 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, Gina Bennett reports on changes to the AP Black History course. John Russell has a story on ancient mosquitoes. Brian Lin has the science report on the discovery of a solar system orbiting in perfect harmony. Later, Jill Robbins and Andrew Smith present the lesson of the day, but first, High school students in the United States can earn college credits by taking and passing advanced placement or AP courses. The classes developed by the College Board cover many subjects, including English, history, math, and sciences, among others. This week, the nonprofit organization released a new set of ideas and skills called a framework for its AP African American Studies course. The latest version comes months after the organization was criticized for discussing course requirements with conservative critics. Changes include more attention to ideas such as the Tulsa Race Massacre, Black Cultures Influence on Film and Sports, and discrimination in housing known as redlining. The latest version will be used when the class officially launches at the start of the next school year. The AP African American History course gained national attention earlier this year. At that time, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, currently a Republican presidential candidate, said he would ban the course in his state because it pushed political issues. Florida released a list of concerns it had with the pilot and early version of a course. In February, the College Board released its first official version of the AP course. It did not contain several subjects on the list of Florida's concerns, including Black Lives Matter, slavery reparations, and several important Black writers. The Board was then widely criticized for giving in to political pressure. The new changes pay attention to some of that criticism. The latest version includes several important Black writers that were excluded and written works about feminism and intersectionality. Intersectionality is the idea that race, gender, and class combine to create different levels of discrimination and privilege in society. The College Board did not add back every subject that was removed earlier. The Black Lives Matter movement is still not included in the final test for the course. However, it is mentioned along with other examples and listed among subjects that schools could choose from for further discussion. Nelva Williams is a member of the courses development committee. She has been a teacher for more than 40 years. She also taught a pilot class of AP African American Studies in Houston, Texas. Williams said the updates are based on teacher recommendations and changes coincide with the latest scholarship and resources used at the collegiate level. Rashad Shabas teaches several courses related to race at Arizona State University. He said the course provides students with the basics to understand the field of African American Studies, but it does not contain in-depth theoretical discussions that are more common at the college level. I'm Gina Bennett. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are killed every year by malaria and other diseases that are spread through mosquito bites. Female mosquitoes are responsible for these deadly bites because they have a special mouth design that male mosquitoes do not have. But it has not always been that way. The researchers said they have discovered the oldest known fossils of mosquitoes, two males located in pieces of an ancient orange-colored substance known as amber. The male mosquitoes date to 130 million years ago. They were found near the modern town of Hamana in Lebanon. To researchers' surprise, the male mosquitoes had long mouth parts seen now only in females. Danny Azar is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology and Lebanese University. Azar said they were clearly blood eaters. The lead writer of the study, recently published in Current Biology, added, this discovery is a major one in the evolutionary history of mosquitoes. The two fossilized mosquitoes, both representing the same species that has died off, are similar in size and appearance to modern mosquitoes. However, the mouth parts used for getting blood are shorter than in today's female mosquitoes. Study co-writer Andre Nell of the National Museum of Natural History of Paris described the finding as quite surprising. The special anatomy of the two mosquitoes was beautifully saved in the fossils. Both insects had sharp and triangle-shaped jaw anatomy and a long structure with tooth-like elements. The researchers said they suspect that mosquitoes evolved from insects that did not consume blood. They think that the mouth parts that were developed for getting blood meals were originally used to pierce plants to get nutritious fluids. Plant evolution may have affected the differences in feeding between male and female mosquitoes. At the time when these two mosquitoes became stuck in tree sap that eventually became amber, flowering plants were beginning to spread for the first time. From the findings, Azar said that all early mosquitoes, both male and female, were blood-sucking, and male mosquitoes lost the ability later. The researchers said while these are the oldest mosquito fossils, mosquitoes probably appeared millions of years earlier. They noted that molecular evidence suggests mosquitoes developed from about 200 million to 145 million years ago. There are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes worldwide, found everywhere except Antarctica. Some species spread diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, zika fever, dengue, and others. The World Health Organization says more than 400,000 people die annually from malaria, a parasitic infection, mostly children under age 5. I'm John Russell. Scientists have identified six