While reading the story on the website, if you double click on a word, you’ll be given an option of languages to choose from for a translation.
Here are links to the classic King Arthur tale of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”
For the transcript of these two stories, visit www.storynory.com
Go to the following site: Advice on writing CVs
The above site contains activities and audio files to help you write a CV in English.
This comes directly from Voice of America. The direct link to this article can be found HERE.
A History of Creole and Cajun Food in Louisiana
Also: A listener question about crocodiles and alligators. And three examples of Cajun music. Transcript of radio broadcast: 22 January 2009
HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I'm Doug Johnson. This week:
We learn about the history of Cajun and Creole food and culture …
Visit some of the famous restaurants of New Orleans, Louisiana …
And listen to some traditional zydeco music.
(MUSIC)
HOST:
The state of Louisiana is widely known for its rich history, musical traditions, good food and fun spirit. Its largest city, New Orleans, is considered one of the best cities for food in the world. Many famous cooks began their careers in restaurants that offer the rich traditions of Cajun and Creole cooking. Before we tell about the food and music of Louisiana, Bob Doughty explains more about Creole and Cajun traditions.
BOB DOUGHTY:
The word "Creole" refers to French colonists and their descendants who came to what is now Louisiana starting in the early eighteenth century. The roots of Creole cooking come from the traditional French foods these colonists would have made. They had to change their cooking to use the food sources that were available in the hot, wet climate of Louisiana.
Other settlers came from countries including Spain, Germany, Italy and England. The food traditions of those countries also influenced Creole cooking.
One group of settlers came to Louisiana during the eighteenth century from an area of Canada known at the time as Acadie. The Acadiens were from France and still spoke their native language. They were forced to leave Canada when the British took over.
Many Acadiens travelled south to Louisiana. The French and Spanish settlers there permitted them to speak their language and follow their religion. Some Acadiens settled in rural parts of the state. Over time, the term "Acadien" developed into the word "Cajun."
Marcelle Bienvenu says the cooking of the Creoles living in New Orleans often was and still is more formal and complex.
Cajuns living in rural areas made and continue to make hearty dishes like gumbo and jambalaya that usually contain seafood, vegetables, rice and spices. These are prepared in one cooking pot. Cajun cooking uses whatever foods are nearby and available, like crawfish, duck, alligator, okra, corn or tomatoes. Miz Bienvenu says: "When a Cajun cook is planning a meal, he or she simply opens the kitchen door and whatever is flying, swimming, walking by or growing in their gardens may well end up in the pot."
Miz Bienvenu adds that Creole and Cajun cooking have influenced one another. So it is hard to make set rules about their differences. One thing the two cultures have always had in common is a love of good food.
(MUSIC)
HOST:
That was "Cedric Zydeco" performed by the twenty-five year old musician Cedric Watson. Born in the state of Texas, Watson now lives in Lafayette, Louisiana. He is helping to keep the sounds of Creole and Cajun alive and well. We thought this energetic music would help us get in the mood to talk about food in the city known as "The Big Easy."
New Orleans has many famous restaurants that celebrate the best of Cajun, Creole and French cooking. In fact, the travel Web site iExplore recently listed New Orleans as the best food city in the world. Many food lovers would agree.
Visitors can start their day at Cafe du Monde where they enjoy chicory coffee and pieces of sugary, fried bread called beignets. Its main shop in the French Market is open twenty-four hours a day. So visitors have all the time they need to enjoy their coffee outside while watching the people walk by.
The family-owned Galatoire's restaurant has been serving fine Creole food in the French Quarter since nineteen oh five. Its specialties include Trout Marguery. This fish dish is named after a French cook who created a rich sauce containing white wine, fish stock, egg yolks and butter.
At Commander's Palace in the Garden District, food lovers can try American as well as Creole specialties including turtle soup and fish covered in pecan nuts. Two famous cooks once worked at Commander's Palace. Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse have helped make Creole and Cajun food popular around the world.
Antoine's is another favorite for French Creole cooking. This restaurant is known for dishes including Oysters Rockefeller and alligator soup.
