I think there's also a message to be had in the region. Mr.  Trump in Tokyo, with all the pomp and circumstance, with even the irritations on trade and that mixed signal in North Korea - it was clear that this is an alliance that was vibrant, that was coherent and that was still being deeply supported by both countries. That's the message Mr.  Abe wants to send to Pyongyang and certainly the message he wants to send to Beijing.

That pomp and circumstance extended to the appearance of Trump 2020 campaign banners. They were visible as the president was making his way through Japan's streets. Another of the events that he attended was this sumo tournament. Why is Prime Minister Abe so intent on courting President Trump?

Well, you know, you - the backdrop here, too, is the Japanese people are not as critical of President Trump as many of the citizens of our other allies in Europe, for example. The president and the prime minister do have a reasonably strong working relationship. The Japanese diplomats pointed out before the visit that they've spoken or met 42 times since the president came into office.

Forty-two times, wow.

An unprecedented amount of contact. So I think there's still this sense that this is a good partnership and that Mr.  Abe can make it work.

turn 1 : Mr. Abe is trying to please President Trump by showing him a good time in Japan

Which world leader is mentioned in turn 1?

Answer: Abe


I know as far as me in the glamour I always go back to self-responsibility. It really does have to start with the person. They have to make a choice to want to get educated about HIV, and learn about it. And I really think that people should realize that it's a 100 percent - 100 percent preventable disease. It's a disease you don't have to get. It is something you have to acquire. So, I really want people, you know, to get that in their head. Like, quit blaming, you know, the media, or rap videos, or you know, school systems. It really has to start with you.

If you had to describe in one word what keeps you going when you're down, what would it be?

Life. You know, just me. I'm my own motivation, I'm my own role model, you know, I love me, and I'm very happy, you know, that HIV presented itself in my life. You know, a lot of people would regret it or whatever, but it really taught me self-love, self-acceptance, and self-responsibility. And that's the best thing I could possibly ask for.

Well, Marvelyn, thank you.

turn 2 : Living with HIV has taught me to love and accept myself, and I am grateful for the experience.

What did living with HIV teach Marvelyn?

Answer: Self-acceptance


Given what's going on now with credit and with the world, financially speaking, do you still think you made the right choice to go there?

Oh, yeah. It's a rare day that I regret it here; very happy I made the switch. We're optimistic. Brazil goes through cycles like this. Each day's bringing us closer to the next boom.

Brian Willott is a farmer in Bahia, Brazil. Thank you, Brian.

Thank you.

turn 1 : Despite the current financial situation, A is happy with the decision to switch to Brazil and optimistic about the future.

Which country is PersonA happy with switching to?

Answer: Brazil


I mean, now in hindsight, I don't think there's any doubt that Putin used phony cease-fire talks as a sort of clever way to allow Moscow to keep one hand in diplomacy and to calibrate it but also to keep its feet on the Syrian battlefield in defense of Assad.

Is it worthwhile to make another attempt to talk to Russia?

You know, I think Mr.  Putin is most comfortable, frankly, when he has a diplomatic process going and a military process on the ground. He fashions himself not simply a combatant but a broker and a mediator and a great power. It is high time that the United States remove right now this sort of Potemkin Village fraud in which Mr.  Putin seems to have the best of both worlds. Pull it away, keep the focus on Vladimir Putin as aggressor, tar him with the responsibility and the Assads for the humanitarian catastrophe and don't give him the legitimacy to argue that in fact he can play both on the battlefield and in the diplomatic corridors of Geneva and New York.

There have been reports again that the administration's considering applying more U. S.  military power in the region. How do you feel about that?

turn 2 : "tar him with the responsibility": This phrase is being used metaphorically to mean to assign blame or responsibility to Putin, rather than literally tarring him with something.

How should Putin be tarred according to turn 2?

Answer: Responsibility


But they just talk. They don't really do anything, and they make appeals, and people are fed up with it, so people don't really pay much attention to the Arab League meetings anymore, even if they meet at the summit level. But it's a sign that the leaders are aware that their people are angry and concerned.

And the fact is that Hamas, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, is an Islamist group that is actively fighting back against Israel, and they're the only people who seem to do this, and popular opinion in the Arab world is very much with them. Not everybody is with them. Some people criticize them, but most people line up, support Hamas in terms of just fighting back against Israel, protecting Palestinians. So there is great tension within the Arab world itself over the situation.

The Arab League is meeting today in Cairo. Do you think it will be as you say, all talk?Or will any action come out of that meeting?

Well, there probably will be some symbolic action. They'll probably send a delegation to the UN Security Council. They'll do something like that. They will ask for possibly a meeting of the Arab summit at the head of state level. But again, it will be more talk, more talk than action, more rhetoric. The facts on the ground won't change very much because of what the Arab leaders are doing, unfortunately.

There is a bit of a perception that Iran's influence is growing in that region. How do you think Arab leaders are responding to that?

turn 3 : The Arab League meetings will not lead to significant action.

What will be the nature of the action taken at the Arab League meetings?

Answer: Symbolic


And the president said today that he wants even more tariffs on China. Would it be fair to assume that China might retaliate, and, if so, how?

Yeah. I mean, the president has ordered his staff to draw up paperwork to put tariffs on, you know, another $300 billion in imports, which would mean there would be there tariffs on just about everything China sells to the U. S.  - I mean, clothes, furniture, food products, machinery, you know, intermediate goods that go into manufacturing. And China has said it will retaliate with tariffs of its own. So this would reach really far into the economies of both countries. Just about everything brought into the United States would have this extra cost tacked onto it. These - you know, these are the two largest economies in the world, so this will be a huge deal, both for these countries and for the global economy.

So what do we think will happen if they can't resolve their differences?

You know, who knows?There are some big issues on the table right now. We really can't gloss over them. At the same time, there is a certain amount of posturing going on. You know, President Trump considers himself, you know, a dealmaker. So you have to ask how much of this is just a kind of a negotiating ploy, just posturing. Because both countries are - at the same time they're saying all this, they're also saying the talks will continue.

turn 3 : several big issues are being discussed and negotiated at the same time

How many issues are being discussed and negotiated at the same time?

Answer: Several


You've also written a book about geoengineering as a way to deal with climate change here on Earth. Do you think people should try and terraform Mars so we can live there?I mean, that is clearly something that has been floating around for a while.

I think it's impossible to think about Mars without thinking about this because, you know, the great myth of Mars is a myth of geoengineering. The great myth of Mars is that Mars was once alive and slowly dried out and that the Martians tried to do something about it. So, you know, the idea that the Martians have an environmental problem and want to solve it is fundamental to how the 20th century thought about Mars. And it's been kind of fundamental to how we imagine the future of Mars. It's very hard to imagine a human future on Mars as it is, but one thing that matters a great deal is - although I think that it's quite unlikely that there's any extant life on Mars, that's something you really want to have a very good handle on before you even start thinking about terraforming it.

Oliver Morton is the author of "Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination And The Birth Of A World. "And he's an editor at The Economist. Thank you so much for speaking with us.

It was a pleasure, Lulu.

turn 0 : Terraforming Mars as a way to deal with climate change is well-known

Which topic did PersonA mention as fundamental to how the 20th century thought about Mars?

Answer: Environmental


Hey, Lulu.

So, Gene, let's start by looking at the money involved in big-time college sports. You looked specifically at the Power Five.

Yup, the Power Five conferences - the SEC, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Pac-12, and the ACC. They win all the trophies, and they make all the money. According to ESPN, in 2015, they made $6 billion.

Six billion?

turn 2 : The Power Five conferences win all the trophies and make a lot of money.

Answer: Five


There is a level of acceptance for some. So one young woman I met joined the all-women's force after being brutalized by her husband, who was part of ISIS. On the other hand, the women who were foreigners and even the real hardcore last holdouts in the fight against ISIS who are in this town of Baghuz, which had basically an apocalyptic end. They ran out of food. They ran out of water.

And what you see now from the women who were part of that is that all of the crimes of ISIS - you know, enslaving girls, raping women, beheading people on the streets, the hangings - that was not enough really to make them lose confidence in the head of ISIS. But the fact that children whose families belong to ISIS starved to death while leaders had food, that is what's making people very disappointed, very disillusioned, especially the women I've talked to.

Are there people who still support the caliphate despite all that they went through?

Absolutely there are. And in fact, one woman from Egypt I met has four daughters. She was talking about how all they want is to go home, to go back to Egypt, to go back to the parks, to go see relatives. And she said to me, you know, I don't believe in Baghdadi. But I still believe in the caliphate.

turn 1 : ISIS crimes did not make some women lose confidence

What specifically disappointed some women and made them disillusioned with the head of ISIS?

Answer: Starvation


He had a very utopian view of how computers would change work, but he had also a kind of warning. He had a very utopian view of how computers would change work, but he had also a kind of warning.

That's computer scientist Eugene Fiume of Simon Fraser University. That's computer scientist Eugene Fiume of Simon Fraser University. Fiume says that despite his concern about the need for rapid re-education, Asimov was an optimist in his predictions. Fiume says that despite his concern about the need for rapid re-education, Asimov was an optimist in his predictions.

What he predicted was that computers themselves would allow people to become researchers and scientists and artists - this idea of replacing that low-level intellectual work and allowing people to improve themselves by looking at higher level intellectual work. What he predicted was that computers themselves would allow people to become researchers and scientists and artists - this idea of replacing that low-level intellectual work and allowing people to improve themselves by looking at higher level intellectual work.

