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Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Katie Weaver. And I'm Mario Ritter, Jr. 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 show, Jill Robbins and Gregory Stockle bring us education tips. We close the show with the lesson of the day. But first, this story from Brian Lynn. Scientists are worried that a large iceberg heading toward an island in the South Atlantic Ocean could threaten wildlife there. Researchers say the iceberg is the largest in the world. It is moving through the South Atlantic toward the island of South Georgia. The island is a British Overseas Territory that is about 1,400 kilometers east of the Falkland Islands. Scientists say South Georgia is a main mating ground for wildlife, especially penguins and seals. The iceberg is officially known as A23A and it measures about 3,500 square kilometers. It has existed since 1986 when it broke off from the Antarctic shelf. Andrew Myers is an oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey. He told the French news agency AFP that scientists have been using satellite imagery to follow the iceberg's movements. Myers said observations had shown the iceberg had not broken into smaller pieces like some other so-called megabergs that passed through the Southern Ocean. He added that predicting the iceberg's exact path is difficult, but ocean conditions suggest it should reach South Georgia in two to four weeks. Myers said he is worried the iceberg will get caught on the underground continental shelf around South Georgia. But he said it is also possible the large ice mass could miss the shelf and continue moving into open waters beyond South Georgia. If the iceberg does get caught or stuck on the shelf, Myers said it could remain there for months or it could break into pieces. Myers is concerned that this could harm efforts by penguins and seals on the island to feed and raise their young. Icebergs that have grounded there in the past led to the deaths of young penguins and seals, he said. Raul Cordero is a mechanical engineer from Chile's University of Santiago. He is also a member of the National Antarctic Research Committee. Cordero told AFP he thinks the iceberg will miss South Georgia. The island acts as an obstacle for ocean currents and therefore usually diverts the water long before it reaches the island, he said. The iceberg is moved by that water flow, so the chances of it hitting are not that high. Cordero added, however, that some iceberg pieces could affect the island. Soledad Turante is a glacier expert who is currently on an Argentinian exploration trip in the Antarctic. She told AFP that icebergs such as A23A are so deep that before reaching an island or mainland they generally get stuck on the seabed. It is currently summer in South Georgia and penguins and seals from the area have been looking for food in the cold Antarctic waters to bring back to their young. Myers said the animals might have to go around the iceberg if it gets stuck. He added that if they had to move around it, this would take a lot of their energy, possibly leading to animal deaths. The seal and penguin populations on South Georgia have already been having a bad season with cases of bird flu, Myers said. Iceberg A23A remained stuck for 30 years before finally breaking free from the Antarctic shelf in 2020. Scientists watching its movements say the iceberg has followed nearly the same path as other large ice masses in the past. The icebergs generally pass the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula through the Weddell Sea along a path known as Iceberg Alley. They are pushed by the world's most powerful ocean current system, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. I'm Brian Lynn. Taiwan plans to kill up to 120,000 green iguanas that are damaging the island's agriculture industry. Around 200,000 of the animals are believed to be in the island's southern and central areas. Both areas are heavily dependent on farming, said Chiu-Huo Hao of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency. Special hunting teams killed about 70,000 iguanas last year, earning up to $15 for each kill. Local governments have asked the public to help identify iguana nests, or homes. Officials also advised people to use fishing spears to kill the iguanas in the most humane way. Li Chiu-Ya is with the Agriculture Department in the southern county of Pingtung. Li said many people in Taiwan bought iguanas as pets, not understanding how big they get or how long they live. So they set them free in the wild, where they've really taken to the Taiwanese environment, Li said. This permitted the animals to, in Li's words, reproduce at a considerable rate, necessitating us to cull them and restore the balance of nature. Green iguanas have no natural predators in Taiwan. The animals have moved into areas that can be difficult to enter, mostly forests and the edges of towns. Males can grow to 2 meters long and weigh as much as 5 kilograms. Females are a little smaller and can lay up to 80 eggs at a time. The green iguana can live up to 20 years. The animals are native mainly to Central America and the Caribbean. They have sharp spines on their body and sharp teeth as well. Their tails are powerful and can strike in attack or defensive actions. Experts say iguanas are not aggressive animals. Their diet is mainly plants, including fruits and leaves. Sheih-Wei Chieh is Secretary General of the Reptile Conservation Association of Taiwan. He said the group wants to teach farmers how to stay safe, protect