 Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower, and we use words and phrases, especially written for people learning English. In today's program, Dan Friedel looks ahead to a cicada invasion set to hit the U.S. Brian Lin presents this week's Science Report. And we hear today's lesson of the day from Jill Robbins and Andrew Smith. But first, Jill Robbins reads one of the winning entries from the Teach Us About Ukraine Writing Contest, sponsored by VOA Learning English, and Go Global. The following essay is called, The Moment That Changed Our Lives. I'm Olena Zamorska, and I teach English in Sofia, Russia, and Russia in Ukraine. It was early morning, exactly at 4.20 a.m., when I was awakened from my sleep by the sounds of explosions. My family and I rushed outside and watched with fear. We saw flashes in the sky and heard explosions and sounds of military vehicles. We were only 30 kilometers from the Russian border. That moment changed our lives because we understood that the war had started. I did not know what to do. I thought about my work and my students. I was a lead teacher in the eighth grade. I organized a meeting to calm my students. We had to learn to live and work remotely in a new, dangerous situation. I gave my students schoolwork through their mobile phones and checked everything by collecting the exercise books. They brought them to the nearest shop. It was the place of meeting and communication at that time. Our village was in a gray zone. Neither Ukrainian nor Russian troops were there. We did not have electricity, internet connection or food. And we could not communicate with people outside. I rode my bicycle to visit students at their homes and keep in touch with their parents. I was a local authority in the village at that time and people listened to my words. I baked bread in a wood stove and brought it to people in need. People were very grateful because there was not enough food at the time. Each night we heard and watched Russian airplanes and helicopters bringing bombs to Charniv and providing their troops with food and weapons. We believed they flew at night time to frighten and keep people from sleeping. The helicopters flew so low that we could see the pilot. It was very scary. We did not know what would happen next and prepared for the worst. We organized villagers to defend ourselves. We made bombs and set up blockades with trees. We were ready to fight against our enemies and meet them at our land. When we did not have electricity and connection, I rode my bicycle for 10 kilometers to stand on a hill and phone our relatives to inform them that we were alive. From that high place I could use an expensive cell phone connection to try to get a short message across to family and occupied places. It was our only way to contact each other. When Russian troops finally left Charniv, we resumed remote studying for the students. I tried yoga and started breathing exercises with my students. And I studied how to deal with traumas and manage difficult situations. Nowadays my students and I live a normal life. We help our soldiers by making candles, knitting nets, warm socks, mats, collecting money and painting pictures and writing letters. We hope our victory will be soon. I'm Jill Robbins. Do you remember all those cicada videos from the United States in 2021? Well, prepare for a repeat performance this year. The insect show begins as early as April. Two groups of cicadas, brood 13 and brood 19, are expected to come out from the ground to mate and lay eggs this year. Their appearance in the same year is rare. The last time it happened was 1803. Brood 13 is on a 17-year cycle. They will be found in the Midwestern states of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Kentucky. Brood 19 is on a 13-year cycle. They will come out in an area stretching from Indiana and Illinois, Southeast to the Southern states of Alabama and Georgia. Scientists expect more than one trillion cicadas to appear in some small areas where the two broods are close to each other. The insects will begin to climb out of the ground when the soil warms to about 18 degrees Celsius. So they will be seen in warmer southern areas as early as April. It will be closer to summer, sometime in June, before the cicadas arise to the north in Wisconsin, Indiana and other Midwestern states. Cicadas are large, noisy insects from about two and a half to five centimeters long. Like most insects, they have wings. They also have big, bulging eyes. There are thousands of species of cicada around the world. The huge majority of cicada species arise each year or annually. Then there are the periodicals, which arrive after numerous years in the ground. The periodical cicadas emerge to mate. The male cicadas make a thrumming sound with their wings on their bodies to call for mating. The singing appeals to females, the insects mate and leave their fertilized eggs on trees. The resulting young fall to the ground after breaking out of their shells. They dig down into the ground where they live for years, feeding on the liquid that comes from tree roots. One of the nine known periodical cicadas live in North America. Of the other two groups, one is in India and one is found only on the island country of Fiji. Floyd Shockley is an insect scientist or entomologist with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He said, this year's group of cicadas will include four different magikata species within the 19 brood. The next time brood 19 and brood 13 will come out in the same year, will be in 2245. I'm Dan