It's hard to say how many laid-off factory workers have moved on to pick up paintbrushes, but Fiume says that Asimov's 1983 essay envisions how, left to their own devices. . . It's hard to say how many laid-off factory workers have moved on to pick up paintbrushes, but Fiume says that Asimov's 1983 essay envisions how, left to their own devices. . .

turn 2 : Computers can replace low-level intellectual work and allow for self-improvement.

What did Asimov predict about the role of computers in improving intellectual work?

Answer: Improve


Well, as you might imagine, there are a variety of courses of action that the Department of Defense, specifically the commanders in Central Command, have provided to the president and the National Security staff. And they will take a look at those and put those in context vis-a-vis the diplomatic and political actions that are also occurring as this is going on and determine one or another. And they run the entire gamut from, you know, a non-lethal response to more lethal actions. . .

To forceful military response, right.

Yeah, taking out the service to air missile systems that are in the vicinity. Some of. . .

OK.

turn 0 : There are multiple options for military action, and the president will choose one after considering diplomatic and political actions.

Answer: another


Jon Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

And this email from Mark in Burnsville, Minnesota: Is there a middle ground?Either you believe in evidence-based science or you don't. Some people seem unwilling or unable to accept facts that confront their belief systems and would rather live in a world that matches their internal security beliefs than deal with reality.

And I don't think, Jon Foley, you disagree with him on the science, but you disagree with him on the approach.

Well, I absolutely agree with him on evidence-based reality. I absolutely cannot - we - and never should have concede that. I'm a scientist, and I absolutely support the, you know, evidence-based view. That is one place where I will not back down on an issue at all. But I think it's really more of what we do about it and how we frame these conversations. So, you know, I will always stand by the idea that, yes, climate is changing. We are the cause of this. That is what the science is saying. That is absolutely true. We're not backing down from that at all.

turn 1 : Some people prioritize their internal beliefs over scientific facts

What is one place where the scientist will not back down on an issue?

Answer: Evidence-based


One option for mothers who feel they aren't able to properly raise a child is to surrender their infants anonymously. So-called safe-haven laws let moms give up their children at local hospitals, police and fire stations without legal consequence. They're intended as a way to save babies from grim fates. Pete Pircsh is a state senator in Nebraska.

2004, a 2-day-old infant was abandoned in a canal near the Elkhorn River in Norfolk. The baby had been dead for about two days at the time it was discovered. In 2007, a woman found a baby boy abandoned in a tote bag between a trash bin and a discarded TV, and there are other incidents like that.

This summer, Nebraska became the last state in the nation to pass a safe-haven law, and theirs is a bit different. Pirsch wrote an amendment to the bill that says children as old as 19 can be left at safe havens. Most states only allow parents to drop off their children if they're less than a year old.

If they're on the point where they, out of frustration or anger, may actually injure the child, then this is a vastly superior system to set up because it will take the child from that position of danger and place him into a safe environment.

turn 0 : Safe-haven laws are a way to save infants from being abandoned or killed.

Answer: Save


Yeah. He's a very open-minded and sweet kind of guy. He actually genuinely cares about the kids that he helped create. And he doesn't feel too detached to call us, like, his offspring. But he doesn't feel attached to call us his kids. So he calls us his ducklings.

(Laughter) Do you like that?

I love it.

And did he know that he had so many offspring when you first encountered him?

turn 0 : Open minded means to be ready to consider all options and ideas. Ducklings is because ducks have large numbers of children and so does he.

Which animal is associated with the term used by the man to refer to his children?

Answer: Ducks


I hate to see it fade out.

Yeah, me too.

There's another story that really sounds like it has to be made up, about the driver who brought a hotshot guitarist from Macon, Georgia to Stax for a session.

Yeah. The driver kept bugging the musicians in the studio to give him a chance. And someone had promised him, OK, buddy, you know, chill out for a second. You'll get your chance. When nothing happened with the big talent, people had already started packing up their cars when they remembered, oh yeah, we got to let this guy try.

turn 0 : (1) B is implying that something valuable is coming to an end, beyond just a literal fade out.

How does PersonB feel about what is fading out?

Answer: Regret


Thanks for allowing me to be on your show.

You didn't have kind words for Donald Trump in that interview, but why did you think Democrats who want to impeach him are misguided?

I've sat through impeachment. I understand that it's not a walk in the park. It takes a supermajority to impeach a president, and it's just not going to happen. And I think that we would be better off focusing on health care, the huge, huge amounts of money in politics that is ruining the body politic, climate change, which is sweeping the world.

So what I think you're saying is you need to - the Democrats have to have another message that isn't solely about removing the president.

turn 1 : Democrats wanting to impeach Trump is not a good idea and they should focus on other issues.

Which issue does PersonA believe Democrats should focus on instead of impeaching Trump?

Answer: Healthcare


You know, it was actually that friends started hearing we were doing this and said, well, have you thought about sharing them?So, about a year ago, I rounded up 10 or 12 people in town, and I said, OK, I'm going to mail you, I'm going to email you a math problem every night. Try it with your kids and tell me what happens. And within days, people were telling me that their kids were starting to bug them for the math problem every night.

Mm-hmm. Give me a sample of a math problem. Give us a math problem sample.

Sure. So, a couple of days ago, we did one on animals that have eight legs. And, you know, how do you walk when you have eight feet without tripping over yourself?So I actually watched a video of a crab walking to see how they do this. There's also a spider video out there. I couldn't bring myself to watch that. That was going to give me nightmares. But I watched the crab one, and there's a pattern.

The four feet on one side go one, three, two, four, and the ones on the other side do the same thing, alternating. So if the pattern is one, five, three, seven, two, six, four eight, and then you do one, five, three again, which leg takes the next step?

turn 0 : Their kids starting asking them repeatedly for math problems every night.

What were the kids doing after receiving the math problems every night?

Answer: Solving


. . . They make you very proud.

What can you tell us about Paola Zambrano and Mark Gorman?

Both of these kids were awesome young people. Paola - Paola, you know, died when she was going to be a junior, so she finished two years of high school. And, you know, during her freshman year, she was diagnosed with colon cancer. And we knew it was a serious situation. And we, you know, quite frankly didn't think that she'd be - you know, continue down that road of going to high school because we knew it was terminal.

And, you know, to her credit, she decided she was going to keep coming every day, had great attendance, went through her chemos and her therapies and was a model student for her family and for herself. She was very - a very proud young lady. And she had hopes and dreams beyond high school that unfortunately she was never. . .

turn 3 : Although the speaker uses the phrase "went through her chemos and her therapies" in a literal sense, the actual meaning is that Paola underwent cancer treatment, which included chemotherapy and other therapies.

Which medical procedures did Paola undergo?

Answer: Therapies


Now, what about the bloggers who are, you know, in our camp. What story are they hitting?

Well, in the Democratic side, among bloggers, the Web site Blogpolls, which measure these trends, posted about Hillary Clinton outnumbered blog post about Barack Obama, leading up to last weekend, South Carolina primary. And interestingly, on January 24th, two days before the voting started in South Carolina, posts about Bill Clinton spiked and they equal the numbers of posts about Barack Obama. But after he won in South Carolina, post about Obama spiked and he's been the most blogged about candidate ever since. Now, on the Republican side, John McCain has been and is the most blogged about candidate.

What about on News and Views, our own blog?

Well, lot of issues people are talking about. They run the spectrum. They're talking about Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's text message scandal, suggesting an affair with his female chief of staff, which could lead to perjury charges. We called it textual healing on our blog.

turn 3 : A: Well, a lot of issues people are talking about. They run the spectrum. They're talking about Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's text message scandal, suggesting an affair with his female chief of staff, which could lead to perjury charges. We called it textual healing on our blog. The actual meaning: They are discussing various topics or subjects, including the scandal involving Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Literal meaning: They are physically running across a spectrum, discussing the scandal involving Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

What is the name of the scandal that is being discussed on News and Views?

Answer: Text


And she had been through family illnesses and the death of her husband and all these things. But she said that the comment, the Don Imus comment about "nappy-headed hoes," referring to her team at Rutgers, was the toughest thing she'd been through. How did you feel when that statement was made and hit the news?

I felt saddened again. I felt like, wow, are you serious?Like, here we are in 2007 and once again, I don't know if at times, we - and I say we, I don't know if black people or just we Californians or we some people - just feel like, wow, we've really passed that point. Like it doesn't really exist, or you don't experience it so much, that I guess when we do experience it, you're just like, you feel like you have to take another step back.

What do you see coming up?You've done modeling, been to the Olympics, you know, obviously you're a wife and mother. What do you see coming up for you?

I have the Lisa Leslie Basketball Academy, which is great because I never wanted to lend my name without being able to give back to the youth myself. And this is a place where the kids can come out and play. And they will be able to learn and go through drills. And I also have a camp. Also I see me doing public speaking. I really think that our youth needs to hear positive stories like mine, and just see that it doesn't matter what your situation is at home.

turn 0 : The Don Imus comment caused emotional pain to the coach and her team

How did the Don Imus comment affect the coach and her team emotionally?

Answer: Saddened


Yeah. It's interesting. In Japan, it's the same prime minister that was in place six years ago, but the political environment, I think, has shifted in some dramatic ways. And so I think one of the interesting aspects of the Japanese situation is that the LDP has returned to power. The Liberal Democratic Party has returned to power. But now they have a party that is to the right of them.

And so we talk about those two states. And, of course, the other major player, the biggest in the region, China, where Xi Jinping took command just last month, formally.

