As I don't have to tell you, because you helped negotiate the Paris Agreement, the United States pulled out more than a couple of years ago.

Well, actually, the United States can legally not pull out until November of next year. We, of course, certainly expect them to do so.

Be that as it may, what can be accomplished - how much does U. S.  withdrawal hurt?

Well, you know, the fact is that what you call a U. S.  withdrawal I call a national government withdrawal. I call it a White House withdrawal. It does not represent 100% of the U. S.  economy. Sixty percent of the U. S.  economy represented by many corporations, by many states and certainly by many financial institutions continue to decarbonize because they understand it is for their own good. It is for the strength of their economy and for commercial profitability in the case of corporations. The fact is that if the United States, as a central government, wants to leave the climate agreement and not continue the policies and the incentives for decarbonization, they're shooting themselves in the foot because other countries such as China, certainly, and perhaps even India are taking advantage of that vacuum and moving in.

turn 3 : The United States is hurting themselves by their own actions. China and India are taking advantage of the Paris Agreement and the large amount of people that are working to save the planet from climate change.

How are China and India taking advantage of the Paris Agreement?

Answer: Moving


I don't think I have to. I'm a jazz musician. I know what I am. Whether the music you think I'm playing or professing is jazz or not, it's kind of not my problem, you know what I mean?I'm a jazz musician, and this is what I do.

I do conduction, and it doesn't matter whether I do it with classical musicians or jazz musicians or traditional Japanese instruments, Korean instruments, Turkish instruments. It doesn't matter. This is what I do, work with funk musicians or pop musicians. It doesn't matter. I'm still doing - I'm still showing everybody the same sign. This means sustain. This means repeat. This means graphic information. This means this, this, and that.

Some of your newer music, it's recording Nublu Orchestra. It crosses many genres. Let's take a listen to "Downstairs. "

How did you get started on this path?I mean, who were your influences?Who were the musicians that sparked in your imagination that this is a road you might take?

turn 3 : the musicians actually created a spark in the speaker's imagination, but the figurative meaning is that the musicians inspired the speaker's creativity.

What is the figurative meaning of the spark mentioned by the speaker in turn 3?

Answer: Inspiration


(Laughter).

And that's exactly what I did and never really looked back from there really.

Yeah. What did you like about it?What do you like about it?

Actually, I quite like the early morning work because I don't - I'm happy in my own skin. I quite like solitude. I don't mind spending time with myself. But I think what it was is it was going to work when there's no one on the road. So I could drive to work, no one on the road - very quiet - go to where - the team were there. We had a lot of work to do. I was very proud of what I did, and I picked it up very, very quickly. And it was lovely looking back on the bakery and looking at all the croissant, the afternoon tea, the breads - and looking at everything that you've made and thought, do you know what?I'm proud of that.

turn 0 : (1) "B: (Laughter)." This turn implies that B found something funny or amusing, but it does not provide any literal information or statement.

Which turn in the dialogue indicates that PersonA likes spending time alone and enjoys the quietness of the early morning work?

Answer: 3


And now we'll go to another Dickerson. This is Brian Dickerson. He's a political columnist for the Detroit Free Press. And we're going to talk about Michigan. It is one of the key swing states in this election. Welcome to the program.

Thank you, Madeleine.

Well, the most recent polls this week are a little mixed. But generally, the average of the reputable polls has been showing Obama steadily in front since about mid-June and picking up some momentum in the last two or three weeks.

turn 2 : "Well, both candidates have stumped a lot in Michigan, and is either candidate getting more traction?" - This turn has a literal meaning and is also used with its actual meaning.

What is the topic of discussion in turn 0?

Answer: Michigan


You know, I'm not sure exactly where the cuts will take place. I know they've got several issues in mind. I think it's definitely a reflection upon the times right now, and how difficult the environment is for financial service firms.

You wrote in your piece today that the bonus pool is still the sixth largest on record. How much money was it overall?

Overall, it was 18. 4 billion, but it was down from about 33 billion last year. So it's a decline, but it's still, like you said, the sixth largest, so there's been thoughts that the past compensations have gotten a little excessive. So there's definitely an argument that that was the case.

And all of this in the wake of a bonus scandal at Merrill Lynch. What's been going on there?

turn 0 : The cuts will be significant and likely affect employees.

Answer: Employees


Well, they're very angry, obviously. I mean, in Argentina, they're already facing really very hard times. Inflation there is among the highest in the world. The economy is - you know, they've got this boom-and-bust economy that's right now in such a mess that the government very controversially decided to sign on to this huge $56 billion IMF bailout. There are strikes and protests over President Mauricio Macri's austerity program, regularly.

And right now, Steve, there's a very highly charged political environment - I mean, even more highly charged than usual - because presidential elections are coming up in October. Macri's fighting to keep his job in the face of a remarkable resurgence by the former president, Cristina Kirchner, who's running with her former cabinet chief, this time on a ticket to be vice president, despite a stack of corruption charges against her.

Plenty of debate to come on who can keep the lights on. Philip, thanks so much.

You're welcome.

NPR's Philip Reeves.

turn 0 : The situation in Argentina is very bad due to high inflation, strikes and protests, and the government's decision to sign a huge IMF bailout.

Which country is facing a difficult economic situation due to high inflation and a controversial $56 billion IMF bailout?

Answer: Argentina


You know, it hurts them both because many of the voters just don't understand how this can be happening. They know the president wants it. They know the Senate majority wants it or says it wants it. But the Senate just can't muster even half its votes to do it, and they can't bring all the Republicans to bear on it. So something is not right. Either the mojo of the president isn't working or the mechanism of the Senate is not working, and to some degree, both are true.

Is there any reason why Democrats now might want to sign on to any kind of bipartisan health care effort when their own plan has been saved?

Yes, absolutely. The Democrats need to go forward with some kind of bipartisan solution because there are many real problems with the execution and the administration of Obamacare. Now, Patty Murray, the senator from Washington state, has been working with Tennessee's Lamar Alexander in the Senate. And he's a Republican. He's the chairman of one of the committees that's relevant here.

And, of course, a lot of the Democrats are aware of these shortfalls. And there are counties with only one insurance company and counties where it's not clear there are going to be any insurance companies. And some of that's been overblown, but there are real problems. And, of course, any bill, any large program, any law needs to be revisited and amended, and the parties need to get together to do that.

turn 1 : The implied meaning of this turn is that Democrats might not be interested in a bipartisan effort since their own plan has been successful.

Answer: Democrats


This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Spies try to protect America from its enemies, but does that mean spying on friends too?The steady drip of intelligence leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden continues with the revelations that the National Security Agency tapped the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Guardian newspaper broke the story this week and also reported that the U. S.  spy agency intercepted 70 million phone calls and text messages in France. Now, the response from Germany and France has been swift, and as you might imagine, sharp. Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, called the spying shocking and unacceptable. He told Le Monde: We cooperate in the useful way in the fight against terrorism but that does not justify everything. P. J. Crowley is a former U. S.  assistant secretary of state for public affairs. He joins us in our studios. Thanks so much for being with us.

P. J. CROWLEY: Pleasure to be here, Scott.

Are Germany and France shocked, shocked like in Casablanca, or are they truly surprised?

There's scambling(ph) going on here, yes. I mean, Europeans have a different view of privacy than Americans do. So, I think there is a difference of attitude or perspective on this. That said, I don't think it should shock anyone that governments spy on each other.

Well, but these are allies.

turn 3 :  "There's scrambling going on here" - The speaker is not referring to actual physical scrambling. Instead, the speaker is using a figurative language to describe the reaction of the European countries to the news.

Which word describes the reaction of European countries to the news in turn 3?

Answer: Scrambling


Is this a book about how someone becomes a terrorist?

In part. I talk about this as a sort of - as a Genesis moment for the book. But I remember distinctly I was watching this interview with a foreign affairs expert. And it was in the wake of the - there had been these sort of protests in an Afghan village against the U. S.  military presence in Afghanistan.

And the interviewer's question was something along the lines of, why do they hate us so much?And as part of his answer, this expert noted that sometimes the U. S.  forces have to go conduct these nighttime raids in these villages. And when they do this, they'll sometimes have to hold the women and children up at gunpoint. And they'll tear the places apart. And then he added, you know, in Afghan culture, this sort of thing is considered very offensive.

And I thought, you know, name me one culture on earth that wouldn't consider this sort of thing offensive?And so part of the book is - has to do with this idea that we all suffer the same way, and we become damaged by suffering in the same way regardless of which part of the world we grew up in or what we believe.

turn 2 : The literal meaning: The expert states that in Afghan culture, the described actions are perceived as highly offensive. The implied meaning: The expert implies that such actions are universally considered offensive and not limited to Afghan culture.

Which culture does the expert imply also considers the described actions offensive?

Answer: Universally


What a coincidence. Serendipity.

Absolutely. So this is a very festive lab and we asked if they would look into this and they did, several times over, for us. And so we have the results on Video Pick of the Week is originals of our sample size of one - we should be clear - experiment into this.

Right. And you found that if you out enough - spike your eggnog enough, should we. . .

Well, yes. So you can go to our website for the recipe. But after - the key to this, and actually, we'll have - let's have Vince Fischetti, sort of, give us a little background.

turn 0 : The speaker is expressing surprise and amazement at the coincidence.

Which word did the speaker use to describe the lab?

Answer: Festive


He was all those things. I. . .

Did his brother's death, in a sense, liberate him to seek a new identity, to travel, to get to know and reflect the world?

