 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. Today, you will hear stories from Brian Lin and Gregory Stockle. Later, Anna Mateo and Mario Ritter Jr. take a look back at the year's social media developments. Finally, Jill Robbins presents this week's everyday grammar lesson. But first, here is Brian Lin. Official population data show more men live in the western United States, while more women live in the east and south. The data was collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. The numbers appear in the 2022 American Community Survey, released last week. The report gives state and local leaders the latest population and demographic information each year in order to plan investments for their communities. The report found that women outnumber men in the most populated counties east of the Mississippi River. Women also outnumber men along the U.S. east coast and in southern states. The highest population of men was found west of the Mississippi and on the U.S. west coast. The American Community Survey found that across the U.S., there were 96.6 adult men for every 100 adult women. The report seeks to identify a sex ratio, meaning the number of male and females living in a particular area. The ratio numbers do not consider sexual preference, gender identity, or whether people included in the report were looking for partners. Adult women outnumbered adult men around the eastern cities of Baltimore, New York, Atlanta, and Philadelphia. The biggest imbalances of men to women, with ratios above 103 for those age 18 and over, were recorded in the west. The highest ratios were found in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Austin, Texas. Men to women ratios were highest in California, including areas around San Francisco, San Jose, and Bakersfield. Population researchers say the ratios are influenced partly by the presence of certain organizations and industries that appeal more to one sex or the other. San Diego, California, for example, has several large military bases populated with a majority of men. And Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, and San Jose have a large number of technology companies. Industry groups estimate men make up about three-quarters of the tech workforce. At birth, the sex ratio in the U.S. has historically been 105 men for every 100 women. That ratio begins to change around age 30. The U.S. death rate is higher for men than it is for women in nearly every age group. Researchers say this is because more men are affected by violence, drinking, smoking, job risks, and suicide. But the ratio decreases over time until age 90. Around that age, there are generally two women to every man. Michal Neisteter is a professional matchmaker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A matchmaker is someone who tries to bring two people together for a romantic relationship. She told the Associated Press she sees a difference in where single men and women choose to live. In the Philadelphia area, for example, she says single women are more likely than men to live within the city limits. But single men are more willing to live in areas outside the city called suburbs. Neisteter notes that because of such differences, people looking for a partner need to put in solid, thoughtful efforts to make connections. She suggests that people expand their search areas to include more available singles. Such searches should take work, Neisteter noted, because nothing is sweeter than something you have to work for. I'm Brian Lin. Alessandra Zarelli works to keep the artwork of the Vatican Museums in good condition. She says whenever she works on a masterpiece, she must calm her heart so her thinking can center on her work. Vatican City is a small country surrounded by the Italian capital, Rome. It is the headquarters and seat of government of the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican Museums contain thousands of artworks hundreds of years old, including paintings by Michelangelo. The motion of working on something like a Michelangelo is truly indescribable, said Zarelli. He helped repair one of his wall paintings in Vatican City's Pauline Chapel. Michelangelo painted during the Renaissance period of European history, during a growth of interest in science, art, and literature. Zarelli is part of a special team at the Vatican Museums Repair Laboratory for paintings and wood pieces. The team is responsible for looking after thousands of square meters of wall paintings, including the famous ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel. They also look after some 5,300 oil paintings and wooden statues. The painting and wood lab is one of eight specialized groups in the Museums. It permitted several news organizations, including Reuters, the chance to see its inner workings to mark its 100th anniversary. Care and repair methods change often, and today's workers often have to repair mistakes from care workers that came before them. They repair work from recent history to many centuries ago. Another problem, usually from the distant past, is that restorers were not technicians but artists in their own right. Francesca Persegati is chief restorer at the Vatican Museums. She said that some of those artists thought they could improve the original by adding their own work. It's important to be humble in this job, to respect the work, but also to have a scientific background to understand the materials, she said. Before a painting even reaches the lab, another team carries out tests to see if paint or color has been added since the piece was first made. They also check it for possible