The clearest difference between the two is the shape of their heads. The alligator has a shorter and wider head with a curved jaw or snout shaped like the letter "U." The crocodile has a pointier snout, shaped like the letter "V."
Also, alligators liketo live in freshwater, while crocodiles can survive in salt water. There are several kinds of crocodiles and alligators.
In the United States, crocodiles are only found around the southern tip of Florida. But alligators live in several southeastern states.
(MUSIC)
HOST:
That was "Dance Everyday" by Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience Band. Simien has been performing Creole music professionally for twenty-five years. Simien, his wife and others worked for years to influence the Recording Academy to create a zydeco and Cajun music award to present at its Grammy Awards ceremony. This music became an official Grammy category last year.
(MUSIC)
About two hundred kilometers west of New Orleans is where another star of Cajun cooking spent her career making delicious food. Barbara Klein remembers Eula Mae Dore who died last year.
BARBARA KLEIN:
Eula Mae Dore spent most of her adult life on Avery Island in Louisiana. This area is known as the home of one of the 
Eula Mae Dore grew up in a small town in Louisiana. Her mother died when she was ten years old, so she had to teach herself to cook for her family. She also learned by watching her grandmother prepare traditional Cajun food. Miz Dore never trained professionally, but she had an extraordinary skill with food. Many famous cooks came to Avery Island to try her dishes and learn from her.
Paul McIlhenny and the food writer and cook Marcelle Bienvenu asked Eula Mae Doré if she would write a cookbook. Miz Dore at first did not think anyone would be interested in her style of cooking and refused. But she later agreed to the project. Miz Bienvenu and Miz Dore worked for two years on the cookbook. "Eula Mae's Cajun Kitchen" was published in two thousand two. It captures the spirit of this special woman and her love for her native cooking.
HOST:
We leave you with "Chanson D'Acadie" by the band BeauSoleil and Michael Doucet. The group combines the sounds of Cajun, zydeco, jazz and blues music.
(MUSIC)
I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written and produced by Dana Demange. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.
In this printed interview, A Trolley in a Grocery Store? Americans Would Reckon That's Crazy (taken from Voice of America Special English - Wordmaster), you will learn a few vocabulary differences between American and British English. Print out the worksheet below in order to read the article (also linked above) and do the vocabulary exercise.
Thanks to Raphael from my Monday evening class of reminding me about this famous holiday story. It's popularity has led the expression, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" into the vernacular.
Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps."DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"
VIRGINIA O'HANLON."115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
VOCABULARY
mind - esprit
mere - simple
boundless - débordant
to grasp - saisir, comprendre
knowledge - connaissance
devotion - dévouement, attachement
to abound - abonder, regorger
dreary - morne, maussade, triste
childlike - enfantin
enjoyment - plaisir, délectation, jouissance
extinguished - éteint
fairy - fée
lawn - pelouse, gazon
to tear apart - mettre en pièces, déchirer
rattle - hochet
veil - voile
fancy - imagination
supernal - céleste, divin
abiding - durable, continuel
nay - nenni
Every Christmas (or Holiday) Season, this contraversy rears its ugly head in the United States. Some Americans get very offended when they are wished "Merry Christmas." The other half gets just as offended if they are wished the politically correct "Happy Holidays." What is this all about? To find out, go to the MSNBC article, print and read Retailers tiptoe between Christmas, holidays.
In this reading exercise, you'll read about the dying pub culture in Britain. Read the article and find the vocabulary words to complete the crossword puzzle. Note: If the answer has two words, there will be a space in the crossword puzzle as well.
To read the article, click on the title Hoist One Last Glass
Print out the crossword puzzle here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/7512462/British-Pubs
Answer Key: http://www.scribd.com/doc/7512544/British-Pubs-Answer-Key
In this reading comprehension lesson, you will read about how economic situations can affect health. You will need to first print out and read the article Are bad economic times good for health? by Tara Parker-Pope here at the International Herald Tribune website. Next, open up the document below and print the lesson.
