 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 John Russell and Faith Perlow. Later, Brian Lin presents this week's Science Report. Finally, Andrew Smith and Jill Robbins bring us today's lesson of the day. But first, here is John Russell. Archaeologists have found a group of lost cities in the Amazon rainforest. The cities were home to at least 10,000 farmers around 2,000 years ago. Stephen Rostin first noticed the earthen mounds and buried roads in Ecuador more than 20 years ago. But at the time, I wasn't sure how it all fit together, said Rostin. He was one of the researchers who reported on the findings in the publication Science. Recent mapping using laser technology revealed those locations to be part of a group of settlements and connecting roads. The settlements are in the forested areas near the Andes Mountains. It was a lost valley of cities, said Rostin, who directs investigations at France's National Centre for Scientific Research. It's incredible, he added. The Upano people lived in the settlements between around 500 BC and 300 to 600 AD. It was around the same time period as the Roman Empire in Europe, the researchers found. Ancient people built on over 6,000 earthen mounds in an area surrounded by agricultural fields with drainage canals. The largest roads were 10 metres wide and went for 10 to 20 kilometres. While it is difficult to estimate populations, the area was home to at least 10,000 people and possibly about 15,000 or 30,000 at its highest point, said Antoine d'Orison, a study co-writer. That is comparable to the estimated population of Roman era London, then Britain's largest city. This shows a very dense occupation and an extremely complicated society, said Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida. He was not involved in the study. Jose Iriarte of the University of Exeter was also not involved in the study. He said it would have required a complex system of organised labour to build the roads and thousands of earthen mounds. Iriarte said, the Incas and Mayans built with stone, but people in Amazonia didn't usually have stone available to build. They built with mud. The Amazon is often thought of as a wild area, with only small groups of people. But recent discoveries have shown us how much more complex the past really is, he added. Scientists have recently also found evidence of complex rainforest societies that came before European contact elsewhere in the Amazon, including in Bolivia and Brazil. There's always been an incredible diversity of people and settlements in the Amazon, not only one way to live, said Rostin. We're just learning more about them. I'm John Russell. Are you interested in food, United States history, and the English language? If so, American cookbooks provide wide information in all three subjects. The first published in 1796 started a market that continues in the 21st century with online publications of such works. And the literature offers more than just recipes. Megan Elias is the director of food studies at Boston University and the writer of Food on the Page Cookbooks and American Culture. She says that cookbooks do help teach us how to prepare food, but they provide more than that too. The concept of meals, how many meals a day that people expect to eat. What do they expect to have in those meals? Elias said. They also inform readers about discoveries, equipment and technology related to food making. Elias said, what are the objects that are necessary to make the things and what exists? So are you being asked to do something over an open fire? Or are you being asked to use an electric stove? Is it something that can be done in the microwave? If you see a lot of recipes for things that are preserved for pickles, you know that you are looking at a time without refrigeration. Amy Bentley is a food historian at New York University. She said that cookbooks from the 1800s were used as lifestyle and household guides. They include food recipes, but they were not central to the books back then. So there's some recipes for food, but it could be recipes for a cleaning solvent or what to do when your child has been poisoned, how to clean, how to get stains out, Bentley said. American Cookery by Amelia Simmons is the first cookbook published in the United States. Simmons wrote that her goal with the book was to improve the new generation of women in the U.S. Megan Elias says that after the Civil War, cookbooks became more diverse. Writers started exploring local foods and customs in their work. Elias said that Southern cookbooks tried to offer a beautiful version of the Old South that will kind of heal over the wounds of the Civil War rather than dealing with the problems that caused the Civil War to begin with. Some communities would put together a group cookbook to raise money. These cookbooks provide a look into what the American middle class was eating throughout the years. Such works serve as a record of the traditions and interests of different neighborhoods and groups. Throughout the years, cookbooks have signified humanity's growth in knowledge, trends, and innovations. During the last part of the 19th century, for example, many recipes were informed by the dangers of food containing bacteria. Then, in the 1930s, refrigerators became common objects in American homes. The threat of bacterial infection from food dropped, and very soon, cooks adapted to the new conditions. New recipes and new cookbooks resulted. I am Faith Perlow. The American Space Agency, NASA, is preparing to test a new supersonic airplane that could help establish a new generation of superfast aircraft. The new aircraft is called X-59, and it was built in partnership with American defense contractor Lockheed Martin. The experimental plane is part of a NASA project or mission called Quest. The mission aims to collect data in the United States on the level of noise produced by supersonic