 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, Mario Ritter Jr. has a report on the Egyptian government's threat to suspend the peace agreement it has with Israel. Gregory Stockle and Gina Bennett present this week's health and lifestyle report. Finally, we hear today's lesson of the day. But first, here is Mario Ritter Jr. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and US President Jimmy Carter signed a peace deal in 1979. The agreement, marked by a handshake, has resulted in more than 40 years of peace between Middle East neighbors Israel and Egypt. That peace agreement has held up through two Palestinian uprisings and several wars between Israel and Hamas. But the Egyptian government is threatening to suspend the agreement as Israel plans to send troops into Rafa, a city in Gaza, on the border with Egypt. In 1977, Begin, Israel's new Prime Minister, was opposed to giving back any land captured by Israel 10 years earlier in the 1967 war. Those lands included Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Egypt and Israel had fought four major wars, most recently in 1973. However, Egypt's Sadat broke with other Arab leaders and decided to talk with the Israelis. The talks resulted in the Camp David Accords in September 1978 and a peace treaty the following year. Under the peace treaty, Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai, which Egypt would leave demilitarized. Israeli ships were granted passage through the Suez Canal, an important trade pathway. The countries established full diplomatic relations. It was Israel's first peace agreement with an Arab country since the country's establishment in 1948. Paige Alexander is head of the Carter Center. She said the Camp David Accords were led by three brave men who took a bold stance because they knew the lasting effects for peace and security both then and for the future. We need the same kind of leadership today, and that is currently lacking. On Sunday two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat told the Associated Press that Egypt might suspend the peace treaty if Israeli troops enter Rafa. Last October Hamas launched a surprise attack from the Palestinian territory of Gaza into southern Israel. The terrorist group killed more than 1,200 people and took more than 150 hostages, including Americans. Israel answered with airstrikes and ground attacks in Gaza. The Palestinian controlled health ministry reported in February that 28,000 people have been killed in more than four months of fighting. The number, which is not confirmed, includes both civilians and militants. Israel says Rafa is the last area under Hamas control. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said sending ground troops into Rafa is needed to defeat the group. However, Egypt opposes any move that could send desperate Palestinians fleeing across the border into its territory. Rafa serves as the main entry point into Gaza for humanitarian aid. An Israeli attack could prevent deliveries of supplies to Palestinians in Gaza. Rafa's population has expanded from 280,000 people to an estimated 1.4 million as Palestinians flee fighting in other parts of Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of those evacuees are now living in tents. Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli military to prepare a plan to evacuate all Palestinian civilians before the offensive starts. But it is unclear where they will go. Netanyahu said Sunday that Palestinians would be able to return to open spaces in northern Gaza. But those areas have been badly damaged by the Israeli offensive. The treaty between Egypt and Israel limits the number of troops on both sides of the border. The countries, however, have agreed in the past to make changes to deal with security threats. In addition to Gaza, Israel has engaged in regular exchanges of weapons fire with the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. Israeli forces are also deployed in the occupied West Bank. If Egypt were to end the agreement, Israel would have to deploy more troops to protect its southern border with Egypt. Such a move, however, would affect Egypt as well. Since the peace agreement, Israel has received billions of dollars in military assistance from the US. If the agreement is ended, it could threaten that aid while Egypt's economy is struggling. The war between Hamas and Israel has already spread to the Red Sea, where Yemen's Houthi rebels regularly attack commercial shipping. In Jordan, militants supported by Iran struck an American position with a drone last month, killing three US service members. The US answered with several major strikes against militants in Iraq and Syria. Alexander, from the Carter Center, said any step that could draw Egypt into the hostilities would be catastrophic for the entire region. I'm Mario Ritter, Jr. Women are much more likely to get autoimmune diseases than men. New research may finally explain why. Autoimmune diseases happen when the body's natural defenses, or immune system, attack the body's tissues. Researchers from Stanford University in California say the reason for this may be connected to how the body deals with females' 2nd X chromosome. The finding could help improve doctors' abilities to detect autoimmune diseases. E. John Wary is