 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 has a story on Mexico being the leading source of goods imported by the United States. I have a story on the possibility of a new category six for hurricanes. Brian Lin has the science report on a new NASA satellite studying oceans and the atmosphere. Later, Jill Robbins and Andrew Smith present the lesson of the day. For the first time in more than 20 years, Mexico took China's place as the leading source of goods imported by the United States. This change, which took place over the last year, brings attention to the growing tensions between the U.S. and China. It also highlights American efforts to import from countries that are friendlier and closer to home. Figures released recently by the U.S. Commerce Department show that the value of goods imported by the U.S. from Mexico rose nearly five percent from 2022 to 2023 to more than $475 billion. At the same time, the value of Chinese imports dropped 20% to $427 billion. The last time that Mexican goods imported by the United States were greater than the value of China's imports was in 2002. Economic relations between the United States and China have declined in recent years. The Trump administration began putting tariffs on Chinese imports in 2018. The administration argued that China's trade policies broke international trade rules. President Joe Biden kept those taxes on imports after taking office in 2021, making clear that opposition toward China would be a rare area of common ground for Democrats and Republicans. Instead of sending production to China, which U.S. corporations had long done, the Biden administration has urged companies to seek suppliers in allied countries in a process called friend-shoring or to return manufacturing to the United States in a process called reshoring. Supply chain problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic also led U.S. companies to seek supplies closer to the United States in a process called near-shoring. Mexico has been among those helped by the growing move away from Chinese factories, but the picture is more complex than it might seem. Some Chinese manufacturers have established factories in Mexico to get the benefits of the three-year-old U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. The agreement permits duty-free trade in North America for many products. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said last week that the trade deal gives Mexico new power. He said it would make it hard for the U.S. to close the two countries' border to limit immigration, as suggested in negotiations on a border bill in the U.S. Senate. The negotiation is proposing closing the border, he said. Do you think Americans or Mexicans, but especially the Americans, would approve that? The businesses wouldn't take it, maybe one day, but not a week. Some industries, especially car manufacturers, have set up plants on both sides of the border. These plants depend on each other for a steady supply of parts. Derek Scissors, a China specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, noted that the biggest drops in Chinese imports were in computers and electronics and chemicals and pharmaceuticals, all politically difficult areas. I don't see the U.S. being comfortable with a rebound in those areas in 2024 and 2025, Scissors said, predicting that the China-Mexico reversal on imports to the United States likely is not a one-year blip. Scissors suggested that the drop in U.S. use of Chinese goods partly suggests concerns about China's economic policies under President Xi Jinping. Xi's COVID-19 lockdowns brought large parts of the Chinese economy to a halt in 2022, and his officials have raided foreign companies in possible counterespionage investigations. I think it's corporate America belatedly deciding Xi Jinping is unreliable, Scissors added. I'm John Russell. There have been a few very powerful ocean storms in the last ten years. The expectation of more to come has some experts proposing a new category of large hurricanes, Category 6. Studies have shown that the strongest tropical storms are getting more powerful because of climate change. The traditional five-category Saphir Simpson scale was created more than 50 years ago. But two scientists suggested in a new study that the scale may not show the true power of the strongest storms. They propose a sixth category for storms with winds faster than 309 kilometers per hour. The study recently appeared in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Currently, storms with winds of 252 kilometers per hour or higher are Category 5. The study's writers said that this grouping does not do enough to warn people about the greater dangers from storms with even stronger winds. Still, several experts told the Associated Press that they do not think another category is needed. They said it could even send the wrong message to the public because the new proposed category is based on wind speed. Water is by far the deadliest part of hurricanes. Since 2013, five storms had winds that would have put them in the new category, with two hitting the Philippines. All five happened in the Pacific Ocean. As the world warms, such large storms become more likely. Climate change is making the worst storms worse, said Michael Wehner, the study's lead writer. Wehner is a climate scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California. There are not more storms because of climate change, but climate change makes the strongest more intense. The proportion of major hurricanes among all storms is increasing. That is because the oceans are getting warmer, said Brian McNulty. He is a hurricane researcher at Florida's University of Miami. He was not part of the research. Experts have proposed a Category 6 several times over the years, especially since 2013's Typhoon Hyann reached 315 kilometers per hour over the Pacific. The study said that Hyann does not appear to be an isolated case. Storms with high enough wind speed are called hurricanes if they form east