I think that shook him deep to his soul. But I think the other thing that happened was his father's stroke. He had to get his father off his back. Joe Kennedy Sr.  was a formidable but, I think, menacing figure in his life who took a sweet, young seventh born who he had called a runt and encouraged him to become tough and ruthless - first a jock at Harvard, getting his letter with a broken leg, and then becoming this enforcer for his brother.

That's what won, finally, the attention of the old man. And only when he was tough did the old man respect him. And I think when his father became incapacitated, Bobby began to resort to who he was as a kid. As a kid, he was - he hung around all the time with African-American kids. Those were his playmates, even in Hyannis. He was - he, you know, Father Feeney - when Father Feeney said no salvation outside the Catholic Church, he railed against that, which was so extraordinary in that very Catholic family.

turn 2 : I think that shook him deep to his soul. But I think the other thing that happened was his father's stroke. He had to get his father off his back.  The literal meaning would suggest that the person was deeply affected by something that shook them to their core and that their father had a stroke. However, the implied meaning suggests that the significant event had a profound emotional impact on the person, causing them to reassess their relationship with their father and seek some kind of liberation from his influence or control.

What did Bobby have to do after his father's stroke?

Answer: Father


An so he went from - on Sunday on his Facebook page saying, well, I misspoke. I got the wording wrong, which is something he repeated again today.

Yeah. Well, that plus. He's gotten just increasingly - because as the pressure has mounted - and it's been fascinating to watch the responses from the congressmen, from the Republican Party, from Governor Romney and his running mate. As the public outrage on this has mounted, their apologies have become increasingly full-throated so that, as you mentioned, the congressman started out with I misspoke, like that's a little bit of a bizarre concept. Misspeak is when you accidentally picked the wrong word or say President Clinton when you meant President Obama. This was not misspeaking. As I wrote, this was mis-thinking.

And then similarly, you saw Governor Romney. His campaign several hours after this broke managed to choke out a press release comment saying that the governor and Congressman Ryan disagree with this view. And by morning, disagreement had become finding it offensive and unacceptable. So it's sort of a classic political story of how candidates follow the public polls.

And his colleagues - his would-be colleagues in the United States Senate, basically, as you said, throwing him under the bus.

turn 0 : very enjoy am very nice feelvery enjoy am very nice feel

How did the congressman initially respond to the controversy?

Answer: Misspoke


I'm not so sure that it was missed, per se. I think it's been there at the forefront of the news for a really long time. I just don't think that we saw the potential that it would impact the election in the way that it did, insofar as it's tied up in these other economic and social struggles that are occurring within the same communities.

And to be clear again, you're not saying that people that have a problem with opioids or drug or alcohol voted for Donald Trump so much as people who live in those communities that have been affected by it statistically in your study voted for Donald Trump.

Well, that's right. And I can't say necessarily who voted for Donald Trump, but we have to remember that addiction and depression and these diseases and deaths of despair go far beyond the individuals themselves who are affected by them. They affect friends and family members and coworkers and first responders and service providers and employers in communities who are dealing with the struggles of these and experience the same sort of frustration and anxiety that are associated or wrapped up within diseases and deaths of despair.

You conclude your study by - I believe the quote is community level well-being played an important role in this election.

turn 2 : saying that the effects of addiction, depression, and other diseases go beyond the individual, which is not the same as the actual meaning of the statement which is that people in these communities dealing with the struggles of these issues experience the same kinds of frustration and anxiety.

How did the statement clarify the impact of addiction and depression on the election?

Answer: Frustration


Might give them a viral moment on YouTube.

It could, indeed, give them a viral moment on YouTube. So that's part of the game that's being played. But what the Democrats are trying to do here is educate the public about what this president did and how he did it. And they've got a witness who has impeccable credentials. I don't think the Republicans are going to try to undercut this man. He is one of them. And he served his country. And he did this not because he was looking for a job. He did it because he thought somebody had to do it.

Well, let's get down to the prognostication part of this conversation. Robert Mueller has been pretty plain about how he doesn't want to testify and has nothing to say beyond the report. Do you support his logic?

Well, you know, there've been some very powerful commentary about his position. A former deputy solicitor general, deputy attorney general, a fellow by the name of Donald Ayer wrote a rather sharply worded piece kindly but clearly saying that Mueller had a duty to actually go beyond the four quarters (ph) because of what's happened. Attorney General Barr has tried to discredit his work. He's actually belittled his work. And as Ayer says, you know, this man's got to step up and defend his work and not be rolled over. I think he'll do that.

turn 3 : to be rolled over means to step aside and the narrator is suggesting that the man needs to defend himself.

Which idiom did the narrator use to suggest that the man needs to defend himself?

Answer: Rolled-over


Congress looked like they might get some kind of deal on immigration this past week. Didn't happen. What did happen?

They had a big sit-down meeting among all the House Republicans, and they talked about a deal, but they didn't reach one. The problem is that one faction within the House Republican caucus wants to protect the DREAMers, the people in the U. S.  illegally who were brought here as children. The other faction at the opposite end of the spectrum opposes anything they see as amnesty. And they want full funding for Trump's border wall with Mexico and a number of other changes to current law on legal immigration as well.

So it's not clear how much of that can get worked out, even among House Republicans, let alone with the Senate or the president.

I have to ask, how does the director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, hold onto his job?It seems like every few hours, there's charges of some kind of new ethical infraction. Yeah. I mean, he would have been let go from a greeter position at Walmart by now.

turn 1 : The House Republicans have conflicting views on illegal immigration and the border wall, making it difficult to reach a deal.

Which political group opposes anything they see as amnesty?

Answer: Opposes


Mr.  O'HARROW: No one seems to know exactly how much money will be spent through contracts, but it's going to be a considerable amount. When you hand out money quickly without setting up good terms of contracts and without having mechanisms to follow the money as it's spent to ensure that taxpayers get what they're paying for, you're going to have waste, and that's going to be what you'll get at best. At worst you'll have fraud and corruption.

Now, the Democrats who are in charge of this bill, some of whom have written this bill like David Obey, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, says we have a lot of monitoring built into this bill, and even so, we need to act very, very quickly because this is an emergency.

We've got more oversight built into this package than any package in the history of man. If money is spent badly, we want to know about it so we can hold accountable the people who made that choice. And guess what. Regardless of what we do, there will be some stupid decisions made.

David Obey, chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Well, Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post, what do you say to that?

turn 0 : Handing out money quickly without good contract terms and mechanisms to follow the money will lead to waste, fraud, and corruption

Which committee chair is referenced by PersonB in turn 3?

Answer: B


Absolutely not. In fact, the people of my state should know we are doing everything in our power to defend them. If it comes to a legal fight with the Trump administration, we're prepared to have it. I've had some experience with taking on the Trump administration litigation. We have yet to lose a case yet, and I don't plan on starting with this issue.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson of Washington state, thanks so much.

Oh, thank you, Scott. Have a great day.

And we contacted the Department of Justice for comment on Mr.  Ferguson's remarks about Attorney General Sessions. We have yet to receive a response.

turn 2 : (3) A: Oh, thank you, Scott.Have a great day.

Answer: Great


Yeah. I mean, Jodi came to me very strongly. Before I even realized that I was writing a book, I was hanging out with Jodi. And she kind of took up residence in my mind. And I became a little infatuated with her. I started thinking about her all the time. And then the plot and the rest of the story sort of fell into place. I really, actually, kind of felt like I was getting to know her. And so it was a process of realizing what she had been through.

Well, Jodi - without giving too much away - gets out of prison. She meets an interesting woman, Miranda, who has three children, a failing marriage to a has-been country singer and an addiction. What draws them to each other?

She's just gotten out of prison. And she knows, in many ways, that taking up with Miranda is a bad decision. I mean, she kind of looks at her the first night that they're hanging out and tells herself, don't do this. But at the same time, she's drawn to her. I mean, she's physically attracted to her.

But she's also, I think, attracted to the fact that Miranda is bound and determined to enjoy life despite everything that's going wrong. So it's this sort of love of life and determination to make something joyful out of life.

turn 2 : A women should not associate with a women expect as a friend

How does Jodi initially feel about getting involved with Miranda?

Answer: drawn


Eastern Congo may be the most dangerous place on Earth, and it's getting worse. A rebel army is moving on the biggest city, Goma. Hundreds of thousands of people are running for their lives. This is the region of infamous ethnic killing between the many people who call themselves Hutus and the far fewer Tutsi.

Hez Holland is a correspondent with Reuters. He's been reporting from Goma. He joins us now. Hez, welcome. And remind us, this is also a region of enormous wealth - timber and minerals. People have been fighting over it for a long time.

At least. It's historically been a curse, what with the mineral wealth and, as you said, the timber, has been something that has been fought over for - since the Belgians. It's always been a place where minerals have been extracted and exploited, and the people have always been just pawns in the great game of any kind of colonial power, really.

Well, now, there's this rebel group led by a man named General Nkunda. He is a former Congolese general. And it is moving on the city of Goma. What are you seeing there now?

turn 2 : The statement implies how resourceful and economically important Goma is, unfortunately it never served it purpose.

Which word describes the historical situation of exploiting minerals and treating people as pawns in the region of Eastern Congo?

Answer: Exploited


Let me just unpack that. SIT: sexually transmitted infection?

Yes.

That's - okay. So, you've got a lot of diversity in the book, people of all races. Did you make a choice as to how to portray not just body size diversity of issue diversity, but also racial diversity?

