 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. Coming up on the program Monday is President's Day in the U.S. Ashley explains the history of the holiday and shares some interesting facts about our presidents. For the Science Report, Brian Lin has a story on the effects of a possible collapse of ocean currents. Later, Jill Robbins and Andrew Smith present the lesson of the day. But first... The third Monday of February is known as President's Day in the United States. For nearly 100 years, America honored its first president, George Washington, on February 22nd. That was his birthday. But the date was not a national holiday until 1968. That year, the U.S. Congress passed a measure known as the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The measure meant that some public holidays would always fall on a Monday. Today, the country honors its first president on the third Monday in February, and not on Washington's real birthday. The holiday is now commonly called President's Day. Many say it also honors Abraham Lincoln's birthday. The nation's 16th president was born on February 12th. The federal government, however, still recognizes the holiday as Washington's birthday. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act gives workers a three-day weekend. It also gives shops and marketers a chance to have special President's Day sales. In January of 2021, Joe Biden made history when he took the oath of office as the 46th president of the United States. At 78 years old, he became the oldest elected president. The man he beat was the previous record holder, Donald J. Trump. He took office at the age of 70 in 2017. Biden and Trump are leading candidates for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations for the 2024 presidential race. They will likely face each other again later this year for the presidency. As the first billionaire president, Trump replaced John F. Kennedy, the 35th president, as the richest man to serve as president. Kennedy still holds the record for the youngest person to be elected president. He was 43 when he took office. Kennedy is also the youngest president to die in office. He was assassinated in 1963 in Dallas, Texas. He was 46 years old. Another presidential assassination put the youngest person in office for the president. In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt, then the vice president, became president at the age of 42. He took office after William McKinley, the 25th president, was shot and killed in Buffalo, New York. The first president to die in office, though, was William Henry Harrison. The country's ninth president only served 32 days, the shortest time of any president. Another Roosevelt holds the record for the longest time in office. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd president. He took office for 4,422 days. After his death, the 22nd amendment was passed. It limited a person to two four-year terms as president. Most Americans know that the two Roosevelt's were related, but they may not know exactly how they were related. Here it goes. Franklin Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, was also his fifth cousin once removed. And Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president, was Eleanor's uncle. That makes the two presidents distant relatives. But they were not the first relatives to both serve as president. That title belongs to the Adamses. John Adams was America's second president. His son, John Quincy Adams, was elected as the nation's sixth president. The Bushes are the other father-son presidential pair. George Herbert Walker Bush was elected as the 41st president. His son, George W. Bush, was the country's 43rd president. Not everyone can run for president. The U.S. Constitution says a person must be at least 35 years old. A person must also have lived within the United States for at least 14 years. And they must be a natural-born citizen. But the meaning of natural-born citizen is not exactly clear. People read the rules in different ways. By some reasoning, the first natural-born American president was not George Washington or John Adams. It was Martin Van Buren, the eighth president. He was born in 1782, six years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. All seven presidents before Van Buren, and William Henry Harrison, the ninth president, technically were not natural-born citizens. They were born before 1776, when the American states were still British colonies. I'm Ashley Thompson. Scientists are warning of the possible collapse of an Atlantic Ocean current system that would likely lead to worldwide climate changes. Researchers identify the ocean system as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC. They say the system plays an important part in moving or circulating salt and warm water around the world. This process helps control world temperatures, affects carbon dioxide levels, and supports worldwide water flows. The AMOC system brings warm water to northern areas and carries cold water south. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, explains. The circulation also transports nutrients necessary to support many kinds of sea life. The process begins as warm and salty surface water flows northward toward Greenland in the Atlantic. Scientists created a complex climate model in an effort to simulate a possible collapse of the AMOC. The computer model was able to measure a sudden weakening of the ocean circulation. The team said in a statement. The research was led by scientists from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. A study describing their findings recently appeared in the publication Science Advances. For thousands of years, Earth's oceans have depended on the AMOC circulation system, which acts like a conveyor belt to control climate. The system is still operating but has experienced slowdowns in recent years. The driver of the conveyor belt sits off the coast of Greenland. As more ice melts here from climate change, more fresh water flows into the North Atlantic and slows the circulation, said Rene van Westen. He is a climate scientist and oceanographer at Utrecht University. Van Westen told the Associated Press his research on a possible AMOC collapse does suggest we are heading towards a tipping point. He added, however, that while his team found clear evidence the system is moving closer to collapse, we're not sure how much closer. In the current system, cold, deeper and fresher water heads south past both Americas and then east past Africa. The system also pushes saltier, warmer ocean water from the Pacific and Indian oceans past the southern tip of Africa. This water flows to and around Florida before continuing up the U.S. east coast towards Greenland. The Dutch team simulated 2,200 years of AMOC flow. The researchers added to the model expectations for future human-caused climate change. The results predicted an abrupt AMOC collapse after 1,750 years. But the researchers noted it is difficult to provide a realistic date because the process could be influenced by many unknown circulation events. Making a prediction is also difficult because current observational records are too short to provide an exact estimation of collapse, the scientists said. The team said more physics-based measuring tools are necessary to create early warning systems. The team noted one difficult area to predict is around the tip of Africa where it is difficult to produce realistic estimates of circulation flows. Measurements around that area have a big effect on how much the AMOC slows, the researchers said. This value is getting more negative under climate change, Van Westen said. He added that when the AMOC reaches a certain level, the change does not happen over time but would be more cliff-like, he added. Van Westen said an AMOC collapse would mostly affect climate in Europe. The researchers say a collapse could reduce temperatures in northwestern Europe by 5 to 15 degrees Celsius. Their study predicts the change would also extend arctic ice much farther south, raise temperatures in the southern hemisphere and change worldwide rainfall. Some scientists warned the climate effects could cause worldwide food and water shortages. In addition, the team said the simulation predicted a possible 100 cm rise in European sea levels if the AMOC collapsed. Van Westen warned that once the collapse happens, the resulting climate effects are nearly impossible to change. Another member of the team, Hank Dykstra, said staying clear of such a tipping point is necessary to avoid the devastating consequences on climate, society and the environment. I'm Brian Lin. Brian Lin joins me now to talk more about his science report. Thanks for joining me, Brian. Sure, Dan. Glad to be here. This week's report dealt with a new warning about changing currents in the Atlantic Ocean that could one day collapse and cause climate changes around the world. What is the main cause of the changes currently affecting this major current system? So, the researchers involved in this study said the main way changes are happening is that fresh water from melting glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet is diluting saltier water in the area. This prevents water from sinking and this limits warmer surface water from circulating effectively through the current system. The report pointed out the researchers involved in the study think it is just a matter of time before this Atlantic current system collapses. But they also admitted the difficulties involved with trying to make exact predictions, right? Yes, that's correct. The model the team created to simulate a total collapse was covering a period of more than 2,000 years. And while the researchers said it is difficult to put realistic timing on an actual collapse, they are very confident it will eventually happen if climate conditions stay the same or worsen. I should note too that last year a similar study predicted a complete collapse of the same current system somewhere between 2025 and 2095. Got it. Thanks again for joining me, Brian, and thanks for your report. You're welcome. Thank you, Dan. Now it's time for The Lesson of the Day on the Learning English Podcast. My name is Andrew Smith and I'm joined by Jill Robbins. Hi, Jill. Hi, Andrew. Our lesson is based on our video series Let's Learn English. The series shows Anna Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. Here's Anna introducing herself. Hello. My name is Anna Mateo. In today's lesson, we'll be teaching seven expressions in English. You will also hear a bit of music from Anna and her special guest. And we're going to use an audio scrapbook to travel back in time to a previous podcast. An audio scrapbook? That's right, and we'll explain that expression in just a few minutes. But first, let's begin with Lesson 23 of Level 2 of the Let's Learn English series. Anna learns that she'll be interviewing one of her favorite musicians, a woman named Emma G. An interview is a conversation where a reporter or journalist asks questions to a well-known person. Or it can be when one person asks another person a list of questions to find out if they are suitable or a good fit for a job. Ms. Weaver tells Anna she'll be interviewing Emma G. And Anna gets very excited. Hello. Anna, this is Ms. Weaver. Ms. Weaver. Tomorrow you'll be interviewing musician Emma G. Emma G, I will be talking to Emma G. Now let's hear how the interview begins. And welcome to