 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. Today on the program, you will hear stories from Dan Friedle and Brian Lin. Gina Bennett presents this week's Education Report, and John Russell has today's lesson of the day. But first, here is Dan Friedle's report on nickel mining in the American state of Michigan. About 20 years ago, the international mining company Rio Tinto said it would open a nickel mine in the far northern part of the American state of Michigan. Rio Tinto promised good jobs for people in the area close to Canada. But environmental activists had concerns. They were worried about industrial pollution from the metal, the mining byproducts, and contaminated water runoff into rivers and lakes. Many observers expected a long legal fight between the two sides. Some did not believe the mine would ever open. But the eagle mine has been open for more than 10 years. There have been no accidents or pollution problems. People in the area who once protested the mine have found a way to exist with the mine. Mora Davenport is one of those people. She is one of the top leaders of the Superior Watershed Partnership, SWP, an environmental interest group. I was fiercely opposed to the mine, and I changed, she said. Davenport's group was invited to act as a watchdog for the mine. Rio Tinto asked the group to oversee pollution testing that has higher standards than regulators require. The cooperation between the environmental group and the mining company may be an example for other mines around the world. Many new mines are opening in order to provide minerals needed to make items used by the green energy economy. These items include batteries, electrical wire, and magnets. If countries around the world are to meet the climate goals set in Paris in 2015, there needs to be a 400% increase in the production of these minerals. The International Energy Agency said there needs to be an increase of 19 times in nickel production alone. Davenport said the Eagle Mine proposal divided our community. Other mines in northern Michigan had opened in the 1800s and closed in the 1930s. The mining companies left behind large open holes and environmental damage. Water that ran from the mine polluted Lake Superior, one of the Great Lakes in the northern Midwest. Simon Nish worked for Rio Tinto when the Eagle Mine was proposed. He said he understands the dilemma that communities face. They need jobs and an economic benefit, he said, but don't want long-term environmental consequences. Residents do not trust the big mining companies, he said, so it makes it easier to say no to proposals. He worked in Australia in the 1990s when mining companies wanted to use land where native Aboriginal people lived. He said he learned that businesses need to understand the interests of both sides if they want long-term success. When Nish arrived in Michigan in 2011, the mine was under construction, but it faced several legal disputes. In order to find a way for the mine to open, Nish considered looking for a partner. Nish said the Superior Watershed Partnership was already testing water around the area. He asked if they would consider running an environmental testing program for the mine. Over a few months, Rio Tinto and the SWP made a plan for testing. The group required open access to the mine. It would also test groundwater in the surrounding area, and it required permission to test a processing center 30 kilometers away. Rio Tinto was required to pay for the work. The agreement launching the Community Environmental Monitoring Program was signed in 2012. More than 10 years later, no major pollution problems have turned up. But some environmental groups are still concerned. Rachelle Dale is head of the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve. She said, Eagle Mine and the testing program are doing good work. But she said, A lot of the sulfide mines in the past haven't really had a problem until after closure. It's something that our grandchildren are going to inherit. As more mines open up to help meet the world's demand for new minerals, mining companies are starting to understand how important local support is to their success. The partnership in northern Michigan gives large mining companies a roadmap. But although it has been successful so far, there is no guarantee that an accident will not happen, that pollutes the area in the future. I'm Dan Friedel. Brazilian officials say bird flu has killed nearly 1,000 seals and sea lions in the country's south. As of December 11, the southern state of Heirgrunda do Sul had confirmed 942 sea mammal deaths. Many animals were infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as bird flu. The first cases of the sickness were reported in Brazil in 2023. During past outbreaks in Europe and America, agriculture industries have killed hundreds of millions of farm animals to try to contain the disease. Officials at Brazil's Agriculture Ministry said preventive measures were put in place after the first report of bird flu in May. This action made it possible to avoid an outbreak on poultry farms. That kind of outbreak, officials say, has likely led to a ban on such exports from Brazil, the world's top chicken exporter. Silvina Bota studies oceans and sea life at Brazil's Heirgrunda Federal University. She told Reuters news agency the remains of dead animals need to be buried or burned as soon as possible to prevent further disease spread. Scientists have found some sea mammals convulsing along local beaches as the virus attacks their nervous system, Reuters reported. Bota said that under government health rules, the animals must be killed immediately to prevent their suffering. Bota added that the