【89，90,91】Honoring American Inventors

---

【89】AS IT IS

Memorial Day: Family of Lost WW II Flier Brings His Story to Life

May 27, 2018

A B-24 Liberator, the bomber Tom Kelly flew in WW II, flies over Washington, D.C. Kelly's plane was shot down and crashed in the Pacific Ocean near Papua New Guinea in 1944.

Memorial Day in the United States is a time for remembering the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. armed forces.

Families especially want to remember the stories of relatives or ancestors who served.

For one family, the discovery of a warplane that crashed into the Pacific Ocean during World War II brought welcome knowledge about one of their own, Tom Kelly.

Kelly grew up on a farm in Northern California in the 1930s. He dreamed of becoming a cowboy. But World War II changed his plans.

Kelly enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces. He became a 2nd lieutenant in the crew of a B-24 bomber.

But on March 11, 1944, Japanese anti-aircraft fire struck his plane, named Heaven Can Wait. It crashed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

The discovery of the plane wreckage has brought a new understanding of Kelly, especially among his younger relatives.

Relatives recover memory of Kelly
Scott Althaus is one of those relatives.

“This discovery of where the wreck is, of seeing pictures and videos of the wreck on the floor of Hansa Bay. My goodness, it brings closure in a way we didn’t expect,” he said.

On Memorial Day five years ago, Althaus launched a project to learn everything he could about Tom Kelly. Soon the whole family was involved.

The family wanted to know about the young serviceman on the Heaven Can Wait.

Althaus discovered a lot about the young man.

“He was a very gregarious man. He kept up correspondence with I think 38 different people stateside while he was overseas. He was just well-liked,” said Althaus.

One year ago, the Kelly family turned over what they learned to Project Recover. The group is a team of marine scientists, historians, archeologists, divers and others who are seeking military crash sites. They want to find the final resting place for those listed as Missing in Action.

Project Recover announced the discovery of the Heaven Can Wait wreckage before Memorial Day. It said the family’s research greatly assisted the search for the plane. The team used stories from eyewitnesses, military reports, flight documents and personal writings of crew members.

--v--

Eric Terrill helped establish Project Recover. He also works at San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Terrill said it was the first time that the family of a missing in action (MIA) military member provided his group such support.

“The results from our efforts in Hansa Bay have stirred a mix of lasting emotions within our team and drives home the need to recognize the sacrifices that service members and their families make in protecting our freedoms,” Terrill said.

The team will give its findings to the Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency. That office seeks to recover the remains of those missing in action.

Althaus said, if his cousin’s body is recovered, the family hopes for a burial in Kelly’s hometown of Livermore, California.

And, he said, he hopes that, this Memorial Day, other families revisit the stories of their lost relatives who served in the U.S. armed forces.

I’m Mario Ritter.

The Associated Press reported this story for VOA News. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

closure –n. a feeling that something has been completed or reached a conclusion

gregarious –adj. enjoying the company of other people

correspondence –n. the activity of writing letters, emails or other written communications to others

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

---

【90】AS IT IS

US House Passes 1st Major Prison Reform Measure in 8 Years

May 27, 2018

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 16, 2018.

The rate of imprisonment in the United States is the highest in the world. Many lawmakers and policy experts have called the situation a prison epidemic.

But, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a Democratic Party member from New York, told VOA the beginning of the end of the epidemic started on Tuesday.

Jeffries helped introduce the First Step Act.

The bill is a bipartisan prison reform law. It passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a 360-59 vote. Jeffries says it "strikes an opening blow against the overcriminalization of the nation.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said the strong bipartisan vote opens the way for action by the Senate. Last week, Trump endorsed the bill at a White House conference on prison reform. He said that the U.S. gains a lot if former prisoners are able to reenter society as productive citizens who obey the law.

If the bill passes the Senate and is signed by the president, it would provide $50 million in financing for five years. The money would pay for job training, education and drug abuse treatment for prisoners. It would also provide a number of measures aimed at reducing high rates of recidivism among former prisoners.

President Donald Trump speaks during an event on prison reform in the East Room of the White House, May 18, 2018, in Washington.