That's right. I think we're still waiting to see how China's foreign policy priorities are really going to develop under Xi. The process seems to be moving slowly, and it's not necessarily terribly transparent at this point. We know there are new top leaders in the room, but it's just not clear exactly how they're making decisions or whether they're going to change much in terms of China's overall priorities.

And transparency's a problem in Beijing. It's positively - well, murky is too easy a word for what's going on in Pyongyang.

turn 3 : The situation in Pyongyang is extremely unclear and difficult to understand

What is the situation like in Pyongyang?

Answer: Unclear


Yesterday, in a letter to Congress, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that significant uncertainty now exists with regard to unresolved tax and spending policies for 2013, but we didn't really need Timothy Geithner to tell us that. Ron Elving is with us. He's NPR's senior Washington editor, and he joins me here in Studio 3A to help us make sense of what's happening in Washington as this deadline looms closer like a shadow approaching. Right, Ron?Welcome back to TALK OF THE NATION.

Good to be with you, Celeste.

Explain to me what's going on 'cause, first, we heard there may be a proposal from the president, then we heard there's no proposal from the president. Where do the negotiations stand?

The Senate is here. The president is here. They appear to be talking. The president was on the phone before he left Hawaii with the Republican and Democratic leaders of both the House and Senate. And apparently in one of the conversations that he had, either last night or after he got back here today, he intimated in some way to the Republican leader in the Senate - now, of course he's the minority leader in the Senate, as the Republicans are under 50 percent in that body - and Mitch McConnell got the message one way or another that the president was going to put something new on the table later on today. And so his people came out and told all the reporters on Capitol Hill, we're getting something from the president today, stay tuned.

turn 3 : The president will propose something new later today

What did the Republican leader in the Senate understand from one of his conversations with the President?

Answer: New


That's where he sees himself as a character through a hole in his room.

I imagined a hole in a wall at the Good Inn where Soldier Boy perceives light and sound coming through this tiny pinhole. Imagine a camera obscura. And as he begins to investigate, he sees not only his own doppelganger, but other people that he recognizes in essentially the same place that he is - an inn, a bedroom, a man, a woman.

The only difference is that there are other people there, people at a tripod, for example, and a camera. And so he is actually seeing the first porn film ever being made, but it's in a parallel universe, if you will. He's attracted to the situation or intrigued by it enough because he's seeing himself and through a little whole in the wall. It doesn't make sense.

Yeah.

turn 2 : (3).  In this turn, the speaker is describing a surreal and improbable scenario where the character is watching the first porn film ever made through a hole in his room. The implied meaning is that the scenario is not meant to be taken literally, but rather as a metaphor or symbol for the character's desires or curiosities. The use of the parallel universe concept emphasizes the idea that this scenario is not real or tangible, but rather a projection of the character's subconscious.(3).  In this turn, the speaker is describing a surreal and improbable scenario where the character is watching the first porn film ever made through a hole in his room. The implied meaning is that the scenario is not meant to be taken literally, but rather as a metaphor or symbol for the character's desires or curiosities. The use of the parallel universe concept emphasizes the idea that this scenario is not real or tangible, but rather a projection of the character's subconscious.

How is the scenario described in turn 2 meant to be interpreted?

Answer: Metaphor


And no birthdays, no Christmas, no nothing. And at age 15, I couldn't take it anymore, so I moved in with my real father, but I didn't know he was a pimp. And the transition from living in essentially a middle-class, suburban area, because he sold BMWs and Porsche automobiles, he did very well. Moving from that middle-class area and the. . .

And the picket fences, all the way to the other end of East 14th, where it was like. . .

Cars sliding by, was a huge transition. Going from one spectrum to another. And I was essentially a nerd coming out of knocking on doors and moving into where my brothers and everybody was like, David, we're about to have another party. And like, oh, really?How do I fit in here, you know?

Right, right.

turn 1 : A moved from a middle-class area to a poorer area with a stark contrast in living conditions.

How would you describe the contrast in living conditions?

Answer: Contrast


But you also said let me reassure you, I've seen the quality of that work. In other words, these plans are viable, credible, ready to go?

Yes, I have. I did say that. Part of my job in the Pentagon was the oversight - civilian oversight of military planning, and one of the things that we've, you know, we're charged with is to prepare options for the president no matter the contingency. And certainly, there are very viable plans with regard to contingencies involving Iran. But again, the judgment is at this point that's not where the focus should be.

And as you know, Israel has - well, has plans of its own - contingencies. And I know a large part of your speech was devoted to the idea that they should hold off and reassuring them the United States would take action if necessary and that Israeli action would be counterproductive. More counterproductive than an American strike?

Well, my point to them was we have a shared objective here - preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons and that, you know, any military action really only buys time. It's a delaying action for one to three years. It sets the program back, but it doesn't solve the fundamental problem of Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability. To do that, you'll need a continued international campaign with sanctions, with negotiations to eventually change their calculus.

turn 3 : "It sets the program back, but it doesn't solve the fundamental problem of Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability." - The actual meaning here is not about the meaning of the words used but rather about the speaker explaining the limitations of military action in addressing the issue of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Which problem cannot be solved by military action according to the speaker?

Answer: Problem


From NPR News, it's Day to Day. Later tonight, I will be hosting dinner at my house with friends I invited, which hopefully will keep the meal mellow because we all tend to see eye to eye on most things.

But not everyone is as lucky. If you find yourself sharing a table today with family or friends who don't share your political views, well, fret not. Slate. com's chief political correspondent John Dickerson has put together some ammunition to help you should the conversation turn to politics. He joins us now from his home in Washington, D. C.  Hi, John.

Hello. Happy Thanksgiving.

And to you as well. John, you have for Slate provided backup to both sides of the argument on a number of topics. Let's start off with the financial crisis. Now, let's say that your Aunt Edna is a Democrat and your cousin Joe is a Republican. What argument can each of them make over the pumpkin pie as to who's to blame for all this mess?

turn 1 : Political conversations can be contentious and require preparation

Which type of conversations require preparation?

Answer: Preparation


And how long ago was this?

This was in the beginning of 2007.

And then, what happened with these new terms of your loan?

Well, I was pretty upset about my son and real focused on that and sort of trusted a friend of a friend. And the new terms, I didn't find out until much later, were very bad. I have a balloon payment after five years. I paid 20,000 to get into the loan. I have to pay 20,000 to get out of the loan, and my payments are 1,625 a month.

turn 3 : The new terms of the loan are unfavorable.

How would you describe the terms of the loan?

Answer: Bad


The New York Mets lost 7 to 1 to the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday, but the real loser was their mascot, Mr.  Met. Mr.  Met has a huge white baseball of a head dappled with red stitching and embellished with a perpetual grin.

But as he left the playing field Wednesday night, Mr.  Met flipped a middle finger to a group of fans who posted it on Twitter - busted, Mr.  Met. The club apologized, and the team employee in the Mr.  Met costume that night has reportedly not returned. There were reports that fans heckled him, which fans deny.

The Mr.  Mets middle finger controversy poses a physical and philosophical question. Mr.  Met has four fingers on each hand. How can you say that any of them is a middle finger?Anyway, flipping the bird in New York, isn't that just how they say good morning in Queens?

(Singing) Well, everybody's heard about the bird - bird, bird, bird, the bird's the word. Well, bird, bird, bird, bird is the word. Well, bird, bird, bird - the bird is the word. Well, bird, bird, bird, bird is the word. Well, bird, bird, bird - the bird is the word. Well, bird, bird, bird's the word. Well, bird, bird, bird - the bird's the word. Well, bird, bird, bird, bird is the word. Well, bird, bird, bird's the word. Well, don't you know about the bird?Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word. Well, bird, bird, the bird's the word. . .

turn 2 :  the figurative use of the phrase "flipping the bird" and the phrase's implication in New York City, respectively.

Which phrase is being used figuratively and has an implication in New York City?

Answer: Flipping


High bar, yeah. So the federal indictment is supposed to be unsealed today. What are you going to be looking for as someone who's been following this case against R.  Kelly for a long time?

Well, I'll be looking for a couple of things - one, looking to see if there are new alleged victims in here. You know, the case that's in state court, there are four alleged victims in there. Many of them were already known. They had either already come forward or - yeah, have already come forward and told their stories of alleged abuse at the hands of R.  Kelly.

I'll also be looking to see when the alleged crimes happened. You know, all of the alleged crimes in state court happened 10 years ago or more. Those kinds of cases are really hard to prove, you know, when they're that old. I'll be interested to see if any of these happened more recently, if there are any allegations that he's done anything in the last decade.

WBEZ reporter Patrick Smith in Chicago for us this morning. Thank you.

turn 2 : Recent crimes are easier to prove than crimes from 10 years ago

Which kind of cases are hard to prove when they happened 10 years ago or more?

Answer: old


It's amazing the way it works.

I agree. Now, Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday is looming, and there have been all this celebrations now. Supermodel Naomi Campbell, who I guess according to court records will hit anyone on the head with her cell phone, was supposed to be a presenter at this big concert but was removed from the list. Give us a quick sense of why.

Well, Mandela was a little upset that when she got arrested the last time she had on a hat with the numbers - his prison cell number or his inmate number from prison, and he was a little disturbed about that. But she didn't present, but she did attend an event last night. So, I mean, you know I think he was - you know people was sort of worried about you know what it would like if she was on stage, but she was there because they're very close, she and Mandela so.

Ah, close enough to get hit with the cell phone?

turn 1 : Naomi Campbell has a history of violence with her cell phone

What did Naomi Campbell use as an accessory with numbers on it during her arrest?