travel. Supersonic describes a vehicle that travels faster than the speed of sound, about 1,235 kilometers an hour. The data Quest gathers could lead U.S. officials to change rules that currently ban supersonic flights over land. NASA says the X-59 was developed to reduce the loudness of the sonic boom it produces when breaking the sound barrier to very low levels heard on the ground. A few U.S. companies are exploring ways to restart supersonic passenger travel for the first time since 2003. That is the year the Concorde aircraft stopped flying. The Concorde was the world's first supersonic passenger jet. It was operated jointly by Britain and France. The Concorde flew at speeds more than twice the speed of sound, British Airways explained. This meant it could travel from London to New York in about three and a half hours. The same flight took about eight hours with normal passenger jets. The new supersonic planes being developed make less noise and use less fuel than the Concorde. But manufacturers are under pressure from environmental groups and airports to meet the same noise and carbon emission limits as traditional planes. NASA and Lockheed Martin recently showed off the X-59 plane during an event in Palmdale, California. At the ceremony, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy called the development of the supersonic aircraft a major accomplishment. She noted that members of the NASA and Lockheed Martin teams had worked hard to take the X-59 from an idea to reality in just a few years. Melroy added her hope that the X-59 will help change the way we travel, bringing us closer together in much less time. The aircraft measures 30 meters long and 9 meters wide. NASA said in a press release that the X-59 is expected to fly at 1.4 times the speed of sound or about 1,500 kilometers per hour. The aircraft's design, shape, and technologies will permit it to reach high speeds while producing a quieter sonic thump, the agency explained. The X-59 has not yet completed a test flight, but NASA officials have said they expect that to happen sometime this year. The team will be carrying out other tests in the coming months, including instrument experiments, fast engine runs, and ground testing. Once the aircraft has been cleared to fly, it will be deployed to several cities across the US to collect data on the sounds the plane produces and how people on the ground react to the noise. The data will be provided to the US Federal Aviation Administration and International Flight Regulators. The information will help regulators decide whether to change existing laws, restricting supersonic flight. NASA said one of the biggest differences between the X-59 and other supersonic planes is that it has a thinner smaller nose. The nose, which was reduced by about one-third, aims to break up shockwaves that results in more intense sonic booms. The Quest team also designed the aircraft with its engine mounted on top and gave it a smooth underside. In an effort to reduce shockwaves near the back of the plane, NASA said. Another American company developing supersonic aircraft is Boom Supersonic in Colorado. The company first showed off its experimental supersonic plane, the X-B1, in October 2020. Boom has been carrying out tests of the aircraft since then. The company says on its website that its development and testing activities during the past few years have centered on ground tests, including a series of taxi runs. In 2024, Boom said it plans to begin its high-speed taxi testing early in the year while preparing for an actual flight test that could happen later in the year. I'm Brian Lin. Brian Lin joins me now to talk more about his science report. Thanks for being here, Brian. Of course, Ashley. Thanks for having me. This week you explored some new efforts in the U.S. to develop supersonic aircraft. You note how these efforts could lead to big changes across the aviation industry. But what barriers do you think could slow or even block the current development? Yes, this is certainly a possibility, and it may take years before supersonic flights become commonplace. But in researching the story, it became clear that there is already organized opposition to it. It's being led mainly by environmental groups that argue that supersonic aircraft use a lot more fuel than conventional planes, even though engines in general have become more energy efficient. And of course, there's also opposition over the noise issue, which is what NASA will be closely investigating. And how have the aircraft developers reacted so far to the opposition? Well, mainly they have spoken to the issue of fuel. And one of the companies mentioned in the report, Boom Supersonic, has said they're building the planes to run on different fuel blends that will actually cause less harm to the environment than traditional aircraft. Of course, those claims still have to be proven in actual tests. But the developers of this kind of fuel, which is a biofuel, have said new versions of it could cut carbon pollution emissions by up to 80% compared to conventional fuels. Okay. Well, thanks again for being here today, Brian. You're welcome. Thank you, Ashley. Welcome to the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. My name is Andrew Smith. And my name is Jill Robbins. Thanks for joining us. Today's lesson will help you learn more about the English you hear in 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. Today's lesson talks about a special weather event, a blizzard. And our lesson will show how we use both the past perfect and the present perfect tenses when we talk about events. Andrew, have you ever been in a blizzard? I have, but it was a very long time ago. And I think we should explain what the word blizzard means. Okay. A blizzard is a very strong snowstorm with a very strong wind. The wind blows the snow so much that it's difficult to see and it can be dangerous to go