 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, Katie Weaver has a report on the conditions at the top of Mount Everest. Andrew Smith and Anna Matteo present this week's Technology Report. Finally, we hear today's lesson of the day from Jill Robbins and Andrew Smith. But first, the only living member of the team to first climb to the top of Mount Everest says the mountain is too crowded and polluted. 91-year-old Kancha Sherpa was part of the team that helped New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzig-Norge reach the peak of the world's tallest mountain on May 29, 1953. Kancha recently spoke with the Associated Press saying the 8,849 meter tall mountain must be respected. It should not be dirtying the mountain. It is our biggest god, and they should not be dirtying the gods, he said. Since 1953, the mountain has been climbed thousands of times, and it gets more crowded every year. During the spring climbing season in 2023, 667 climbers got to the top, or summit, and that brought thousands of support workers to Everest Base Camp between March and May. It would be better for the mountain to reduce the number of climbers, Kancha said. Right now, there is always a big crowd of people at the summit. There have been concerns for years about the number of people living on the mountain for several months, and leaving trash behind. But officials have no plans to cut down on the number of permits they issue to climbers. The rules require climbers to bring down their own trash, equipment, and everything they carry to the mountain. But monitoring of the climbers has not been very effective. It is very dirty now. People throw tins and wrappings after eating food. Who is going to pick them up now? Kancha said. Some climbers just dropped their trash in deep openings in the earth on the mountain, he said, noting that the trash is hidden at first. But he said, in time the trash will flow down to base camp as the snow melts and carries them downward. For the Sherpas, Everest is Chumulangma, or Goddess Mother of the World. The mountain is highly honored. And Sherpas generally perform religious services before climbing it. Kancha was just a young man when he joined the Hillary Tenzing Climb. He was among the three Sherpas to set up the climb's last camp for Hillary and Tenzing to use. They heard by radio message that Hillary and Norge reached the top. Later, the Summa Tears reunited with the Sherpas at Camp Two. We all gathered at Camp Two, but there was no alcohol, so we celebrated with tea and snacks, Kancha said. We then collected whatever we could and carried it to base camp. The path they opened up from the base camp to the summit is still used by current climbers. I'm Katie Weaver. In the American state of Florida, rancher Jim Strickland can see his cows at any time, day or night. To do this, all he needs is his phone. Strickland uses virtual fencing to watch and control the movements of his animals. The system, based on Global Positioning Satellite or GPS technology, can help Strickland and researchers improve grazing lands, preserve wildlife, and save time and labor for workers. It can also help improve animal health. Strickland has been using the system for about six months. He told VOA Learning English he has already seen many good results with the new technology. It has exceeded by far my expectations. Virtual fencing uses radio signals to make an invisible fence. This means you cannot see the fence. This keeps animals within or outside of certain areas. The signals come from nearby mobile phone towers. The signals can also come from base stations that can be moved using a small truck. Each animal wears a collar around its neck. The collar has a radio signal receiver and a GPS device that shows the animal's location. Ranchers train livestock to connect a sound with a small electric shock. When an animal gets close to a virtual fence, its collar makes a warning sound. If the animal moves even closer to the fence, it receives a shock. In this way livestock quickly learn to stay away from the fence. Ranchers can change the virtual fence boundaries quickly by using a phone app or computer. And livestock quickly learn the new boundaries. Strickland and his co-workers can use their phones even while on horseback to move cattle from one area to another. All they need to do is change the virtual fence lines. And every 30 minutes that line will move down. It will literally drive those cows down. Physical fences take time, labor, and money to build. It can be difficult to put them in areas such as rocky and hilly land, wet areas, or places with thick vegetation. Over time fences need to be fixed or new ones need to be built. When Hurricane Ian hit Florida last year, it destroyed four houses and 45 kilometers of physical fence on the land where Strickland works. But the cell towers for the virtual fence system kept working. Physical fences can also harm wild animals by making it difficult for them to move within and to areas they need for survival. The Nature Conservancy, or TNC, is a U.S.