【728-729】VOA英语慢速听力2篇(时事新闻类）:纽约人喜欢语法方面的帮助&洛杉矶数千名教师罢工

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AS IT IS

New Yorkers Enjoy a Little Help with Grammar

January 14, 2019

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The New York City train system has a new unofficial stop – for people who love grammar…or even just have questions about it.

English language expert Ellen Jovin has put together an unusual “classroom.” There is a foldable table, books, a smile and a deep knowledge of grammar. She calls it Grammar Table. Jovin sits at the table in the subway and on city streets.

She smiles and waits for people to come by with grammar questions. Usually, she catches the interest of a lot of people.

“Hello! Welcome to Grammar Table!”

“Grammar Table! I love it. I love it! It’s hot.”

More than one billion people in the world speak English. Another two billion are in the process of learning it – or trying to.

But English grammar rules frighten many – even native English speakers. Jovin’s mission is to help people who find themselves afraid of or confused by the world of English.

Jovin is a linguist. She has worked to spread her love for the English language for a long time. She has taught grammar to business professionals and writing at universities. She is also a published writer.

Jovin also owns a business communication training company with her husband. Online and traditional classes are her life. But she decided to make things interesting and take her knowledge to the streets and subways of New York.

"I put the sign up and it took 30 seconds for someone to come up and ask me a question: How many words do I think Donald Trump knows?”

Though that is more of a political question, Jovin believes understanding language structure rules will help people around the world understand each other better.

On one recent day, a man came up to Jovin’s Grammar Table with a question about nouns.

"But I have read that it’s a collective noun. Is that what you’re calling it?”

“Yeah. So, it’s a special case. We can make special cases, right? Or do you want everything to be consistent?"

The Grammar Table appeals to all kinds of people for whom English is filled with mysteries: students and older people, engineers and house cleaners, actors and even other language experts.

Some of the most popular questions, Jovin says, are about commas.

"For example, if I say, ‘He ordered salad, spaghetti and soda,’ right before the ‘and,’ you can put a comma if you want in English. And it’s called the Oxford comma or sometimes the serial comma."

New York subway riders have accepted Jovin with warmth and interest. Musicians, policemen and even English teachers often stop by for a friendly chat.

Walter Skrepnick is a teacher of English literature. He recently shared his thoughts about Grammar Table.

"Things like that – that deal with language, that deal with culture – it’s refreshingfrom some of the other things that go on."

But not all questions are about English – or even in English. Jovin can speak and understand several languages: Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, French, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. And she is trying to learn a few others, too.

I’m Alice Bryant.

Nina Vishneva reported this story for VOA News. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

grammar – n. the set of rules that explain how words are used in a language

subway – n. a system of underground trains in a city

mission – n. a task that you consider to be a very important duty

confused – adj. unable to understand or think clearly

linguist – n. a person who studies the way languages work

consistent – adj. continuing to happen or develop in the same way

comma – n. a punctuation mark that is used to separate words or groups of words in a sentence

chat – n. a light and friendly conversation

literature – n. written works (such as poems, plays, and novels) that are considered to be very good and to have lasting importance

refreshing – adj. pleasantly new, different or interesting

• AS IT IS

• Thousands of Teachers Strike in Los Angeles

• January 14, 2019

• Los Angeles teachers walk on a picket line in pouring rain in front of Los Angeles High School during a city-wide teacher strike on Jan. 14, 2019.

• Tens of thousands of teachers went on strike Monday in Los Angeles, California.

• The teachers acted after contract negotiations failed.

• "Students, we are striking for you," said teachers union President Alex Caputo-Pearl. He spoke to a cheering crowd of teachers marching in the rain.

• Los Angeles is the second-largest school district in the United States.

• Members of United Teachers Los Angeles voted last year to call a strike if the union and school district failed to reach an agreement. The teachers want higher wages and smaller class sizes.

• Months of negotiations between the two sides ended without a deal. It follows teacher strikes in other states.

• Substitutes working for striking teachers

• The union has 35,000 members. Schools are open in the Los Angeles Unified School District, which serves 640,000 students.

• The school district has hired hundreds of substitute teachers to work during the strike. The union calls that irresponsible and has called on parents to consider keeping students home or join marchers.

• The district argues that the union's demands could lead to financial ruin. The school system says it expects a $500-million deficit this budget year. Billions of dollars are required for payments and health care for retired teachers.

• Negotiations were suspended in December, and re-started this month, but little progress was evident in the contract dispute. The union rejected a district offer Friday. It proposed to add almost 1,200 teachers, guidance professionals, health care workers and librarians and reduce class size by two students.

• The offer also included a proposed six percent pay raise over the first two years of a three-year contract. The teachers’ union wanted a 6.5 percent increase at the start of a two-year deal. The union also wants considerably smaller classes, now often filled by more than 30 students. The union is demanding more nurses, librarians and counselors to "fully staff" schools.

• The 'Red4Ed' movement

• Teachers are hoping to build on the "Red4Ed" movement that began last year in West Virginia and moved to five other states. It spread from conservative states with "right to work" laws, which limit the ability to strike, to the more liberal West Coast, with strong unions.

• Such actions energized Los Angeles teachers, Caputo-Pearl said before the strike.

• The labor union argues that the school district has $1.8 billion that could be used to finance the pay and staffing increases. The district said that money is meant for retiree benefits and other costs.

• School district Superintendent Austin Beutner asked Friday for California Governor Gavin Newsom to get involved to try to avoid a strike.

• The union says Beutner, an investment banker and former Los Angeles deputy mayor, and school board members are trying to privatize the district.

• The union says Beutner and the school board support calls for school closures. It says they are turning public schools into charter schools. Charters are privately operated public schools that compete for students and financial support.

• Beutner has said his plan to reorganize the school district would improve services to students and families. He and his supporters on the board want to create an education system with public and charter schools under the same leadership.

• I’m Caty Weaver.

• The Associated Press reported this story. Caty Weaver adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

• _________________________________________________________________

• Words in This Story

• hire – v. to give work or a job to (someone) in exchange for wages or a salary

• substitute – n. a person or thing that takes the place of someone or something else

• benefit – n. money that is paid by a company or by a government when someone dies, becomes sick or stops working

• staff – v. to supply (an organization or business) with workers

• librarian – n. a specialist in the care of books, magazines, documents and other records

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

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