Friedel. Astronomers say they may have discovered the brightest object ever observed in the universe. The discovery involves a distant space object known as a quasar. The American space agency NASA describes quasars as very bright, distant and active supermassive black holes that are millions to billions of times the mass of the sun. A quasar's light outshines all other stars and its jets and winds shape its galaxy, NASA adds. A team led by Australian researchers identified the super bright quasar. The European Southern Observatories, ESOs, very large telescope based in Northern Chile collected most of the data. Additional data came from Australia's Citing Spring Observatory. The researchers estimate the record-breaking quasar is at least 500 trillion times brighter than our own sun. The team also noted the black hole powering the object is more than 17 billion times larger than our sun. The quasar is about 12 billion light-years away from Earth. It is thought to have existed since the early days of the universe. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 9.5 trillion kilometers. The object was already known and had been studied before, but scientists say it was misidentified in the past as a star. The newly identified quasar is so large that its black hole could easily swallow at least one sun per day, the team said. The researchers recently reported their finding in a study in the publication Nature Astronomy. The quasar appears only as a small dot in images, but scientists say they imagine it to be a very powerful and active place. The team says the black hole is thought to have a circulating disk containing gas and other matter from swallowed stars. The disk spins continuously like an intense, active storm. This quasar is the most violent place that we know in the universe, said the lead writer of the study, Christian Wolf. He is an astronomer and professor in the College of Science at Australian National University. The ESO first found the object known as JO529-4351 in 1980. At the time it was identified or classified as a star. In last year it was identified as a quasar. The latest observations and computer modeling suggest the quasar is taking in amounts of material equal to about 370 suns a year, or about one per day. The team says more observations will be needed to fully understand the object's growth rate. Priyamvada Natarajan is a professor of astronomy and physics at Yale University. She was not part of the latest study. But Natarajan told the Associated Press, the exciting thing about this quasar is that it was hiding in plain sight and was misclassified as a star previously. The co-writer Christopher Onkin added, it is a surprise that it has remained unknown until today, when we already know about a million less impressive quasars. The researchers say finding and studying distant supermassive black holes could help astronomers learn important details about the birth and development of the early universe. But study leader Wolf noted that he also gets enjoyment out of the search itself. Personally, I simply like the chase, he said in a statement. For a few minutes a day I get to feel like a child again, playing treasure hunt, and now I bring everything to the table that I have learned since. Future research is expected to center on the history of the quasar and measuring its growth and development. The team noted that some of this data should be easier to collect after the very large telescope receives an instrument upgrade. The upgrade known as Gravity Plus is designed to provide more exact measurements of the mass of distant black holes. In addition, the ESO plans to launch a future observer called the Extremely Large Telescope ELT in Chile's Atacama Desert. That telescope, the researchers say, will improve on current identification and study methods to identify such distant objects. I'm Brian Lin. Brian Lin joins me now to talk more about his science report. Thanks Brian for being here. Sure glad to be here. This week you described the discovery of what scientists think might be the brightest object ever observed in the universe. The report mentions this object was previously misidentified. What can you tell us about that? Yes, the first classification of this object came actually in 1980 and at that time it was identified as a star and it wasn't until last year that a new examination of data identified it as a quasar. The team noted these kinds of misclassifications can happen because the nature of objects can change over time and researchers also use machine learning tools because these searches tend to be very large and sometimes these methods can get things wrong too. And did the researchers talk about what makes this quasar appear so bright? Yes, so the scientists did explain that quasars are powered by supermassive black holes and these black holes are known to collect huge amounts of matter from surrounding areas. So they say this activity produces large amounts of energy. One researcher even compared this intense black hole activity to a swirling hurricane storm here on earth and the team said all this energetic activity produces very bright light and this is how scientists are able to find and classify these objects. Okay, thanks again for joining me, Brian, and thanks for that report. You're welcome. Thank you. 