-based environmental nonprofit organization. It has partnered with cattle ranches in the states of Kansas, New Mexico, and Colorado to research the effects of virtual fencing. William Bernage is deputy director of TNC's North America Regenerative Grazing Lands Strategy. He said that by changing fence boundaries, the systems prevent animals from eating too much vegetation within one area. This helps plants regenerate or grow again. He added that virtual fences could help protect rare plants and areas near rivers and streams. They could also support conservation of wild animals, improve the health of animals, and help ranch workers have a better quality of life. Strickland works with partners at Florida Conservation Group and the University of Florida. With virtual fences, they can carefully control grazing. This helps them research the effects of grazing patterns on the growth of young cows, birth rates, and even the effects on nesting birds. They also plan to research how grazing can affect the release of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere. In Florida and other places, fields are sometimes burned to prepare them for future grazing. The burning releases carbon. Virtual fences may help reduce burning by better controlling wear and how long cattle graze. Both Strickland and Burnidge note that unlike physical fences, livestock cannot get injured by a virtual fence. The GPS callers also let ranchers watch for animals that may be having problems. For example, if the system shows that a cow has not moved for many hours, it may be sick or injured. In the northwestern state of Oregon, researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Oregon State University studied how virtual fencing can prevent cows from grazing on recently burned land. Cattle can easily damage burned areas and the young plants that grow there. The Oregon study showed that cows without virtual fence callers ate nearly 70% of the plants available to them in a burned area. However, cows with callers spent very little time in the burned area and ate less than 3% of the plants available to them. Although virtual fencing systems have benefits, they can be costly. A caller for just one animal can cost around $50 each year or more. And portable base stations cost $10,000 or more. Researchers are looking for ways to lower costs and bring the technology to developing countries. Last year, the Bezos Earth Fund awarded $9.9 million to Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to develop low-cost virtual fencing. The university plans to test new systems in Kenya, Mongolia, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia. But in some areas, virtual fencing may not be the best solution, Bernage says. When Bernage visited Kenya, he saw many workers who closely follow and take care of livestock. Virtual fences could cause some of these workers to lose their jobs. Still, Bernage said, many people want to learn more about the technology. The amount of interest in the ranching community? I've never seen anything comparable, he said. And Strickland said they are already working on more ways virtual fencing can be used. Now we're seeing so many things. Once you start down the road of new technology, then it starts expanding. It's like, what can we do next? He said, I'm Andrew Smith. And I'm Anna Matteo. Andrew Smith joins me now to talk more about this week's technology report. Hi Andrew, thanks for joining me. Hi Ashley, glad to be here. This week you talked about a technology called virtual fencing. I would like to know, is virtual fencing only used for cattle, meaning cows and bulls? No, not only for cattle, it's also used for sheep and goats. And that can be very helpful because these animals can graze or eat plants in areas that are very hilly or rocky, where it's difficult to build physical fences. Your report notes that the systems can be costly. Can you tell us how the team at Cornell University is trying to lower costs? One way the Cornell team is trying to reduce costs is by making the design of their new system open sourced. Open sourced means the software or computer programs that help the technology work is free for anyone to see on the internet and anyone can suggest changes or improvements. And with an open source product, there are no license fees that raise the cost. So the cost will be lower for the users. What might be some ways virtual fencing could be helpful in developing countries? I asked that same question to Charles Hoots. He's a livestock specialist who works in international agricultural development. He says that in areas such as East Africa, when one person's cattle get into other people's gardens and eat their crops, it can create conflict and sometimes deadly conflict. If you could get the technology there at a low enough price, the virtual fencing systems could help prevent some of that conflict. Well, it sounds like an interesting development in agriculture for sure. Thanks, Andrew, for that report. Thank you, Ashley. It was my pleasure. This new course aims to teach children American English through asking and answering questions and experiencing fun situations. For more information, visit our website, learningenglish.boanews.com. That music means it's time for the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. My name is Andrew Smith and I'm joined by Dr. Jill Robbins. Hi, Jill. Hi, Andrew. Today we bring you a special lesson. We're going to go back and revisit some fun moments from our previous podcast lessons. And hopefully we'll add something fun or funny to today's lesson. Our lessons of the day have been 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. The series has two levels named Level 1 and Level 2. Level 1 has 50 episodes and Level 2 has 30 episodes. That's 80 in total. And we have a podcast lesson of the day for almost every one of them. But don't worry. We won't revisit 80 lessons today. We wouldn't want our listeners to get bored. No, but they might like to hear this chant we did about the difference between the two adjectives, bored and boring. Let's hear it. Who's bored? I'm