Opposing views

But the issue of criminal justice reform has split Democrats and Republicans within their political parties. And that may hurt the bill’s chances of passage as it goes to the U.S. Senate.

In a letter last week, five members of Congress said the bill could not be carried out effectively and could possibly lead to the privatization of prisons.

They include Senators Kamala Harris, Dick Durbin and Cory Booker and House Representatives John Lewis and Sheila Jackson Lee. All are Democratic Party members.

Jeffries told VOA many of the arguments against the First Step Act were based on false ideas.

He added that the bill’s passage "is a first step” towards ending the “cancer of mass incarceration." Republicans in the House also welcomed the bill.

Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia, is the House Judiciary Chairman. On the House floor Tuesday, he said, “Rather than allowing the cycle of crime to continue,” this bill takes a useful and “intelligent approach to rehabilitation.”

The bill represents the first major criminal justice reform effort since the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. That measure reduced the difference in mandatory minimum sentences between drug offenders possessing two kinds of cocaine. Before the Act, those possessing crack cocaine faced sentences greater than those possessing powdered cocaine. The bill’s supporters said this unfairly affected African Americans.

But the First Step Act faces much opposition in the Senate. There, a bipartisan group of senators is pushing for more complete criminal justice reform.

An opposing bill is the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act. It has received strong support by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican. The bill calls for lower sentences for nonviolent, low-level offenders and gives judges greater choices for sentencing.

More than 20 senators have signed on to the bill, but the Trump administration opposes the measure.

Sentencing laws

Required minimum sentences for drug offenses came into use in the 1970s and 1980s. They are widely blamed for a sharp rise in the number of U.S. prisoners in the last several years.

In recent years, the number of U.S. prisoners has fallen. But, the Bureau of Prisons says nearly half of the 184,000 prisoners currently held in federal prisons are serving time for drug crimes.

Observers say the disagreement in Congress over prison reform is similar to a disagreement among supporters of reforming America’s criminal justice system.

On one side of the debate is a group of more than 100 organizations. It includes the American Civil Liberties Union and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. These groups opposed the bill passed by the House. They said it would not be able to bring about “meaningful” criminal justice reform.

In a letter last Monday, the group said the House bill fails to deal with racial inequalities, problems with mandatory minimums, overcrowding, lack of rehabilitation and the high cost of imprisonment.

At the other side of the debate is a group of more than 70 organizations that support the legislation. It includes Koch Industries, headed by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, and Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that opposes such laws.

Kevin Ring, the group’s president, said the chances of sentencing reform under the Trump administration are low.

For this reason, he said, Congress is likely to only pass prison reform.

“What we don’t want to do is make the perfect the enemy of the good: kill a bill that has modest reforms that will help real people just because we’re waiting for something that’s not likely to happen in this administration,” Ring said.

Ring said he hopes negotiations in the Senate can lead to a compromise between the First Step Act and the bill supported by Grassley.

I’m Phil Dierking. And I’m Alice Bryant.

Masood Farivar and Katherine Gypson wrote this story for VOA News. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

epidemic –n. when a disease spreads quickly to many people

bipartisan –adj. related to or involving members of two parties

endorse –v. to support

recidivism –n. when people continue to commit crimes after they have been caught and punished

cycle –n. events that happen again and again

rehabilitation –n. to bring someone or something back to normal or back to health after they have been sick or have had problems

mandatory minimum –adj. related to a required least amount of something

---

【91】AS IT IS

Honoring American Inventors

May 27, 2018

Inductee Stan Honey adds his name plaque to the Gallery of Icons (Photo by Jay Premack/USPTO)

American inventors have given the world products that have changed the way we live. Think of Thomas Edison’s lightbulb, Marie Van Brittan Brown’s home security system, or Steve Job’s iPhone.

But for every well-known inventor there are many others, less recognizable men and women whose creative products have had an equally important effect on our day-to-day lives.

Fifteen of those men and women -- both past and present -- were recently honored for their inventions at a special ceremony at the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum. The museum is hidden in a corner of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office building in Alexandria, Virginia.

Augmented reality

Stan Honey was honored for inventing a graphics system that makes it easier for television viewers around the world to see decisive moments during live sporting events, such as car racing and American football.

“What we do is we superimpose graphic elements like yellow lines into the real world..." This leads the observer to notice important elements that are difficult to see, otherwise.

The graphics make the yellow lines look like they are really on the grass, Honey explained, but in fact they are only on the television.

Honey suggested the technology could improve almost any sports watching experience.

Invento

Work to smile about

Honoree Sumita Mitra discovered that nanoparticles can be used to create better filler material for damaged or missing teeth. Mitra says she was looking for “beauty that lasts.” Her filler is extremely strong, remains smooth and does not change color.

Rini Paiva heads the committee that decides on admissions to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. She said Mitra’s invention is used in hundreds of millions of teeth repairs every year.

Mitra credits her parents and teachers with her success. She says they gave her a life-long love of learning.

“They taught me how to learn… and if you know how to learn, you can learn anything,” Mitra said.

Temperature controls

Two inventors have been admitted into the Hall of Fame for their work in temperature control.

Inventor Mary Engle Pennington established a way to store and transport food around the country so it remained healthful to eat. Pennington died in 1952 at the age of 80, but her refrigerated train cars and other inventions related to food preservation live on.

Warren Johnson created an automatic temperature control system for buildings. It was used in school and office spaces, including the U.S. Capitol Building, the Smithsonian Institute and the New York Stock Exchange.

Johnson's company helped start the multi-billion-dollar building controls industry.

The honor

Rini Paiva says acceptance into the Hall of Fame is a very competitive process because there are a lot of good inventors. The organization tries to find those who have substantively changed the world for the better.

Each year a new inventor enters the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Each receives a special sign identifying the inventor, invention and patent number. The Hall of Fame has more than 560 members, living and dead.

Future inventors

Rini Paiva says the National Inventors Hall of Fame also supports educational projects through its partnership with 1,300 schools nationwide.

While the museum shares the stories of its honorees, it also, in Paiva’s words, “shows people what we can do through our education programs.” The museum works to help young people enter professions linked to science, technology, engineering and math.

I’m Susan Shand

VOA’s Julie Taboh reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

graphics – n. pictures or images on the screen of a computer, television

superimpose – v. to place or lay (something) over something else

preservation – n. the act of keeping something in its original state or in good condition

automatic – adj. happening or done without deliberate thought or effort

nanoparticle – n. a small object that behaves as a whole unit with respect to its transport and properties

---

---

---

往期回顾：

---

---

推荐：

---

还没听够看够？关注本公众号（漂泊者乐园微信公众号），定期收听收查看各种精彩内容。跑步入场还不晚哦。

（学习交流微信：littleflute）

特别说明：

漂泊者乐园微信公众号关键词回复说明:

关注本公众号（漂泊者乐园微信公众号），然后在后台回复以下相关关键词。

mv1     MV(音乐视频） MV10-17。

---

A. 如果您想收听全部中级美国英语内容，有两种方法:

(1) 在漂泊者乐园微信公众号回复：zjmgyy 。

(2）点击左下角的 阅读原文 。

B. 本平台（漂泊者乐园微信公众号）会不定期推送各种各样的在线资源，为了不错过收听查看机会，建议广大亲朋好友们关注本公众号（漂泊者乐园微信公众号）。

C. 本平台（漂泊者乐园微信公众号）主要推送以下几类资讯：

（1）各种英语学习资料。

（2）各种音乐学习资料。

（3）各种中国象棋学习资料。

（4）各种计算机学习资料。

（5）各种电子图书。

（6）各种MP3,MP4等音像资源。

D. 本平台（漂泊者乐园微信公众号）诚招合作者。有意者请联系 微信：littleflute。

---

提示： 
1. 回复  president  可收听查看所有《美国总统》文章。
2. 回复  park          可收听查看所有《美国国家公园》文章。
3. 回复  zjmgyy      可收听查看所有《中级美国英语》文章。
4. 回复  bztl           可收听查看所有 《VOA标准听力》。

---