Well, absolutely. I think that it's very important for a variety of reasons. Number one: Women need to be able to see themselves in print. So I made sure to include Asian women, Indian women, black, Hispanic women, white women, all shapes and sizes and all different types of bodies - not just super skinny, not just very large, but everybody in between: flat butts, big butts, big boobs, little boobs. . .

Everything's in "Body Drama. "And I did that because we want to see ourselves, but we're also really curious about what other people look like. And it's that information and acknowledgement that can really help us get over our own body drama, by seeing, oh, wow - I hear this from all the girls who look at the book. Oh, okay. My boobs aren't that bad after all.

And I'd take that to mean that women are sitting around looking in the mirror and then looking at the airbrushed magazines and looking at the surgically enhanced pornography. And when you see actual, real representations of bumpy nipples, of large areola, of imperfect sizes, where one is bigger than the other, then you can look in the mirror and say, all right. Well, actually, I am normal.

turn 0 : B: Let me just unpack that.  Actual meaning: Let me clarify what you mean. Literal meaning: Let me take something out of a suitcase or package.

How did PersonB respond to PersonA's statement about SIT?

Answer: Clarify


All over. I was just meeting with a friend. I had served at the U. S.  Embassy in Mexico. She's here with a group of students and professors. I have just met recently a TV crew from Romania. Another one has come in from Serbia. And, of course, of special note, a number of journalists have come in from Kenya, where there's a very very big interest, obviously, for the roots of the candidate Senator Obama.

Well, tell us, what's drawing the other journalists?What is it that they're so fascinated by?

I think it goes back probably to the caucuses in Iowa in January, and it's just grown. Clearly, as the enthusiasm in the United States has grown, I think a lot of them are focusing on the young people so involved, but in general, the U. S.  public so involved in these elections and in these campaigns. And I think, in part, it is, the U. S.  does remain a certain kind of example in terms of democracy.

Well, I mean, is it fair to say that, were Barack Obama not in this race, there wouldn't be as much interest?

turn 3 : 'were Barack Obama not in this race, there wouldn't be as much interest' implies Obama is the main reason for the interest

What is the implied reason for the interest mentioned in turn 3?

Answer: Obama


Well, it's about four, five, six percent. But we also asked questions about whether or not people would change their minds. You can add an additional about 20 percent of voters who are picking a candidate in the month of September, but are still saying they might change their mind how they're going to vote. When you add those two numbers together, you get almost to a quarter of the electorate in Ohio that could change its mind between now and Election Day.

And the number one issue, as it is in many places in the country, the economy?

The economy is the number one issue. And one of the things that makes it very difficult for a candidate to campaign in Ohio is that when they come to Ohio to talk about the economy, they can't just talk about a single aspect. When you talk to folks in the northern part of the state, northeast Ohio which includes Cleveland, and northwest Ohio which includes Toledo, when you're talking about the economy there, oftentimes the discussion is about trade.

When you talk about the economy in southwest Ohio, which is the Cincinnati area, there's much less talk about trade, and more discussion about wages and the salaries that people are making. The southeast area of the state, which is also known in part because of the Appalachian history of that part of the state, has high unemployment. A number of counties in southeast Ohio have double-digit unemployment. Many people in that region are talking about and focused on unemployment, solely as their economic concern.

turn 2 : "talk about a single aspect" - actual meaning: talk about a single element or component

How can a candidate talk about the economy in Ohio?

Answer: trade


When you first started out, though, as - performing in those amateur clubs, what was that like?

It was great because it was new. You know, comedy in itself was illegal. We had a few satirists but no - first of all, there were no black comedians. I mean, as a black person you were lucky if you're allowed to speak, never mind tell jokes in public, you know?So we had a few white South Africans who challenged the status quo, guys like Pieter-Dirk Uys, who was a legend in the country, and he got arrested many times. You got arrested if you did that. So for us young-uns, we came up and it was just this free speech - we had verbal diarrhea, just run around and just, you know, I can say this now. I can say anything now and that's what we've been doing.

Where did you learn the technique though?

From my family. Storytelling is an African tradition. You know, you laugh. And if you look at it, the history of comedy has always been strongest amongst the nations who have been persecuted the most. In America, the stronghold of comedy was always amongst Jewish people. And that's what many Jewish families have said, is that without their food and their laughter, they wouldn't have gotten through what happened to them as a people, you know?And that's what happened to black people all over the world. As you learned to find joy in your pain, you know, that's where the music comes from. That's where the culture comes from. That's literally - with the oppression will come the laughter.

turn 1 : (2) A: "You know, comedy in itself was illegal." - The actual meaning here is not that comedy was explicitly illegal, but rather that it was risky and subversive to use humor to challenge the oppressive status quo in a society where certain groups were not allowed to speak freely.

What was the risk of using humor to challenge the oppressive status quo in the society?

Answer: challenge


No, no. I just - it's always - to me, it's just the joy of storytelling. And I don't think about it. Getting things in on time has never been a problem for me, so I don't worry about it. You know, I remember watching Morgan Freeman when he did the two Alex Cross movies. And he's so confident that he's going to knock the scene dead, and I'm really confident that I can tell a good story now, so I just don't worry about things.

James Patterson. His book for young readers: "Middle School: How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli and Snake Hill", co-written with Chris Tebbetts. His adult book, "Second Honeymoon", with Howard Roughan. Thanks so much for being with us.

Thank you. Nice talking to you.

You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.

turn 3 : WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News." The literal meaning of this turn is that the person is informing the listener that they are currently listening to a radio program called WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. The implied meaning, however, is that this is a standard closing statement for the radio program, and it is used to signal the end of the program. It does not literally mean that the listener is currently listening to the program, as the turn can be heard at the end of every episode.

Which program does the turn "WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News" signal the end of?

Answer: WEEKEND


Yeah.

Even the CIA's, like, getting this information. I imagine it's like the details that are the stuff that really make it pop, right?So can you give us an example of some of the details that you get about the personal life and interests of the dignitaries he may meet?

Sure. So as you can imagine, politics is about relationships and personalities. And so every leader has their own lifestyle, their own favorite things to do, their own personal interests. And so we endeavor to find out what those are. So for example, I'll take a meeting that happened between President George W.  Bush and Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan. Koizumi was a huge Elvis fan.

(Laughter).

And we learned that, and we knew that. And so the president decided, let's take Prime Minister Koizumi to Graceland. So they flew to Memphis. . .

Wow.

turn 2 : Knowing personal details about foreign dignitaries is important for diplomacy

Which meeting between leaders is mentioned as an example in the dialogue?

Answer: Bush-Koizumi


Well, we had some great conversations about what it took to play the position. And you know, Bob Watson, who started out as a catcher, was one of the committee members. Phil Niekro, Bert Blyleven and Don Sutton, Pat Gillick, all pitchers, all Hall Famers, were really able to add a lot of insight to what it must have been like.

And the other - one of the main things we talked about was just how they played much shorter schedules in the 1870s. So when you look at career statistics, that's a huge distortion. Deacon White ended up with 2,000 career hits, but he was playing in a - in an average of 40, 50, 60-game schedules a year. So there was no way to generate the kind of career milestones that we look at as benchmarks today. You know, 3,000 hits would be all but impossible. And 2,000 was a terrific accomplishment.

And the number of errors he recorded even as a great defensive catcher would have been, you know, totally unacceptable by today's standards.

Oh, exactly. Yeah. And again, an issue where we had to really sort of look at what - compare him to people from his own era. And when we did that, you know, it became really obvious just how much he stood above his contemporaries.

Are the records from those days good enough that you have reliable accounts of who was good and who was great?

turn 1 : Shorter schedules in the past distorted career milestones and accomplishments.

How did shorter schedules in the past affect career milestones?

Answer: Distortion


I don't think that the Russian trolls sitting in a factory in St.  Petersburg have First Amendment rights to communicate without restriction on Facebook. I don't think that's the issue here. The question is are we being reasonable when we expect an open platform like this to be able to wholly protect us from being exposed to that kind of information?But I do worry about overreacting to this threat of propaganda. And I do think that on some level we have to trust our citizens to be able to separate fact from fiction.

Do you have any words for Americans who support free speech but don't know where to turn and who to trust on social media?

Well, one of the things that's been encouraging in the last two years is how much Americans have turned to more trusted sources of news. People really are looking for more reliable news sources. And that's a positive development. It's never been easier to find good, responsible, interesting news. It's never been harder to avoid the bad stuff. So, I just think that what we really need to be teaching here is citizenship and judgment. And I do have some faith in the American people that they're going to figure this out.

Ben Wizner, who's director of the ACLU's Speech Privacy and Technology Project, thanks so much.

turn 0 : A believes that Facebook should be responsible for protecting people from propaganda, but not necessarily limit free speech. 2. A believes that people should be able to distinguish between fact and fiction on their own.

Which organization does Ben Wizner direct for the ACLU?

Answer: Speech


Well, what would that serious diplomacy look like?I mean, I - the United States would have to - what?- accept a. . .

It's a fair question, you know, why diplomacy would work now when it's failed in the past. I think that the breakout is a game-changer for the United States because we're directly - become directly vulnerable to North Korea. But it's also a game-changer for China because they'll either - they'll have to live with the strategic consequences of a breakout, which could - are unknown. South Korea could reassess its non-nuclear status.

