 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, John Russell reports on Saudi Arabia's plans to develop its electric car industry. Jill Robbins has a story on Apple's new stolen device protection feature. Brian Lin has the science report on a study that suggests a large water ice supply on Mars. Later, Jill and Andrew Smith present the lesson of the day, but first... Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars to become competitive in the electric vehicle, EV, industry. Such efforts are part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's broader plan to create jobs and diversify the country's economy. The kingdom has invested at least ten billion dollars in lucid motors, a United States-based company. It also set up a Saudi EV company, SEER, and built an EV metals factory. The Public Investment Fund, PIF, Saudi Arabia's $700 billion sovereign wealth fund, has a goal to produce 500,000 EVs yearly by 2030, from a target of 150,000 in 2026. Yet by December, SEER, which opened in September 2023, had put together around 800 vehicles. Those vehicles were based on kits supplied from the U.S. state of Arizona. Saudi Arabia has failed in the past to appeal to foreign car makers. Japan's Toyota rejected a proposed deal with Saudi Arabia in 2019. The company said labor costs were too high, local suppliers were too few, and the market was too small. As the world moves away from cars fueled by oil, experts say Saudi Arabia faces competition in the EV industry. There is tremendous competition that the country will face from established manufacturing powerhouses and from established supply chains, said Garav Batra of EY, a business advisory company. Batra added, a lot of things need to come into place before this industry takes shape and really ignites. Saudi officials did not respond to Reuters news agency requests for comment. China currently leads the new supply chain as well as EV production. Chinese company BYD became the world's biggest maker of EVs last year, pushing Tesla motors into second place. Saudi Arabia faces a lack of auto parts supply, anything from car doors to engines. There is no major local industry to produce these goods. The EV manufacturer CIR, a joint project between the PIF and Taiwanese company Foxconn, plans to launch a car by 2025. But the company has not yet built its factory. A source connected to CIR said it was unlikely the company would have a vehicle on the road before 2026. The source spoke on condition that they not be identified. In October, South Korean car manufacturer Hyundai and the PIF announced a project to build a factory for traditional engine vehicles and electric vehicles. The project, along with those of Lucid and CIR, would create a group of factories in Jeddah's King Abdullah Economic City. CIR will get parts from Germany's BMW automobile company, including batteries, the highest cost single part of an EV. Lucid Vice President Faisal Sultan told Reuters in December that Saudi Arabia needed the presence of critical suppliers. He said the Saudi factory only rebuilt vehicles and the Arizona site carried out quality control testing. The company's idea, keeping the supply chain and vehicle manufacturing in the United States, could lead other companies to set up rebuilt sites as well. As a result, these companies might be able to get Saudi incentives, a Saudi auto industry leader said. But such moves could slow the growth of local Saudi manufacturing as the country would continue to import foreign-made cars. I'm John Russell. Imagine that you are in a crowded place. You do not notice, but someone is watching you and learns your iPhone passcode. Then they steal your phone. Suddenly, your photos, documents, financial information and the rest of your digital life have been taken from you. A new security feature may prevent such a situation from happening. Apple, the iPhone maker, recently released an update to its iOS operating system. It has a new feature called stolen device protection. The feature makes it a lot harder for phone thieves to open the device and access important functions and settings. The company is urging users to turn this feature on immediately. Here is how to turn on the new security feature and why it is so important to do so. Stolen device protection is a new setting that is included with the latest iOS release, version 17.3. The update for iPhones and iPads includes a new feature designed to prevent thieves from wiping phones for resale or getting to your Apple ID or other important accounts. Apple says the feature adds extra security for users. It addresses a vulnerability that thieves have used to lock device owners out of their Apple accounts, delete their photos and other files from their iCloud and take money from their bank accounts. Stolen device protection keeps track of a user's familiar locations such as their home or workplace. The feature adds extra biometric security if someone tries to use the device to do certain things away from those places. It also reduces the importance of passcodes. Instead, it favors biometric features such as faces or fingerprints, which are a lot harder to copy. If a thief tries to erase or reset an iPhone, the device will require a face ID or touch ID scan to confirm that the person is the rightful owner. The new feature does not let someone use the passcode or any other backup method. Another part of the new feature is designed to slow down thieves trying to change security settings. For example, if someone tries to sign out of an Apple ID account, change the passcode, or reset the phone in an unfamiliar location, they will have to authenticate using face ID or touch ID, wait an hour, and then do a second facial or fingerprint scan. Changing an Apple ID password, updating Apple ID security settings, adding or removing face ID or touch ID, and turning off the Find My Device feature, or stolen device protection, also will trigger this feature. Apple said the delay is meant to prevent a thief from performing these operations so you can mark your device as lost and secure your Apple account. The company added that when your iPhone is in a familiar location, these additional steps will not be required and you can use your device passcode like normal. First, download and update your iPhone or iPad with the latest iOS update. The update works for iPhone XS and newer models, including second and third generation SE models. Then go to your settings, scroll down to face ID and passcode, or touch ID and passcode, and enter your passcode. Scroll down and you'll see stolen device protection. Make sure you've turned on two-factor authentication and find my device for your Apple ID account. Otherwise, it will not show up. I'm Jill Robbins. A Mars explorer has discovered new evidence of a large amount of water ice buried near the planet's equator. The discovery was made with data collected by the Mars Express Orbiter. The spacecraft is operated by the European Space Agency, ASA. The American Space Agency NASA is a partner on the orbiter's mission. ASA launched Mars Express in 2003 and it has been studying the red planet ever since. The mission's main goal is to use its seven scientific instruments to search for signs of water underneath the surface of Mars. Scientists involved in the new research say data suggesting the presence of newly discovered ice deposits could mean Mars may have once supported life. The Mars Express Orbiter collected data around an area of the planet known as the Medusae Fase Formation, or MFF. NASA describes this formation as a soft, easily eroded deposit that extends for nearly 1,000 km along the equator of Mars. Scientists believe the MFF was most likely formed by wind-blown dust or volcanic ash. The formations could have formed after volcanic activity, estimated to have taken place up to 3.8 billion years ago. Images of the area show raised areas that scientists thought in the past might contain dust blown around the planet by wind over many years. But the new research used newer data collected by the orbiter's Marsus instrument. It is a subsurface radar sounder with a 40-meter-long antenna. The tool looks for water on the surface as well as up to 5 km below the surface. The Marsus instrument is designed to send radio waves to an area scientists choose. It then attempts to listen to and examine echoes produced by the radio waves. The echoes help researchers recognize where water or ice might be, NASA explains. Scientists say any water identified near the surface results in stronger signals while the presence of ice or other materials would produce weaker signals. The team said Marsus readings suggest the MFF area of Mars contains a large amount of water ice rather than wind-blown dust. Thomas Waters of the U.S. Smithsonian Institution led the new research. His team's findings were recently published in a study in geophysical research letters. He said in a statement the radar data showed the deposits in the MFF area were even thicker than earlier measurement estimates had shown. The researchers said the data showed the examined deposits extended beneath the Mars surface to depths up to 3.7 km. They seemed to contain layers of dust and ice all topped by a protective layer of dry dust or ash. Earlier data examinations of the MFF area found similarities in the electrical properties of deposits there to ice-rich deposits found in the planet's north and south poles. The latest Marsus data strengthens this evidence by suggesting similarities between deposit layering in the MFF and the planet's poles. The radar signals match what we'd expect to see from layered ice, Waters said. He added that the radar waves were found to be similar to signals we see from Mars polar caps, which we know to be very ice-rich. It is not the first time scientists have discovered strong evidence for the presence of water ice on Mars. But the researchers say the latest study suggests the largest amount of water ever identified in the MFF area. They estimated the total amount of water contained there would be enough to cover the surface of Mars to a depth of about 1.5 to 3 meters. Colin Wilson is a project scientist with the Mars Express mission. He said while the new finding is exciting it also raises as many questions as answers. He continued, how long ago did these ice deposits form and what was Mars like at that time? Wilson said if confirmed to be water ice the large deposits would change our understanding of Mars' climate history. Waters added that since the discovery was made in an area near the Martian equator it could be considered a good place for future exploration missions. He explained that with a lower elevation the MFF area would be considered an ideal landing spot for spacecraft. Such an elevation provides more atmosphere to support an effective controlled landing. Waters said. I'm Brian Lin. Brian Lin joins me now to talk more about his science report. Thanks for joining me Brian. Sure Dan, thanks for having me. This week your report was about a new discovery on Mars that suggests a large collection of water ice exists in an area near the planet's equator. I know there have been past studies showing evidence of water ice on Mars. How's this one different? So yes, you're correct about that. We too have reported on several research efforts in recent years in which scientists have presented very convincing evidence of the presence of water and ice. The main difference with this latest study is it estimates a very large amount of water ice enough in melted form to cover the entire Mars surface with one to three meters of liquid. So this is far more water ice than scientists previously thought could be contained in this area. The report notes the data collected for this study was collected