 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, Katie Weaver has a story on Taylor Swift's era's tour movie. Gina Bennett and Brian Lin report on how the U.S. Marine Corps has been slow to combine men and women in military training exercises. Dan Friedle has a story on what is causing the spread of toxic smoke in Southeast Asia. Later, John Russell presents this week's everyday grammar lesson on the language of international conflicts. But first, here is Katie Weaver. Look what you made me do. Entertainer Taylor Swift wrote on social media as she premiered Taylor Swift, the era's tour movie, Wednesday night in Los Angeles, California. In the music business, a tour is a series of live shows held in many cities. The pop superstar announced, we're opening up early access showings of the era's tour concert film on Thursday in America and Canada. The film of Swift's live performances was first planned to open on Friday. It is expected to launch with $100 million in ticket sales for the opening weekend. But early ticket sales worldwide have already been estimated to reach $140 million. Entertainers have released films of live performances for many years. The Korean group BTS released its concert film earlier this year. Last month, the rock band Talking Heads released such a movie after many years away from the industry. But this movie release from Swift is unusual. Greg Marcus is the chief executive of Marcus Corporation, which runs a group of movie theaters in the United States. This is different, Marcus said. Take your phone out, take selfies, dance, sing, get up, have a good time. We want to create an atmosphere. Unlike many Hollywood productions, the era's tour movie does not need any outside advertising. Swift produced the film herself and informed her 274 million followers on Instagram. The film will play in movie theaters for at least 13 weeks. Adult tickets are being sold for $19.89. That is higher than the average movie ticket price, but several thousand less than some tickets to see Swift live. Late on Wednesday, Swift arrived at an AMC theater in Los Angeles. She took pictures with fans at the premiere. Inside the theater, Swift thanked fans for supporting the era's tour, which organizers say sold all available tickets for large stadium performances around the world. I've never had this much fun in my life, as I had at the era's tour, she said. Swift is returning to the ongoing era's tour next month, with live performances planned in Argentina and Brazil. After that, the tour will head to Japan, Australia, Singapore, and several countries in Europe. I'm Katie Weaver. The U.S. Marines have officially begun combining men and women during their first major training exercises called boot camp. But so far, military leaders appear to be moving slowly to fully join the two sexes together during all training activities. Reporters from the Associated Press recently visited a Marine Corps base in South Carolina that combines male and female boot camp training. They observed the training exercises and spoke with leaders about the Marine's current policy. During intense heat at Marine Base Paris Island, two young recruits were battling inside a training space. Circling them, a training commander shouted orders, hit her, punch her, do something. Outside the space were a mix of male and female and female Marine hopefuls. The recruits are appointed to one of the mixed sex companies or large military groups. The Marine Corps is moving slowly and at times unwillingly to combine training men and women at boot camp, the Associated Press reports. Sometimes the joint training has been successful, other times not. In the training space, men and women are together while completing time physical exercises or practicing firing guns. But the line of recruits around the swimming pool outside presents the opposite. There, companies are broken up into smaller groups called platoons. The platoons remain separated by sex. As the recruits line up, there is a small group of women standing at the front with groups of men behind them. The boot camp training methods suggest Marine Corps leaders still intensely believe there must be some separation in training. It has been nearly eight years since the Defense Secretary at the time ordered all fighting related jobs open to women. But the Marine Corps just deactivated a training unit at Parris Island this summer. The unit was created in 1986 to accept women. Many Marine Corps officers forcefully defend the training separation. Some leaders have strongly expressed the belief that women can grow more confident quickly if they are not directly competing with often larger or stronger males. Under pressure from Congress, the Marine Corps changed the unit for women into a mixed sex group in recent years. It then officially deactivated it in June. The remaining recruit companies are either mixed sex or all male. Inside the pool, men and women struggle side by side, jumping into the water and swimming to the other end. Boot camp trainers are also a mix of men and women. They stand on the edge of the pool, ready to throw a float or jump in if needed. But outside an all-male group of recruits moves through the woods. The individuals drop to move forward on their hands and knees across a stretch of burning hot sand. A second group training outside also includes no women. General Walker Field, who leads Marine Base Parris Island, told the AP he believes keeping the platoons separated by sex is an important part of forming successful Marines. Field explained that the Marine Corps has established proven training methods over the