 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. On today's program, you will hear stories from Dan Novak, Dan Friedel, Gina Bennett, and Katie Weaver. Later, Jill Robbins teaches us about indefinite pronouns in this week's everyday grammar lesson. But first... The American city of Miami Beach, Florida is a popular destination for travelers during school break periods in spring. But in the last three years, the area has dealt with high levels of violent crime during spring break. So city officials are putting in place new security measures. The measures include parking restrictions for non-residents and closings of outdoor restaurants on busy weekends. The city has warned visitors to expect curfews, personal property searches at the beach, early beach closures, road security checkpoints, and arrests for drug possession and violence. Civil rights activists say the restrictions are an overreaction to large crowds of black people. And business owners in the city's famous South Beach neighborhood argue that the new measures will cause them financial loss during one of the busiest times of the year. Miami Beach has ordered such measures before, so the restrictions are not unfamiliar to the area. But this is the first time the rules have been established ahead of the season. Stephen Miner is the mayor of Miami Beach. The status quo and what we've seen in the last few years is just not acceptable, he said. Miner said spring break crowds get out of control even with a strong police presence. He said the island city can only hold so many people and the amount of people has often gone beyond what is safe. Local business owner David Wallach opposes the measures. He said the city has always been a place of celebration and he argued that limits on the numbers of visitors will turn the city into a retirement community. Wallach and others have holding a music festival during the third week of spring break, the season's busiest time. Supporters say such an event would help prevent the gathering of mobs. But Miner said the city has spent millions of dollars on musical performances and similar events in the past. He said such offerings did not prevent violence well. He said businesses suffer when violence crowds gather and force them to close. And he said the people causing most of the problems are not spending money in the city anyway. Some civil rights supporters, however, believe the restrictions are racist. South Beach became popular among black tourists about 20 years ago because of an event called Urban Beach Week. It takes place in late May during the Memorial Day holiday. Many locals have protested about violence and other crime connected to the event. Officials increased police presence during Memorial Day as a result. Stephen Hunter Johnson is an attorney and member of Miami Dade's Black Affairs Advisory Board. He said city officials are only cracking down so hard because many of the visitors are black. Everybody loves this idea that they are free from the government intruding on them, Johnson said. But amazingly, if the government intrudes on black people, everyone's fine with it. But Miner rejects the idea that the city's actions have anything to do with race. I have a moral obligation to keep people safe, and right now it is not safe, the mayor said. I'm Dan Ovek. Four-year-old Omar Abu Kuike is from the Gaza Strip, but in the last several weeks he has spent time in Egypt, New York City, and Philadelphia before returning to Egypt. Why did he travel so far from home? He came for medical operations on his skin and to receive a prosthetic arm. He is one of the few Gazans to have made it out of the war zone, but his family was not so lucky. Omar was wounded during an Israeli airstrike in December that also killed a number of his family members, including his parents and a sister. A charity group called the Global Medical Relief Fund found out about Omar and provided for his medical care in the US. Elisa Montanti started the organization. She has spent 25 years getting hundreds of children free medical care after they lost arms and legs to wars or disasters, including wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Montanti said she knew she would have to help the Gaza children when the conflict started between Hamas and Israel last October. But she wondered, how? How will I ever get these kids out when they can't even get out of Gaza? Another group, Rakma Worldwide, a US-based charity, learned about Omar's injuries. The group got him and his aunt into Egypt, provided them with new passports and airplane tickets to the United States in January. Omar was getting only simple medical care in Gaza. Adib Shouiki is vice president of Rakma Worldwide. Shouiki knew his group needed to get the boy to a place where he could get help. Our view was, anywhere is better for him than being in Gaza. Shouiki said. The United Nations says there are many more men, women and children like Omar waiting for medical care. About 4,000 wounded people and their families, such as Omar's aunt, have been permitted to leave Gaza to get medical help. But the UN Refugee Agency says there are still 8,000 people on a medical waiting list. Gaza's Health