Answer: hat


FLDS has been accused of forcing underage girls to marry adult men. For more, we turned to Salt Lake Tribune reporter Brooke Adams, and, Brooke, many people likely remember this story. Hundreds of children were removed from the ranch in April. And later on, they were returned to their family. When did that happen and why?

They were returned to their families in June - actually on June 2nd after first the Texas Court of Appeals and then the Texas Supreme Court ruled that a San Angelo judge didn't have enough evidence to hold all of them in custody.

And so they went back to their families. You wrote about a new report that was released just last week. There was a commission that reported on FLDS. What were some of their key findings?

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services found that there were 12 young girls ranging in age from 12 to 15 who had been married to older men. It's unclear from the report whether all of those marriages took place at the ranch, but that's where they found the evidence for that. And of those 12 girls, seven of them have had children, which is interesting. The girls now range in age from 14 to 18, so many of them are still minors. The youngest of those girls, I will say, however, have not had children.

turn 1 : The courts did not have enough evidence to hold the children in custody.

How were the children returned to their families?

Answer: flds


Let me ask you this. Do you know Pat Cipollone?

We've met.

I assume he is also very familiar with the Constitution having gotten as far as he has in his legal career.

Look, he's doing what his client wants him to do.

turn 3 : He should not be blamed for anything as he only does what he is told to do.

Answer: familiar


So when the president says that uninsured individuals who are immigrants are a burden on the health care system, that is not the main cause of the burden of the uninsured. Most of that is citizens, so he is actually incorrect.

Absolutely. The vast majority of uninsured Americans are U. S.  citizens. That is the big challenge we have. We are obviously way more complicated here, and we're looking to make it even more complicated for people to visit the United States, potentially more expensive, and thereby discourage particularly people who are not of means from visiting the United States.

That was Anne Dunkelberg of the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin, Texas. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Lulu.

turn 3 : THANK YOU REFERS TO THE ONE ARE THE HELP.

What does turn 0 imply about the burden of the uninsured?

Answer: Citizens


You know, I think that - I haven't been so inspired to do anything and get so involved since Clinton, you know, when I was working grassroots for that campaign. And for this, you know - I've always kept my work about hip-hop and jazz and the urban experience. My work is really about celebrating urban life. And to me, Obama represents that. He really does celebrate urban life and he's someone that's very relatable.

You have this beautiful picture in your book about a jazz quartet or quin. . .

Quintet.

Quintet. And although you're dealing with the hip-hop sensibility, you also - it's easy to see how it relates to a jazz and blues sensibility. Why did you do that work?

turn 3 : B is interested in the connection between jazz and hip-hop in A's work.

What does PersonB inquire about in relation to PersonA's work?

Answer: nice


Well, the Chinese vice premier, Liu He, who is very high up in the government, came to Washington Thursday. The two sides met Thursday evening, then again on Friday. They broke off rather early in the afternoon saying they would meet again at some point in the future. But there hasn't been any meeting scheduled at this point, although President Trump is supposed to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Japan in June.

You know, at the beginning of the week, President Trump put out some angry tweets accusing the Chinese of reneging on some commitments they had made. What do we know about that?

I think, in general, there's a real feeling in the Trump administration that China has a history of making promises about changing its business practices and then not following through on them, especially on issues like intellectual property theft and the forced transfer of technology. So there's been a lot of unhappiness about that. And then, this week, the president said because of the - China had reneged on its commitments, he was prepared to raise existing tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports from 10 to 25 percent. And that actually happened on Friday.

And the president said today that he wants even more tariffs on China. Would it be fair to assume that China might retaliate, and, if so, how?

turn 2 : This statement implies that the Trump administration strongly disapproves of China's behavior regarding intellectual property theft and the forced transfer of technology.

What is the Trump administration's stance on China's business practices regarding intellectual property theft and forced technology transfer?

Answer: Disapprove


Several of them. I mean, Espanola had only 14 individuals left in the 1960s, and then it was 12 females and two males. A third male was found in the San Diego Zoo and brought back to Galapagos (unintelligible) 1975. And there have now been about 2,000 young tortoises released back to that island through the reproduction program at the tortoise center here on Santa Cruz.

The same holds true for several of the other populations. I would say many of the populations are out of danger. But we're still, given the exploitation from the 1800s, the total tortoise population of Galapagos is still about 10 to 20 percent of the original population. So we have a long way to go to bring them back to the original populations.

A couple of questions tweeted and asked by listeners of the same ilk, saying: Would it be possible to clone him?

OK, this is an interesting thing, and we are trying to save some of Lonesome George's tissues, cells. Cloning in reptiles has really not been developed at all, and we're doing - a few mammals seem to be doing OK, but in general the technology, the methodology to actually clone reptiles is decades away.

So hopefully they will be able to maintain cells as in cryogenics, and who knows in the future, but at the moment, it would be impossible.

turn 3 : "decades away" - This implies that the technology to clone reptiles is still a long way off and not currently available, rather than just being a matter of waiting for a few years.

Which term describes the status of reptile cloning technology?

Answer: Preserving


It's hell seeing 6, 7 years old burying their own dead. Nobody's going to give them questions when they're beginning to ask questions. Simple questions - why are we here?Where's my mommy?That's when you get to know, like, these are children sometimes when the terrible things happen.

So on the one hand, they're killing people and on the other hand they're still children.

>>JAL They are still children, but, you know, they've been - they've grown really fast in terms of - to be trained to be killing machines because - the only thing is children don't know you die once. And also - AK is also a terrible gun that has been invented because young people can carry the gun - 8 years old can fire an AK47 that's as good as a 20-year-old.

How did you get out of that?

turn 2 : Children are being trained to be killing machines, and a gun was invented that is easy for young people to use, leading to more violence.

Which weapon is mentioned in the dialogue that can be fired by 8-year-olds?

Answer: AK47


We were both going after a kind of Everest. It's something big and difficult, dangerous for sure. The tribes were known to shoot at anyone who came into their area. On top of that, you've got to evade the Indian authorities who put them under protection. Plus, China has claimed that area, so there's a high military presence there. So the whole thing, if you're young and adventurous, it's kind of fantastic.

Tell me about John Allen Chau specifically and his motivations and what drove him and what surprised you about where he came from.

There's a number of different things. John was a huge outdoorsman, very capable. And he was particularly a kind of solo adventurer, did a lot of solo hikes for days at a time. And that actually turns out to be - in the missionary world, there's a kind of extreme sports end of the missionary world. It's all bro and dude and legit and hey and high-fives and scaling down cliffs to meet an uncontacted tribe. Very often, I've got to say, that story - the story that they're all trying to tell - is of the solo adventurer going into the jungle and finding the lost tribe.

Yeah.

turn 1 : what drove him in this context means what inspired or motivated him

Which word describes the extreme sports end of the missionary world?

Answer: solohikes


And yeah. Like I said, the video can be used for good. And that's why I think the premise of body camera footage is good. But where problems emerge is when government officials and police officials push back against making that footage public because that's the whole reason. The reason is to bring transparency to police interactions. And if government officials push against that, it goes against the entire premise.

One of the very interesting points that you make in your book is that the federal government has investigated alternatives to lethal force and improving police-community relations for decades. I mean, you highlight a report that was commissioned by President Johnson, President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 in response to the Watts riots. And you said that it proposes really not so much an emphasis on technology but an emphasis on relationships, on communication and teaching police officers how to communicate better with the public, how to - it's more of like a - I don't know what word to use. Would you say humanistic approach?And. . .

Absolutely. That's a great word for it.

And that you say that there's - these kinds of - these techniques have never really been implemented because they were deemed to be too expensive. But you also point out that technology is expensive. The police departments spend a huge amount on these technologies that you say don't work. So what - my question to you is, why do you think these techniques have not gotten more traction?

turn 1 : The report commissioned by President Johnson in 1967 proposes a humanistic approach to improving police-community relations through better communication and relationships.

Which president commissioned the report highlighted by PersonA in the dialogue?

Answer: Johnson


You had to actually take the thing apart to change games.

Take out the battery and everything to change games.

That would be a drawback.

That's a drawback. And number two - they didn't have any games. There was, like, two games that were worth playing.

turn 3 :  "That's a drawback" - The speaker is not referring to the fact that there were only two games worth playing as a drawback. Instead, they are adding to their previous statement by stating another drawback of the thing they are discussing.

What did the speaker add to their previous statement by saying "That's a drawback"?

Answer: Another


Please tell us, what are your feelings, in the wake of Charlottesville, about the statues of your ancestor?

Well, I'm a pastor. And one of the things that I automatically go to is this is a form of idolatry, very plain and simply. We have made an idol of Robert Edward Lee. We have made him an idol of white supremacy. We have made him an idol of nationalism and of bigotry and of hate and of racism. And that's unacceptable. And not only as a person of goodwill but as for me as a Christian, I can no longer sit by and allow my family's name to be used as hate-filled speech.

Pastor, I'd like to note that you have, since you have come out publicly and talked about this, been receiving threats. Can you tell me what's been going on?

Yeah. Well, the message boards are lit up with people saying that people who are speaking out against white supremacy, including myself, should be taken care of, whatever that means. And it's been hard. I mean, I'm a 24-year-old. I'm a pastor. I'm not a violent person. I don't condone violence in any form. And so to see that there are people who wish to be violent against me and my family, against my church community is terrifying.

turn 3 : A's turn: "the message boards are lit up with people saying that people who are speaking out against white supremacy, including myself, should be taken care of, whatever that means."

Which boards are lit up with threats against A?

Answer: message


I was like, yeah. She's like, what do you talk about?I say, my life, our life. And she's like, so you tell them about us and they pay you.