So I think the conjunction of factors that we can bring China into play would have the goal of obtaining a nuclear - a freeze to lock in North Korea at its current level of capabilities. And for China - I think the conjunction of factors is that for China, they would retain their buffer in North Korea. And they would prevent these adverse strategic consequences. North Korea would maintain its minimum deterrent, and the regime would remain in power. For the United States, it would prevent this breakout, and it would offer us a not-great narrative. But we would say that this is an interim agreement toward the long-term goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

Well Mr.  Litwak, in the minute we have left, can you really trust any - the process of reaching or signing any agreement with a regime like North Korea's?

turn 1 : North Korea's nuclear capabilities pose a direct threat to the United States.

How does North Korea's nuclear capability affect the United States?

Answer: Threat


Do you have any concern, Mr.  Levin, that if some of these alternatives you're talking about are used more frequently that you might have a situation where - and I'll be apocryphal here - a white college kid with access to means and a good lawyer can get a very light sentence and a kid from the inner city that lacks both will still have the book thrown at him.

Well, you know, that is an interesting question because this decision by the attorney general was one based on discretion. The public has as very low opinion of elected officials and so it's certainly the case is if you don't think much of Congress, you wouldn't want Congress' judgment to be substituted for your own if you're on the jury, especially given that it's the jury that has access to the specific facts of the case.

And certainly, though, as you mentioned, race should absolutely not be considered and we need to make sure every offender has quality representation for those who have appointed counsel. Ideally, they could have some say in choosing their own counsel with some type of voucher or something so we can make sure they get vigorous representation in court, that evidence that may exonerate them is presented.

Marc Levin is director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation Center for Effective Justice speaking with us from Austin. Thanks so much.

turn 1 : The speaker is expressing concern that the justice system might be unfairly biased against certain individuals based on their race and access to resources.

Which group is the speaker concerned might receive a lighter sentence?

Answer: white


Oh, thanks. We're professional seguers here at NPR.

You took my breath away there.

Well, speaking of age, though, you're - you play a geezer in this picture.

Yeah, but I'm the youngest in the cast.

Really, I'm the baby.

turn 1 : you took my breath away implies being very amazing, surprising and beautiful in view and performance. Not taking someone's breath or air by trying to suffocate them

How did PersonA feel about PersonB's performance?

Answer: Amazed


Well, I think on the third CD you definitely want to show some level of growth. I think your first album is your introduction. Your second album needs to show consistency. And your third album has to show growth in order for you to have a fourth album.

(Singing) You are a star, and you are perfect just the way you are. Keep on dreaming, keep on shining. . .

So, "Keep On Dreaming," one of your songs, folds in the loop from Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner. "And you have echoes of songs by other artists throughout the CD, but not samples per se. Why did you choose that approach?

You know, I think people want to be able to hear something familiar while hearing something new. It kind of ties it all together, like the "Tom's Diner" sample, it's just, it's like, she managed to be able to convey a certain feeling just off a melody that she had. She didn't really even say anything, but "duh duh da da, duh duh da da. "You know what I'm saying?And I think that's something that I wanted to mimic in this song. It's not a lot of words, but it's really just a feeling that I was trying to convey.

turn 3 : The artist prioritizes conveying emotion over lyrics in their music

How does the artist aim to convey their message in "Keep On Dreaming"?

Answer: Feeling


I - and I have to ask you in the - I'm afraid - half-minute we have left, do you have any idea, Mr.  Driscoll, how much the NRA has been supported by Russia?Aren't they trying to use the NRA to influence or to promote gun violence or division?

I'm not aware of that thread of the story from where I sit. I know that's been a popular speculation in the media. But I have not seen any evidence of that. But, again, you know, I assume others will look into that and see if there's anything there. But I haven't seen it from where I sit.

Robert Driscoll represents Maria Butina. Thanks so much.

Thank you.

turn 1 : The speaker believes that there is no evidence of Russia supporting the NRA.

What does the speaker know about the speculation regarding Russia's support for the NRA?

Answer: Nothing


Yeah, bubbly jock. And an owl is a hoolet. And that, again, is based on the sound that it makes. And - but my favorite is a wood pigeon, is a cushie-doo.

That is an absolutely dead-on approximation of its sound.

Isn't it lovely?So a frog is a puddock and sparrow is a speug. So I've never used speug in a sentence, but when I was a boy, we used puddock. So I don't go around trying to convince everybody that my culture's better than theirs, but sometimes it suits my face better. It sits nicely in my mouth.

And explaining your culture, it goes with the way you do your material. You don't tell jokes, per se.

turn 2 : material in this context means the way someone performs

Which word describes the way someone performs?

Answer: Material


The death toll in Sudan has risen sharply. A doctors group there now says more than 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded when the military fired on a sit-in outside the defense ministry. Pro-democracy protesters want a new government in Sudan. They have been negotiating with the military. In a televised statement, the military said now all agreements are off, and elections will happen within nine months.

Joining us now is Nima Elbagir. She is senior international correspondent with CNN. She was in Sudan not long ago, and she joins us now from London. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

Good morning, Rachel.

Nima, I understand you're in touch with people in Khartoum. What are you hearing now that this violence has happened?

turn 0 : The military opened fire on peaceful protesters resulting in numerous deaths and injuries, causing political instability in Sudan.

How did the military respond to the negotiations with pro-democracy protesters in Sudan?

Answer: Fired


So in your polling, in your research, do you find that it's going to come down to maybe a couple thousand votes from these unaffiliated voters and on what issues?Or will they vote?

It is likely at the moment to be a very narrow victory. President Bush won in 2004 with five percent. That was 100,000 votes. In other words, if it is one percent, that would be 20,000 votes, and right now, the polls are moving around in just single percentage points. So it could be that narrow.

Now, I have read that Colorado is going to be this year's Florida and Ohio, that this is going to be the state that decides the election.

I think it could be, and the interesting thing is that Obama and Palin were both in Jefferson County a couple of days ago, indicating that there may be actually even a county that could be looked at to be beyond an entire state.

turn 1 : The actual meaning of the turn is different from its literal meaning. The turn is using a hypothetical scenario to explain how a narrow victory in the upcoming election could be possible based on current polling data.

What is the turn in the dialogue using a hypothetical scenario to explain?

Answer: Narrow


Are there specific goals you all are trying to achieve in terms of advancing one policy or another?

Yeah. So the overarching mission is really to support science for the public good. I think it's really important to say that when politicians attack science, it's not necessarily across the board. It's certain types of science. So if you look at climate change or public health, they're under attack from certain groups because, you know, they involve regulation or some businesses have an interest in them or there's some political thing to be gained for them. And so what we will be doing after the march is putting out a policy platform on all of these specific areas.

Is that a little like herding cats?I mean, I'm guessing the scientific community (laughter), like any other, is hardly monolithic in what it thinks is the way forward.

Well, this is what we have to do. Right?So if, at the end of the day, we get bogged down in research grants, we get bogged down in having to write the next paper - but we do science 'cause we care about improving society. And if that's what it takes for us to really, you know, bring all of these diverse voices into the room and figure out, you know, how we can be unified and how we can be a political force, that's where we're at at the moment. And we're going to push for that hard after the march.

turn 2 :  The implication of this statement is that it will be difficult to reach a consensus among the scientific community due to their diverse opinions

How does PersonA describe the scientific community's opinions?

Answer: Diverse


A clever grounds crew can mean a difference in close games, can't it?

Oh, definitely. Well a grounds crew can tailor the field in very small ways that might impact the outcome of the game. You know, gone are the days of legendary Kansas City groundskeeper George Toma and his ilk - the (unintelligible). They really would tailor the fields in unbelievable ways. They would tilt the foul lines in a certain way so that bunts wouldn't roll foul. They were harden the turf to make it more difficult for players to slide if they didn't want the opposing team to slide.

Nowadays, uniformity is really something that is mandated by Major League Baseball. But there are still small ways. I visited with Trevor Vance, who's the head groundskeeper for the Kansas City Royals. And this was during 2015 - the year they would ultimately win the World Series. And he talked about how he made the infield play very fast - you know, shorter grass - because they had young, athletic infielders. And they felt that that was an advantage for them because they knew that their guys could get to the ball. And the other team probably couldn't.

There's so much joy in your book. But I have to ask, are there bad memories, if not ghosts, at the New Orleans Superdome?

turn 0 : Implied meaning: The speaker may be expressing frustration or dissatisfaction with their current experiences using crowdsourcing platforms like AMT and is looking for ways to improve their outcomes.

How might the speaker be feeling about crowdsourcing platforms like AMT?

Answer: Frustration


I think one of the reasons, Tony, that we're seeing so of many of these come to light has, really, nothing to do with the fact that people are being - that this is happening more often so much as it is the fact that people are just paying attention to it more. You know, you watch the news and somebody says, oh, there's a stolen car ring. Now, all of a sudden, everybody's watching for people breaking into cars. Well, people break into cars every day. But when you hear about it on the news, people start paying attention.

There have always been Ponzi schemes. This is not new. This has been going on forever. It has been happening to investors. It'll continue to go on, but we're just aware of because the Madoff scandal was so large and so visible.

You know, it's funny. I was listening to your description of the Ponzi scheme - as our time is running out - and I couldn't help but think that there must be somebody listening to your description who is saying, wow, the stimulus package, that sounds like a Ponzi scheme to me.

The government covering its own losses by printing more money back, which covers losses in which it prints more money. Hey, you know, you could make that - I'm not going to make that argument, but somebody might.

turn 1 : Ponzi schemes have been around for a long time and will continue to exist.

Answer: Long.


The show was political. I mean, it didn't shy away from really difficult issues, took sharp aim at President Trump on several occasions. Did that play into Netflix's decision to cancel it, do we have any idea?