Ministry, which is controlled by the territory's Hamas rulers, said 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza and 70,000 wounded. The ministry said about two-thirds of those killed have been women and children. Omar went with his aunt, Maha, on a flight from Egypt to New York City. Maha left her husband and children behind in Gaza. Along the way, Omar saw the airline pilots getting ready to start the flight. And he said, when I grow up, I want to be a pilot so I can bring people places. Once in the U.S., the Global Medical Relief Fund sent Omar to Shriners Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for treatment. He received pieces of new skin called grafts to repair the burns on his leg. Medical workers also fitted him for a prosthetic arm. As he recovered, he learned how to use his new arm. He stayed in a home owned by the Global Medical Relief Fund in the Staten Island area of New York City. His arm was cut off just below the elbow. As he received treatment, he could see his new arm. He looked forward to learning how to use it. One day, he reached out to touch it. My arm is nice, he said. Montante said getting a prosthetic limb is important for children who have been wounded in a war. Even if they will never be the same, the kids, they feel whole, she said. Psychologically, it means so much. The hospital in Philadelphia is currently treating two children who have been removed from Gaza. One is an American who was trapped when the war started. Another child, a two year old boy, is supposed to come soon. One day after Omar got his arm, he and his aunt got on a plane to return to Egypt. Maha said she was concerned about what would happen to Omar and the rest of her family when they arrived. Their relatives are living in tents. After coming back to Egypt, Omar and his aunt's futures are unclear. They might remain in exile. For Maha, Abu Quaik and Omar, there might never be a home to return to. She said she could not imagine going back to Gaza. What would his life be? Where is his future, she wondered. I'm Dan Friedel. And I'm Gina Bennett. The Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, is looking to expand operations to dig or drill for oil. The Central African country is known for its mineral riches. Currently, drilling is limited to just a small area along the Atlantic Ocean and out in the water. But that is expected to change if the government carries out its plan to sell 30 pieces of land for oil and gas exploration across the country. Leaders say the plan will grow the economy. They say such growth is necessary for the poor people of Congo. But communities, rights groups and environmentalist groups warn that expanded drilling will harm the environment and human health. In the Mawanda area of the DRC, locals say pollution has worsened since a French company began drilling there in 2000. They say spills and leaks from operations are destroying the soil. The work includes flaring, the burning of natural gas near drilling sites. Locals report that the flaring is dirtying the air they breathe. Flaring is also wasteful, as the energy goes unused. And critics say the Congolese government does not supervise the oil drilling operations well enough. The company, Peronco, says it follows accepted international measures in its extraction methods. It said its operation does not create health risks and that any pollution it causes is low level. The company also said it offered to support a power plant that would make use of the natural gas and reduce flaring that way. The government did not respond to questions about the proposed plant. Congo's minister overseeing oil and gas, Didier Budembu, said the government plans to protect the environment. Natural areas in Congo, including the Congo Basin Rainforest, capture large amounts of carbon dioxide, about 1.5 billion tons a year, or about 3% of what the world produces each year. More than 12 of the extraction areas for sale include land in government protected wild areas. The government said the 27 properties for sale hold an estimated 22 billion barrels of oil. Environmental groups say that selling more land to drill would have harmful effects in the DRC and in other countries. Any new oil and gas project anywhere in the world is fueling the climate and nature crisis that we're in, said Mbong Akifakwa Tafak, Program Director for Greenpeace Africa. She said Paranko's operations have done nothing in respect to the poor and instead harm the environment and the lives of communities. Environmentalists say Congo has a strong possibility to instead develop renewable energy. Budembu said now is not the time to move away from fossil fuels when the country still depends on them. He said the DRC will move away from fossil fuel dependency over the long term. Paranko has faced criticism for years. Local researchers, aid groups, and Congo Senate have made multiple reports of pollution dating back more than 10 years. Two organizations, Sherpa and Friends of the Earth France, opened a legal action against the company in 2022, accusing Paranko of polluting. Ador Angaka lives in the village of Chyende. Oil drills can be seen up the road from his home. Angaka says they