And she's like, I've never found you entertaining enough to pay you anything.

In fact, I wish you would shut up so - so she was - and my father is even worse. I mean, he's very dry. My mom has all the personality. My father is a - he's Swiss-German, so I mean he's just a combination of. . .

Known so much for their humor.

turn 3 : B: "Known so much for their humor." - This phrase is a sarcastic remark, and its actual meaning is different from its literal meaning. The speaker is suggesting that Swiss-German people are not known for their humor, whereas the literal meaning would suggest the opposite.

How does PersonB feel about Swiss-German humor?

Answer: Humor


Right. So this is a very powerful story, also. And I think that this story is about the way that women devour their own, in some ways, and - particularly in small towns and in towns where sex is seen as a detriment.

Yeah. There were a few stories in here that I did not love, and there was a moment where I was starting to question your judgment in pulling them all together, I will confess. And then I got to one titled "To The North," and it just knocked me out. I mean, it's about a boy and his summers on the beach and how he grows into a man. And his character is forming. It's fantastic if I - in my view. And I gather it's one of your favorites, as well.

It is my very favorite in the book. But you know, also - so part of what our arguments were - were about showing sort of the larger artistic growth of a writer. And so I have to admit there are some stories in this that aren't my favorite, either, but they seemed important in terms of Nancy Hale as a round person and showing her work through time. "To The North" is exquisite. I just found it full of repressed longing.

Yeah. I mean, I wonder to you, as someone who writes very well-received short stories, is it inspiring, or is it daunting to come across somebody else who could write a short story that was pretty darn near perfect?

turn 2 : Nancy Hale is a person that has a great many different capabilities and interests.

Which person in the dialogue is mentioned as having a great many different capabilities and interests?

Answer: Nancy


We're small compared to some of the other growers throughout the state here in Illinois. But we normally have everything in the ground. As of Monday, we only had about 25% or so in the ground tops, actually a little bit less than that.

So what are you going to do?As you said, like, normally, you've had your corn in. And then I guess you'd move onto your beans. What are you going to do?

Right now we have a few different options. We do carry crop insurance, as does many of the farmers throughout the state and throughout the Midwest, for that matter. And we do have an option to take what they call prevent plants. That's part of our crop insurance.

What happens if you and all of your neighbors don't get your corn into the field?Like I say, as you've told me now, you've got like only about a fraction in the ground if what you normally would have at this time of year. Are we going to - forgive me for being selfish about it - are we not going to have corn this summer to go with our barbecues and everything else or what?What's going to happen?

turn 0 : having everything in group implies that all the necessities and requirements are made available, not implies everything in the floor

What does having everything in the ground imply?

Answer: Progress


In some ways, they're almost a young person's poem - some of them. The thing that I really like is her gestures towards image and metaphor that really shape her whole career. So there's this line that particularly moves me.

Say I am the air - I break - or say I am a spool unwinding. I am the spool that unwound while riding the sky down.

And I just think that's incredibly beautiful and evocative.

Erin Singer - she's an assistant professor of English at Louisiana Tech. You can see those poems in the next issue of the Fugue Literary Journal of the University of Idaho. Thank you so much.

turn 1 : The writer means that they are flexible and can move easily.

Which line from the poem particularly moves A?

Answer: Say


I grew up in a small town where there were no poets. There were brilliant carpenters and electricians and people who did things with their hands. I wanted to make something with my hands too. I just wanted to make something a little different.

And so I needed models to sort of tell me that I could do that. Now, I am hopefully urging on another generation, the next generation of young, passionate, risk-taking, truth-telling writers to say, don't be afraid of this, you can do this, just have the resolve to do it, and it'll work itself out.

Even if you're working at Kinko's overnight?

Even if you're working at Kinko's it will, you know, you - there are jobs everywhere for poets of passion, you know?Some of them are in the academy.

turn 3 : No matter where a person works they can find inspiration to write a poem.

What kind of jobs are available for passionate poets according to A?

Answer: Academy


It stores the equivalent of ones and zeroes. We came up with the idea in a bar in Hamburg a few years ago because the institute where I work is - keeps some of the world's big, biological databases. We store the information, we archive the information, and we serve it to research biologists around the world over the Internet for them to do their research.

And the data that's coming to us is increasing exponentially. It's quite a headache for us to keep hold of all of that because our budgets don't increase exponentially.

Yeah, did you actually try this out on some DNA?

Yeah, we tried it out in a real - it's sort of compared to the databases we store, it's a small example, but compared to what people have done before, it's a pretty big example. We wrote a computer program that embodied a code that would convert the zeros and ones from a hard disk drive into the letters that we use to represent DNA, and then we - our collaborators in California were able to actually synthesize physical DNA.

And what did you store in that DNA?

turn 1 : when something is a headache in this context it means its annoying

What does the word "headache" mean in this context?

Answer: Annoying


Well, we have shared the coordinates of health facilities, school facilities and so on for the very purpose to make sure they're protected. Sadly, several of these facilities received a direct hit. Actually, the secretary-general has called for a board of inquiry to investigate into these cases and to find out what had happened.

For us, it's a question of trust, and it's a question of protection when we say - when we give these coordinates, we expect that all parties in the conflict will respect them. And when that doesn't happen, that's really a significant problem for all and, most importantly, for the people who find themselves - that we have had incidents of ambulances receiving direct aid. Hospitals, doctors, nurses would be in the middle of an operational procedure or who had gone to this place for medical treatment and to find themselves being bombed inside the hospital or children in the school. That's something that is really totally unacceptable.

Panos Moumtzis is the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis. Thanks so much for being with us, sir.

Thank you for calling me.

turn 1 : incidents of ambulances receiving direct aid means that ambulances were bombed while they had patients inside.

What kind of facilities were hit by the conflict?

Answer: Hospitals


I, Karen Bass. . .

In May, Bass was sworn in as the first black female speaker of California's Assembly. That post has been called the second most powerful in the state behind the governor.

I recently asked Speaker Bass how she's dealing with her rise in profile and her new level of responsibility.

I felt definitely overwhelmed. But, you know, since May, or really since the election in February, I've just had a tremendous amount of support and welcome and good will. So I'm very excited about serving in the role.

You are someone who has certain interests that particularly are important to you. Foster care is one of them. Tell me about foster care.

turn 2 : Speaker Bass has experienced a rise in her profile and level of responsibility.

Which position has been referred to as the second most powerful in the state behind the governor?

Answer: Speaker


The Pythians were a black baseball team in Philadelphia from about 1866 to 1872. And they were damn good. And like just about every other dimension of his life, he used that arena to fight for equality.

And he met a tragic end, I gather.

Yup. Much like Martin Luther King, he had his young life cut short by gunfire from a white assassin.

turn 3 : I don't understand how America doesn't know so much about him and why Philadelphia took so long to recognize him." Implied meaning: "The person being discussed was not given the recognition and respect he deserved, and this is a failure on the part of both America and Philadelphia."

How was the person being discussed treated?

Answer: Poorly


. . . We figured out that if all of these things operate as they have historically and retire according to their normal lifetimes, we'd have another maybe 650 billion tons of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere.

That sounds pretty ugly.

Yeah, that's a very large number because we can compare that to sort of the budget we have that the United Nations has identified as being safe targets; 1 1/2 degrees Celsius of warming relative to the preindustrial is considered the safe operating space right now. And this would put us in jeopardy of being beyond that.

I mean, I guess we're assuming that nothing will change, but couldn't there be big technological breakthroughs that could prevent temperatures from rising far beyond 1. 5 degrees Celsius?

turn 1 : I don't like it so it sounds bad, or sounds ugly.

What is PersonB's reaction to the information provided by A?

Answer: Ugly


. . . Of Puerto Rico. (Laughter) So that would leave the secretary of the Department of Education fourth in line. And he took over that agency from Julia Keleher, who is facing corruption charges in federal court.

Oh, my goodness.

And I think it's important to remember that the arrest of the former Department of Education secretary almost three weeks ago initiated this head-spinning series of events that has led to Governor Rossello's announcement last Wednesday that he was resigning.

Mr.  Trelles, I just want to know because we're going so far down the line of succession, is there some point in the rules where the governorship just falls to you, that it's the editor of Radio Ambulante who becomes governor of Puerto Rico?

turn 3 : It is being implied that if everyone resigns he will be the new leader.

Which position would the editor of Radio Ambulante take if everyone resigned?

Answer: Governor


Hi.

So tell us about these families. Who are they?

So we're talking about four adults. We have three Sri Lankans. Supun, Nadeeka are a couple. Ajith is a single male. And we also have a Filipina. Her name is Vanessa. And they have three children whose names I won't say out loud.

OK.  And how did they come to help Edward Snowden?

At the time that Mr.  Snowden was in Hong Kong, they were already asylum seekers established in Hong Kong. And he ended up staying with different people during, I believe, a two-week period before he left the territory.

turn 3 : implies that the speaker wants to know about the role that the families played in helping Edward Snowden, not just how he ended up staying with them

What was the reason behind the Sri Lankan and Filipina families helping Edward Snowden?

Answer: Asylum


People are still there, and people are still very defiant. I think that's really the only word you can use for people who've spent the last month fasting during Ramadan in extremes of heat. And they now say that we will not step down; we will not stand back until this military council has been deposed.

Well, now the military is saying we're going to stall these negotiations. Any agreement that we had settled is off, but we're going to hold elections within nine months. Is that good news for the protesters?