an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania. He said the new study changes the way we think about this whole process of autoimmunity. Between 24 million and 50 million Americans suffer from an autoimmune disorder. Autoimmune disorders include lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and many other diseases. About four of every five patients with an autoimmune disorder are women. Scientists have tried to find out why for many years. One theory is that the X chromosome might be the reason. Females have two X chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y. The new research recently appeared in the publication Cell. The results show that the extra X is involved, but in an unexpected way. Our DNA is carried inside each cell in 23 pairs of chromosomes, including the final pair that decides biological sex. The X chromosome is packed with hundreds of genes far more than males' much smaller Y chromosome. Every female cell must turn off one of its X chromosome copies to avoid getting a dangerous double amount of all those genes. Scientists call this process X chromosome inactivation. A special kind of RNA called XIST performs the X chromosome inactivation. XIST is a long chain of RNA. It gathers in areas along a cell's extra X chromosome and attracts proteins that connect to it in unusual masses. Then it silences the chromosome. Dr. Howard Chang is a dermatologist at Stanford University. He was exploring how XIST does its job when his lab found nearly 100 of those attached proteins. Chang saw that many of those proteins were related to skin-related autoimmune disorders. Patients can have autoantibodies that mistakenly attack these normal proteins. Chang told the Associated Press that God is thinking these are the known ones. What about the other proteins in XIST? He added that the molecule found only in women might somehow organize proteins in such a way as to activate the immune system. If true, XIST by itself could not cause autoimmune disease. If it did, all women would be affected. Scientists have long thought it takes a combination of some genes and an environmental event like an infection or injury for the immune system to cause problems. For example, the Epstein-Barr virus is linked to multiple sclerosis. Chang receives financial support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports the Associated Press's Health and Science Department. Chang's team decided to produce male lab mice to artificially make XIST without turning off their only X chromosome and see what happened. Researchers also specially bred mice susceptible to developing a lupus-like condition. The condition can be set off by a certain chemical. The XIST formed its usual protein masses. When the chemical was used, the male mice with XIST developed lupus-like autoimmunity at levels similar to females, the team found. Chang said, we think that's really important for XIST RNA to leak out of the cell to where the immune system gets to see it. But he added that an environmental event is still needed to start the process. Beyond mice, researchers also looked at blood from 100 patients. They found autoantibodies targeting XIST-related proteins that scientists had not previously linked to autoimmune disorders. Chang said one possible reason was that most tests for autoimmunity were made using male cells. More research is necessary. But Wary, the immunologist at Penn said the findings might give doctors a shorter path to diagnosing patients. Wary said one patient may have autoantibodies to protein A and another patient may have autoantibodies to proteins C and D. But he said knowing they are all related to XIST RNA can help doctors find diseases more easily. I'm Gina Bennett. And I'm Gregory Stockle. Gina Bennett joins me now to talk more about this week's Health and Lifestyle Report. Hi Gina, welcome. Hi Ashley, thanks for having me. In the report, you and Gregory note that scientists have tried to understand for many years why autoimmune diseases affect more women than men. Yes, four out of every five patients who have an autoimmune disease are women, and it may be because of women's extra-ax chromosome. You also explained that autoimmune diseases happen when the body's immune system attacks healthy cells by mistake. The word immune is part of both immune system and autoimmune disease. Good catch. The word autoimmune also includes the prefix auto. It comes from the Greek autos, meaning self. Interesting. I can think of other words with the prefix auto, like automobile. Yes, there are actually more than 20 words in English that use the prefix auto. You mentioned automobile, autograph, autobiography, and automatic are some other words. The prefix can mean self or by itself. Knowing prefixes and suffixes can be really helpful for English learners. Thanks Gina for that reminder. You're welcome. Great catch with the word autoimmune. 