 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, scientists say 2023 will be the warmest year on record. I report. Faith Perlow has a story on the removal of stray cats that wander historic San Juan, Puerto Rico. Brian Lin has the technology report on a system that can charge electric vehicles as they drive. Later, Faith and Andrew Smith present the lesson of the day, First, European Union scientists said on Wednesday that 2023 would be the warmest year on record. The average world temperature for the first 11 months of the year hit the highest level on record, 1.46 degrees Celsius, above the 1850 to 1900 average. The temperature comes as governments are in negotiations at the COP28 meeting in Dubai. Governments are deciding whether to gradually stop the use of coal, oil, and gas, the main source of warming emissions. The temperature for the January to November period was 0.13 degrees higher than the average for the same period in 2016, currently the warmest calendar year on record. That information comes from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, or C3S. November 2023 was the warmest November on record worldwide. The average surface air temperature was 14.22 degrees, 0.85 degrees above the 1991 to 2020 average for November. It was 0.32 degrees above the previous warmest November in 2020, C3S added. Samantha Burgess is Deputy Director of C3S. She said in a statement that the November temperatures, including two days warmer than 2C above pre-industrial, mean that 2023 is the warmest year in recorded history. The autumn in the Northern Hemisphere from September to November was also the warmest on record by a large amount. The average temperature was 15.3 degrees, 0.88 degrees above average, EU scientists said. The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement set a goal of limiting worldwide temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial times. Above that limit, scientists warn of severe effects on weather, health, and agriculture. Diplomats, scientists, activists, and others have been meeting in Dubai to find ways to limit warming to those levels. But the planet is not cooperating. They say Earth is on its way to reach 2.7 to 2.9 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. C3S records go back to 1940. United States government records go back to 1850. Using information from ice cores, tree rings, and corals, scientists have said this is the warmest 10-year period Earth has seen in about 125,000 years. That dates back to the time before human civilization. Scientists say there are two driving forces behind the six straight months of record-hot temperatures. One is human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil, and gas. And El Nino, the natural warming of surface waters in the Pacific, is making it worse. The U.S. National Park Service recently announced a plan to remove hundreds of stray cats that wander historic Old San Juan on the island of Puerto Rico. Local people and tourists consider the cats a joy, but some are bothered by them, while others worry about disease. There are about 200 cats that live on about 30 hectares surrounding the Old Fortress at the San Juan Historic Site. The U.S. federal agency operates the site because Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States. The Park Service said it will pay an animal welfare organization to remove the cats. If the organization does not remove the cats within six months, the Park Service said it will have the cats removed. Cat lovers are disappointed with the plan. However, the agency said that the cats can spread diseases to humans. The plan said that the removal will be of value to visitors by reducing the possibility of disease. Ana Maria Salacroup works for the nonprofit group Save a Gatto. The Gatto is the Spanish word for cat. The group has helped care for the cats for years and hopes the agency will choose it to do the work. However, Salacroup said that the six-month time limit is not realistic. Anyone who has worked with cats knows that is impossible. They are setting us up for failure, Salacroup said. There are many different kinds of cats with different behaviors that wander along the fortress known as El Morro, which was built in the 1500s. The fortress is by the ocean and the island's capital San Juan. The cats are believed to have come from the time when Puerto Rico was a colony of Spain. Some were brought to the capital to kill rats in the mid 1900s by Mayor Felicia Rincón de Gattier, the first female mayor elected in the Americas. The cats have since increased in number over the years. Visitors to Old San Juan often take pictures with the cats as residents and volunteers with Save Agado take care of them. The group feeds, sterilizes, and places them for adoption. Federal officials said two years ago that the area was overpopulated with cats. The smell of waste and the behavior of the cats was inconsistent with the cultural landscape, the agency said. Last year, the National Park Service offered two possibilities during a public meeting. Remove the animals or do nothing. Those in attendance rejected removing the cats. One man described the cats as one of the wonders of Old San Juan. The local people have even created a statue of the cats and the historic area. Wakefield works in the solar industry and moved to Puerto Rico in 2020. She visits the cats weekly. She told the Associated Press, these cats are unique to San Juan. Me and many other people love that walk because of the cats. In the removal plan, the agency said that the cat feeding areas are to be removed from the cats they are used to trap cats. It said that feeding the cats is not permitted and attracts rats. Feeding the cats also causes people to leave their own unwanted