It is - they take it as good news, but the reality is it's not because the only infrastructure that remains intact is the infrastructure of the former regime and the former ruling party. It's difficult to see how, in a situation where people are fearing for their lives, you can put together a cohesive electoral campaign. Even though the military council says that they will allow observers in, this is a military council that is blocking journalists - that has suspended Al Jazeera, that has suspended other journalists from doing their work. So there's a lot of disbelief that they will allow observers to carry out their job.

Meanwhile, they will just continue to sit-in, to protest, to demand democratic reforms even if they are unlikely.

turn 0 : People who fasted during Ramadan in extreme heat are showing defiance by continuing to protest until the military council is deposed.

Which religious event did the protesters fast during?

Answer: Ramadan


I am not a dog owner. I would say I'm an aspiring dog owner. Just a couple of weeks ago I did a review of robot pets. This is the only kind of pet that I think I would be responsible enough to take care of.

OK. So cockroaches was number one. Dogs was number four. What was two and three?

Well, number two was why don't humans have a mating season?It turned out that there's an entire chapter of a book by Jared Diamond, the author of "Guns, Germs, and Steel," that looks at just that question. And question number three was about a photograph from an old issue of Life magazine showing the descendants of George Washington. The person wanted to know, who is the current living descendant of George Washington?And, I guess, who would be king of America if George Washington had been king?That question has been answered most recently in an article for Ancestry magazine.

Slate. com's Daniel Engber. Thank you, Dan.

turn 2 : A has recently researched various topics and is knowledgeable about them.

What was the subject of the chapter from the book by Jared Diamond that PersonA referred to?

Answer: Humans


Ron, tomorrow, President Obama will sign the stimulus bill in Denver, and then it's on to Phoenix, and then, he'll round out the end of the week with a trip to Canada. Why so much travel?

I think he's learning from the last few weeks. When he stayed in D. C. , the economic stimulus package got stalled. When he got back on the road, got back on the stump, the energy in the atmosphere changed quickly. And being the campaign Barack. being in campaign mode, talking back to Washington from out in the country, that worked better than being the Washington Barack Obama talking to the country. He wants this symbolic energy to be flowing in that direction. He wants to be the voice of the people talking to the federal government, not the symbol of the federal government talking to the people.

NPR senior Washington editor Ron Elving. Thanks, Ron.

Thank you.

turn 0 : Obama's travel is strategic to push for the stimulus bill.

How is Obama's travel related to the stimulus bill?

Answer: Stimulus


Murray Horowitz. And I don't care how many operas you write, you're always going to be a clown.

You know, if, God forbid, I were elected president of the United States, the best thing on my resume will still be he was a clown in the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Murray, thanks very much for being with us.

Thank you, Scott.

turn 2 : You will never be taken seriously no matter how hard you try.

How will Murray Horowitz always be seen, regardless of his accomplishments?

Answer: Clown


Tracy Letts, who won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his play, has adapted it for the screen. He's also won a Tony for starring on Broadway in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"He plays a U. S.  senator in the latest season of "Homeland," and is a member of Chicago's Steppenwolf ensemble. Tracy Letts joins us from Chicago. Thanks so much for being with us.

Thanks for having me.

You know, such a well-known play, but I'm afraid I don't think I've ever heard the story of how you came to write "August: Osage County. "

It's based on family history. My grandfather - my mother's father - committed suicide when I was 10 years old. And my grandmother descended into years of downer addiction, which had a horrible impact on my family and has ripples in my family even to this day. And watching all of that unfold as a 10-year-old certainly had an impact on me.

turn 3 : The literal meaning of (4) is that Tracy Letts watched his family suffer when he was 10 years old, but the implied meaning is that the experience had a lasting effect on him and shaped his life and art.

Which experience had a lasting impact on Tracy Letts?

Answer: Family


Well, certainly in some cases in expensive cities still need some help but much less help. On a minimum wage of $12 an hour, a couple - two full-time minimum wage workers - would earn $50,000 a year. That certainly doesn't make you affluent, it doesn't make you rich, but you can get by reasonably well on $50,000 a year.

And you don't think jobs will leave the state?

Some jobs, but probably a lot fewer than most people think. There have actually been a lot of recent studies in the last five or 10 years that have turned around the economic sentiment on this issue. In most cases, in nearly all cases, the jobs we're talking about for these workers are in the low-wage service sector. They're non-tradable. They're not subject to foreign competition. They can't be outsourced. Those jobs are exactly the sort of jobs where the employers would simply pass along the extra costs to the consumer. They'd raise prices and keep their workers at a much higher paycheck. Furthermore, the price rises we're talking about are very much smaller than most people would realize. Wal-Mart is America's largest low-wage employer. Three hundred thousand Wal-Mart workers average about $9 an hour. All Wal-Mart would have to do to cover a $12 minimum wage is raise their prices by 1. 1 percent one time. The average Wal-Mart shopper would pay only an extra $12. 50 per year. People wouldn't even notice the price hike.

Well, if the goal is to lift low-wage workers above the poverty level, is $12 an hour really enough?

turn 2 : (3) Implied meaning: Will the employers have to bear the cost of the minimum wage increase?

Which low-wage jobs are non-tradable and not subject to foreign competition, according to PersonA in the dialogue?

Answer: Low-wage


Good to be here, Ira.

So tell us about your change of mind and heart about this issue.

Well, if you had asked me a year ago, I might have said I didn't know whether there was global warming at all. But we had begun a major study, scientific reinvestigation. We were addressing what I consider to be legitimate criticisms of many of the skeptics.

But about nine months ago, we reached a conclusion that global warming was indeed taking place, that all of the effects that the skeptics raised could be addressed, and to my surprise, actually, the global warming was approximately what people had previously said.

turn 3 : The conclusion that global warming was taking place was surprising to A and matched previous predictions.

What was the conclusion about global warming?

Answer: Taking


The crowd was enormous. They were fired-up. There was this huge jumbo-tron screen on which the results were being displayed on CNN, and so, of course, as it came in, and it fall - it fell, first New Hampshire for Obama, then Pennsylvania, and then the red states started coming in. The crowd was going crazy.

What was striking about the speeches, after having covered Senator Obama for more than 20 months and seeing all the blue placards with Change on it and the rally atmosphere, this was very different than that. This was a presidential speech. The placards were gone, and American flags were being waved by people in the crowd.

And the speech itself was - there was no humor. It was a very serious speech. And though it had lots of optimism in it, it was about the challenges that we face as a country. And so, it really felt - and they, of course, set it up that way, so that it would be a pivot from the campaign Obama to the governing Obama. And one last observation is that he was surrounded on both sides by what looked like two huge parenthesis, massive bullet proof glass on either side of him as he spoke, protecting him from most of that crowd of roughly 200,000.

Well, let's talk about that pivot. We heard that Barack Obama will be speaking with President Bush sometime, perhaps, this week?

turn 0 : The crowd was very excited and enthusiastic about the election results.

How was the crowd's reaction to the election results?

Answer: crowd


Committee will come to order.

Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff was the one swinging that gavel and overseeing the hearing with Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire. Chairman Schiff, welcome back to the program.

Thank you. Great to be with you.

Let me first ask you about one big revelation in the whistleblower complaint, which is that after President Trump asked Ukraine's president to look into the Biden family, the White House locked down all records of the call, putting them into a separate electronic system to handle especially sensitive classified information. Have you ever heard of a White House doing something like that?

turn 1 : The gavel was not swung but Adam Schiff had authority over the meeting.

Which politician chaired the Intelligence Committee hearing with Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire?

Answer: Adam


Always a pleasure, Neal.

And how big is this change?

It is big. The previous record was in 2007, where a very large percentage of this ice melted away. This year, it's already bigger than 2007 by an area the size of Texas. This is - this really shattered that record which in itself was a pretty dramatic departure from the average.

And, well, if things melt, it's because things are warmer, right?

That is exactly right. And what happens also is the Arctic ice has been getting thinner over the years. And so it used to be that you can have some warm summers up there, and you wouldn't melt it all away because you'd have 10 feet or 20 feet thick of ice. And you'd melt some of it, but you wouldn't melt it all the way through. But because of this warming trend up there, it is where the planet is warming faster than anywhere else. The Arctic, what we've seen is the ice getting thinner up there. And so a fairly small pretubance will actually melt a lot of the ice because it's thin to begin with. You don't have to melt 20 feet of ice. You might melt three feet of ice.

turn 2 : The Arctic ice is melting faster than ever before due to global warming, which causes a thinning of the ice.

Which record was shattered due to the melting of Arctic ice?

Answer: 2007


For the last 40, 50 years, the education system has been translated into industry worker-producing system at high end, also, at low end, also. So - and that education system is becoming a reason to be tensed about the examinations themselves, the jobs, the admissions to the higher education classes, and every student was almost dying to get at the top positions. So all this was creating a lot of problem. So that's why we are not touching right now at graduation level; we are just touching about the bottom level - that is, starting from nursery classes to grade 8.

Minister Sisodia, who teaches a happiness class?

So there are 20,000 teachers that we have trained so far to take these classes, and they're taking these classes daily. This is 35-minute class, every day, first half of the morning. One class is for happiness class.

I have to ask, has any teacher said to you, if you want me to teach a happiness class, pay me more?That'll make me happy.

turn 2 : 20,000 teachers have been trained to teach a daily 35-minute happiness class.

What is the duration of the daily happiness class taught by the trained teachers?

Answer: 35


Yes, they are in re-settlement areas. For example, in Mozambique you have 258,000 people, 90,000 of whom have been displaced over the past month or so. In Malawi you already have 700 cholera cases that have been reported. You have about 152,000 people who have been affected. So they are moving away from their home areas into re-settlement camps.