years. Part of this process involves breaking down recruits and then building them back up as successful team members. Field argued that the platoon model is especially important to that success. Field said keeping platoons all male or female permits leaders to provide exactly what is needed for each group when they are together in the evenings. He added that being the same sex at the platoon level also makes it easier for leaders to make the best training decisions at all times. Lieutenant Colonel Ayiksa Doniz is one female Marine officer who strongly supports a continued separation. Doniz served as the last commander of Parris Island's women-only unit before it was deactivated this year. She was also a recruit there and says about the experience, I can't imagine it having gone any other way. Sergeant Maria Torres is a training commander. She told the AP she thinks combining companies is a necessary first step. But expanding it to the platoon level might have poor results. So we'd have to start small. Torres added. But many people disagree. They say keeping platoons separate only reinforces the idea that women are not considered equal and should be treated differently. Erin Kirk is a former Marine sergeant who went through the separated training in 2010. She remembers how male recruits looked down on women in the unit with some even criticizing the females and calling them names. The split, she said, divided them into male Marines and female Marines. She believes that shaped how the men saw the women. It made it more difficult for them to work together as they moved along. It made you feel like you weren't part of the team. It made it difficult to be seen as a real Marine, said Kirk, who served for five years. She believes mixed sex platoons would be a good way for women to be seen as equals and not as other recruits. When asked about those issues, Lieutenant Doniz disagreed that the separation presents problems for women. Our female platoons have been outperforming our male teams and we have had more female company honor graduates than we have had male, she said. Some young female recruits spoke to the AP about the current recruitment process. Nicole Mamura said she chose to join the Marine Corps because she thought it was the hardest military branch. This recruit was looking for something bigger than herself, the 22-year-old added. Mamura is not concerned about the platoon separation, saying, we're all going to be working together in the fleet. Another recruit, 19-year-old Nubia Delatore, said she is proud to be a member of the second female platoon in her company. But she admits the men and women do not interact very much. She said the females are not permitted to talk to the males. However, Delatore said she believes women and men get the same training. In her case, she said she decided to join the Marines because she wanted to prove to myself that I could do something hard. I'm Gina Bennett, and I'm Brian Lin. The problem of cross-country smoke or haze has caused a new disagreement in Southeast Asia. Malaysia's environment minister wrote to Indonesia's government this week calling for action to help reduce smoke across Malaysia. The letter comes just weeks after countries in Southeast Asia agreed to a haze-free area by 2030. In recent weeks, air quality reports in parts of Malaysia and Indonesia have reached readings above 150. This puts conditions at a level where people can experience unhealthy effects. And those with existing health problems could suffer greater health problems. On the Indonesian side of Borneo Island, visibility was reduced to less than 10 meters. Schools are closed in both Indonesia and Malaysia to reduce the health effects on young children. Malaysia has blamed the haze on Indonesia, saying smoke from forest fires is being pushed across the border. Every few years, during the dry season, smoke from slash and burn land clearing takes over much of the area. Slash and burn is a method in agriculture to cut down and burn plants to clear land for planting. This method is used to clear land for planting palm trees. Products from palm trees include oil, pulp, and paper. But this method threatens public health, education, and businesses like tourism. Even after Malaysia called on Indonesia this week to avoid normalizing the haze, Indonesian officials have denied any responsibility. Indonesia's environment minister Siti Nirbaya Bakar said recently that forest fires had decreased and no haze was found moving toward any neighboring country. She said, Indonesia has been dealing with the fires by dropping water bombs from helicopters. In the past, Indonesia has taken legal action against companies suspected of illegal burning. But each year, fires continue with different degrees of severity. In 2015 and 2019, Indonesia saw large fires that burned millions of hectares of land. It caused record-breaking pollution and some places were surrounded by toxic yellow smoke. Under Indonesian law, burning by small local farmers is permitted, but it must happen on an area no greater than two hectares, and necessary prevention measures must be in place. All large farm holders must follow sustainable palm oil standards, which do not permit burning. The rules mean that slash and burn methods continue to be used by small holder farmers. Additionally, following the guidelines is voluntary. Unclear supply chains, land claims, and laws mean that large companies can sometimes avoid responsibility for illegal land clearing. The large operations are sometimes owned by companies based in countries like Malaysia and Singapore. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, recently launched a center for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control, known as ACCTHPC. Its aim is to help members prevent, deal with, and follow cross-country haze. The center is in line with ASEAN's agreement to reach a haze-free area by 2030. This week, ASEAN agriculture and forestry ministers also agreed to take collective action to reduce and eventually remove crop burning. Environmentalists say Indonesia is home to the world's third largest rainforest area, and the government needs to take more action. The country is experiencing increased dry conditions because of a weather system called El Niño. Greenpeace Indonesia says climate warming is making forest and land fires more intense, which is adding to the climate crisis. I'm Dan Friedel. VOA Learning English has launched a new program for children. It is called Let's Learn English with Ana. 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. The war between Israel and Hamas has drawn a lot of international attention this week. News reports, videos, and social media posts have informed people about the latest events in the conflict. What kinds of language do reporters, journalists, or even citizens use during these conflicts? That will be the subject of this week's everyday grammar. Conflict is not a happy subject, but learning how to understand the language surrounding such events is important. When we look at the language used to describe conflicts, verbs have special importance. Violent conflicts are about actions, one group doing something to another group. Verbs are the words we use to describe actions. We can break apart the verbs into two general groups, active and passive forms. When we say the term active verb, we mean the relationship between the verb and the subject of the sentence. We call a verb an active verb when the subject of the sentence performs the action. Consider this example. Tom kicked the ball. In the sentence, the subject, Tom, does the action, kicking. The action is done to the object, the ball. In other words, we have this structure. Subject, verb, object. Passive verbs tell us when something is done to someone or something. In other words, the subject is being acted upon. The subject is not acting. We make a verb passive by introducing the auxiliary verb be, putting the verb in its past participial form, and sometimes by introducing a prepositional phrase. Let's take an example. Here is our active sentence. Tom kicked the ball. A passive sentence might be this. The ball was kicked by Tom. So far, we have explored active and passive verbs at the sentence level. But the same ideas hold true at the level of a clause as well. A clause has a subject and a predicate. When a clause stands on its own, we say it is a sentence. But sometimes two or more clauses make up a sentence. So, why are these ideas important? The language surrounding international conflicts often contains a mixture of active and passive structures. Some reports or social media posts might contain a little more of the passive voice or a little more of the active voice. But most reports will have some kind of mix. Let's explore one example from the Voice of America. Linda Gradstein describes some events in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Here is some information about events in Gaza. Palestinian health officials said several dozen Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp Monday in Gaza. In our example, we have an active form, health officials said, as well as a passive form, were killed. The same idea, the mixing of active and passive forms, holds true in many other places in the report. For example, here is some information about events in Israel. The bodies of more than 260 young music festival goers were discovered Sunday. Hamas gunmen kidnapped more than 130 Israelis many from the festival and took them to Gaza. Let's use this final example for a homework assignment. You just heard a mixture of active and passive structures. Can you identify the active and passive forms? Write to us your answers in the comments section of our website learningenglish.voanews.com or send us an email to learningenglishatvoanews.com. I'm John Russell. You just heard this week's everyday grammar lesson from John Russell. John joins us now to talk a little bit more about the lesson. Welcome back John. Hi Dan. Thanks for having me on the show. Your lesson today explores active and passive forms. Can we draw any more general lessons about why a person might choose the active form or the passive form when describing conflicts? The answer is a little complex. When we describe international conflicts, sometimes we use the passive form because we do not know who did an action. There is uncertainty surrounding who did what, the situation is changing, and so on. But in other situations we use the passive form even when we know who did an action. That's right. There are several possible reasons for this. First, there is style. Perhaps the passive voice seems like it might be a better choice for stylistic reasons. Second, some verbs might work better in the passive form in some situations. By that I mean that some verbs might be considered more polite or sensitive if used in the passive form. Right, and there could also possibly be a source of bias in the writing or reporting. Absolutely. That's another possible reason for the passive voice. The passive voice can hide the agent of an action. That's a lot to think about John. Thanks for coming on the show today. See you next time. 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.