I don't get any sense that Netflix canceled it over the political content. If anything, the political content is one of the reasons why they treated this cancellation a bit differently and a bit more gently than they ordinarily do - because there were not a lot of shows out there about a Latin American family with a predominantly Latinx cast dealing with these issues about immigration, LGBTQ issues. You know, every episode has some kind of hot-button subject. You know, one of the characters is a recovering alcoholic. Another has PTSD from serving in the military. So it touched on a lot of things.

And that was one of the things the audience loved about it. I don't think, based on a lot of the other content Netflix has, that that would have been a reason to get rid of it. I think it was purely a financial decision or, you know, whatever the finances actually were.

And the show can't just get plucked up by someone else.

turn 0 : Implicated meaning: The political content of the show may have played a role in its cancellation by Netflix.

Which topic did the show touch on which one of the characters has?

Answer: Alcoholic


And what they're suggesting is that you can lose spin from the Earth-moon system and transfer it to the sun-Earth system. And it's a very complex calculation. I mean, it's not just trivial that it took 30, 40 years to figure this out. But once that is on the table, and you say hey, I can start with an Earth that's spinning with a period of two hours, now you have an Earth, that if you were to look at this - and you can download the simulations from Science magazine - and you can see that - or from Harvard - and you can see that this Earth looks kind of like a muffin.

It's spinning so fast, it's got kind of a two-to-one axis ratio. And so their solution is hey, I can make the moon out of Earth's mantle, I'll just sort of hit it with a tiny projectile - you know, not tiny but much smaller than we thought previously - so Theia becomes smaller.

And you hit it, and off of the equator of this rapidly spinning muffin comes this stuff, and it's mostly Earth's mantle.

Little muffin that becomes the moon.

turn 3 : The moon was once a part of the Earth.

Answer: Mantle


Hi, Tony. How are you?

Listen, people define hate groups in different ways. So two things for you, how does the Southern Poverty Law Center determine if an organization deserves this classification, and what kinds of groups are we talking about here?

Basically, our definition of a hate group is a group which in its platform statements or in the speeches or writings of its leader says that an entire group of other people by virtue of their group characteristics is somehow less. So in other words, a group that says, you know, all black people are criminals, all white people are blue-eyed devils, all the Jews are whatever, is a hate group by our definition.

Are we talking then about the Klan, Nazi skinheads, something different and new perhaps?

turn 2 : "Blue-eyed devils" isn't literal. something people might say to indicate they think white people are evil. But they don't have to have blue eyes or be literal devils.

What is an example of a group characteristic that a hate group might use to classify an entire group of people as somehow less?

Answer: Group


Sort of the intellectual or business father of this. But he himself did not survive. But the practice did survive. And I want to ask for some distinctions here. You have different terms in the book, slaves, indentured servants and what you call free willers. I'm intrigued by the concept of a free willer. Who were they, and what did they get from essentially putting themselves in servitude?

Well, that's what they got. They put themselves in servitude. They were desperate. They were poor people or people who didn't have enough money to pay for the trip to America. They wanted a new life. They hoped that they would get one in America. And so they signed themselves away, their freedoms away, as indentured servants to pay for their passage. And that would be for anything between three and 11 years, usually. Now most of them, initially, didn't survive more than a couple of years.

The first - the average, I think, lifespan of a new indentured servant in the 1620s was probably two years. So these were - they were called at the time free willers because they went of their free will, and so many others didn't go of their free will. They were sent there. They were sent there in chains. They were sentenced to go there. They weren't free at all. Well, nor were these people. So that's the free willers. They are indentured servants.

What about the relationship of the white indentured servants to the African or African-descendant slaves?How did they get along, and how did the people who were essentially their masters treat them differently, if they did?

turn 1 : The 'free willers' were actually indentured servants who sold their freedoms in exchange for a trip to America.

What did the 'free willers' exchange for a trip to America?

Answer: Indentured-servants


The regulations and the oversight that was put in place was relatively minimal because this was going to be such a small endeavor. It was going to be a small-scale experiment for 100 schools. Well, guess what?We have 1,300 charter schools today. And we have a law that doesn't actually account for the scale of that.

That's LA Times reporter Anna Phillips. She's been investigating loopholes in California's charter school system. What she discovered is a fragmented and decentralized regulating system. In Los Angeles, Phillips encountered a case in which a wealthy Beverly Hills couple made millions of dollars by simply turning to a different school district whenever their charter schools came under scrutiny.

These charter schools had been set up as nonprofits that were publicly funded. But if you looked right kind of on the outskirts of them, the couple that had started them had essentially created a series of businesses or nonprofits that were doing business with their own schools. So for instance, this couple rented a lot of their own properties they owned. They were their own landlords.

They owned buildings that then they rented to the schools, so they were getting that income.

Exactly. And there were other ways they were getting income. The woman who ran these schools, her husband was hired on as a project manager for about $500,000 to oversee the construction of a new campus. When they wanted to bring in cafeteria meals for their students, they hired one of their own organizations. So this was public money that was coming into these schools, but the couple that ran them was financially benefiting from it.

turn 1 : "loopholes in California's charter school system" - The literal meaning of "loopholes" is gaps or flaws in a system or law that can be exploited. However, the implied meaning is that the charter school system in California has structural weaknesses that allow for abuses and inconsistencies in regulation.

Which system has structural weaknesses in California?

Answer: system


Why they're talking about it is because they feel they have to talk about it. The government of Bangladesh wants the bulk of these people to return. They also would be feeling some domestic pressures in this area, as well. And the government of Burma, I think, is feeling some of the pressure from the international community and feels some need to be responsive. But the real story here is this is horrifying, this discussion, to be taking place right now, given the complete absence of measures in place to ensure safety and security upon return.

As I understand it, the Rohingya, according to this agreement, will be moved from the camps in Bangladesh to a camp in Myanmar where there could be security concerns.

Oh yeah, there are no safeguards in place. There - been no serious discussion of safeguards for return. You have to realize that we're talking about one of the greatest crimes in recent memory - massive abuses, forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of weeks.

There's problems, obviously, with monitoring the situation. The government won't let - of Myanmar - won't let international monitors in. And, in fact, the top U. N.  official responsible for human rights was barred from the country. Is that right?

turn 2 : There have been no serious discussions of safeguards for the return of the Rohingya, despite their forced relocation and massive abuses.

How have the discussions been regarding the safety and security of Rohingya return?

Answer: absent


In South America, a massive power grid serves Argentina and neighboring Uruguay, as well as parts of Paraguay. Tens of millions of people rely on that grid, until Sunday morning, when they could not. The grid crashed. Much of three countries went dark. NPR's Philip Reeves has been covering this story from Rio de Janeiro. Hey there, Philip.

Hi.

How did this unfold?

Well, it started, Steve, at around 7 in the morning. People were - woke up for, you know, what they hoped would be a nice, peaceful Sunday to discover that the power was out across almost all of Argentina, which is the second largest country in this region, and also in parts of neighboring Uruguay and Paraguay, which get electricity, as you mentioned, from the Argentine grid. Now, the impact would have been a lot worse on a working day, but big power cuts are always very serious matters.

turn 0 : Parts of South America experienced a major power outage.

What region was affected by the power outage?

Answer: South-America


Well, let's talk about kind of the overview. So the goal of the ACA was to help the 37 million uninsured out there. And, yes, uninsurance rates have gone down dramatically or at historic lows. But I think a lot of things were unforeseen.

And the way some of the regulations were implemented are actually harming rural America and not fulfilling the ultimate goals of the ACA. And what I mean by that is half of those 37 million - the goal was to expand Medicaid and get those folks into a Medicaid program. We know that a lot of states have taken the Supreme Court up on its option of opting out of Medicaid. That has predominantly hurt rural America.

In fact, if you're a rural state, if you're a poor state, more likely than not, you have not expanded Medicaid. So we're seeing millions of folks left behind at that. Our concern is that since the ACA was passed, we've had an escalation of rural hospitals close. We've had 80 rural hospitals close since 2010. If this rate continues, in less than 10 years' time, we're going to have 25 percent of rural hospitals close within less than a decade.

Do you have any concern about the Congress repealing the Affordable Care Act - what's called Obamacare - without a replacement?

turn 1 : The implied meaning of this turn is that the implementation of the ACA has not achieved its goals as intended, as evidenced by the fact that many states have opted out of Medicaid, leaving many people uninsured and leading to an increasing number of rural hospital closures.

Which program was the goal of expanding Medicaid to get those folks into a Medicaid program for half of the uninsured population?

Answer: Medicaid


Oh, there are lots of modern blunders but not all of them are brilliant.

To be brilliant, it has to be truly an epic blunder, is what you're saying.

Well, it has to be something that in one way or another leads to a real breakthrough. You know, this is how I define, you know, a brilliant blunder and not just something that is a big mistake. I mean there are lots of huge mistakes.

While I was writing this book, when people would ask me what is your book about, I said, you know, it's about brilliant blunders and it's not an autobiography.

turn 1 : To be brilliant it has to be an extremely large blunder.

Which word defines a brilliant blunder according to A?

Answer: Large


The big one was that they died of lead poisoning due to the canning of the canned tin goods. The problem with that - these guys hadn't eaten any tin food. It was only three months into their voyage.

It was a dire situation anyway you look at it. But, of course, in your book, it wasn't dire enough. You throw in an Arctic beast.

I do, an unexplained Arctic beast that we never see. And the reason for that is I wanted something to personify just the terror, the horror of the darkness, the five months of darkness, the terrible cold - 100 degrees below zero - the constricting ice that you had to listen to against the hull, you know, all the time.

