 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, Andrew Smith and Ana Mateo report on Central American migrants moving to Mexico instead of the U.S. in hopes of a better life. Brian Lin has this week's science report on NASA's Mars helicopter experiments. Later, Andrew and Jill Robbins present the lesson of the day. But first... Walter Banegas is a refugee from the Central American country of Honduras. He now lives in the northern Mexican city of Saltillo. There, he works in a factory, making aluminum parts for machines. But Mexico is not the first country Banegas, 28, has tried to call home. To avoid violent drug gangs in Honduras, he first fled to the United States as a teenager. But he was deported in 2014. Hoping to seek asylum, he re-entered the U.S. in 2020, only to be deported again. So when Banegas fled Honduras once more in 2021, he aimed for Mexico instead of the U.S. He was granted refugee status and, with help from a United Nations refugee program, moved to Saltillo. There, he was connected to a job at PACE Industries, a U.S.-based metal manufacturer with plants in the U.S. and Mexico. In the last five years, Mexico has seen an increase in the number of refugees choosing to stay in the country. There, the asylum system is less strict than in the U.S., and refugees can find jobs because companies in Mexico need more workers. Banegas said he is earning about $800 a month at PACE Industries. This is less than he thought he would make in the U.S., but it is enough to send at least $50 a month home to his family. He says he likes his Mexican coworkers and is proud his six-month-old son David is a Mexican citizen. I feel at peace here, he said. It's not necessary to go to the United States. You can also get ahead here in Mexico. About 10 years ago, only a few hundred people received asylum in Mexico each year. By 2021, the number rose to 27,000, according to Mexico's refugee agency. Mexico will likely approve at least 20,000 asylum cases this year, with most of the arrivals coming from Honduras, Haiti, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Cuba. A large majority of migrants entering Mexico continue north toward the U.S. The U.S. had more than 700,000 individual asylum claims last year. But the head of the U.N. Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, in Mexico, Giovanni Lepri, said Mexico is becoming a good choice for refugees, in part because of its high need for workers. COPARMEX studies Mexico's economy and social issues. The organization says Mexico has more than one million job openings nationwide. In a recent study of more than 2,500 businesses in Mexico, it says 85% of employers in manufacturing report trouble finding workers, more than in any other employment area. U.S., Mexican, and U.N. officials have called for cooperation to help migrants resettle in places such as Mexico, Costa Rica, and Colombia, aiming to reduce illegal migration to the U.S. Oturo Rocha is the migration director for Mexico's foreign ministry. He said the government is trying to expand work visa programs and connect employers with migrants looking for jobs. Mexico is working with Guatemala's government to bring up to 20,000 workers to Mexico each year. Mexico also aims to expand the program to Honduras and El Salvador. Jose Medina Mora, the head of COPARMEX, praised the U.N. program that helped Banegas relocate to Saltillo. He also urged the Mexican government to expand work visa programs so more migrants can be quickly matched with employers. The U.N. program helps refugees relocate from southern Mexico, where most complete their asylum process to cities in central and northern Mexico. The program gives money and helps with finding jobs. It also helps refugees find childcare, schools, and healthcare. It helped connect 5,500 refugees with a job in 2022 and nearly 3,000 so far this year. Fernando Hernandez, 24, fled Honduras for southern Mexico last year with his partner and young daughter. He planned to cross the country as quickly as possible to reach the U.S. But then he saw social media posts of children drowning in the river at the U.S. border. He imagined his two-year-old daughter also dying in the water. And he thought about his mother, who migrated to the U.S. in 2017. She lives in a small mobile home in the state of Texas and uses most of her pay for housing. So Hernandez decided to seek asylum in Mexico. After it was approved in February, the U.N. helped his family relocate to the northern industrial city of Monterey. There Hernandez began working at a small store that sells food, drink, and other things people need. Hernandez quickly learned that there were job openings everywhere, he said. He got a job in a factory and then became a cook at PF Changs, earning about $225 a week. Here we have everything, a house, food, and family, he said. I couldn't ask for more. I'm Andrew Smith. And I'm Anna Mateo. As the American Space Agency NASA continues to carry out tests of its Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, it is also testing a future aircraft design on Earth. NASA's Ingenuity has been making test flights on the red planet for the past two and a half years. The experimental helicopter arrived on Mars along with NASA's Perseverance Explorer, or rover, in February 2021. Both the rover and helicopter have been collecting images and data as they explore an area known as Gisero Crater. The goal of the exploration effort is to search for signs of ancient life on Mars. Ingenuity made history in April 2021 by becoming the first aircraft to complete a powered, controlled flight on another planet. NASA officials have said the helicopter has performed far above expectations. Agency engineers planned on Ingenuity completing just five experimental flights on Mars. But the helicopter