cats in the area because they know their cats will be fed. The plan says that the animal welfare organization that is chosen will be responsible for hiding whether the cats will be adopted, placed in a temporary home, kept in a shelter or destroyed. The National Park Service said that the six-month time limit to trap the cats might be extended if progress is made. If that does not happen, then the current plan would end and the service would pay for a removal agency. Salacroup said finding a home for so many cats is difficult. Savagato has talked with animal shelters on the U.S. mainland. They are unwilling to take the cats. I'm Faith Perlow. Officials in the American city of Detroit, Michigan have equipped a piece of road with technology designed to charge electric vehicles, EVs, on the path. The roadway is meant to serve as a demonstration project for the technology, which could be expanded to larger road systems. Leaders of the project say it is believed to be the country's first public wireless charging roadway built for EVs. The system uses a series of copper wires placed underneath the road. These wires have the ability to send electricity through a magnetic field to charge an EV's battery. Charging can happen while the car is driving or sitting above the equipment. The technology was created by an Israeli company called Electrion, a developer of wireless charging solutions for EVs. The company currently has contracts to build similar roadways in Israel, Sweden, Italy and Germany. Stefan Tonger is Electrion's vice president of business development. He told the Associated Press, EVs require special equipment to receive the wireless signal. The technology is smart, Tonger said, and knows who you are. The system was recently demonstrated to the public at a technology development center in Detroit. The center seeks solutions to transportation issues facing cities. The effort, which includes several development projects, is where Ford Motor Company is building a factory to develop self-driving vehicles. The electrified road stretches about one-half kilometer. It will be used to test and improve the technology in preparation for wider releases, said Michigan's Department of Transportation, DOT. Tonger said the project aims to demonstrate how wireless charging unlocks widespread EV adoption, addressing limited range, grid limitations, and battery size and costs. He looks forward to a future in which, in his words, EVs are the norm, not the exception. Electrion says the electric road system is safe for people and animals walking over it and does not harm drivers. Michigan's DOT signed a five-year agreement with Electrion to develop the roadway charging system. Officials have said they plan to build another electrified stretch of road in another part of the city. American President Joe Biden is seeking to build a nationwide network of EV charging stations in the United States. His administration plans to establish at least a half million sites along highways in the United States by 2030. Michigan Transportation officials say the wireless charging roadway project has helped position the state and city of Detroit as national leaders in EV technology. In Michigan, we want to stay ahead of the curve. Michigan DOT director Bradley C. Weferich told the AP. He added, we want to lead the curve. I'm Brian Lin. I'd like to welcome Brian Lin back on the show to talk more about his technology report. Thanks for joining me, Brian. Of course, Dan. Thanks for having me. This week we learned about a new technology for electric cars that can charge vehicles as they travel on the road. One project in the report in Detroit, Michigan is already operating, but the road is quite small. What purpose is it designed to serve? So, yes, the state of Michigan has heavily supported this project, and officials say they are saying this road, which is only about a half kilometer long, was designed mainly to demonstrate how the technology could work in a city setting. Do we know of any other electrified road projects happening in the U.S. or in other countries? Yes. The company that developed the technology, Electrion, has been signing deals with officials in other areas to build similar demonstration roadways. And so far, those have only happened in countries outside the U.S. One nation that has already been working on electrified roads for several years is Sweden. Officials there have been testing a two kilometer road since 2018, and the country has big plans for the future. It has set a goal to build at least 3,000 kilometers of electrified roads by 2035. Got it. Thanks for joining me, Brian. You're welcome. Thank you, Dan. My name is Anna Matteo. My name is Andrew Smith. And I'm Faith Perlow. We'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 series, Let's Learn English. The series shows Anna Matteo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. In Lesson 44 of the series, Anna has a conflict. When she goes to buy food at the grocery store. But her conflict is not with another person. Instead, it is with herself. Anna is fighting with herself? In a way, she is. How is that? Well, the problem is, Anna wants two things at the same time. And the two things don't really go together. Hmm. Now I'm curious. Let's listen to find out more about these two things and Anna's inner conflict. Hi there, Ashley. Anna! Hi! Where are you going? What was that? I'm hungry. When I'm hungry, I only want to eat junk food. But I know I should eat healthy food. And so I fight with myself. One side says, you should eat healthy food. The other side says, but I want to eat junk food. Well, Anna, go to the giant supermarket. You should be able to find all kinds of food there. For all of you. Good idea, Ashley. See you later. Bye, Anna. I think this is something many people can relate to in modern life. But faith, I suppose we should explain a bit about this word junk. And what exactly we mean by junk food? Well, I think our listeners can understand that junk food is not healthy food. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite of healthy food. In general, anyway. When we use the noun junk, that means things are not valuable or things of bad quality. The kinds of things that we really don't want. So junk food is basically food that we don't want? Well, not exactly. The problem is junk food sometimes tastes pretty good. It can be sweet and salty and have fat. Things that make us want to eat it. Things like salty chips with flavors that are made by mixing together chemicals. Or food with lots of fat and sugar, like some cakes or cookies. I think this episode of Let's Learn English is going to make me hungry. So when I think about junk food, it seems we don't want it. But at the same time, we do want it. And that creates a conflict. Let's listen to more of Lesson 44 and see how Anna deals with her conflict. Wow, this supermarket is huge. Look at all of these fruits and vegetables. I should eat more vegetables. Good idea, Anna. You must eat more vegetables, like celery. Celery? Do you know what the web says about celery? No, what? Celery is 95% water, 100% not ice cream. I love the web. Anna, you mustn't eat junk food. Junk food will kill you. You are being silly. No, you are. No, you are. Will you two please be nice to each other? It is important to eat healthy foods. But a little junk food will not kill me. Ice cream. Ice cream does sound good. Okay, we are in the frozen food aisle. Mmm, ice cream. Mmm, frozen peas. Nobody says mmm, frozen peas. They say mmm, ice cream. Mmm, frozen peas. Mmm, ice cream. I am not going to tell you two again. Stop fighting. We should explain to our listeners what is going on here. In the lesson 44 video, Anna has two small imaginary people talking to her. And there's one of them on each of her shoulders. One of them who wants junk food looks like a devil or evil spirit. And the other looks like an angel or good spirit. In western culture, we use this picture of an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other to represent two different kinds of thoughts. Those that make us want to do good things and those that make us want to do bad things or sometimes just two different things. I am Faith Perlow and you're listening to the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast. In lesson 44, the healthy food angel talks about what Anna shouldn't eat. But notice how she says it in this sentence. Anna, you mustn't eat junk food. Mussant is the contraction of the two words must not. It's a stronger and more formal sounding way of saying that you should not do something. So, Faith, I have to ask you. Do you ever have an internal conflict or a fight with yourself over what you should eat? I have, Andrew. I love ice cream and I always keep a pint of it in my freezer. I don't eat it every day, but sometimes when I have a hard day, I reach for it. What about you, Andrew? You know, I like ice cream too and that sounds like something that I could also do a lot. I tend to eat pretty healthy food, but at night before I go to bed I sometimes want something sweet or filling like a piece of cake or bread or cookies or ice cream. So sometimes I have a little, not a fight, but a discussion with myself over whether or not I should eat them. Our internal dialogue or what we say to ourselves can be interesting or even funny. But you know, I think it is okay to enjoy a guilty pleasure from time to time. I agree. It's hard to be strict all the time. And I think that's a great expression, a guilty pleasure. Can you explain it for our listeners? So a pleasure is something you like, but guilty is the feeling you get or you should get if you are a good person and you've done something wrong. But a guilty pleasure is not something that is seriously wrong. It's just a little thing you like to do, something that's not harmful. But if you did it a lot, then it might be bad for you. Right. So if I ate cookies every single night, that would not be good. But if I eat them only from time to time, it's not really harmful. So it's just a guilty pleasure. What about you, Faith? Do you have any guilty pleasures? I do. I love eating popcorn. I love eating popcorn so much that I make it myself. So I have popcorn kernels around all the time, just waiting to be popped. Popcorn isn't necessarily bad. It is quite healthy for stacking. But my problem is the amount I eat. I can eat a lot of it. So Andrew, the devil and the angel keep fighting with each other in the lesson 44 video. How do you think Anna can make them stop? I'm not sure she can make them stop, but she can stop hearing them. Let's listen to the end of the video. Stop it! Stop it! Stick and tired of the both of you! I know what you two need. Anna, what are you doing? Put me down! You two need to cool off. I am going to buy my healthy food and my junk food. Goodbye. Until next time. When someone is angry or arguing, we say they are hot and that they need to cool off. Anna is sick and tired of all the fighting. So she puts the devil and the angel in a cold container in the store. Well, that should cool them off. And we'll have more to say about the expression sick and tired in another lesson of the day. But for now, listeners, do you have any guilty pleasures? Write to us at LearningEnglish at voanews.com and let us know. And remember that you can find us on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. And thanks for listening to the Learning English podcast. I'm Faith Perlow. 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.