other work below the surface. In another part of the lab, Catarina Monizco was working on an 1895 painting called Madonna and Child between St. Teresa and St. Francis. Italian Emma Richards was the artist. She painted for the rich and powerful, like Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Such work was a rarity for women artists of the time. Because she was a woman, I somehow feel very close to her, said Monizco, an external restorer at the lab. To mark the 100th anniversary of the paintings and wood lab, the Vatican Museums are using special technology. It permits visitors to use their phones to connect with information about the artwork they are looking at. I'm Gregory Stockle. This year, social media services gained a lot of attention for their growth methods and for their influence. The Associated Press recently looked back at 2023 to see what developments in social media were most important and what might be ahead. In October of 2022, businessman Elon Musk took over Twitter. He promised to make big changes at the social media service. Musk is known for leading the electric vehicle company Tesla and SpaceX, a space transport company. He bought Twitter for $44 billion. Musk dismissed about 75% of the company's workforce soon after the deal was completed. He said the dismissals were necessary to make Twitter more effective and to increase profits. He also announced plans to have Twitter users pay $8 a month to keep their verified accounts. Verified accounts are identified as belonging to people with a lot of followers. As chief, Musk also lifted some existing restrictions on users, including many well-known people who had been barred by earlier Twitter leadership. Former U.S. President Donald Trump was among the Twitter users whose accounts were reinstated. Musk said those changes were part of a larger effort to protect the free speech of Twitter users. But critics said his plans were likely to increase the amount of harmful content and hate speech on the service. This year the AP noted that some LGBTQ groups have raised concerns that X is less safe. Some activist groups said they have left the service. Many Twitter users chose to leave the service earlier this year because of Musk's changes. Some advertisers stopped doing business with the company. In October X said it had over 500 million users and is adding users all the time. The company also said it has improved in combating misleading or false information by using community notes. Musk says it uses over 100,000 people to help confirm information. Musk has said he hopes to change X into an everything app, like China's WeChat. But it remains unclear if U.S. and Western users like the idea of using one app for nearly all their needs. Many users criticized the changes Musk was putting in place at X. Other services aimed to provide competition. Mastodon is a service from a German software developer that lets users share information across several apps. Blue Sky is a service that came out of Twitter and has connections to former Twitter chief Jack Dorsey. Blue Sky operates by invitation only. Some users who did not like the changes to Twitter went to those services. In July, the parent company of Facebook, Meta, launched another rival to X called Threads. Millions of people joined after the announcement. In December, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company was testing interoperability. That is an idea that lets people use their accounts on different services or platforms. Zuckerberg said the company was performing a test where posts from Threads accounts will be available on Mastodon and other services that use the activity pub protocol. Social media's influence on children's mental health gained a lot of attention this year. The U.S. Surgeon General warned in May that there is not enough evidence to show that children and teenagers are safe using the services. Dr. Vivek Murthy called for technology companies and parents to take immediate action to protect their kids now. Murthy noted how social media is pushing big changes in the way children think of themselves, form friendships, and experience the world. In October, about 33 states brought legal action against Meta for harming young people's health. The legal action said the company regularly collects information on children under 13 years of age. And in December, the Federal Trade Commission proposed major changes to laws controlling the way companies can follow and advertise to children. The agency proposed turning off targeted advertisements to children under 13 and limiting notifications to them. Artificial intelligence powers chatbots that perform writing tasks and create material for users of services like chatGPT. In the fall, Meta Chief Zuckerberg said his company was building the future of human connection. He said that people will soon communicate with hologram versions of their friends, co-workers, and others. The company demonstrated AI bots using the images of famous people such as Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton. Meta believes many social media users will want to interact with celebrities. Enberg, the social media expert, said AI will be used throughout social media platforms. Social apps will use AI to drive usage, add performance and revenues, subscription signups, and business activity, she said. Experts say social media services learned from Musk's ex that subscriptions are a good way to make money. Important elections will take place in the US, India, and other places in 2024. Some experts are worried about AI's abilities to create materials that can contain misinformation