 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, I reports on the threats of famine in Gaza. Brian Lin has the technology reports on AI tools used to improve Internet search engines. Later, Andrew Smith and Jill Robbins present the lesson of the day. But first, Jill reads one of the winning entries from the Teach Us About Ukraine Writing Contest, sponsored by VOA Learning English and Go Global. My name is Lugmyla Shilova, and I've been teaching English for 21 years in Nizhyn, Ukraine. Nizhyn is a small city in northern Ukraine with more than a thousand years of history. But the city is perhaps best known for a small food item that can be found around the world – pickles. If you ever taste Nizhyn pickles, you will understand why that small cucumber represents 300 years of the history, tradition, and taste of Ukrainian cuisine. In the 17th century, Nizhyn was a Cossack city on the border of the Russian Empire. At that time, some Greeks sailed down the Oster River to escape from the Ottoman occupation. They brought their culture, traditions, and, among other things, a recipe for salting cucumbers. The Greeks valued the rich soil of Nizhyn and grew cucumbers to make pickles. The pickling process took place in wooden barrels that were bought from Nizhyn craftsmen. Their secret recipe contained spices from eastern markets and local water from the artesian springs. The Greeks also paid much attention to the quality of cucumbers. The vegetables had to be the same size, neither big nor small. This permitted the cucumbers to be evenly salted and have a special crunch. Eventually, Nizhyn pickles made by the Greeks found their admirers among the Cossacks, local people, and even the royals. When Empress Catherine II of Russia traveled south through Nizhyn, she ordered pickles to her table. The Queen of Britain was also known to feast on these crunchy cucumbers. In the 19th century, Nizhyn pickles became popular in many European countries. Traders made a lot of money selling them to people in Denmark, France, Sweden, Germany, and Great Britain. Nowadays, Nizhyn pickles can be found on supermarket shelves all over the world. The product has since become a part of Ukrainian culture. In 2005, a monument to Ukraine's fruit and vegetable culture was opened near the local food factory. And a Nizhyn pickle was included in the list of winners of an international project on the food culture of Ukraine. So welcome to Nizhyn and go ahead and taste our pickles. I'm Jill Robbins. A United Nations official warned Tuesday that the Gaza Strip is at high risk of famine, an extreme lack of food if the war there does not stop soon. Ramesh Rajasingham is director of the Coordination Division in the UN Humanitarian Office. If nothing is done, we fear widespread famine in Gaza is almost inevitable, and the conflict, which since October has claimed the lives of almost 30,000 people and injured more than 70,000, will have many more victims, he said. Rajasingham spoke at a meeting of the UN Security Council requested by members Algeria, Guyana, Slovenia, and Switzerland. There are rising concerns that hunger is being used as a weapon in the war. Rajasingham said at least 576,000 people in Gaza, 25% of the population, are very close to famine. Almost the entire population is depending on food aid to survive, he said. Gaza is seeing the worst level of child malnutrition anywhere in the world, said Carl Schau, an official with the UN's World Food Program, or WFP. Maurizio Martina is assistant director general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. He explained how the entire food supply chain has been impacted by the war. He said Israel has forced farmers to leave their land or flee shelling that has destroyed crops. Farm animals are dying from hunger or killed in bombings. Fishing is banned and groundwater is polluted. In the most likely scenario, agricultural production will have collapsed in the north by May 2024, Martina said. We are already seeing this collapse. Martin Griffiths is the UN humanitarian chief. He said humanitarians continue to face serious difficulties in providing aid. These include border crossing closures, serious movement restrictions, access denials, onerous vetting procedures, security risks, incidents by desperate civilians, a breakdown of law and order, and restrictions on communications and protective equipment, Griffiths wrote. Israel denies it is restricting or limiting the delivery of aid to Gaza. Israel is doing all it can to care for civilians, going above and beyond what is expected, let alone required, Israel's Deputy UN Envoy Jonathan Miller told the Council. Miller said Israel has helped the delivery of 254,000 tons of relief supplies into Gaza since the start of the war, including 165,000 tons of food. He blamed Hamas for diverting aid and the UN for failing to properly manage and distribute it. The situation is most serious in northern Gaza, which remains cut off by the Israeli military. About 300,000 people are believed to have ignored Israel's earlier evacuation order and remained through months of heavy fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas. If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza, WFP's Scow said. The UN agency that assists Palestinians, UNRWA, delivers most of the relief supplies. It says the last time it was able to get food aid to northern Gaza was on January 23. On February 20, the World Food Program suspended its deliveries to the north because of a lack of security in the area. The World Health Organization last reached Gaza City's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, on January 22 with medical supplies. One week ago, the 15 Nation Security Council failed to pass an agreement calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire because of a veto from the United States. Several Council members repeated their call for a ceasefire at Tuesday's meeting. Even Israel's closest ally, the United