of the international date line. They are called typhoons if they form to the west of the line. They are known as cyclones in the Indian Ocean and Australia. There have been 5 storms that had 309 km per hour winds since 2013. Jim Cosen is a climate and hurricane researcher who was an author of the study. He said if the world keeps to 5 storm categories, people will misjudge the risks as storms get larger and more powerful. Pacific storms are stronger because there is less land to weaken them and more room for storms to grow more intense. That is not the same situation in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean, Cosen noted. Jamie Rome is deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in Florida. He said that when warning people about the storms, his office warns people about individual dangers. These dangers include storm surge, wind, rainfall, tornadoes and rip currents instead of the particular category of the storm. The categories he added only provide information about the dangers from wind. The American Space Agency NASA has launched a new satellite designed to closely study the world's oceans and atmosphere. NASA launched the PACE satellite on September 8th. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried PACE into orbit from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA confirmed the launch and reported ground controllers had successfully established contact with the satellite. PACE stands for Plankton Aerosol Cloud Ocean Ecosystem. The satellite will spend at least three years studying the environment from an orbit 676 kilometers above the Earth's surface. NASA officials say PACE will map the entire world each day with two science instruments. A third instrument will collect monthly measurements. Scientists should start getting their first data within one or two months. Jeremy Wordle is the project scientist for the PACE project or mission. He told the Associated Press he sees the effort providing humans an unprecedented view of our home planet. Wordle noted a major goal of the observations is to help scientists improve their ability to predict hurricanes and other severe weather events. He said the instruments can provide detailed data on temperature-related changes happening across the world. The satellite data might help scientists better predict when harmful algae blooms will happen. NASA says PACE will also study aerosols or particles in the air. Karen St. Germain is NASA's Director of Earth Science. She told reporters before PACE's launch that the study of aerosols is important because they can affect clouds. Aerosols can affect the density of clouds as well as when and how much precipitation the clouds might release. St. Germain noted existing satellites are not equipped to collect detailed data on aerosols. She said PACE will help NASA learn more about how aerosols affect clouds and climate over long periods. The new data is expected to give scientists another dimension of data on how aerosols affect oceans and the atmosphere. St. Germain added, and then of course there is a relationship between the phytoplankton and the aerosols. Phytoplankton are very small plants that float near the surface of water. They serve as a source of food for many sea creatures. NASA says phytoplankton provide food to all sorts of animals ranging from shellfish to finfish to whales. NASA says PACE's instruments will aim to measure changes in phytoplankton. The satellite will aim to collect data on aerosols that attach to phytoplankton. These studies will be important in identifying any changes in phytoplankton from interactions with aerosols which could affect the ocean and life in it. NASA has already launched a series of Earth observing satellites and instruments into orbit. But the agency believes PACE will be able to collect more detailed data on how different aerosols and pollutants get into the oceans and the atmosphere. Project scientist Wirtel noted that current Earth observing satellites can only see in 7 or 8 different colors. But he said PACE will see in 200 colors, permitting scientists to better identify different kinds of algae in the sea and particles in the air. News reports say the mission will cost about $950 million. The PACE mission follows the launch in December 2022 of NASA's SWAT satellite. The SWAT mission measures sea levels and changes in bodies of water over time. SWAT is a cooperative effort between NASA and France's space agency. NASA is cooperating with India on another Earth observing satellite set to launch this year. That spacecraft, called NISAR, will use radar instruments to measure the effects of rising temperatures on glaciers and other melting icy surfaces. I'm Brian Lin. Brian Lin joins me now to talk more about his science report. Thanks for being here, Brian. Of course, Dan. Thanks for having me. This week you previewed a new NASA mission that aims to study all the world's oceans as well as Earth's atmosphere. What do scientists hope to gain from the data this satellite will collect? So yes, as was noted in the report, NASA officials have said this new satellite, called PACE, is equipped with the latest technology tools to provide more detailed data than ever before. The satellite uses three powerful new instruments designed to measure levels of various substances in the ocean and atmosphere. One of those instruments is built to detect colors to identify materials, particularly in the ocean, while two others use properties of light to observe particles present in the atmosphere and clouds. The report does mention the latest mission follows the launch in 2022 of another observing satellite that is also collecting similar data from the world's oceans. How will the PACE mission differ from that one? Yes, this is correct. The satellite that launched in 2022, called SWAT, does have a similar mission, but NASA has said the main difference between the two satellites is that while SWAT is centering on the study of ocean movements, PACE will seek to collect detailed biological data on seas