and then spread on social media. AJ Nash is an official with XeroFox, an internet security company based in the state of Maryland. Nash said materials spread this way will have a major influence on elections. We are not prepared for this, he said. I'm Anna Mateo. And I'm Mario Ritter Jr. The New Year comes on different dates for different cultures, and most of the Western world celebrates it on January 1st. One thing many cultures have in common is the idea of New Year's resolutions. A New Year's resolution is a personal goal to change unwanted behavior, make a life improvement, or try something new. In the United States, popular New Year's resolutions often include losing weight, improving your finances, volunteering for an organization, or spending less time on social media. On today's everyday grammar, we will show you how to talk about resolutions in English. First, let's learn how to ask people about their resolutions. Listen to a short conversation. Hey there, Faith. Happy New Year. Great to see you. Hi, Greg. Happy New Year to you, too. How was yours? It was crazy. We went to New York and watched the ball drop in Times Square. It was really crowded and loud, but still really fun. Sweet. Do you have any New Year's resolutions? Faith asked Greg about resolutions simply by saying, do you have any New Year's resolutions? You can also say, what are your New Year's resolutions? To ask about more than one. Or, what is your New Year's resolution? To ask about one. Now let's find out how to answer the question. When we make statements about our resolutions, we often use phrasal verbs. We can use the phrasal verb take up to say that we will start a new activity as a hobby. Listen to Faith and Greg continue their conversation. Sweet. Do you have any New Year's resolutions? Yes, I do. I plan to take up kickboxing starting next week. I'm excited to finally do it, rather than just talk about it. How about you? Another phrasal verb for resolutions is give up, which is to stop doing or using something. We can use this verb to talk about ending bad habits or changing behavior for a time. Let's hear Faith respond using the verb give up. How about you? I am giving up sugar for the month of January. Then, for the rest of the year, I'm avoiding soft drinks. Well, I wish I could join you, but the kickboxing class starts soon. I'll probably want some sweets after class. Another phrasal verb cut out has the same basic meaning as give up. For example, Faith could say, I am cutting out sugar for the month of January. But in many situations, we do not need phrasal verbs to talk about resolutions, as you will soon see. Next, let's talk about verb tenses and forms. Greg talked about his new kickboxing activity using the verb plan, followed by the infinitive verb form. And Faith talked about giving up sugar using the present continuous verb tense, also called b plus ing. We can also use the simple future tenses, one with will and the other with going to. These tenses are especially useful when the new year has not come yet. Imagine it's the last week of the year and a few people are talking to each other about resolutions. Here are some things you might hear. In 2024, I'm going to visit my friends every month. By the end of March, I will stop eating sweets. In the new year, I'm going to practice kickboxing every week. When we use simple future tenses to talk about resolutions, we're expressing that we are making a promise to or plan for ourselves. The noun resolution comes from the verb resolve, which means to make a serious decision to do something. You may have noticed that the statements so far today did not actually use the word resolution. That is because the subject was already known by the listeners. But it is still perfectly normal to start your statements with my new year's resolution is or my new year's resolutions are. An infinitive verb or a gerund must come after these phrases. Here is an example. My new year's resolution is to call my sister on video every week. The infinitive verb here is to call. You can also use a gerund like this. My new year's resolution is calling my sister on video every week. Well, that's all for today's program. Happy new year. I'm Jill Robbins. Jill Robbins is here now to talk more about this week's lesson. Hi Jill. So we just heard some of the grammar we use when talking about our new year's resolutions. What do you think is important for our listeners to know about these hopes we have for the new year? Well, it is important to know that cultures around the world do things to help bring good luck in the coming year. In Spain and parts of Latin America, people eat 12 grapes at midnight on New Year's Eve for good luck. In Brazil, you go to the beach and jump over seven waves. Those are just some examples. That is true. And in the southern part of the United States, it is common to eat a food called black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck. But back to resolutions. Jill, I'm wondering if you made any resolutions for 2024. No, I'm the kind of person who doesn't need to wait until January to make changes in my life. I just decide I'm going to do something different and then I put it on my calendar or make a reminder on my phone. So is that why your phone is always beeping? Right. How about you, Ashley? I'm not that big on New Year's resolutions either. But in general, I would definitely like to spend less time on my phone and find more time to exercise. Well, Jill, thanks so much for joining me today and happy New Year. It's my pleasure and I'll see you next year. 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.