What would be the best-case scenario for you if they find which ship it is?What would you like to know?

turn 1 :  B: "It wasn't dire enough" - The literal meaning suggests that the situation was not severe enough, but in the context of the conversation, it implies that the situation was already very dire, and adding an Arctic beast to the story made it even more terrifying.

How did PersonB perceive the situation described in PersonA's book?

Answer: Dire


Thank you.

So what originally did the Consumer Product Safety Commission say was wrong with this stroller?

They were concerned about the front wheel of the stroller. It's a three-wheeled stroller, and they were concerned with the wheel falling off suddenly. It's attached to the stroller with a quick release, the same thing that attaches the wheels on bicycles. And so parents would be out running, jogging with their strollers, their kid in the middle. And the wheel would spontaneously fall off.

So the agency spent months investigating. And in 2017, they decided that Britax should recall the stroller, that it wasn't safe. And they even sued to try and force the company to recall the stroller. Tell us why that didn't happen.

turn 3 :  "So the agency spent months investigating.And in 2017, they decided that Britax should recall the stroller, that it wasn't safe.And they even sued to try and force the company to recall the stroller.Tell us why that didn't happen." is a question that asks for an explanation about why the company did not recall the stroller despite the efforts made by the agency. Its meaning is also clear and straightforward.

Answer: Recall


One day, Africa appears as a mass of crinkly brown veins. Another, it's become vivid streaks of orange and gold. Crimson and violet squiggles around Australia could be an abstract painting. It seemed that Commander Kelly never got tired of what he could see out the window and what he could make us see in an entirely new way. When the capsule bearing Kelly and cosmonauts Kornienko and Volkov parachuted to a landing in Kazakhstan earlier this month, that fantastic journey came to a close. Back home in Houston, Scott Kelly will be poked and prodded, weighed and measured, all in the name of science. And his terrestrial tweets now bring their own delights. He posted video of his first plunge into a pool.

Man, that feels good.

A few days later, there was Scott Kelly with his arms stretched overhead and a big smile, looking up at a dark sky.

My first rain in more than a year. Awesome.

turn 1 : The actual meaning of (2) is that Scott Kelly is expressing his joy and relief at being able to experience something he has not felt in over a year,

What did Scott Kelly experience for the first time in over a year?

Answer: Joy


We have what are called the three amigos. And the three amigos are Secretary Perry, again, Ambassador Volker and myself. And we've been tasked with sort of overseeing the Ukraine-U. S.  relationship.

ORDOÑEZ: And mind you that all this is happening even as Trump and his officials are in the process of ousting the U. S.  ambassador to the Ukraine, who Trump recently called bad news.

What kind of reputation has Sondland built during his brief time as a diplomat?

ORDOÑEZ: You know, in some ways, Sondland is kind of like Trump. He's a businessman. He made his name in the hotel industry. People I spoke to said he has kind of a similar brash personality - a wheeler, a dealer, someone with a lot of confidence. He's kind of a larger-than-life character. When he hosted an Independence Day celebration in Brussels, he actually brought in Jay Leno as entertainment.

turn 3 : The person makes a great many large financial deals and is loud and confident.

How would you describe Sondland's personality?

Answer: Brash


This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Pope Francis issued what's called an apostolic exhortation this week called The Joy of Gospel. And in his exhortation, he upheld church teachings while signaling a new openness to conversation about change. Maybe most notably the pope criticized the way much of the world, including the United States, does business. He warned against what he called an economy of exclusion, arguing that the very structural causes of poverty must be addressed. We turn now to Father James Martin, a noted Jesuit and culture editor of the Jesuit magazine America. He joins us from Philadelphia today. Father Jim, thanks for being with us.

THE REV. JAMES MARTIN: My pleasure.

What's the pope exhorting his church to do?

Well, I would say in this document he's asking us to do three things. Number one, remember the importance of joy. When we preach the Gospel, he inveighs against sourpusses - that's the English translation.

turn 2 : POPE ISSUED THE JOY OF GOSPEL AND HIS EXHORTION,AND TO REMEMBER THE IMPORTANCE OF JOY

What did the Pope issue in his exhortation?

Answer: Exhortation


So not just a lost city, a lost civilization?

That's right. He emailed Michael back in Roatan, and I'll never forget we were returning from breakfast and this normally phlegmatic kind of skeptical scientist who is rolling his eyes at the whole idea that there is going to be lost city comes running out of his room, racing in his flip-flops, waving his arms and yelling, there's something in the valley. My God, I don't know what it is, but you've got to come and look at it. So we all went rushing over to this room and looked at these images. And I looked at them and I was actually thunderstruck myself. I mean, there is no mistaking what we were looking at.

We're talking with Doug Preston, an author and contributing writer at National Geographic, The Atlantic and Smithsonian magazines. He also writes for The New Yorker. "The El Dorado Machine" is in the May 6th edition. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

And eventually, other target areas were also mapped and also revealed enormous structures - entire cities.

turn 0 : A civilization that has become unknown to other civilizations over the years.

How would you describe the lost civilization mentioned in the dialogue?

Answer: undiscovered


Well, we think that the individual insurance markets need to be stabilized. There needs to be certainty. Right now, the insurance companies are putting together their plans for rating the 2018 insurance products, and they have no certainty from Congress regarding the support for insurance premiums for lower income people. Without knowing those, they don't know how to price their policies, and they're going to price them very high. So the bit - that's the biggest thing that needs to be addressed right now.

Dr.  Gurman, I move to ask you a question, both as a physician with a practice and the head of the AMA, how much time do you have to spend on matters that have nothing to do with medicine?

Well, unfortunately, a lot. We know from doing detailed studies where we actually follow doctors and minute to minute with a stopwatch find out what they're doing. The doctors are spending less than half of their time actually taking care of patients. So it's a big problem.

And how would you reduce that bureaucracy, though?Because, you know, bureaucracies run on (laughter) run on a paper trail in a sense.

turn 3 : (4) B: The speaker implies that reducing bureaucracy is not as simple as just getting rid of paperwork, as bureaucracies are inherently reliant on established procedures and processes.

How is bureaucracy reliant on established procedures and processes, according to the speaker?

Answer: procedures


Oh, absolutely.

You know, like, what are some of the other barbecue don'ts that come up when all of you all get together?

I think hovering is a big one, people who want to jump on the grill before they've been invited to, people who think they're helping out by bringing a side of beef that they figure you have room on the grill to just add that into your menu, any kind of, you know, presumptuous guests.

What about some barbecue do's?Are there some do's that you wish people would do that they perhaps don't think to do?

turn 0 : don'ts  refers to unacceptable behavior and activities

Which behavior is referred to as "don'ts" in the dialogue?

Answer: Unacceptable


That's correct. Yes, well, the last thing we've heard it was just outside of Port Fourchon, which is at the lower end of LaFourche Parish. So the winds have been picking up a bit and that's what we're getting ready for here. So far, however, we are putting stuff up on the web and we haven't stopped all night.

I hear people on the radio behind you, you must be at a sort of emergency control headquarters or something?

No, no, not us; we're just communicating with our reporters. We have reporters out in different parts of the parish, and we're trying to keep in touch with them as we can, and get what information they're getting as travel with the authorities.

What are you going to do when your internet connection goes down?

turn 3 : The speaker asks how they will communicate when the internet connection fails, implying that it will fail at some point.

How does the speaker imply the internet connection will fail?

Answer: Fail


In the end, has the IMF been a force for good?What has it done that might otherwise not have been done?

You know, I think the comparison is with what happened in the '20s and '30s - that was a world in which we did not have a international lender of last resort. And it was a world in which countries went bankrupt. There was a massive retreat from globalization, countries lost confidence in the way the international financial system worked. And I think the proof of how valuable the IMF has been is the onward march of globalization.

But you're aware of the fact that when the IMF meets, there are going to be protesters outside who are saying that globalization is the problem.

Yeah and I think they're mistaken. They are objecting to some of the cultural consequences of globalization. But I don't think anyone can object to an institution that's committed to preventing people from going under.

turn 1 :  A: "lender of last resort" refers to a central bank or other institution that provides emergency funding to financial institutions or other entities in the event of a crisis. In this context, the IMF has been serving as a lender of last resort to countries facing financial difficulties, even if it is not a traditional central bank.

What does "lender of last resort" refer to?

Answer: Emergency


Huge.

Bringing peace there. Is there - there are some similarities I would imagine with Rwanda.

You know, I haven't heard the organized ones like we did see there. But always I think, they've been the backbone of the country but always in the background, not even allowed to own property. And now with these new rights given to them, we're seeing some real, real progress.

So, Carl, for you, in a sense you could say that Rwanda was ground zero, but now you have expanded beyond there to continue your works around the world. Tell us briefly about that.

turn 2 : the group of people they are referring to have been pivotal to the success of the country

Which group has been instrumental to the progress of the country?

Answer: Group


That's right. And my experience has taught me that, first of all, the role of the diaspora is very important and what was also called sometimes the reversal of the brain drain, in the case of India, for example. I wish that many Somalis come back to Somalia to contribute to the rebuilding of the country. So I thought I should pitch my message to the community, in this case in Minnesota, and to appeal to their involvement so that we can sustain the progress that was made.

You gave this speech in Minnesota, where I understand your son has just graduated from high school. Congratulations. So what does he think of your advice to come home?

Of course I have made the appeal to him as well.

(Laughter).

turn 0 : The brain does not reverse but  the person's opinions do change.

