Person
Happy the elephant may be intelligent and worthy of our care, but she cannot be considered a person, New York’s top court ruled on Tuesday. The closely watched legal case…
2022-06-14 Wikimedia Group Fights Russian Order to Remove Ukraine War Information
The Wikimedia Foundation is appealing the decision of a court in Moscow demanding that it remove information related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The foundation owns the website Wikipedia,…
2022-06-11 Why Spelling in English Is so Difficult
Recently, 14-year-old Harini Logan won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the United States. She correctly spelled 22 words during a 90-second spell-off. The words included phreatophyte, excimer, saccharose, and…
2022-06-11 Use the ‘Ocean’ to Express Big Thoughts
And now, Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English. On this program, we explore words and expressions in the English language. Today we talk about the ocean. Oceans are…
2022-06-11 War Rap: Ukraine’s War Youth Voice Angry Words
A young generation pressed by war in Ukraine has turned its anger into rap music. Ukrainian volunteer soldier Otoy is putting the war into the words and loud beats of…
2022-06-11 New Zealand May Put Price on Emissions from Cows and Sheep
New Zealand recently released a proposal to put a price on gases released from agricultural activity. The move is part of an effort to deal with the country’s biggest sources…
2022-06-11 Food Containers Getting Smaller, But Prices Are Rising
In the United States, India, Britain and Japan, people are starting to see smaller containers and higher prices for food. The cost increases are affecting snack food, cheese, drinks, soaps…
2022-06-10 Mission vs. Assignment
Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we will answer a question from Aiping about the difference between mission and assignment in one of our stories. Question: Dear teacher, I…
2022-06-10 ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,’ by Mark Twain
Editor’s note: This story includes some of the informal dialect that Mark Twain liked to include in his writing. We have provided explanations of some of the expressions after the…