and the atmosphere. Alright, thanks 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. Andrew? Hi, Jill. Our lesson is based on our video series Let's Learn English. The series shows Ana Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. Here's Ana introducing herself. Hello, my name is Ana Mateo. Watching and listening carefully to the video series can help you understand and speak English better. And learn about some aspects of American culture. For example, lesson 20 is called the test drive. Ana and her friend Penelope go to an auto show. Have you ever been to an auto show, Andrew? You know, I haven't. I've never been, but I have been interested in going. They look interesting. In this video, Ana takes a test drive in a car, which means she drives the car for a short distance to try it out. But at auto shows, it's kind of like a fair to demonstrate new models of cars for people interested in learning about them. So you can expect to see new cars and learn about new features. And nowadays they're really promoting the electric vehicles. That's right. At this car show, Ana and Penelope are there as reporters. They also mentioned someone named Rick, who seems to be the videographer. That's right. Rick created all of the wonderful videos in our first two Let's Learn English series. Let's listen in and find out what Ana and Penelope learn. That's a great idea. Rick, I think we should use this as the opening shot. Ana, did Miss Weaver give us instructions for covering the car show? She did. She said that we need to show lots of cars. She said we need to interview people. And she also said to have fun. Those were her exact words. Yeah. She said, have fun, Ana. And she is the boss. Okay, Rick, are you ready? Hello, I'm Ana Mateo. Welcome to the Washington Car Show. People all over town are saying that if you like cars, this is the place to be. So let's see what people are talking about. One of the grammar points in this lesson is reported speech. We hear Ana telling Penelope what Miss Weaver said. She said that we need to show lots of cars. She said we need to interview people. Let's compare how we tell exactly what someone said, like directly, to reporting what they said indirectly. When we quote a person, we give their exact words. Imagine how Ana could directly quote Miss Weaver. Miss Weaver said, you need to show lots of cars. You need to interview people. In reported speech, we make some changes. We add a reporting verb, which in our example is the word said. It could also be words such as tell, ask, reply, or any other verbs we use for speech. Then we can use a conjunction like that. The conjunction is optional as we hear in our examples. Finally, we say the reporting clause, which often uses a different tense from the original. For example, if the verb is present, we might change it to the past. And we may change the pronoun if the quote used one. That sounds like a lot of changes, but it's not too complicated. Listen again. She said that we need to show lots of cars. She said we need to interview people. Let me give an example where the verb tense changes. Last week, you told me that you were driving to North Carolina for the weekend. I did. And to report that, you changed the verb tense. I said I am driving to North Carolina for the weekend. Yeah, and I would say Andrew told me that he was driving to North Carolina for the weekend. Let's listen to one more example from our story. First, Anna tells Penelope that Ms. Weaver told them to have fun. Then Penelope asks Anna to tell her exactly what Ms. Weaver said. And she also said to have fun. Those were her exact words. Yeah, she said have fun, Anna. I think that's because she didn't quite believe her. Yeah. Listeners, let's practice this a little bit. Jill and I will say a quote. Then give you time to change it to reported speech. Then we'll let you know how it should change. Are you ready? Yep. Here's the first one. I am going shopping. Jill said she was going shopping. Or Jill said she was going to go shopping. Notice the verb changed from am to was. OK, now it's my turn. I will wash the dishes after lunch. Andrew said that he would wash the dishes after lunch. Here, the past tense applies to the modal verb will. And the next one. Andrew, will you please make me a cup of tea? Jill asked me to make her a cup of tea. Aha. You changed the reporting verb there to ask. Good job. Jill just said that I did a good job. Wait, wait, that wasn't an example. I was just saying that. Well, I guess I'm really on a roll with this reported speech. Now, let's see what happens back at the auto show. I think we're in for some silliness or funny situations, which you can see for yourself if you go to our website and watch the video. OK, I think we got good interviews. Me too. People all had very different opinions, but they all said they loved cars. Anna, look, a robot. A robot. Rick, we have to use the robot in the show. What is your first name? Anna. You know, what an effort. What an effort to robot dance. How about a round of applause for Anna? I've never seen anyone try so hard. Penelope, did you hear that? Hank the robot said that he has never seen anyone dance like me. I'm sure our listeners can imagine Anna doing that robot dance. And did you notice some more reported speech? I did. Anna said... Hank the robot said that he has never seen anyone dance like me. I bet he hadn't. But now it's time for us to end this podcast. Andrew said it was time to end the podcast. But you can still practice reported speech. Listen to the radio or TV and take one sentence. Write it or say it to yourself using reported speech. I think that's a good idea, Jill. Also, our listeners can write to us in an email to learningenglishatvoanews.com. Thanks for listening to the lesson of the day. If you liked this program, please share it with your family and friends. And remember that you can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. I'm Andrew Smith. And I'm Jill Robbins. 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.