planets orbiting a nearby star in perfect harmony in our Milky Way galaxy. The solar system appears to be untouched by outside forces since it was created, likely billions of years ago. The rare discovery was made by observations from a pair of space telescopes. The European Space Agency's CHAOPS and TESS operated by the American Space Agency, NASA. The find is expected to provide astronomers with new data to help them learn more about how solar systems form and develop. The six planets sit in the Northern Sky constellation of Coma Berenices, about 100 light-years from Earth. The light year is the distance light travels in a year about 9.5 trillion kilometers. The star the planets are orbiting is known as HD 110067. It is about 20% smaller in mass than our Sun. The six planets are about 2 to 3 times the size of Earth, but they are believed to have densities closer to gas giants in our own solar system, such as Jupiter and Saturn. The scientists say the planets are considered sub-neptunes. This is a common kind of planet found within our Milky Way galaxy. These planets are generally much larger than Earth, but smaller than Neptune. The orbits range from 9 days to 54 days. This puts them closer to their star than Venus is to our Sun. It also makes the planets intensely hot. The researchers say that while only six planets were discovered, there could be more. An international team of astronomers recently described the findings in a study that appeared in the publication Nature. The researchers reported the six planets were in a rare condition called orbital resonance. This is when two or more moons line up with their parent planet at regular times and interact gravitationally. In this case, the team described the solar system as completely synchronized in a gravitational formation. Synchronized means happening at the same time and speed. The scientists say it is likely these synchronized orbits have been happening since the system formed about four billion years ago. The planets were identified by observing small drops in the star's brightness when a planet passed in front of the star. Hugh Osborn of the University of Bern in Switzerland helped lead the research. He said the resonance interactions demonstrate the mathematical beauty of the system. Osborn added that the newly discovered system could possibly unlock the secrets of these mysterious sub-neptune planets which we know so little about. The lead writer of the study was Raphael Leuke. He is an astronomer from the University of Chicago. He said the discovery will likely become a very useful tool to study sub-neptunes. Scientists have long wondered whether sub-neptunes might be rocky planets with thick atmospheres of hydrogen and helium. They have also suggested the planets might be made of rock and ice with warm and water-rich atmospheres. Leuke said the synchronized nature of the discovered system is highly rare and requires further study. We think only about one percent of all systems stay in resonance and even fewer show a chain of planets in such configuration, he said. It shows us the pristine configuration of a planetary system that has survived untouched. Enrique Palais is a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics in the Canary Islands. He told the Associated Press that while astronomers know of 40 to 50 in-sync solar systems, none have as many planets in such perfect synchronization as the newly discovered one. The University of Bairns Osborne said he was surprised but pleased when the orbital periods of the planets came close to what scientists predicted. My jaw was on the floor, he said. That was a really nice moment. I'm Brian Lin. Brian Lin is here now to talk more about his science report. Welcome back, Brian. Dan, glad to be here. This week's report dealt with the discovery of a solar system astronomers say includes six planets orbiting their star in perfect rhythm. The scientists making this find were very excited about it. What can you tell us about what made this discovery possible? So, yes, like many things in science and astronomy, the discovery came mainly by accident. The researchers had not set out to find this kind of solar system, but astronomers noticed NASA's test space telescope was showing light drops in the star suggesting planets were passing in front of it, and this started the investigation and led the team to also begin examining data from the European space telescope, CHAOPS. So these combined observations really helped confirm the existence of this unique six-planet system. The report noted astronomers were not only pleased to discover this system, they were also very surprised the planets and star were still interacting in such a rhythmic way, right? Yes, exactly right. The scientists thought this finding was extremely surprising and exciting. They said the rhythm was so perfect it can even be set to music, and it is highly unusual for such a system to remain in sync for so long, in this case likely for the past four billion years. The team noted many things could have happened to push things out of balance. For example, violent movements or other activity involving nearby space objects, but the astronomers do believe this particular system escaped untouched by any of those possible happenings. Very cool. Thanks again for being here, Brian. You're welcome. Thank you for having me, Dan. My name is Anna Matteo. My name is Andrew Smith. And I'm Jill Robbins. You're listening to The Lesson of the Day on the Learning English Podcast. Welcome to the part of the show where we help you do more with our video series, Let's Learn English. This series shows Anna Matteo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. In Lesson 45 of the series, Anna and her roommate go on a road trip to see famous places in the United States, and their plan is ambitious. Ambitious, that's spelled