first case of bird flu related sea mammal deaths in the area came in September. That is when local scientists first became aware of a large increase in disease deaths. Three towns in the state still have active bird flu outbreaks. Bota said the spread among sea mammals appears to have started through and then reached the South American continent. The disease has also affected wildlife in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. Brazil's Agriculture Ministry has reported 148 bird flu outbreaks in the country, mostly along the coast. Officials have declared a health emergency to contain the disease, which it says is not yet considered endemic in Brazil. The virus has also affected other animal populations in the country. In addition to the outbreaks among seabirds, seals and sea lions, researchers have collected remains of dead porpoises and penguins found on beaches. Officials say they have not yet confirmed those deaths were also from bird flu. I'm Brian Lynn. Students around the world suffered historic setbacks in reading and math during the COVID-19 pandemic. That information comes from results of the latest program for international student assessment or PISA. The PISA is an international comparative study of the scores of 15-year-old students on tests in reading, math and science. Nearly 700,000 students took part in the study. PISA is administered every three years. The latest results showed an unprecedented drop in performance since 2018. The PISA 2022 study was supposed to happen in 2021, but it was postponed because of the pandemic. The 2022 results were released on December 5th. It is the first extensive study with data on how the pandemic has affected student performance around the world. The study looked at 81 education systems. They include 37 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. OECD has been administering the test since 2000. The study found decreasing test scores in both rich and poor countries. Andreas Schleicher is the Director for Education and Skills at OECD. He said the world is no longer divided between rich and well-educated countries and poor and badly educated countries. The study found the average international math score fell by 15 points since 2018. Reading scores across participating countries fell by 10 points. The OECD considers 20 points to be equal to one year of learning. Scores did not change in a major way in science. Albania saw the biggest decrease in math scores with a massive 69-point decrease. That means Albanian students lost more than three years of learning. Many countries fell by more than one year's worth of learning in math, including Germany, Iceland, and the Netherlands. Four places did improve their performance between PISA 2018 and 2022 in all three subjects. Brunei, Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, and Taiwan. Six East Asian education systems outperformed all other countries in math. Scores in Singapore were measurably higher than all other countries in all three subjects. The math scores for U.S. students were about even with the international average. Science and reading were slightly higher. The COVID-19 pandemic was a major reason for the worldwide score drops, but science and reading scores were dropping even before the pandemic. This suggests there are other reasons for the decrease. Factors such as the level of investment in education, the social value and pay levels of teachers, and educational beliefs of students have all influenced educational results, the OECD Schleicher said. The PISA tests explore how well students can solve complex problems, think critically, and communicate effectively. The goal of PISA is to provide useful information to educators and policymakers on the strengths and weaknesses of their country's education system. OECD Secretary General Mathias Corman released the latest PISA results in Paris. He said PISA 2022 helps to identify the comparative strengths of education systems that have performed well despite recent shocks. Policymakers can use such information to consider reforms to education systems for a brighter, more financially successful future, Corman added. The study also reported on the fast-changing influence of technology on educational performance. The results found that moderate use of electronic devices in school is connected to higher performance. Unacademy is a popular test prep website. It offers a free PISA quiz. You can see example questions and compare your math skills against the 15-year-old students from around the world who took the PISA 2022. I'm Gina Bennett. Gina Bennett joins me now to talk more about the report. Hi Gina. Hi Ashley. Your story said the COVID-19 pandemic was a major factor in the global decrease of reading and math scores. That's right. Officials believe the pandemic was a kind of test for resilience in education. What do officials mean exactly by resilience? The OECD defined resilience as the ability to recover quickly or even grow from difficult experiences. The pandemic would certainly count as a difficult experience. Exactly. So the education systems that were able to successfully adapt to the sudden and major changes in how students were taught and learned during the pandemic, they are resilient. Only four countries were considered resilient, Japan, Korea, Lithuania and Taiwan. That's not very many. What is one thing that made those countries resilient? One thing the data showed was the length schools were closed during the pandemic affected performance. Education systems that were closed less than three months were more resilient and had better scores. That's good information for education systems to have for the future. Thanks again Gina. You're