by an orbiter flying around Mars, nuts from an exploring rover on the surface. That being the case, is there any way the researchers' findings can be confirmed? I'd say that like with so many things involving space exploration the results can surely be confirmed on the planet itself but not anytime soon. In this case the confirmation would involve drilling down from the Mars surface to see if the water ice exists and the drilling would have to go very deep. The research team did say the area where the deposits sit has some ideal conditions for a future Mars landing so if ASA or NASA could get the right drilling equipment to the surface such an operation might be possible but again this would likely be years away. Interesting as always. Thanks again for joining me, Brian. You're welcome. Thank you, Dan. And 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 Dr. Jill Robbins. Hi, Jill. Hi, Andrew. 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. In today's lesson we're going to talk about a quick and easy way to connect two sentences. To do this we're going to listen to lesson 14 from level two of the video series. In lesson 14, Anna's friend Pete talks about his girlfriend and Ashley talks about her boyfriend. Both of them say they have found the perfect partner. Hello. What are you guys looking at? I'm showing Ashley pictures of my girlfriend. We have so much in common. Even small things. She can't whistle and I can't either. And here's a picture of my boyfriend. My family is big and so is his. We don't like ball sports and he doesn't either. We are made for each other. And so are we. And here is what whistling is. Okay, now that you know what whistling is, let's go back to connecting sentences. We could hear some ways to connect sentences in these examples. She can't whistle and I can't either. My family is big and so is his. I don't like ball sports and he doesn't either. We are made for each other. And so are we. And now let's listen to Professor Bott explain the way Pete and Ashley connected their sentences. Pete and Ashley are talking about people they love. They are putting two ideas together with connectors. Let's start with these two sentences. She can't whistle. Pete can't whistle. How do you put them together? Pete says, She can't whistle and I can't either. You can see we just add the conjunction either and take away the verb whistle. And Ashley says, I don't like ball sports and he doesn't either. For statements with a negation, which use the word not, instead of repeating the main verb at the end of the sentence, we add the word either. That usually makes the sentence shorter. Right. Compare these two sentences. I don't like ball sports and he doesn't like ball sports. I don't like ball sports and he doesn't either. By using the word either, Ashley did not have to repeat the phrase he doesn't like ball sports. You may have just noticed we pronounce that connector in two ways and both ways have the same meaning. We can pronounce it either or either. You say either and I say either. There's a famous American song that uses this difference in pronunciation in its lyrics. The name of the song is Let's call the whole thing off. In the song, a man and woman want to call off, which means end or cancel, their relationship because they always disagree about certain things. But Pete and Ashley don't want to call off their relationships. When they talk about their partners, they say, We are made for each other. And so are we. The expression to be made for each other means to be almost perfectly matched to live happily with another person. But what about Anna? She doesn't have a boyfriend. But she lies to Pete and Ashley, she does have a boyfriend. But they know she's lying. And that's why a little later, Anna says she is sorry. And then she explains that she has found her own perfect match too. Let's listen. I'm sorry. But later, I really did meet someone. And we have a lot in common. He's good at flying kites. And so am I. He likes to read comics. And so do I. I can play the ukulele. And so can he. He sounds perfect for you, Anna. Can he come tonight? That's the sad part. You see, he just got a job as a spy. And tonight, he leaves on assignment. Of course he does. But that's okay. Because now I know that there is someone out there made for me. Oh, it's late. I have to see him off at the train station. Bye, you guys. Bye, Anna. Oh, dear. She's worse than we thought. She's lost her mind. What should we do? Let's tell her. No, Pete. Mr. Wright may not be real, but he makes her really happy. It looks like Anna's boyfriend is only in her imagination instead of a real person. Notice how instead of repeating the same verb twice, she connected her sentences like this. He's good at flying kites. And so am I. He likes to read comics. And so do I. I can play the ukulele. And so can he. For an action verb, we connect with the auxiliary verb do. He likes to read comics. And so do I. For the verb be, we connect with the form of the verb be. In this example, Anna connects he's good with so am I. He's good at flying kites. And so am I. And with the modal can, we just repeat the modal like this. I can play the ukulele. And so can he. It does seem like Anna has a lot in common with her imaginary boyfriend, Mr. Wright. I suppose a lot of people try to imagine a perfect partner they could spend time with. And if they're lucky, that imaginary person becomes real when they find the right person. And we hope the lesson of the day is a good match for you. Remember that you can email us and ask us your questions about English. If you're lucky, we'll try to answer them in another lesson of the day. You can send your email to learningenglishatvoanews.com. Remember, you can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Thanks for listening. I'm Dr. Jill. 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.