bored. You're bored. He's bored. She's bored. They're bored. In fact, we're all bored. Guess who's boring? I'm not boring. You're not boring. She's not boring. They're not boring. And we're not boring. I guess that means that nobody's boring. But I'm bored. You're boring? No, I said I'm bored. Well, then let's learn with the away. They're not boring. All right. Jill, that was a fun chant you made. I'll bet it kept our listeners interested. I hope so. We don't want to be boring. No, we don't. But you know what? A little boredom is okay. Sometimes we just need to rest and do nothing. My cat is very good at that. I thought it was kind of fun to talk about the words bored and boring in that chant we did. And some days I wish I could be a cat and just lie around and have someone feed me. Me too. But speaking of the verb wish, we also gave some examples of this verb when we talked about lesson ten from level one of the Let's Learn English series. Let's go back and listen. I can't swim. I wish I could swim. I don't understand the question. I wish I understood the question. My head hurts. I wish my head didn't hurt. Jill, I hope your head doesn't hurt now. No, it doesn't. At least not yet. I was just giving an example of how to say a sentence with the verb wish. You were the one who said your head hurt. Yes, that's what I said. You have told our listeners the truth. Well, at least now they know whose head was hurting. Wait, whose head was hurting? Yours. Oh, yeah. Well, it feels fine now. But speaking of the word whose, spelled W-H-O-S-E, we also did a chant to help give examples of this word and of possessive pronouns. Hmm, whose idea was that? It was mine. Oh, yeah, that's right. It was yours. This is the chant you recorded with your friend Jennifer, right? That's right. Well, let's hear it. Who's is this? Who's is that? It's his. It's hers. It's theirs. It's mine. Who's are these? Who's are those? They're his. They're hers. They're ours. They're mine. Is it ours? Is it his? Is it hers? Is it theirs? It's not his. And it's not hers. And it's not ours. And it's not theirs. I think it's mine. I think it's mine. It's mine. It's mine. It's mine. Is everything yours? Not everything's mine. This one's yours. ones hers and those are his but what about these these are mine but what about those those are mine are you gonna share of course I'll share whenever we share it's not just yours it's not just mine it's yours and mine it's yours and mine it's yours and mine it's yours and mine and together it's ours and listeners remember that let's learn English lesson plans are not just ours they're also yours too and they're free each episode of the series comes with a lesson plan you can download simply go to our website at learningenglish.voanews.com and this is a good time to tell our listeners about another video series we have made here at VOA learning English and this series even has Anna's name in the title that's right this series is called let's learn English with Anna it has English lessons made for children and has lots of fun and creative ideas in it for example there is Max who is a mailbox that talks with Anna and there is also Daisy a flower that talks and just like the let's learn English series let's learn English with Anna has a lot of humor or funny situations one way to be funny is to just change your voice and Anna knows lots of other ways to be funny so we've invited her to join us to talk a bit more about the children's video series hi Anna welcome to the podcast hello Andrew hello Jill glad to be here and we're glad you're here too Anna can you tell us a few special things about the children's show of course the children's show is available in many languages and I love it that kids in different parts of the world can learn English with these fun videos also as a script writer I chose what I hope are fun topics for the whole family to talk about from cooking and shopping to sports and music in which parts and which and in which parts of the show were a lot of fun to make or things that you thought were funny Andrew great question I really love working with creative people so working with the man who made the videos was so much fun I would think of crazy situations like flying in space or visiting the dinosaurs and he would make it happen with the computer anything was possible and I have to say I really loved writing for Daisy she was always causing trouble for me and Max when we first started filming the show it was in the middle of the pandemic so we had to figure out a way to film outside which we did and viewers will be able to see your treehouse which was a really fun location to go to to film you know talking about the show makes me want to watch it again and listeners even though let's learn English with Anna was made for children people of all ages can enjoy it and learn from it well Anna we'd love to speak with you longer much longer but a little bird is telling me we're out of time can you help us say goodbye like they do in the movie the sound of music yes I know what song you mean and I love it although I don't know the whole thing but so long farewell I'll be the same goodbye that was three ways to say goodbye in English and one in German just for fun thanks for listening to the lesson of the day on the learning English podcast now it's time for all of us to say goodbye I'm Jill Robbins and I'm Andrew Smith and I'm Anna Matteo are you ready guys one two three goodbye oh we can do better than that guys come back one two ready guys one two three goodbye 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