A-M-B-I-T-I-O-U-S, means that a plan or goal is on a large scale or perhaps difficult to do. Anna and Marcia hope to see famous places all over the U.S. So their plan is ambitious because the U.S. is very large. To see all the things they want to see, they will be traveling for weeks. That's true. They plan to drive north from Washington, D.C., to New York City, and then head west all the way to California. So that's what we call a coast-to-coast trip, all the way from one ocean to the other. In this case, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. That's a trip of almost 4,000 kilometers. And then they have to drive back. I guess we could call that a coast-to-coast-to-coast trip. I never thought of it that way, but I guess you're right. Let's listen to Anna and Marcia talk about some of the things they will be seeing. Hi, Marcia. Hi. I packed my bags and I am ready to go. Did you make a list of all the places you want to see? I did. I want to see New York City and the Statue of Liberty. And I want to see Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore. And don't forget the Grand Canyon. Let's not forget California's Redwood Forest. There are so many places to see. We will be driving for a long time, so we might get bored. Bored? No way. We can talk. Or not talk. We can play word games. We can sing. You know, Marcia, our trip is like that famous American song. This land is your land. This land is my land. From California to New York Island. From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters. This land was made for you and me. Marcia and Anna were singing the song called This Land is Your Land. It was written by an American folk singer named Woody Guthrie in 1940. Guthrie wanted to express the idea that the U.S. should offer equal opportunity and rights to every person in the country. Great idea. Now let's see if their trip gets off to a good start. Will we be stopping soon? We won't be stopping soon. I'm hungry. Marcia, we just left D.C. We'll be eating lunch in about two hours. Can you wait? I guess. Here, have an apple. It's organic. Thanks. Unfortunately for Marcia, Anna accidentally throws the apple out of the window of the car. So Marcia will have to wait a little longer before she can eat. She will have to wait, but our listeners can notice right now. A special way we can talk about the future in English. It's called the future continuous tense. Listen again. Marcia, we just left D.C. We'll be eating lunch in about two hours. Instead of saying we're going to eat in two hours, Anna says, We'll be eating lunch in about two hours. That's because it takes some time to eat. For actions in the future that take some time to do, we can use the modal will plus the verb be plus the main verb with ing. For example, listen to this exchange. What will you be doing tomorrow afternoon? I'll be working from noon until 6 p.m. We often use the future continuous when we specify or say the amount of time we expect the activity to take. If we don't know or care about the length of time, then we can just use the expression going to, like in this exchange. Do you have any plans for the weekend? I'm going to try to clean my room and maybe go to a movie. Here the speaker either does not know or does not care about expressing how long the actions will take. Now listen to this part of Lesson 45 and see if you can hear the future continuous tense. How many times do you hear it used? Listen carefully. We will be entering North Dakota any minute now. North Dakota, we are going in the wrong direction. We want to go to South Dakota. No problem. I will just exit the highway. We will be going south in just a minute. There, done. We're going south. Okay, we will be stopping for gas and a bathroom break in about an hour. Anna used the tense three times. We will be entering North Dakota any minute now. We will be going south in just a minute. Okay, we will be stopping for gas and a bathroom break in about an hour. And most native speakers joined together the two words we and will with the contraction. Instead of saying we will, people say we'll. We combined the subject and the word will together. Like this. I'll. You'll. He'll. She'll. We'll. And they'll. Now let's listen to one more quick example from Lesson 45. Okay, we will be arriving in New York City very soon. I can't wait to see the big apple. You can hear the future continuous when Marsha says we will be arriving. She expresses an expectation about the time by using the word soon. Also, we should note that the big apple is a nickname for New York City. Other cities in the U.S. have nicknames too. Chicago is called the Windy City because its politicians talked so much. Detroit is called the Motor City because many American cars and trucks are built there. And Denver is called the Mile High City because it is about one mile or 1,600 meters above sea level. It's fun to learn the nicknames of cities. I grew up in a city they called the Crossroads of America. Listeners, what are the nicknames of some cities or towns in your country? Write to us at LearningEnglish at voanews.com and let us know. And now, before we go, here's one last example of the future continuous. This is from a song written in 1938 and it uses the future continuous in its title. It's a song about seeing people again after you have missed them. Jill, do you know what song I'm talking about? I think I do. Is it I'll Be Seeing You? It sure is. Are you going to sing it for us? Um, maybe just the first part so our listeners can get the idea. It goes like this. I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places that this heart of mine embraces all day through. A little high for me. And we'll be seeing you in a sense soon on the next lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. Thanks for listening. 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.