Answer: Opinions


Of course.

Why if the students two were traveling in five buses - why the target was just two?And also, these two buses were exactly the two buses that the army and the Federal Police - start to monitor it since three hours before. I mean, these two buses were the two buses where the students were traveling from the school to Iguala. Why?So what I was able to found is that in these two buses were inside in secret parts of the bus. . .

The secret compartment.

. . . Yes - heroin - 2 millions of heroin. They. . .

turn 2 : Secret compartment where they stored the "illegal stuff" on the bus.

How was the "illegal stuff" stored on the bus?

Answer: compartment


Absolutely. But on the other hand, you know, basically going toward an impeachment process without making sure that we have done our homework and have the case to win the approval of the American people and to get a conviction in the Senate may not be the best course. So right now. . .

But forgive - we just have half a minute left. Forgive - you and I always use baseball analogies. Are you essentially saying we're not going to begin the game until we know we can win it?

I think what I'm saying is we have to make sure that we go down the path where we can actually achieve the intended result. And right now, going into the impeachment process without having done all our homework is not what my constituents want. And I think that it's not necessarily the best course.

Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, thanks so much for being back with us.

turn 1 : It's not a game. They mean they are not going to begin the impeachment unless they know they can succeed.

How do they refer to the impeachment process?

Answer: game


The way I coped with these disasters was seeing myself as the hero of my own story and thinking oh, okay, in the story, the guy survives. He doesn't kill himself. He doesn't commit himself to a mental hospital. He actually survives and thrives and overcomes these obstacles.

And in addition to that, you've also had kidney problems, and you talk really frankly about just how much strength it took you to do really basic things because you were constantly dealing with your body rebelling against you.

Yeah, I'm going through that right now. I'm on the top of the list for a transplant now, and I don't really want a transplant right now because I'm doing all right. So at this point, I'm kind of bring it on. I'm just, you know, I can take it.

What about the good stuff?There are many good things in your life, and two of them are Eva and Chet(ph), your kids. What are they like?

turn 0 : "seeing myself as the hero of my own story" is a metaphorical expression meaning to view oneself as the protagonist in one's own life story and to take control of the situation.

What literary device is used in turn 0 of the dialogue?

Answer: Metaphor


Yeah. And the police have actually been very open about this, and they've done a number of internal investigations. And they believe if everything had gone absolutely properly and correctly, they could've been there 16 minutes earlier. Part of the problem here, though, because they have taken something some - a fair amount of criticism I thought was unfair, They didn't have a plan for this because why would you?I mean, who sits around and dreams up a plan in a country with a miniscule violent crime rate to expect that someone's going to blow up Central Oslo and then drive out to a youth summer camp on an island and start gunning people down?

I mean, that's not going to rank high in the probability scale. There was a fair amount of distance to cover, and they had a problem with the boat. You know, I spent some time with a police officer named Hakon Hval, who was one of the first to respond. He had worked in that district, the North Buskerud District for, I believe, eight years at that point, and he'd never been to Utoya. There had never been a reason to go to Utoya. But he was driving one of the boats, and he turned to pick up some Delta commandos. And when they all got in the boat, the bow of the boat pushed out on some rocks and was grounded. So to get the bow up, they shuffled to the back and the stern just. . .

Flooded the engine, yes.

Yeah.

turn 0 : It is unexpected for a country with low crime rate to experience such a violent crime

Which district did Hakon Hval work in for eight years?

Answer: North


Well, first of all, we continue to ask for all options on the table because. . .

So you want it. You want that to be a potential.

We want all options on the table. We haven't asked specifically for military intervention. And the big difference is that you have to be responsible about this. Think of a Rwanda-style scenario. Think about when Maduro continues to murder more and more people. He has asked regime militia armed groups to repress peaceful protesters. So I think we have to be responsible about this approach. And that's precisely - we always ask for a peaceful and constitutional solution. In what other dictatorship do you see a national assembly, an interim president with the people asking for the regime to leave?

You were a political prisoner. What's this moment like for you personally?

turn 2 : A believes that Maduro's actions are similar to those in Rwanda and that a peaceful solution is needed

What does PersonA think about Maduro's actions?

Answer: Similar


That's why things spin, hurricanes and. . .

Yeah. . .

. . . spin in one direction.

. . . why everything spins. And it has to do with the fact that the Earth is rotating. So it's a physics problem.

So tell us, describe. . .

turn 0 : Turn 1: "spin" is used as a general term to describe rotational movement, whereas its literal meaning is to rotate rapidly and smoothly around a central axis.

Answer: general


Yes, sitting out there frozen feet, but it was the best frozen feet I've ever had because of what of happened in front of me. Seeing him take that oath and just seeing the people in that crowd go crazy and all people in wheelchairs would never thought they would see this. Seeing their reaction and seeing the white people their reaction, seeing America and the whole world. I know they will have the same reaction. It's about time.

Here's another quick question for you. I would think, Patti, that UNCF would really stand to be a beneficiary of having someone like Barack Obama in the White House.

That's what I'm saying. And this show airs the same week that this greatness happened to America. And so now people will say, OK, let us help our kids so that they know that they can say I could become the next president.

Here's my last question. I know that you talked a little bit about Jennifer Hudson and she's about to make her first public performance at the Super Bowl.

turn 0 : No one's feet were literally frozen, it just means that it was really cold outside and people's feet felt cold.

Which body part felt cold during the event described in turn 0?

Answer: Feet


Is it in anyway because to a lot of people, the internet is a place?

It is. And when people sometimes say, I bought it on the internet, maybe they're thinking it's like, I bought in France.

(Laughter).

But it's not a place. It's a network of places. It's here. It's there. It's everywhere.

turn 3 : The internet is not a single, centralized location, but rather a decentralized network of interconnected devices that spans the globe. It exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time, making it difficult to define as a physical place.

Answer: decentralized


Yeah. And I had kind of come across this - oh, put that to one side - and once I did look into it, I couldn't put it down because it is dynamite. And it's based primarily - the starting point, the kicking off point is there was a secret cabal of British imperialists and colonialists that wanted to recreate the British Empire. And in 1891, they sat down in a caucus in order to make this happen, they would have to deal with the one emerging power, and that, of course, was Germany. Germany was at that time a rising power, industrialization and evermore world importance. And so the premise of the book is that there was a contrivance from 1891 right through 1914. And it is very, very meticulously documented as to how this was achieved.

Let me ask you about the fiction you've been reading now, including one - a series in which a taxi driver. . .

Oh. . .

. . . Not to my surprise whatsoever, is the hero.

turn 0 : It is dynamite implies that the information is very surprising and important

Answer: Contrivance


The economy is humming, but we may be hearing some sputtering as well. The stock market fell 3% this past Wednesday but later made back some of those losses. While in the bond market, a key marker of a coming recession has been playing out. Now the payoff for long-term government debt fell below the yield on short-term debt. So what are we looking for when the bell rings tomorrow?Catherine Rampell writes about economics for The Washington Post, and she joins me now. Welcome.

Good to be here.

So first off, I just want a gut check from you - Wall Street ups and downs, that warning flare in the bond market, but we're also seeing strong consumer spending at the same time. What is your take on these mixed indicators?

I think the story thus far has been there are warning signs out there. Consumers have been the strong point. Up until this week, however, there was a consumer sentiment number that it was at its lowest notching since, I want to say, six or seven months. So that does suggest that consumers may be wavering a little bit. I think the bigger picture, though, is the global risks essentially. So right now, we have something, like, nine major economies around the world either currently in recession or on the verge of recession, and you could imagine that there would be contagion effects.

turn 3 : There are not actual signs but instances that cause worry for the economy.

How would you describe the nature of the signs causing worry for the economy?

Answer: instances


The director of the U. S.  Census Bureau, John H.  Thompson, announced his retirement this week in the wake of a disagreement with Congress over funding for the 2020 census. The census is conducted every 10 years. The results determine how many seats in Congress and electoral votes that each state receives, and it helps guide how more than $400 billion is spent each year on education, health and infrastructure.

We're joined now by Robert Groves. He's former director of the U. S.  Census Bureau. He's now the provost of Georgetown University. Mr.  Groves, thanks so much for being with us.

Good morning. Great to be with you.

Congress has approved nearly $1. 5 billion to fund the census this fiscal year, and it's supposed to be the same for next year. Is that enough?

turn 2 : The census results are of great importance to the allocation of resources in the United States.

Answer: Census


About a year ago, my husband started getting Facebook friend invitations from like every girl he ever went to school with, and it seemed as if half of them confessed crushes on him.

Lissa Soep quickly figured out social networking sites not only allowed her to get back in touch with people - her husband could reconnect with folks from his past, too. But it turns out that's not all bad.

These were girls frozen in his memory with teenage breasts, AP English minds, and a sense that anything was possible. Like this one girl from seventh grade. She friended my husband on Facebook and then reminisced about the day his family moved away. She put on her favorite dress, painted her nails purple, and worked up all her courage to hug him goodbye. Isn't that so funny, she wrote. How silly we are as kids?

You think I'd be mad or at least threatened by all this nostalgia, but I wasn't. For a split second, at least, my husband was less familiar to me, and I mean that in a good way. With so many people my age riding Facebook like a time machine to our past lives and loves, you might expect the site would be breaking up marriages or at least unleashing all sorts of digital infidelity. Some of that is happening.

turn 0 : crushes in this context means to like somebody.

How did the girls confess their feelings to PersonA's husband?

Answer: Teenage


Thank you very much.

What is the mission of this March for Science?