their property, and treat the iguanas humanely. We're here to help see that this project is carried out smoothly, said Chieh. Sai Po-Wen, a vegetable farmer in Pindong, said the training was valuable. We used to attack them, but it wasn't any use. Now we're learning more effective, safer methods, Sai said. I'm Katie Weaver. Email is one of the most important ways through which we communicate. It has become part of most everyone's day-to-day life. Writing a good email can mean the difference between someone reading it and writing back and someone ignoring it altogether. Do you have questions on how to make your message more effective? Today on Education Tips, we will answer the question, How can I make my emails better? Emails are made up of four different parts. The subject line, the opening, the body, and the closing. Let us explore how to make each of these parts better. The subject line is what the other person, or receiver, will read first. The subject line is usually the most important part of an email. It should be short but contain enough details that the receiver recognizes the subject of the email. A good subject line sets the expectations for the email. A bad subject line can mean the receiver will not read the email. Some people will add the word important to the subject line. But this does not provide enough information. Instead of writing important, two better choices for subject lines are, Meeting tomorrow at 10 a.m. to discuss new changes. Question about future classes. As in any form of writing, you should know your audience. The opening of an email depends on things like how formal the relationship is. If you are sending an email to a friend or someone you work with, two good openings or greetings are, Good morning, good afternoon, hello, or hello and the person's name. If you are sending the email to someone you do not know, and it is a formal situation, some possible openings are, Dear, name of department, to whom it may concern. In a formal situation, when you know the name of the person, a good opening is simply, Dear, title, family name, as in, Dear Mr. Brown. The body of the email is where you ask for what you need, or make clear your reason for writing the email. This could be asking them a question or keeping them informed. The body of the email should prioritize the most important information. It should be direct, and it is wise to keep it short. If the person you are emailing does not know you, you should introduce yourself in the first few lines. You might write, My name is Patricia Jones. I am sending this email to get some more information about the job you advertised. After you have introduced yourself and given your reason for writing, you can follow this with the body of your email. The most important information should come first. This makes your email clear to your receiver and saves them time. Here is an example. I wanted to know if you are currently accepting applications. If so, where can I send my information? Additionally, will you be meeting people in person or online? It is important to clearly explain yourself in as few words as possible. Try to keep your email short, but polite. This is important because you want to make yourself clear to your receiver. The last part to a good email is the closing. It is usually one or two words that let the receiver know that this is the end of the email. The ending should include your name and tell the receiver where you work and what you do. A few different closings are, Some applications create an automatic signature for the sender. This is useful because it saves time when you are writing. So, what does a completed email look like? Here is an example email. If you follow these suggestions, you will find that you receive more responses to your emails. Effective email writing is important, especially now when so much of what we do is online. I'm Gregory Stockel. And I'm Jill Robbins. Hello, my name is Anna Mateo. My name is Andrew Smith. And I'm Jill Robbins. 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. The series shows Anna Mateo in her work and life in Washington, D.C. Anna feels lucky to be in Washington because many special events take place in the city. In a previous lesson of the day, we followed Anna as she visited a festival for the famous English playwright, William Shakespeare. And in today's lesson, Anna goes to another festival. This time, in Lesson 24 of the Let's Learn English series, Anna goes to a Folklife Festival. A festival is a special program of events that usually celebrates a particular topic. For example, a festival might celebrate traditions connected to a national holiday or the culture of a particular nationality. Or festivals might celebrate topics such as books, old cars, or a particular style of music. Festivals often take place outdoors in public places. Folklife refers to traditional aspects of a culture such as music, dance, clothing, and food that have lasted for several generations. And the word folk simply means people. But Jill, you know what? I think we have digressed away from Anna. Yes, I think we have. To digress means to start talking about things less closely related to the main topic. So let's come back to Anna and the Folklife Festival. The official name of the event is the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The Smithsonian is a large group of museums, education, and research centers created by the U.S. government. Now let's listen to Anna in Lesson 24. I was at work and I wanted a break. So I walked and walked and walked and walked. Then I saw something. It