has so far performed 66 flights. It has provided NASA with valuable data on building future aircraft to fly in space. Travis Brown is Ingenuity's chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL in California. He said in a statement that with nearly every flight, the helicopter has progressed in new ways. Brown noted that over the past nine months Ingenuity had doubled its top speed and height records. In addition, the aircraft's operating speed and landings improved. Most Ingenuity flights only last two to three minutes. This is because the helicopter has energy and temperature limitations. NASA engineers say they have also been careful not to try to fly Ingenuity too fast because this can cause problems with its navigation system. The helicopter uses a camera to identify rocks and other things on the surface as it travels. If the aircraft goes too fast, it might not be able to navigate the best way forward. Controllers on the ground have said that to help with this issue, they have sent commands to Ingenuity to fly at higher levels. This way the aircraft has less chance of losing its way because surface objects stay in view longer. NASA says Ingenuity established a new height record on Flight 61 of 24 meters as it examined Martian wind conditions. On Flight 62, the helicopter set a new speed record of 10 meters per second. During this flight, Ingenuity also identified a new place for the Perseverance rover to carry out science experiments. As that testing continues on Mars, teams on the ground have been experimenting with new rotor blades. These could be used in the future with a new generation of Mars helicopters. During the tests, engineers reported the rotor blades had reached speeds nearly equal to Mach 1, the speed of sound. The blades tested on Earth are made of carbon material and are more than 10 centimeters longer than Ingenuities. The blades were designed to be both faster and stronger. NASA has said such rotor blades should be able to support bigger, more complex helicopters. The team said in a statement the helicopter design must reach the right balance. If the blades spin too fast, this causes control issues that can increase the risk of crashes. The Earth-based tests were carried out in September inside a space simulator at NASA's JPL. For these experiments, the simulator aimed to establish a Mars-like environment. The team was measuring tests of the rotor blades with sensors, cameras, and other equipment. Many different speeds were tested and the blades were repeatedly repositioned to observe the best results. We spun our blades up to 3,500 rpm, which is 750 revolutions per minute faster than the Ingenuity blades have gone, said Tyler Delcesto, a leader of the JPL testing. These more efficient blades are now more than a hypothetical exercise. They are ready to fly, he added. I'm Brian Lin. Brian Lin is back on the show to talk more about his science report. Thanks for being here, Brian. Sure, Dan. Glad to be here. This week's report dealt with NASA's development of helicopters to support future space missions. One experimental model has been tested on Mars since 2021, which is much longer than NASA expected. Why have these experiments continued for so long? Yes, so NASA officials have said they were not sure at first how many tests they would be able to carry out with the aircraft currently on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter. So they set lower expectations, but once they began, the helicopter performed quite well and engineers working on the project say that so far there has been some progress on nearly every one of Ingenuity's 66 flights. So these experiments are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. We learned from the report that NASA has also been testing equipment on Earth to be used in future helicopter designs. Has NASA suggested when any new aircraft might be deployed to Mars or elsewhere? So far, NASA officials have not given any specific timeline for when they might be ready to send future helicopter designs to space, but they have said these next-generation helicopters will be designed to perform at higher speeds and elevations than Ingenuity. And the experiments on Mars have really been invaluable to the development team in learning what works and what does not work with helicopter operations in the Martian atmosphere. OK, thanks again for joining me, Brian. You're welcome. Thank you, Dan. My name is Anna Matteo. My name is Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. 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 series Let's Learn English. This series shows Anna Matteo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. Today, we're going to talk about a scene from Lesson 42 of the series. And we're going to explain some things about that word. Scene, spelled S-C-E-N-E. Because in Lesson 42, Anna was at the scene of a crime. A scene means the setting or place where something happens. And in a movie or play, a scene is where one series of events happens, set in one particular place. For example, a movie can have a scene that happens in a kitchen, another scene that happens in a car, a scene that happens in a park, and so on. In Lesson 42, the scene of the crime is just outside of the building where Anna works. Let's listen to find out what Anna saw at the crime scene. Something was stolen from someone. Listen and find out. Hello, I'm Guy Newsman with News Channel XYZ. I'm here in Washington, D.C. at the scene of a crime. We are talking with this woman. She saw the crime during her lunch break. It looks like she hurt herself while she was trying to stop the crime. Tell us your name. Hi, Guy. I'm Anna. Anna, what did you see and what happened to your arm? Guy, I was minding my own business. See, I work over there. I left