I think the profession of science is under attack. And why is that happening?Because we've really ceded the floor. We haven't engaged in politics. We've left that open for politicians to come in and really hijack and obfuscate science for their own selfish needs.

When you say that science is under attack, to what degree should we read this march as a protest against Trump administration policies?

turn 3 : When the speaker references the Trump administration policies, they are implying that the policies may not be informed by scientific evidence or research, and that the march is a protest against that.

What is the speaker implying about the Trump administration policies?

Answer: Uninformed


It's a great legal strategy. You know, if Zazi didn't cooperate, he was going to be facing life in jail. The other options is to go to trial. And when you go to trial, universally you end up getting sentenced to a much longer sentence than you would if you cooperated.

Can you compare how we handle a case like this, which has to do with Islamist terrorism, with the domestic terrorism cases we've been hearing about recently?I'm thinking specifically about white supremacists. Does the government deal with them in the same way?

Yeah, in many ways they do in terms of cooperation. They don't in terms of charges. So you can charge an individual with material support to terrorism as it relates to ISIS or al-Qaida. You can't have that same statute when it comes to white supremacy. There isn't a parallel statute. For white supremacists, you know, they do flip a lot of individuals. But it's a different approach.

In this case, as you mentioned, they were able to put a lot of pressure to bear to get information, the names of people who were involved. Do you think that's happening with investigators who are dealing with the synagogue shooting suspect, for example?

turn 2 : Flip a lot of individuals does not actually mean they are physically doing a flip.

How does "flip" in turn 2 differ from its literal meaning?

Answer: Figurative


Thank you. Great to be with you this morning.

Why do Republicans - who seem to believe gun laws would not reduce homicides because murders will still break the law to get guns - now seem to feel anyone's going to be deterred by a bump stock law?

Well, Scott, I think - well, we were all just horrified by the events of Las Vegas - I mean, so many killed and wounded. And you know, so of course our thoughts are with all of them and their families. But I think most of us are not only shocked by the event but shocked by the fact that somebody was able to convert, functionally, a lawful, legal firearm - or firearms into an illegal firearms, as far as I'm concerned.

I mean, automatic weapons in the United States have been banned for a very long time, as they should be. The fact that somebody can take a bump stock or some other type of device and functionally convert a semiautomatic into a fully automatic is more than concerning. And many of us believe that that must be outlawed. And. . .

turn 1 : iteral meaning is different from its actual meaning. The actual meaning is asking for an explanation of why Republicans now feel a bump stock law is needed, while the literal meaning is asking why they seem to think gun laws wouldn't reduce homicides.

How did the speaker describe the conversion of a semiautomatic into a fully automatic?

Answer: Illegal


And let's just say, it was a fishing expedition. It was financed by Trump's opponents in both parties. Some fishing expeditions do come back with fish. And if this one actually did and some of that finds its way into the hands of special independent prosecutor Bob Mueller's investigators, then the dossier might, in some sense, inform their questions about Russian interference because all of this was about Trump's ties to people in Russia.

Right. And those questions about Russian interference will also be front and center in the upcoming hearings that we mentioned for the tech giants - Facebook, Twitter and Google executives who are going to be before Congress over two days this coming week. What will they be grilled about?

You know, in recent days, we have learned a good deal more about how extensive the Russian involvement in social media was, particularly the number of ads running on Facebook and how they were targeted. And some of this was using some of the people in Facebook who work with advertisers - big advertisers - and who help you target exactly the people you're trying to reach.

So this might have been - it appears to have been one of the main ways in which these Russian elements were trying to put a big thumb on the scale in the 2016 election.

turn 3 : (4) Put a thumb on the scale: to take deliberate and unfair steps to influence the outcome of a situation.

How did the Russian elements try to influence the 2016 US election?

Answer: Social


Winston Churchill, we always have to quote him once in a while, right?He said that jaw-jaw was better than war-war. And no matter how awful the war of words may get, it's only serious, really, if it leads to real war. And if North Korea is truly a nuclear power now, any thought of a military solution is somewhere between horrific and unthinkable.

And the Mueller investigation's widening?

We do see more evidence that the Mueller investigation thinks it has some kind of goods on Paul Manafort, former campaign chairman for Donald Trump. He also seems to think he can use whatever he has on Manafort to pry loose more stuff on other campaign figures. Is this going to reach the president himself?At this point, that does not seem to be indicated. But this probe is going to continue and get a lot more uncomfortable for the president before it's over.

NPR's Ron Elving. Thanks so much.

turn 0 : Jaw-jaw is better than war-war meaning diplomacy is preferable to military conflict.

What did Churchill say was better than war?

Answer: Jaw-jaw


In diapers, exactly. But the London police haven't quite given the final say-so on that yet. But, you know, there will be a lot of protests. That may upset the president. It's controversial, but the government insists, and the diplomats insist, that he's a vital part of nurturing a special relationship, which they insist is very good for the U. K.

Because he's not only going, he's getting literally the royal treatment.

Yeah. I mean, this is as good as it gets if you're a head of state coming to the U. K. It is bells and whistles. It's pomp and circumstance. It's a banquet at Buckingham Palace, although that seems to be being boycotted by Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, also by Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the - of Her Majesty's Opposition, and Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

But I don't think that's going to take the gloss off it too much for Donald Trump. He's someone who has made it very clear this is what he wants, and we're expecting him to look like he's lapping it up.

turn 2 : Bells and whistles means that everything that is expensive and fancy is being done.

How would you describe the treatment given to the head of state coming to the UK?

Answer: Expensive


General, one other question. You have described your leadership style as preparing deeply, setting out a clear vision, then leaving your subordinates to figure out how to enact that vision. I'm thinking about the fact that as a Marine, your boss was - chain of civilian command - was the president of the United States and ultimately us, the people of the United States. If you look back at your career from 9/11 to the time that you resigned as secretary of defense, did we collectively do that for you, prepare intensively, set out a clear vision and leave you to do your job the best you could?

Well, probably not in all cases. And I wouldn't expect perfection. I'd leave perfection to God. But I think we still have got to have a more rigorous establishing of strategy, a more clearly enunciated policy, something we can sustain from Republicans to Democrats, from Republicans to Democrats as we did during the Cold War. I think that the biggest challenge we face is in all the Western democracies - it's not just America, but in all the Western democracies, we don't study history in a way that we can apply it. And we are not rigorously applying ourselves to strategy. There's too much of a short-term view.

Jim Mattis is the author of "Call Sign Chaos: Learning To Lead. "General, thanks so much.

Thank you, Steve.

turn 0 : Preparing deeply implies doing lots of work and study on the topic.

How does General Mattis describe his leadership style?

Answer: Preparing


I decided to take matters in my own hands and decided to raise the funds that I need to get the materials that the kids need. The budget wasn't going to change. The only thing is, it was going to get worse. I had decided that I should advertise on my test, and I said, well, if you would like to put a quote or an ad at the bottom of my test, then it'd be kind of a mutual - they help the kids, and then I help them get a little bit of PR out of it.

And so the parents, they responded well?

Absolutely. Back to school night, I had one parent give me a $100 check, and she said, I hope this gets you started, and I actually had a lot of good comments, saying that's very creative and thinking outside the box.

And I've actually gotten emails from parents and one from my school district saying, you know, I am glad somebody is finally speaking up and saying that parents are having a tough time footing the bill for things that should have been paid for through their tax dollars and paid through the school system.

And what did the kids says?I mean, aren't they kind of bombarded by advertising all day long when they are not in school?

They really like the quotes, and they actually look forward to them. I've had students say, hey, what's going to be the next quote, and I tell them, you have to wait.

turn 0 : take matters in my own hands implies to deal with a situation personally

Which phrase did PersonA use to describe the action of dealing with a situation personally?

Answer: Own


Hello.

So, John, I've got my iPhone here. I downloaded this ap last night. Let's give it a little bit of a test run, and we should tell our listeners here, there's going to be a bit of an interference with the microphone.

But let's take the example that I just used and give it a shot. So, Thai food, Los Angeles. I say that into my phone. It does a little working and processing, and next thing you know, it's popped up a list of all of the closest Thai Restaurants to me with phone numbers. It's pretty cool. How does this work?

Usually pretty well. It's also one of my nightmare scenarios as a bicyclist that people like you will be driving all over the place looking at your iPhones.

turn 2 : when something "pops up" in this context it means it came up

How did the phone display nearby Thai restaurants?

Answer: List


You know, unfortunately, it's been demonstrated that there have been times when you have been personally dishonest during your time in office. So if voters highly value personal honesty, why would you be the right choice for them?

Well, I think that it's important to separate a mistake in life, which we all make. And, you know, I've come to believe that we all have feet of clay. We all wish we could rewind, play in a chapter of our life. The question is, is it a trend of continual misleading folks?Or is it an anomaly?And if you'd look at the whole of my life, what you'd see is the big standout is in 2009.

I think the question is, did I learn from it?Contrast it with the president has suggested in saying that there's nothing that he regrets. There's deep regret from my end, and I think what's equally telling is the people who knew me best, in the wake of that event, those very folks sent me to the United States Congress to represent them in Washington.

So you've made the debt and deficit your top reasons for challenging the president. So if it happens that either through your efforts or those of others, the president is not re-elected but let's say a Democrat who supports more expansive spending, for example, does win, will that have been worth it?

turn 1 : Feet of clay means a character weakness, and wishing one could rewind and play a chapter in your life means you wish you could re-live an event.

Which phrase describes a character weakness?

Answer: Weakness