Let's move to Kenya in the east of Africa. The talks between President Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga continue today outside of Nairobi and the negotiations are being mediated by former U. N.  Secretary General Kofi Annan. Since the post-election violence began in late December, more than 1,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. There are also reports of a wave of sexual violence against women who've been displaced by this turmoil. So Cassandra, what's going on here?

Since the violence after the disputed elections on December 27th, we're seeing that this situation has put women and girls at great risk of sexual assault. We know that always in situations of conflict women and girls are in danger. And in Kenya it is no different. We are hearing reports from Nairobi, from the Nairobi general hospital, that there may be as many as double the number of cases of rape within the days following the eruption of the violence.

And what we know is that for every case that is being treated or is being reported, there are many more victims who fail to seek help.

turn 1 :  "Let's move to Kenya" is a figurative expression, meaning "let's switch our focus of discussion to Kenya" and not a literal suggestion to physically move.

Which expression in the dialogue is a figurative expression?

Answer: Figurative


Well, this is really interesting. They say they've found evidence that the Sacklers were trying to conceal their wealth in order to avoid paying an appropriate settlement. This is something we've heard even from sources who support the deal on the table, the idea that the Sacklers have worked strategically over the years to drain money out of Purdue Pharma and position those assets all over the world to make them harder to seize. In a statement, Letitia James accused the Sacklers of lowballing victims to skirt a responsible settlement while trying to shield their financial misconduct.

The Sacklers say James and other attorneys general are on a fishing expedition with these suits. They've countersued to squash the investigation. And they also say they're making a good-faith effort now to settle all these lawsuits.

Brian, you cover opioid litigation for NPR. More than 218,000 Americans have died from prescription opioid overdoses. What do you see as the likelihood of communities and families actually getting money or some kind of compensation?

Yeah. I think it's unlikely that it will happen anytime soon, Scott. The legal fight is happening on a lot of fronts right now, so that's going to slow things down. Ohio - just let me give you one example. They've already received tens of millions of dollars in compensation from other drug companies that sold opioid medications and settlements. But because of a legal fight there, none of that money can be spent helping people. It's just sitting in a bank account. And as the money amounts grow here, up into the billions now, the legal fight over who gets all of this cash will likely grow, too.

turn 0 : There is a deal that has been offered to the Sacklers from the attorneys general.

How are the Sacklers being accused by Letitia James?

Answer: Accused


Well, we - it seemed that this is something that happened fairly recently. Dan Coats had been at odds with the president, seemed like he might be on the way out. So that part of it wasn't such a surprise. And there were reports that Ratcliffe did meet with the president a couple of weeks ago, so he had sort of caught the president's attention. And then Ratcliffe was a very sharp critic of Robert Mueller, suggesting that Mueller had overstepped his bounds in the sort of televised hearing when Mueller went up to Capitol Hill.

So some are saying that almost was sort of an audition for this job because, in just a few days later, the president tweeted that Dan Coats was out and Ratcliffe was in. And then today the president has tweeted again saying, John Ratcliffe is being treated very unfairly by the lame-stream (ph) media. And rather than go through months of slander and libel, he's decided to stay in Congress.

What does this mean for the intelligence community?

Well, we'll find out. Dan Coats is still scheduled to leave the job on August 15. Now, by statute, the deputy, Sue Gordon, who's very highly respected - spent well over 30 years in the intelligence community; widely known, widely respected - she's supposed to take over on an interim basis, but it hasn't happened yet. And just within the past hour, Trump said that he might choose her on an interim basis but didn't commit to it.

turn 0 : to be at odds means that you disagree with someone and argue about it

Which deputy is supposed to take over on an interim basis according to statute?

Answer: Gordon


Oh, my goodness, the crisis keeps deepening by the day. Yesterday, some of the parties called for a vote of no confidence. The chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, was hoping that he could get rid of Interior Minister Kickl, who has also been the center of several scandals himself during the course of the 18 months that they've been in government. The other ministers of Transport, Defense and Labor said, we're going to leave, too.

So you're describing all sorts of behind-closed-doors machinations going on here. But bottom line - as Austria prepares to go to bed tonight, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is still in charge of the government, but he doesn't have much of a government now that his coalition has fallen apart.

Exactly.

How is this playing as you are out and about interviewing people on the streets of Vienna?

turn 1 : Although Kurz is technically still in charge, the government has lost much of its power and stability due to the coalition's collapse.

How has the Austrian government been affected by the coalition's collapse?

Answer: weakened


And both the Republican, Mark Harris, and the Democrat, Dan McCready, have weighed in on these allegations. What have they said?

So McCready went first. He said on Thursday that Harris has bankrolled criminal activity. That's a reference to a Bladen County political operative who pushed people to vote absentee by mail and then allegedly illegally harvested their ballots.

Now wait. When you say harvested, that means, you know, picking them up, opening them and discarding the ones you don't want?

Well, not necessarily. It definitely means that he picked them up from voters, which is illegal in North Carolina. You know, in this state, once you - it's your mail ballot, and you're responsible for getting it to the mailbox or to the Board of Elections. So this operative kind of went and collected them. We don't know exactly what he did with them.

turn 1 : McCready accused Harris of funding criminal activity through a political operative.

How did McCready describe the actions of Harris?

Answer: Bankrolled


What do we know about the synagogue and the surrounding community of Squirrel Hill?

Well, the Saturday service at this synagogue usually starts at about 9:45 a. m. It's a conservative congregation. According to the synagogue's website, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers leads at Saturday's service on most weekends. He's written about gun control before. In July, he posted an essay to the congregation's website, to the synagogue's website, where he said, despite continuous calls for sensible gun control, our elected leaders in Washington knew that it would fade away in time. He says that he was afraid that the status quo on gun control would remain unchanged and shootings would continue. He also lamented that he felt he had to include in his daily morning prayers that God should watch over his wife and daughter and teachers to keep them safe.

President Trump has weighed in on events, hasn't he?

He has. President Trump tweeted this morning that he is watching the events unfold in Pittsburgh, and he warned people to stay away from the area. And he said it looked like there would be multiple fatalities.

turn 1 : The Rabbi is afraid of gun violence and shootings.

How does Rabbi Myers feel about gun control and shootings?

Answer: Afraid


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 0 : The disagreement with Congress over funding for the 2020 census could have implications for the accuracy and reliability of the census results.

What could be affected by the disagreement over funding for the 2020 census?

Answer: Census


There's a moment in class I want to ask you about there. They're discussing "Madame Bovary. "And Fatima and Meagan (ph), another young woman in the class, have a telling difference of opinion.

Yeah. I came to that when I was thinking about what it meant to outlaw the hijab in France and what it means to claim yourself as a woman in a world that is supposed to be becoming more pluralistic but is actually becoming more tribal. And it should be an acceptance. And I think when a Middle Eastern woman would like to claim her authority and her strength and her centeredness while being covered, the West, in general, will give her argument about that.

Rez goes on the Internet. What's he searching for?

turn 2 : And in "Madame Bovary" there is a - you know, Flaubert is trying to make this statement about female vanity and a sense of class sort of raising yourself up and having your womanhood be your bootstraps. And in this case, Meagen is arguing that that's the way it should be. And America offers you this, and it's an illuminated culture because of that. And Fatima says, no, I think that it actually weakens and debases the woman to have to expose herself or use her beauty to attain wealth or stature.  In both of these turns, the speakers are discussing deeper societal and cultural implications rather than just the literal actions or events being described. They explore the meaning and significance of outlawing the hijab in France and the contrasting views on female vanity and societal expectations portrayed in the novel "Madame Bovary." The actual meanings conveyed go beyond surface-level descriptions and delve into broader social, cultural, and philosophical discussions.

What is Flaubert trying to make a statement about in "Madame Bovary"?

Answer: Female


That's right. There are a few things in particular that stood out in the early excerpts. I haven't had the chance to get my hands on the book yet. But a couple of things in particular. One is that Bannon talks about that infamous Trump Tower meeting in June of 2016 that featured Donald Trump Jr. , Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and the meeting that they had with the Russian lawyer, who was offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. Bannon describes the meeting as treasonous, as unpatriotic. And he says that those three should've called the FBI immediately. A second thing is that he also says that there's no way - there's no way that Trump Jr.  didn't walk the Russians up one floor to the 26th floor of Trump Tower and introduce them to Trump himself.

We should explain that's his - he doesn't know that happened, but he just finds it inconceivable it didn't.

He doesn't offer any proof. He wasn't in the campaign at the time. But this would be important if true because Trump has denied any knowledge of the Russian overtures, any knowledge of Russian outreach. And it would - this would obviously contradict that. The last thing is that Bannon says that the investigation is going to focus on money laundering. There are indications that Mueller's team may indeed be looking at that. So a lot to digest there.

NPR's Ryan Lucas, thanks so much.

turn 1 : "he just finds it inconceivable it didn't." - The actual meaning of this turn is figurative, expressing Bannon's belief that it is highly likely that Trump Jr. introduced the Russians to Trump, rather than literally being unable to imagine the possibility of it not happening.

Which turn expresses Bannon's belief that it is highly likely that Trump Jr. introduced the Russians to Trump?

Answer: Inconceivable


It was like a brick carriage house. Inside, there was just one room on the first floor and one room on the second floor, so it was an intimate house for a non-intimate family.

(Singing) Squint your eyes and look closer. I'm not between you and your ambition. I am a poster girl with no poster. I am 32 flavors and then some.