States, displayed its growing displeasure with the slow delivery of aid. It urged Israel to keep border crossings open and to open new ones. Simply put, Israel must do more, Ambassador Robert Wood said. Internet search companies have already built artificial intelligence, AI, tools into their systems. And the use of AI systems to support Internet searches is expected to grow sharply in coming years. Some technology experts feel this change can greatly improve the overall search experience for users, but experts also have concerns. One early user or adopter of AI Search is Google. The American-based company's search engine currently processes an estimated 80% of the world's Internet search requests. Microsoft's search engine Bing also includes AI-powered results. Bing's AI system is linked to the company's co-pilot service. Co-pilot is an AI tool designed to operate across a series of Microsoft business products. Co-pilot is based on OpenAI's ChatGPT, which launched in late 2022. ChatGPT is a computer-powered AI tool designed to interact smoothly with humans. Such AI tools known as chatbots or generative AI are trained on massive amounts of Internet data. They have shown an ability to perform human-level writing and create high-quality images and videos based on short written descriptions. But these AI systems have also demonstrated possible risks. One risk is the tools can present faults or misleading information as truth. They can also produce results that represent long-standing biases against minorities or underrepresented communities. Here we offer some guidance for users seeking new systems to provide improved and relevant search results. Some major search companies have made it easy to find AI search engines on their main search pages. Google's search system is powered by its own chatbot tool called Gemini. It can easily be found directly on desktop or mobile phone browsers. Gemini can be used to perform other chatbot actions as well as providing search assistance. Google also has been testing a new search offering called Search Generative Experience. It replaces links with AI produced briefs containing basic facts about a subject. This system is currently limited to US users who sign up through Google's experimental labs site. To use AI with Microsoft's Bing search engine simply click the chat or co-pilot button underneath the main search window. This should pull up an information box where users can enter their search requests. New AI search sites have also launched, but they are not as easy to find. The Associated Press reports one way to find them is to perform searches for tools on co-pilot or Gemini. Some to look out for include Perplexity, Hugging Chat, U.com, Como, Andy, Find, Exa, and Ask AI. Most of these services have free versions, but generally there are limits on how many searches a user can make. Users can also upgrade from basic services to higher levels providing smarter AI tools and more search possibilities. Gemini users, for example, can pay $20 for an upgraded version that offers its most capable model called Ultra 1.0. Most of the startup sites are largely free to use and don't require setting up an account. Many also have upgrade possibilities. Unlike a traditional Google search, results from AI tools usually produce a longer, readable collection of information. Sometimes the original source of information is also included, and in some cases messages are included to warn users about possible misinformation appearing in the results. It is a good idea to try out different AI tools. Results from each can differ sometimes wildly. The AP reports that results from AI-assisted search tools can be especially useful when searching for more obscure facts or information. I'm Brian Lin. Now, Brian Lin joins me to talk more about his technology report. Thanks for being here, Brian. Sure, Dan. Thank you for having me. Your report on how AI is changing internet searches notes that technology has already been added to the internet's most popular search engines. But do you think companies like Google can survive with the flood of new competition from AI companies? Yes, so for the longest time Google has really dominated the internet search market worldwide. Doing Google searches has become a regular part of many people's lives for a long time, and experts say it will really depend on what Google offers its users in the area of web search. If the company can at least keep up with competitors by consistently providing high quality AI results, it should be able to remain at the top of the pack. The report also pointed out some of the risks linked to AI-powered search engines. How have the companies addressed those? Yes, one of the biggest ongoing risks is that AI-powered search results can contain misleading or false information. But there have already been efforts by the major companies, particularly Google, to limit this. For example, Google's Gemini system can warn users that AI-generated information could be incorrect and will direct users to the original source material. And with some sensitive topics such as politics, the user is urged to do additional research to confirm whether the results are true. Alright, interesting. 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 Jill Robbins and I'm joined by Andrew Smith. Hi, Andrew. Hi, Jill. 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 Lesson 29 of Level 2 of the series, Anna visits a fire station and learns about how to stay safe in the event of a fire. A fire station is where firefighters keep their fire trucks and things they need to fight fires. Today, we're going to look at several expressions from Lesson 29. In the beginning of the lesson, Ms. Weaver has asked Anna to learn about fire safety. Hey, Anna. What are you reading? I'm reading about fire safety. Ms. Weaver named me Fire Safety Monitor. But the only time we have a fire emergency is when someone burns a piece of toast. That is true, but fire safety is very serious, very serious. If there is a fire emergency, I have to help everyone out of the building. Well then, if I were you, I'd learn as much as possible. You're right, and I know just who to call. You may have noticed that Anna used the word monitor. I'm reading about fire safety. Ms. Weaver named me Fire Safety Monitor. Monitor is more commonly used as a verb. It means to carefully look at and check on something. But as a noun, we can say that a monitor is a person who watches something carefully. And it also has another meaning as a noun. A monitor is a screen for showing information or videos. For example, in an airport, monitors show when flights arrive and depart. Now, let's hear Anna meeting the firefighters at their fire station, which is also called a firehouse. Hi, firefighter Jones. Hey, how are you, Anna? I'm well, thanks. How are you? Hi, firefighter Hatcher. Hi, Anna, how are you? I'm well, thanks. Welcome to our firehouse. Thank you. Come on in. Thanks. This is where the firefighters eat. This is where we rest. This is where we exercise. This is where the fire trucks are parked and maintained. This place is beautiful. You know, the firehouse, the firefighters' second home. In the U.S., firefighters always make sure their fire trucks are in good working condition. This is what the verb maintain means. It is important to maintain equipment or machines so they work well during an emergency. I also notice that fire trucks in the U.S. always look very clean. The noun form of maintained is maintenance. A collocation or phrase that commonly occurs with maintenance is the expression perform routine maintenance. Here, the verb perform simply means to do. And the word routine is used as an adjective. It means on a regular basis. So if you perform routine maintenance on your car or motorcycle, it means you make sure all the parts are in good condition and that you replace or change the parts that are getting worn out. Worn out means old or damaged from overuse. Sometimes I feel worn out and, you know, I have replaced some of my parts. That's right, the partial knee replacement. Well, I feel worn out too sometimes, especially at the end of the week. Now, let's listen to what the firefighters tell Anna. Firefighter Jones, firefighter Hatcher, can you tell me some ways to prepare for a fire emergency? Sure, Anna. There's one really important thing you can do. Install a fire alarm. Test it monthly and make sure the batteries are fully charged. Let's talk about those emergency exits. In your home, office and schools, no way your emergency exits are located. What about fire extinguishers? Everyone should know how to use a fire extinguisher. Have one handy and practice using it. What if we need to get out? You should have an evacuation plan and practice getting out safely with fire drills. A drill is a practice routine. We can also use this word as a verb. If you drill an activity, that means you practice it in a careful, repetitive way. For example, you can do grammar or pronunciation drills to improve your English. But be sure to find or make drills that are interesting and useful. That's good advice. The firefighters also advised Anna to install a fire alarm. To install means to put a piece of equipment in place so that it is ready to work or be used. Anna also asked about extinguishers. I have to admit, Jill, I don't know how to use one. Andrew, they have very simple instructions written on them. Just read it. An extinguisher helps extinguish or put out a fire. They are usually red bottles that spray a white material that helps put out the fire. And notice what the firefighters said about fire extinguishers. Everyone should know how to use a fire extinguisher. Have one handy and practice using it. The word handy is an adjective. It has two meanings. One means the same thing as the adjective useful. The other means that the thing is nearby and easy to start using. You can think of it as easy to grab with your hand. With this second meaning, we often say keep handy. I think the camera on your phone is a good example of something that is handy. It's both handy. Okay, now let's listen to more advice the firefighters give Anna. What if we need to get out? We should have an evacuation plan and practice getting our safety with firejoys. If I'm in a building and it's on fire, should I use the elevator? No, always use the stairs. What other safety tips should I know? Stay low. The smoke rises. The air is clear close to the ground. Stay low. Anything else? If you touch a door and it's hot, don't open it. There might be a fire on the other side. What do I do if my clothes catch on fire? Do not run. If you run, the fire will burn faster. You must stop, drop and roll. Thanks so much. I've learned a lot and I can't wait to share this information with others. Thanks for coming, Anna. It's been a pleasure meeting you. Anna received a lot of good tips. A tip means a piece of advice or some helpful information. Now Anna knows that she needs an evacuation plan in case there is a fire at the office. Evacuate is a verb which means to move away from a dangerous area or emergency. And evacuation is the noun. At the end of lesson 29 of level 2, Anna does help to help evacuate the building because there is smoke. And where there's smoke, there's fire. True. Or maybe just some word that is almost on fire. Yes, or in this case, just some toast. In the end, the reason there is smoke in Anna's office is because Pete has burned his bread while making toast. I remember that fire drill. And before we're toast or all worn out, we'll remind our listeners that each lesson of Let's Learn English comes with a lesson plan they can download for free from our website. And as always, remember that you can find us on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for listening. I'm Andrew Smith. And I'm Dr. Jill. 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. This is VOA News. I'm Joe Ramsey, the U.S.