was a festival, a big festival. It's the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Yes, it was the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Every year, the festival shows different cultures. This year, one of the cultures was the Basque culture. There was dancing and food and games. I am dancing a traditional Basque dance. At the festival, I danced a traditional Basque dance. They are cooking traditional Basque food. They cooked a lot of traditional Basque food. They are playing a game. It's a kind of handball. What do they call it? They call it pilota. They played a game with their hands and a small ball. It's a kind of handball, but this game is called pilota. Anna learned new things about Basque culture. Basque refers to a region and culture in the northeastern part of Spain. There, the people speak both Spanish and the Basque language. Andrew, our listeners might be interested to know that even though the Basque language is spoken by people in Europe, the language is not related to other European languages. In fact, linguists, which means people who study languages, think the Basque language is older than the other languages in Europe. That means people have been speaking Basque for a very long time. Let's look at how Anna asked about the handball game they were playing. She didn't know the name of the game. When we don't know the name of something, we usually use the verb call to ask about it. Listen. What do they call it? They call it pilota. This is a very useful expression in English. Although we sometimes say, what is the name of that place? For a particular place, such as a restaurant. For many other things, we say, what do you call it? Or, what is that called? What is this called? So, if you are learning English, and you don't know the name of an object or an activity, you can just say, what do you call this? And the answer uses the passive form of the verb, is called. Listen. It's a kind of handball, but this game is called pilota. I'm Andrew Smith, and you're listening to the lesson of the day on the Learning English Podcast. In the lesson of the day, we like to give examples of how native speakers pronounce phrases when they are speaking quickly. What do you call it? Sounds like this when we say it quickly. What do you call it? We change the three words, what do you, to what do you, when we speak quickly. What do you means, what do you? And our listeners should also notice that we don't really pronounce the letter T at the end of the phrase. Instead of saying, call it, we say, call it, with a held T. We talked about the held T in a previous lesson of the day when we compared the pronunciation of the verb can and its negative form. Can't. Now, listen to Jill and me give more examples of fast speech with the verb call. Ready? Listen. What is this called? What is that called? What is it called? What do you call it? Let's look closely at one of those sentences. Speaking slowly, I can say, what is it called? But when I speak quickly, it changes to, what is it called? What is becomes reduced to, what is. The letter T in what changes to a sound closer to the letter D. And the word it goes by so fast that it becomes very reduced to just a vowel sound plus a very fast held T. What is it? What is it called? We sometimes use the phrase, what do you call to make jokes? For example, what do you call a police officer in bed? A police officer in bed? I don't know. What do you call a police officer in bed? An undercover cop. That's pretty good. When you're under the covers, you are lying under blankets in bed. And cop is a short word for police officer. Here's one for you, Jill. What do you call something that goes up when the rain comes down? An umbrella. You got it. You're pretty good at this. Hey, thanks. There's another detail from lesson 24 of the Let's Learn English series we should mention. When we use the simple past of regular verbs in English, we pronounce the ed ending three different ways depending on the spelling of the verb. We can hear Anna use the three different pronunciations. Yesterday started like a usual work day. I was at work and I wanted a break. So I walked and walked and walked and walked. They played a game with their hands and a small ball. It's a kind of handball. But this game is called pilota. With the first examples, the verbs started and wanted, you can hear the extra syllable id. Started. Wanted. We add this extra syllable when the verb ends in the letter T or D. With the verb walked, you can hear the sound of the letter T. Walked. We add the T sound when the verb ends in a voiceless consonant like the letters K and P. Worked. Stopped. And the third way we pronounce is with the sound of the letter D. Played. Called. We add this when the verb ends with a voiced sound like a vowel. Or like the letter V. Loved. Let's listen to Anna use the three different pronunciations one more time. Yesterday started like a usual work day. I was at work and I wanted a break. So I walked and walked and walked and walked. They played a game with their hands and a small ball. It's a kind of handball. But this game is called pilota. Jill, what do you call a podcast that has run out of time? Overcast. Uh, you mean it's cloudy? No, you know, as in the lesson is over. Oh, it's over. Well, time flies when you're having fun. You can learn more on our website You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. And thanks for listening to the lesson of the day on The Learning English Podcast. I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith. I'm Katie Weaver. And I'm Laurie.