Ani DiFranco talks about those early years in her new memoir. It's called "No Walls And The Recurring Dream. "

turn 1 : "Her deep craving for intimacy would lead her to music. And it turns out the things Ani DiFranco wanted to say were exactly what a generation of women coming of age in the '90s wanted to hear." This turn is an example of a figurative language where the meaning is not literal. The words "deep craving for intimacy" do not refer to a physical or emotional hunger for intimacy but rather a desire to express oneself intimately through music. Likewise, the phrase "lead her to music" does not mean that music was a physical destination but rather a medium for self-expression.

How does the turn in PersonB's statement use figurative language?

Answer: Figurative


I think myself and Terrell Tilford and Addis Art Gallery, we started to create a wonderful sort of section and really watched the neighborhood change. You know, you change from the car repair shops and you get little cafes and so on. And, unfortunately, what happens with most artists is that you make a place more beautiful, and everybody puts the rent up.

So, off to the eastern outpost of Atwater Village, which had one gallery when I got there two years ago, which now has - it's about to open its seventh gallery. So, I think I've got a track record of bringing good stuff with me.

Tell us about the kind of artists you represent?

Well, one of the things - just before I do that, I think it also sort of represents your neighborhood as well because the clientele that comes in the door is considerably different. And so, I have now Armenians and Asians and Africans, and it's exactly how I pictured it in my mind. And it's coming true there.

The artists that I show are basically artists of the African Diaspora, number one. The fact that I am an Angelino, and I live in Los Angeles, I show Angelino artists, as well. If you happen to be an immigrant who lives in Los Angeles, and you're a fantastic artist, I am very happy to see your work as well.

turn 3 : The narrator can visualized the art like how all artists done.

What kind of clientele does the narrator have in their art gallery?

Answer: Armenians


But then again, the Southsider group from Los Angeles, which has essentially a lot of Latino members, will try to exercise dominance in the jails as a message to all African-Americans that there's more of us and we can dominate the situation in the jails and we're going to dominate the situations in the street.

We're talking with L. A.  County Sheriff Lee Baca. Sheriff, is there much difference, as far as racial issues are concerned, between inmates in, let's say, county jail as opposed to state or federal prisons, where the inmates are serving longer terms and there are more of them?

Well, there is a slight difference. You know, the transient nature of the county jails is that inmates have access to each other much easier than in a state prison system, and at the same time, the state prison system is a long-term incarceration and they're more calculated when they're going to do a hit. Whereas in a county jail, they can hit anytime and be spontaneous and virtually disrupt the entire environment in the jail without a real comprehensive plan. Whereas in state prisons, it's more calculated.

Now, in California, particularly in Los Angeles, we have talked a lot about the tensions between Latinos and blacks. We haven't said very much about tensions between blacks and whites or Latinos and whites. How much of that is there?

turn 1 : B is interested in learning about racial issues among inmates and whether there is a difference between county jails and state/federal prisons.

Which group is trying to exercise dominance in the jails?

Answer: African-Americans.


Can anybody do this?And this being adopted and adapted by commercial industry?

Well, anybody with a little equipment could do it. The thing is, it's still not easy, and it's still really expensive because you can only make - right now they only know how to make really, really, really tiny amounts. But the big thing he was trying to show is you don't have to start with really expensive feed stocks, is the chemical term.

You can make this stuff from anything. So once people figure out their techniques a little bit better, the prospects for a huge drop in price are great. Now of course there are other problems with this stuff. There's not enough of it that people have figured a lot of the technical problems. Like if you make electronics from graphene, it has all these beautiful properties. But if you make them, you've got to connect them to wires.

And the connector problem, you know, just in a way it's a version of when you plug something into your computer, how do you connect it. How do you connect something to a sheet of carbon that's one atom thick so that it's reliable and does what you want it to?People are working on that. That's still a mystery.

turn 0 : being adopted in this context means "is something being used?"

How expensive is it to make the material right now?

Answer: Expensive


It is in both tinfoil and wax paper.

Oh, that's a good technique. You know, in San Francisco, they're really into the tinfoil wrapped, but a lot of people don't like that because it keeps the moisture in. It can get a little bit gooey or moist in unpleasant ways. So some people use wax paper but then, you know, the opposite can happen - it can dry out if you'll used tinfoil.

OK, so I rate it on five criteria. The first category is the tortilla.

turn 2 : B: "OK, so I understand that you have a scoring system. So walk me through this burrito. Let's dissect this thing." - "Walk me through" and "dissect" are being used figuratively to mean that B wants A to explain the burrito in detail, rather than literally walking through or cutting open the burrito.

What does PersonB want PersonA to do with the burrito?

Answer: Explain


Yeah. So let's take Muslim China, you know, the western part of China - Uighur country. They use lamb, which they don't use in the rest of China, or very little. And their noodles are made from wheat. And they have bread. So that region has this food because of its religion and because of its proximity to Turkey.

The reason I called Anissa Helou is because of a dish I've been meaning to make for a long time. In her book, she has two versions - one from Egypt, one from Syria - a nutritious and simple meal made from beans that's perfect for Ramadan or for any time, really - ful medames, or simply ful.

Ful is a very filling dish. So if you ate ful at whatever hour, you could stay without eating anything or feeling very hungry for at least five, six hours.

Helou join me in my kitchen here in D. C.  via video chat to teach me how to make both the Egyptian and the Syrian recipes.

turn 2 : Helou is teaching B how to make the Egyptian and Syrian versions of ful medames via video chat.

How is Helou teaching PersonB to make ful medames?

Answer: recipes


(Laughter) Yeah. I don't think that it's a straight line from smoking marijuana to fanaticism or radicalization. But I do think that there's something that happens to boys becoming men that is a series of rites of passage and tampering or becoming involved with illicit drugs or having sex. Or any of these taboo things are some of these portals that kids go through, boys especially. And fanaticism to me, as I was witnessing it in a global way, was the last portal. And I wanted to write something that charted these transitions from just a little bit outside the line to a little bit more outside the line until finally there is no way back.

The Boston Marathon bombings are an important touchstone in this book. And they're felt personally by Alireza's friends in Laguna Beach.

That's something that I thought about a lot when I was sort of following the story of the Boston Marathon bombings and how it was to be Muslim in this country and to be a Muslim man in a place that's already slightly turned against you. But I imagined a situation in which someone in your very close community was affected by an act of terrorism, and you are of the Muslim family, what the ramifications would be like in that community.

And I took it a few steps further and then did research and found that it wasn't that uncommon for people who were related to, you know, Russian immigrants or children of Muslims or practicing Muslims to experience racism in high school afterwards. It tends to be that people are looking for someone to blame.

turn 1 : The Boston Marathon bombings had a deep, personal impact on Alireza's friends in Laguna Beach.

What event affected Alireza's friends in Laguna Beach?

Answer: Bombings


For political directive, sure.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's not Abraham Lincoln and his team of rivals.

They're like instruction manuals for how to run the government.

turn 2 : The political directive is not related to Abraham Lincoln or his team of rivals.

Which president is mentioned in the implied meaning of turn 2?

Answer: Abraham


No, physically, we're - really pretty pathetic. Offhand, I cannot think of an animal which, if your size, let's say 150 pounds, that could not absolutely obliterate you in hand-to-hand or tooth-to-incisor combat. And our dominance in the world is all thanks to this trick of coming up with these codes that enable us to remember what happened yesterday or years ago. And it has a permanence that has a tremendous advantage (laughter). It has nothing to do with the theory of evolution.

Yeah. But you say that speech bedeviled Darwin as a matter of fact.

It did. He could not figure out what it was. He assumed because of his theory that everything evolved from animals, and he didn't even include it in his theory language until he decided that it came from our imitation of the cries of birds. And I think it's misleading to say that human beings evolved from animals. I mean, actually nobody knows whether they did or not. And there are very few physical signs, except for the general resemblance between apes and humans. The big evolution, if you want to call it that, is that this one species, Homo sapiens, came up with this ingenious trick, which is language.

Are you concerned, Mr.  Wolfe, or are you resolutely not concerned that people who don't believe in evolution for religious reasons, not scientific ones, are going to begin to cite your work as some kind of scientific proof?

turn 1 : In turn (2), the actual meaning is that speech was a difficult problem for Darwin to explain and understand, rather than speech causing trouble or vexation for Darwin, as the word "bedeviled" might suggest.

What was the problem that Darwin faced in understanding speech, as explained in turn (2)?

Answer: Difficult


A lot of destruction, complete devastation - the poultry barns, for example, some of those barns are completely gone. Where the hardest wind gusts hit, it was like Godzilla came and just pulled everything up from the ground. With the banana plantations, you know, you can see when the weakest palm trees fell and broke - when they started feeling the winds because they're leaning one way. And then when the hurricane changed direction, then you see the other one's going to the other side and broken. So you can see the power (laughter) that the hurricane had.

What are we looking at in terms of how quickly they can start working again?

It will depend on the crop. For example, the coffee growers - the arabica bean coffee was being harvested right now. So they're working hard to collect from the ground whatever's left so they can sell it in the market. So we're giving them working capital to be able to pay their payroll, and then we'll start planning for next year's harvesting because it's a one-year crop. On the other end, some of the papaya plantations - growers, they also have bananas and plantains. They have younger trees. So if they cut down the banana trees, in eight, nine months they'll be able to get on their feet.

What does this mean for Puerto Ricans and their access to food?

turn 0 : The hurricane caused severe destruction and devastation in the area.

What was the impact of the hurricane on the poultry barns?

Answer: Poultry