the music today. Musician Emma G will be joining us here. She is a wonderful songwriter and an amazing singer. And I love her. Let's give a warm welcome to Emma G. Right here. Well we can't wait to hear you sing. I listen to your music a lot. So I feel like I know you. Is that strange? Anna, listening to music can be a very personal experience. So no, that's not strange. Good. Because I made something for you. A video scrapbook of our friendship. I took photos of you and added myself. I worked on it all weekend. That's strange. Is that even legal? Emma G thinks it's strange that Anna took photos of her and made a scrapbook. The scrapbook has photos of Emma G and Anna together as if they are close friends. There's that word again. Scrapbook. Let's explain. A scrapbook is a book with empty pages but on the pages you can put photos or newspaper articles or other things to help you remember special experiences. A few minutes ago I said we were going to use an audio scrapbook. That means we'll revisit a previous podcast and listen to an explanation of the future continuous tense. You've already heard the future continuous several times today. Here are some examples. In today's lesson, we'll be teaching seven expressions in English. Ms. Weaver tells Anna she'll be interviewing Emma G. Hello and welcome to the music today. Musician Emma G. We'll be joining us here. And here is our explanation from a previous podcast based on lesson 45 of level one of the series. She will have to wait but our listeners can notice right now a special way we can talk about the future in English. It's called the future continuous tense. Listen again. Marsha, we just left DC. We'll be eating lunch in about two hours. Instead of saying we're going to eat in two hours, Anna says. We'll be eating lunch in about two hours. That's because it takes some time to eat. For actions in the future that take some time to do, we can use the modal will plus the verb be plus the main verb with ing. For example, listen to this exchange. What will you be doing tomorrow afternoon? I'll be working from noon until 6 p.m. We often use the future continuous when we specify or say the amount of time we expect the activity to take. If we don't know or care about the length of time, then we can just use the expression going to, in this exchange. Do you have any plans for the weekend? I'm going to try to clean my room and maybe go to a movie. Okay, we're back. It's handy to have a scrapbook, isn't it? It is. Handy describes something that is useful or helpful that makes a job easier. Now let's get back to Anna's interview with Emma G. You can listen for the future continuous tense. Now, Emma, let's talk about your schedule. Tell me, I mean tell us exactly where you will be and when. Exactly. Sure. Well, in early June, I'll be performing at civil venues across Austin, Texas. That's my vacation week. I can meet you there. We can tour the city. We can have lunch. Yeah, maybe. Then in mid-July, I'm going to be teaching at a music camp in Chicago. I will be visiting my sister then. She only lives six hours from Chicago. I could drive over. We could hang out. Yeah, maybe. You know, maybe now is a good time for some music. That's a great idea. Now let's hear a song from Emma G. I wrote this song a couple of years ago. It's called Rarity. It seems like Anna might be obsessed with Emma G. Because Anna wants to visit her in two cities. If you are obsessed with something or someone, it means you think about them all the time or almost too much. The noun form of this word is obsession. And I think Emma G. is becoming wary of Anna. Maybe that's why she chose to sing her song called Wery. Maybe so. Wery is an adjective that means you are being very careful because of something that could cause problems or be dangerous. Wery is spelled W-A-R-Y. For example, you should be wary of a hairy bear. And you should be very wary of an angry bear. I think you should be wary of bears in general. I do too. Notice that we use the preposition of after the adjective wary. Now let's look at two more expressions we heard. Venue and the phrasal verb hang out. Listen again. Well, in early June I'll be performing at civil venues across Austin, Texas. A venue is a place for an organized gathering of people, such as a concert, sporting event, or special meetings such as a convention. Most venues are indoors, but some are outdoors, such as a farmer's market or a stadium. And the phrasal verb hang out is just an informal way of saying spend time together. It's very common in American English. But remember, it's informal. So we usually use that expression with friends and family. Yeah, like Andrew, maybe we can hang out next weekend. That's right. Maybe we can. So to review, today we looked at the expression's interview, handy, scrapbook, wary of, venue, obsessed by, obsession, and hang out. Before we go, here's the end of lesson 23 of Level 2. Anna gets to sing with Emma G. They sing a bit of a song that came out in the year 1983 by the group named The Police. The song is named Every Breath You Take. And you can hear the future continuous tense in that song. The songwriter named Sting says it may sound romantic at the beginning, but it's really about an obsession. He wrote it after the breakup of his first marriage. Here's Anna and Emma singing the song. Every breath you take, Every bump you break, Every step you take, I'll be watching you. I'll be watching you. And we hope you'll be watching lesson 23 of Level 2 and all of the Let's Learn English series. And we'll be doing another lesson of the day soon. Remember that you can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Thanks for listening. 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.