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. Hi, Andrew. Hi, Jill. Our lesson is based on our video series Let's Learn English. The series shows Anna Matteo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. Here's Anna introducing herself. Hello, my name is Anna Matteo. Lesson 27 of Level 2 of this series shows a few ways to make friendly and informal invitations. We'll listen to those examples and we'll listen to some expressions and show you how to use them. Okay, in our first example, Anna's boss, Ms. Weaver, invites Anna to a dinner at a restaurant. Hello, Ms. Weaver. Oh, Anna. I've invited some people to dinner Saturday. We're going to that new seafood restaurant, fish on a dish. Why don't you join us? My treat. We can say the three words, why don't you, at the beginning of an invitation. It means the same thing as would you like to. We use why don't you with friends or when we do not want to sound too formal. Jill, why don't you explain the expression, my treat? All right, I will. Listen to Ms. Weaver again. Why don't you join us? My treat. My treat simply means that Ms. Weaver will pay for dinner. For example, if you are at a restaurant with a few friends or family members and you want to pay for everyone, you can take the bill and say, my treat. Another way of saying my treat is to say it's on me. If I say it's on me, that means I want to pay for it. But if I say dinner's on me, that might mean that I spilled my plate in my lap. Yes, in the literal physical sense, that's true. After Ms. Weaver asks Anna to dinner, Anna politely says that she cannot join her. To do this, she simply begins with the word thanks. Thanks, Ms. Weaver, but I already have plans. My friend has invited me to her houseboat. Houseboat? Really? That's unique. Yes, it is. In fact, I'm thinking of living on a houseboat. The word unique means very special or being the only one of its kind. And notice how Anna talks about the future by using the present progressive tense. Yes, it is. In fact, I'm thinking of living on a houseboat. When we say the three words I'm thinking of and then add an ing verb, that means we are considering or planning a future action. Right. So, for example, I'm sitting at my desk right now, but I'm thinking of going for a walk with my friend later today. Sounds like a good idea. Now, let's hear Ms. Weaver's reaction to Anna. Yes, it is. In fact, I'm thinking of living on a houseboat. Aren't you too tall and klutzy to live on a houseboat? I am not too tall. Sorry. Ms. Weaver uses the adjective klutzy. That means someone who does not have good control of their body and tends to have little accidents. Oh, you mean like me? For example, if you are klutzy, you might drop a glass or knock over some object like a desk lamp or bump into something. Klutzy is spelled K-L-U-T-Z-Y. In the video, Anna knocks over two signs in the hallway at work just after she says she is not too tall. The noun form of klutzy is the word klutz and a synonym of klutzy is clumsy. That's spelled C-L-U-M-S-Y. Andrew, I noticed the two words sound similar. They do sound similar, but you know one is spelled with a K and the other with a C and the other has a Z and one has an S, so there are some differences there. And the words have different origins or language roots. Klutzy comes from Yiddish and clumsy from an older form of English. Now let's hear Anna arriving at her friend's houseboat. Her friend's name is Fanny. Listen for the way Fanny asks her son to show Anna the boat. Anna, I'm so glad you could come. Hi Fanny. Hi, this is my son Phoenix. Hi, Phoenix. Hello. How about you give Anna a tour and I will make some lunch. Fanny used the informal expression of the two words. How about to ask her son Phoenix to show Anna the boat. During Anna's visit on the boat, she starts to feel seasick. We sometimes get seasick because of the movement of a boat on the water. We say the boat rocks back and forth. Can you stop this boat from rocking for a minute? The problem for Anna is that the boat continues to rock. Later, Fanny notices that Anna does not feel well. Anna, are you feeling okay? Yeah, yeah. You know, I just need some fresh air. Let me open a window for you. No, I need some fresh land air. I mean, I need to breathe air on land. Oh, is that the time? I should really be going. Thanks for lunch Fanny and a tour of your houseboat. It's given me a great idea. You're gonna live on a houseboat? Sort of. Thanks again. At the end of the video, we see the idea Anna was talking about. She invites Ms. Weaver to hang out or spend time on a boat. Hi, how would you like to hang out on my boat? Great. See you then. This time, Anna uses the more formal expression would you like to. However, by adding the word how at the beginning, she makes it sound just a little bit less formal. Listen again. Hi, how would you like to hang out on my boat? Great. See you then. At the end of the video, we see Anna and Ms. Weaver sitting in a small boat on the grass in Anna's yard. And Ms. Weaver does not look too excited about it. No, she doesn't. But hey, at least she doesn't have to worry about getting seasick. I've been seasick before and I can tell you, it's not fun. Yeah, but I've heard acupuncture is helpful or just pinching on your ears when you feel seasick. Hmm, well, I wish I had known that at the time. Well, before our listeners get sick of listening to me, let's remind them that each lesson of the Let's Learn English series has a lesson plan that they can download for free from our website. The plans can be helpful for both students and teachers. And remember that you can find us on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for listening to the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. And that's our program for today. Join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak.