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Intermediate Level

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1.Coffee May Help You Live Longer

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Café Pode Ajudar Você a Viver Mais

All credits to V.O.A Learning English.

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

Today we have more good news for all our coffee drinkers around the world. Another new study finds that drinking coffee can help you live longer.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health recently discovered that drinking between three and five cups of coffee a day may prevent certain illnesses.

They found that coffee can protect against heart disease, brain diseases, type 2 diabetes and suicide. Walter Willett is a nutrition researcher at Harvard and co-author of the study.

Willet says the findings extend to both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee – or decaf, as Americans often call it.

So, the health benefits come not just from the caffeine in coffee, but from the compounds in the beans.

Study methods

The large study of about 200,000 subjects included data from three ongoing studies. Subjects in the study had to answer questions about their coffee drinking habits every four years over a 30-year period.

Researchers found that moderate coffee drinking was linked with a reduced risk of death from many diseases. These diseases include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, and suicide.

However, the researchers found no link between coffee drinking and cancer.

Researchers also considered other habits such as smoking, obesity, and how active the subjects were. They also looked at what kinds of food the subjects ate, as well as how much alcohol — and what type of alcohol — they drank.

They published their findings in the journal Circulation.

All things in moderation

This Harvard research adds to a growing body of evidence. This body of evidence finds drinking a moderate of coffee may have many health benefits, including a longer life. This is according to one of the researchers involved in the study.

Frank Hu is senior author of the study. He is also a professor of nutrition and epidemiology. He studies how food affects illness.

Hu adds that data from the study support the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Report. This report found that drinking a moderate amount of coffee can be part of a healthy diet.

But how much and when you drink coffee is important.

You may remember another study we reported on recently. That study said drinking coffee too late in the evening can disrupt your sleep.

Questions

Not everyone feels the recent Harvard study confirms anything.

The news organization NPR spoke with one expert who warns that not everyone reacts to coffee the same way. Andrew Maynard of Arizona State University told NPR that the health benefits documented in this new study are “small.”

Maynard says the study does not prove cause and effect between drinking coffee and living longer. He says the study points to an association, or link, between drinking coffee and living longer.

Even those involved in the research still have questions.

When NPR spoke with study co-author Walter Willett, he said he is not sure how coffee is linked to certain health benefits.

Willett says the take-home message – in other words, the important thing to learn – is that if you like coffee, do not feel guilty about drinking it in moderation. If you don’t like coffee, don’t feel you have to start drinking it to be healthy.

I’m Anna Matteo.

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2.How to Catch a Liar?

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Como Pegar um Mentiroso?

All credits to V.O.A Learning English.

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

What is the best way to catch someone who is telling a lie?

For a long time, the traditional method of identifying liars was to watch their body language, including facial expressions.

What if the person appears to be nervous? Is the person unable to look me in the eye? Is he or she looking around the room? What about other nervous movements, such as fidgeting or shifting from side to side?

Many people – from parents to police officers and airport security personnel – depend on this method. But does a person’s body and face reveal the truth?

Not according to a new study.

Talking, it seems, is the best way to smoke out a liar. That is what researchers in the United Kingdom found out recently.

Their investigation took place at one place where lying can get you into big trouble – an airport.

The researchers asked volunteers to pretend they were real passengers and then lie to airport security agents. Some of the agents used spoken conversation-based methods to question these make-believe passengers.

Others depended instead on the person’s body language, like lack of eye contact and showing signs of nervousness.

The agents talking with the passengers were 20 times more likely to catch the liars. The study found that these conversation-based techniques can help you recognize when a person is lying to you.

Like many methods, this conversation method has a name. It is called Controlled Cognitive Engagement or CCE, for short.

The British government partly financed this study. The American Psychological Association published the findings.

Body language cannot be trusted

Using body language and facial expressions to catch someone in a lie is really hard. And it only works, seemingly, by chance.

Thomas Ormerod is the head of the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex in England. On the APA website, he reported that the “suspicious-signs method” — or using body language – “almost completely fails” in finding lies.

In the conversational CCE method, security agents just talk with passengers. They ask about informal things as you would in a normal conversation.

While talking, the agents might ask questions about topics that are seemingly unrelated. Then the agent observes if the person becomes more evasive or erratic. They also observe is their way of speaking changes.

In an article on the APA website, Ormerod says that for actual passengers, they are “just chatting about themselves. It shouldn’t feel like an interrogation.”

Here are four ways of catching a liar.