work to get some lunch. Then suddenly, I heard a woman yelling. She was yelling like this. Help! Help! Two robbers were grabbing her bag. She was hitting them with her umbrella. Is that when you hurt your arm? No. At that time, I was not fighting the robbers. See, I was too far away and I didn't have my own umbrella. So what happened next? They grabbed her bag and ran away. So I grabbed her umbrella and ran after the robbers. Then that is the time that you hurt your arm? No. I was yelling, stop robbers, stop! She was yelling, hey, come back with my umbrella! That to grab means to take something quickly and forcefully. The robbers grabbed and stole the woman's handbag and then Anna grabbed the woman's umbrella. The poor woman has now had two things taken from her. We'll need to listen to more of Lesson 42 later to see if she gets them back. But first, let's talk a little bit more about this word grab. Sure. While grab means to hold or take an object, we also use this verb informally in the expression to grab a bite. That means to get something to eat. Yeah. And when we invite friends to go out, we often say, would you like to grab a drink or would you like to grab a bite? Have you ever noticed how some words sound funny if you say them over and over? Oh, you mean like this? Grab, grab, grab, grab, grab, grab. All right, that's enough. Yes, like that. Well, at least our listeners are getting to hear that word lots of times. I think we might be digressing, or getting away from the story of the crime scene. We still don't know how Anna hurt her arm or whether anyone caught the robbers. True, but there's an easy way to find out. Let's listen. Then that is the time that you hurt your arm? No. I was yelling, Stop robbers! Stop! She was yelling, Hey, come back with my umbrella! What are you afraid? I had no time to be afraid, guy. Well, I had time while I was resting on a bench. I had a lot of time. Then what happened? The robbers got on a bus, so I ran after the bus. While I was running, I tripped and fell. And that is the time that you hurt your arm? No. While I was lying on the ground, someone stepped on my arm. Ouch, that's too bad. Yeah, and they didn't apologize. Well, then the robbers got themselves kicked off the bus. Why? They didn't pay. You've got to pay when you get on a bus. The police came and took them away. And that's when you hurt your arm? No. Then when did you hurt yourself? Well, guy, by this time I was feeling very hungry. So I went to my office to get a snack. Anna, I'm calling for help right now. Hello? Yes. Please come right away. My coworker is stuck in a vending machine. You hurt your arm in a vending machine buying a bag of chips? I was really hungry. And the bag was stuck? I had a... That's all from news channel XYZ. This is Guy Newsman saying goodbye. Okay, we have to find ourselves another story, guys. Until next time. Hi, Mom. So just to be clear, a vending machine has snacks in it like bags of chips, nuts, or candy bars. You pay for the snacks at the machine and the machine moves the snack into a place where you can reach it. But like Anna said, sometimes the snacks get stuck and then you can't reach them even after you paid. And that's when people sometimes hurt themselves the way Anna hurt herself by trying to get the snack that is stuck. I once heard about a man who seriously hurt himself by pulling so hard on a vending machine that the machine tipped over and fell on top of him. That's a high price to pay for a snack. We sometimes do things to ourselves that we wish we didn't do. Jill, I noticed that we just used the pronouns themselves, herself, himself, and ourselves. We use these reflexive pronouns when the subject of the sentence is the same as the object. Right. So instead of saying Anna hurt Anna, we say Anna hurt herself. You can learn more about reflexive pronouns and much more by downloading the lesson plan that comes with lesson 42 of Let's Learn English. You can find that lesson plan on our website at learningenglish.voanews.com. I think lesson 42 has some funny scenes that our listeners will enjoy seeing. Now, let's talk a little more about that word scene. Well, we have the idiomatic expression to make a scene. That means somebody is being very dramatic and emotional to bring attention to themselves. But perhaps in a way that they shouldn't be. When we say someone is making a scene, we are usually criticizing them for being too emotional or upsetting the people around them. But you know what? In some situations, maybe making a scene is a good way to get people to pay attention to you. That may be true. And I definitely think some teenagers will agree with you. But I'm not sure their parents do. Perhaps. We also have the adjective scenic. This describes a place or places with very nice views of nature. In the eastern United States, we have a scenic highway called the Blue Ridge Parkway. The road goes near the mountain tops of the Appalachian Mountains for hundreds of kilometers. Have you ever driven on the Blue Ridge Parkway? I have. And from this scenic highway, can you guess what you can see? Hmm. What can I see from this scenic highway? Well, I can see lots of scenery. That's spelled S-C-E-N-E-R-Y. Scenery is just another word for the view of nature that you can see. So, to summarize, we can talk in general about a setting or a place. And we call that the scene. And then we have a scene from a movie or a play. And then there's the idiom to make a scene, the adjective scenic, and the noun scenery. And we hope today's lesson of the day has grabbed your attention. Be sure to share it with your friends and family. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. And thanks for listening to the Learning English Podcast. 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.