welcome. In this next story, Katie Weaver tells us about changes to international trade. We learn about how a major American company is importing more goods from India than from China. Pay careful attention to the term supply chain. We will talk more about it after the report. Walmart, the world's largest store, is importing more goods to the United States from India and reducing its dependence on China. Between January and August this year, Walmart shipped 25% of its U.S. imports from India. That compares to just 2% in 2018. Import Yeti, a data company, shared the information with Reuters. The same data shows that only 60% of Walmart's imports came from China during the same period, down from 80% in 2018. China is still Walmart's biggest country for importing goods. The shift shows how the rising cost of importing from China and increased tension between China and the U.S. are leading American companies to import from other countries. Those countries include India, Thailand, and Vietnam. Andrea Allright is Walmart's executive vice president of sourcing. She said, we want the best prices. She added that Walmart has to deal with natural disasters to shortages in materials and cannot be dependent on any one supplier or area for products. Walmart said the import information did not mean that it was reducing dependence on any of its markets. We are a growth business and are working to source more manufacturing capacity, the company said in a statement. And Allbright added that India has become an important part of Walmart's efforts to build that manufacturing capacity. Walmart has been increasing growth in India since 2018. It bought 77% of shares in the online company Flipkart. Two years later, it promised to import $10 billion worth of goods from India each year by 2027. That is a target it is on the way to meet, Allbright said. It is currently importing around $3 billion worth of goods from India each year. Walmart is importing goods including toys, electronics, sporting equipment, and medications from India. Foods like packaged food, dry grains, and pasta are also popular imports from India, Allbright told Reuters. India, whose stock market has risen to record highs this year, is viewed as the country best equipped to outperform China in low-cost and large amounts of manufacturing. The South Asian country also has a growing workforce and increasing technological developments. China, however, recently reported its first population decrease in 60 years. Walmart started its sourcing operations in the Indian city of Bangalore in 2002. Now the company employs more than 100,000 people including temporary workers around the country. The rising cost of shopping goods from China has also added to the shift to India, supply chain experts say. Chris Rogers is a researcher at S&P Global Market Intelligence's supply chain research group, Pangeva. He said sourcing from mainland China has become less competitive because of rising labor costs versus other manufacturing centers. China's minimum wage ranges between $198.52 to $376.08 monthly. Meanwhile, average wages for unskilled and semi-skilled workers in India are between $108.04 and $180.06. The COVID-19 pandemic showed weaknesses in worldwide supply chains showing U.S. importers were over dependent on a small number of markets. Albright said planning for an event like the pandemic is like planning for a natural disaster. She said, what I can control is where my product is coming from and how do I make sure that Christmas still happens if something happens in our supply chain. I'm Katie Weaver. Before the report we asked you to pay careful attention to the term supply chain. Can you remember when you heard it? You heard the term several times in the report. Here are the first two examples. The rising cost of shopping goods from China has also added to the shift to India, supply chain experts say. Chris Rogers is a researcher at S&P Global Market Intelligence's supply chain research group, Pangeva. He said, sourcing from mainland China has become less competitive because of rising labor costs versus other manufacturing centers. Supply chain is a noun. It consists of two words. Supply spelled S-U-P-P-L-Y and chain spelled C-H-A-I-N. Let's explore a little of the history of both words. The online etymology dictionary reports that supply dates to the 15th century. It originally meant assistance, relief. It was not until the 1650s that it took on the meaning of necessary provisions held for distribution and use. The word chain has even deeper roots in history. The online etymology dictionary says that the word dates to around 1300. It meant a connected series of links of metal or other material. In 1846, we have the first example in American English of the meaning a series of stores controlled by one owner or firm. Now that we have learned a little about the history, we should talk about the modern meaning. A supply chain is basically a network of businesses that supply the materials and parts needed to provide people with products. Google's Engram Viewer, an online database of thousands of books, has some interesting information about the term supply chain. Engram Viewer shows that supply chain started to become more common in the early 1990s. It has become increasingly common ever since. There are a few different ways a person could explain this change over time. One way might be that the world has become increasingly connected in terms of how goods are produced. The supply chain has become a large, complex part of many businesses, and it has become a more important part of our daily lives. And that's the lesson of the day. I'm John Russell. 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.