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, DC. Here's Anna introducing herself. Hello, my name is Anna Mateo. Watching and listening carefully to the video series can help you understand and speak English better. And in today's lesson, we're going to talk about that word speak and compare it with the word talk. The words speak and talk are similar, but native speakers use them a little differently. Lesson 21 from level two of Let's Learn English shows some of these differences. In the lesson, Anna wants to buy a birthday present for Pete. Her friend Ashley tells her to go to a special store that makes art from objects that people throw away in the trash or rubbish. Let's listen to the first part. Got it. Pete, I promise I won't tell anyone. Bye. He is so strange. Hey Anna. Hi Ashley. Are you talking to yourself again? No, not this time. I was talking to Pete. How's he doing? Good. He has a birthday coming up, but he told me not to tell anyone. Why? Well, from the way he was speaking, I don't think he likes cake or presents or fun. That sounds like Pete. Well, I don't care. I'm getting him a present. Do you know where I can buy something unique? I do. Tanglewood works. You will definitely find something unique there. Great. I'll go this weekend. Now, speaking of Pete's birthday, what else should I do? I know. I'll rent him a clown. Yeah. He'll never speak to you again. Now, let's hear Professor Butt explain some of the differences between the words talk and speak. Did you hear Ashley and Anna using the words talk and speak? Talk and speak both mean to say words. And many times, you can use either word without losing any meaning. But there are some differences in when we use these words. The word talk is usually used for conversations between two or more people and informal situations such as between friends or family. For example, Ashley asks Anna, Are you talking to yourself again? Speak is usually used for one-way communication such as presentations, formal situations such as a boss speaking with her workers to talk about language ability and in polite requests. You know, I think the formal and informal difference is important for learners to know. For example, if you are going to meet with your boss or someone in a higher or important position, we don't use the word talk. Instead, we say something like this, I need to speak with my boss. And on the phone, when we call a business, we always ask, May I speak with someone? Or may I speak with so-and-so? And we mention the person's name. And the verb speak is also used in some idiomatic expressions. When we say speak for yourself, that means we don't agree with or we don't want to be involved in what someone else is saying. For example, if your work colleague says, We should all tell our manager that we don't like him. But you disagree. Then you could say, Speak for yourself. I actually like him a lot. But you do need to be careful if you use this expression, Speak for yourself. Because it can have a strong meaning. So it can sometimes sound impolite or disrespectful. Yep, and we don't want to do that. That's right. But you might be able to say it in a more joking way with your friends. Okay, and here's another expression with the verb speak. Great, I'll go this weekend. Now, speaking of Pete's birthday, what else should I do? I know, I'll rent him a clown. When we say speaking of, we just mean we are connecting to something that was already mentioned. Now let's listen to Anna as she visits the special store to look for a birthday present. Hey there, welcome to Tanglewood Works. I'm Sue. How can I help you today? Hi, Sue. I'm Anna. A friend told me about your store. She said, Anna, this place is really unique. We are here at Tanglewood Works. We focus on things that are handmade, reclaimed, and recycled. Wow, that is really good for the environment. It's really good for you, too. Local artists made all of these one-of-a-kind pieces, and I paint most of the furniture. Can I look around? Oh, please do. So Anna, would you like to make things? Me? Oh, no. Every time I try to make something, something goes wrong. Oh, sorry. It's OK. Anna, everybody can make something. Sue, this piece is very interesting. You know, when I found these pieces, they were broken and in a dumpster. But they spoke to me, and they said, save me, Sue. Save me. Sue, what do you mean they spoke to you? When I see something special that someone has thrown away, I can almost hear it talk. Yeah, it's not saying anything. Anna, it's not easy to see the treasure in trash. Or hear it talk. But you can learn. In fact, I teach private classes, and one is called Turning Trash to Treasure. Next week, bring in some trash, and we'll turn it into treasure. Just remember, pick some trash that speaks to you. Got it. I'll see you next week. In the next lesson of Let's Learn English, Lesson 22 of Level 2, we'll find out what Anna tries to make from objects she finds in the trash. And did you hear another idiomatic expression with the verb speak? The store owner says the objects she found in the dumpster spoke to her. Of course, that does not mean the objects were talking. Instead, it means she felt a special connection to or interest in the objects. We use this expression when we talk about visual art. We can say a painting or sculpture speaks to us. Okay, so from today's lesson, we hope you've learned some of the special ways we use the verb speak. And remember that there are lots of things to talk about when you speak English. So keep trying to speak English whenever you can. 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. Speak for yourself, Andrew. 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.