remind him every day of all that he has lost. The extraction processes have polluted the soil, hurt his crops, and forced the family to use all their savings to survive, he said. He pointed to an ear of corn he grew. The 27-year-old farmer said the vegetable is about half the size of those that grew before the drilling began 10 years ago. He said it's bringing us to poverty. I'm Katie Weaver. VOA Learning English has launched a new program for children. It is called Let's Learn English with Anna. The new course aims to teach children American English through asking and answering questions and experiencing fun situations. For more information, visit our website, learningenglish.voanews.com. On today's everyday grammar, we are going to look at things that are different from each other. In other words, contrast. Let's start. At the 2024 Grammy Awards, one performance got the attention of many different sorts of music fans. It was the country music singer Luke Combs singing with singer and songwriter Tracy Chapman. Together they sang Fast Car, a song that had helped Chapman win a Grammy Award in 1989 for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. You can listen to the song on the Grammy's website. The song won the Country Music Association Awards Prize for Country Song of the Year in 2023. Chapman is the first black songwriter to win this award. Luke Combs recorded the song in 2023. He invited Chapman to sing it with him at the Grammy Awards show in February. In today's lesson, we will look at some of the words in the song and explore how they tell the story of two people. The two tried to find the American dream. Good jobs, a nice home, and children. We will especially learn about the meanings of some indefinite pronouns and how they can be used to make contrasts. In the beginning of the song, Chapman sings about going someplace in a fast car. You get a fast car. I want to take care of you anywhere. Maybe we make a deal. Maybe together we can get somewhere. Any place is better. Starting from zero got nothing to lose. Maybe we'll make something. Me, myself, I got nothing to prove. In this part, we hear pairs of contrasting words. The first pair is anywhere and somewhere. She says she wants a ticket to anywhere, which means there is no exact place she wants to go. A similar word appears in the line, any place is better. Then she says that together, she and her friend with the fast car, can get somewhere. To get somewhere means to succeed or reach a goal. The next pair of contrasting words is nothing and something. The first expression is that she has nothing to lose. That means she will not suffer if what she tries to do fails. Again, speaking of what the young couple can do together, she sings, maybe we'll make something. When we use something as an indefinite pronoun, it can mean a thing that is quite good, as in the expression, that's really something. Moving on to the next part of the song, we find the singer is working at a low-paying job and wants to escape. Tracey Chapman has said she wrote the song about the lives of her parents. As a young couple, they struggled to create the kinds of lives they dreamed of. Listen for the words in the next part that contrast their dream with the reality of living in a shelter, a place for people without a home in which to live. Finally, we learn through Chapman's song that the young woman did not finish her education because she stayed home to take care of her sick father. The couple seems to continue to struggle in the last part of this song, but they have good memories of their younger years. Listen for the indefinite pronoun, someone here. To be someone means to be an important person. Listening to Tracey Chapman's song, we find that indefinite pronouns can help express two ideas related to the American dream, to make something and to be someone. How do you express your own dreams for the future? Email us at learningenglish at voanews.com or write to us in the comments. And that's Everyday Grammar. I'm Jill Robbins. You just heard this week's Everyday Grammar lesson with Jill Robbins. Jill joins me now to talk more about it. Hi Jill, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me, Ashley. Your lesson this week centered on the song Fast Car. Can you tell us why the song is important or interesting to you? I remember hearing it back when it was first popular in the late 80s. And I saw the Grammy Award show a few weeks ago with Luke Combs. It has become very popular again, thanks to the country music version by Luke Combs. What do you take away from the song when you listen to it? That's hard to say. At first I was thinking it's about how the young people tried to get the American dream and failed. At one point they were even living in a shelter because they had no home. But reading what other people said about it, there's still a little hope for a better day ahead. Because the guy with the fast car might be leaving? Yes, the singer says, so take your fast car and keep on driving. I think she's kicking him out. Well, thanks for that lesson, Jill, and thanks for speaking with me today. Thanks for having me, Ashley. 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.