outside. Jill, I know that in January 2016, a strong blizzard hit Washington, D.C. Were you there and did it affect you? Yes, I was here, but I had fun. I had a niece visiting from Boston where they usually have lots of snow. She was stuck with us for a few more days than she wanted to be. And that blizzard became the topic for lesson 11 of level two of Let's Learn English. The lesson is called the big snow. Let's listen to the beginning of the lesson. Kelly meets Anna, who is sitting and reading a book about the weather. Hi, Anna. Why do you have all this weather stuff? I love weather. Me too. Weather is so important. It is. It affects people's lives. Have you ever reported on a big weather event? I have. I've reported on a blizzard. Do you mean the one last weekend? Yes. I had been waiting for that blizzard for years. When it came, I was ready. Many people like Anna get very excited about big weather events such as blizzards. Anna also said that weather affects people's lives. And you might have noticed that I also asked Jill if the blizzard had affected her. Were you there and did it affect you? Let's talk about this verb, affect. It is spelled A-F-F-E-C-T. But even native speakers sometimes confuse this word with the noun, effect. That word is spelled E-F-F-E-C-T. The confusion happens because we often pronounce the two words the same way. When we are speaking quickly, the first vowel of the noun, effect, is reduced to the quick uh sound, effect, which is the same sound as the verb. Andrew, that's our old friend, the schwa. Yes, it is. It makes so much trouble for English learners. To affect is to create a change or make someone feel a certain way. And the noun, the effect, is the result of something. How did the blizzard affect Anna? And what were the effects of the blizzard on Washington, D.C.? We're going to find out. But first, listen to Anna and Kelly again. And this time, listen for the present perfect and past perfect continuous tenses. Have you ever reported on a big weather event? I have. I've reported on a blizzard. Do you mean the one last weekend? Yes. I had been waiting for that blizzard for years. When it came, I was ready. Kelly and Anna use the present perfect when they say, Have you ever reported on a big weather event? I have. I've reported on a blizzard. Anna uses the past perfect continuous when she says, I had been waiting for that blizzard for years. We use the present perfect tense to talk about an action in the past that is important in the present. And what about the past perfect? When one event in the past happens before another event in the past, we can use the past perfect tense to make this clear. We use the auxiliary verb had plus the past participle to show what happened first. Before Anna reported on the blizzard, she had been waiting for a long time because waiting takes place over a period of time. We use the past participle been plus the ing form of the verb. This is called the past perfect continuous. Now let's listen to more of the story about the blizzard. Anna got her friend Pete to help her do the news report on the blizzard. To do the report, they had to work on the weekend. And Anna brought supplies to help them. Why am I here on a Saturday? Why are you carrying things? Why, why? Pete, these are my supplies. Food, a blanket, warm clothing. Where are your supplies? Pete, Pete, Pete, Pete. This could be the blizzard of the century. It'll be fine. Pete brought almost no supplies with him. He didn't think the blizzard would have a big effect. He was wrong. Let's listen to some of the effects of the blizzard and how it affected Anna and Pete. Anna continues to tell the story to Kelly. And be sure to listen for the present perfect and past perfect tenses. The big snow broke all kinds of records, didn't it? Yes, it did. And every time a record was broken, we celebrated. So far in Washington, DC, 29 inches of snow has fallen. That, my dear listeners, is a record. We just broke the wind speed record. Snow has been falling for 30 hours straight. By Saturday night, stores and restaurants had closed. Did you bring enough food? I thought I had brought enough food, but I ran out. Hey Pete, where's my bag of popcorn? Maybe you ate it already? No, I didn't. I haven't seen it. We had reported together for 48 hours straight. Wow, that must have been a great team-building exercise for you and Pete. Yeah, you could say that. At the end, Pete has eaten all of Anna's popcorn. Anna gets mad, and in the video, they start to fight. So that's one way the blizzard affected them. And did you hear the other effects of the storm? The storm broke all kinds of records. To break a record means to surpass, and that's spelled S-U-R-P-A-S-S. Or go beyond what had ever been done before. For example, in 2009, Usain Bolt ran the 100 meter race in 9.58 seconds. That broke the world record and is the fastest any person has ever run that distance. And the blizzard in DC broke records for the most snow that has ever fallen in DC. 29 inches, which is almost 74 centimeters. And it broke the record for the longest amount of time snow has ever fallen in DC, about 30 hours. I remember I had a stick in my backyard to measure the snow that time. Those are still records for DC, so we say the storm broke the record for the most snow that has ever fallen. We use the present perfect tense because we are connecting that past event to a record that still stands. When we say a record still stands, we mean the record has never been broken. Blizzards do affect a lot of things, especially in a city like Washington DC, which rarely gets them. And even a little bit of snow can affect Washington DC a lot. You've been listening to the Lesson of the Day on the Learning English Podcast. Thanks for listening. Remember that you can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. I'm Jill Robbins. 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.