Use open-ended questions

These are the opposite of “Yes” and “No” questions. Open-ended questions force the person to stretch the story of their lies until they caught in their own web of lies.

Use the element of surprise

Ask questions they may not think you are going to ask. Ask questions that are surprising or off-topic. This will make it harder for them to keep lying. Or better still ask them to re-tell an event backwards in time, going from the most recent event to the earliest. This is hard enough to do with the truth, let alone a story of lies.

Look for small details that do not add up or, in other words, make sense.

Ask them details about their story and look for facts that seem in disagreement with each other. But do not let them know you know. Just let them dig themselves deeper into a hole.

Watch for changes in confidence and speaking styles

Liars will often change their speaking style when they are questioned. For example, when they feel in control they may be very talkative. But if they feel they are losing control, they may not talk much at all.

And that’s the Health & Lifestyle report. I’m Anna Matteo.

You can trust me.

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3.Social Media Is Keeping Young Adults Awake

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Mídia Social Está Deixando Adolescentes Acordados

All credits to V.O.A Learning English.

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

A new study has found that social media could be affecting the sleep of young adults.

The study is a project of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine.

They found that young people who often use social media are more likely to suffer from sleep disorders than those who use social media less.

The researchers say doctors should ask young adults about their use of social media when treating sleep issues.

“This is one of the first pieces of evidence that social media use really can impact your sleep,” said Jessica C. Levenson. She is a postdoctoral researcher in the university’s Department of Psychiatry. She was the lead author of a report on the study.

The researchers set out to examine the connection between social media use and sleep among young adults. Levenson noted that these young adults are possibly the first “generation to grow up with social media.”

The researchers wanted to find out how often young people used social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Snapshot, Credit and Tumbler. For the study, they gave questionnaires to nearly 1,800 adults, aged 19 to 32.

On average, members of the study group used social media sites one hour a day. They also “visited various social media accounts 30 times per week.”

Thirty percent of the study’s participants reported having serious problems with sleeping. Those people who used social media a lot were three times more likely to have a sleep disorder. And those who spent the most time on social media were two times as likely to suffer from sleep disturbances.

Frequent checking is big part of the problem

Levenson said the number of times a person visits social media is a better predictor of sleep problems than overall time spent on social media. If this is true, she adds, then practices that stop such behaviors may be most effective.

Researchers say social media can influence sleep patterns in a number of ways.

People can lose sleep by staying up too late looking at social media.
Sensitive issues argued about on social media can cause “emotional, cognitive or physiological” excitement.
Using an electronic device can interfere with a body’s natural sleep rhythms because of the light coming from cell phones or computer screens.

The researchers note that in some cases, young adults who have a hard time sleeping may use social media to help them fall asleep.

“It also may be that both of these hypotheses are true,” says Brian A. Primack. He is director of the Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health. He is also the study’s senior author.

Primack says “difficulty sleeping may lead to increased use of social media, which may in turn lead to more sleeping problems. This cycle may be particularly problematic with social media. Many forms of social media involve interactive screen time that is stimulating and rewarding and, for those reasons, can keep you awake.”

Researchers published their findings in the journal Preventative Medicine.

I’m Anna Matteo.

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4.Rich People Even Have Better Stress Than Poor

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Pessoas Ricas Têm Até Melhor Estresse do que Pobres

All credits to V.O.A Learning English.

For VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

The lives of rich people seem to be getting better and better. Rich people generally have better homes than poor people. They usually have better jobs and better schools for their children, too.

Now, a new study finds that the rich may even have better stress than poor people.

Stress is the way the brain reacts to any kind of demand or threat. The American Psychological Association says it is part of our body’s fight-or-flight response.

When faced with danger, stress can create energy to fight off an attacker. It makes the body release hormones that increase our heart rate and blood pressure.

That is the stress of ancient times. In modern times, stress can help you give a great presentation at work or win a sporting event. This is short-term stress that leads to success in accomplishing a goal.

This is a good kind of stress. And it is the stress that most rich people have.

But many problems with life or work can cause stress. Stressors are the bills that you can’t pay; the childcare that falls through at the last minute; or the car that won’t start.

These stressors add to what experts call chronic stress. According to a new survey, this is the stress facing many poor people in the United States. The Brookings Institution, a public policy group, reported the finding.

The APA website notes that chronic stress can affect a person’s mental and physical health. When people deal with these chronic stressors every day, their fight-or-flight response is stuck in the “on” position.

And chronic stress is poor people stress.

Poor people often experience stressful conditions beyond their control. If one thing goes wrong in their day – like a flat tire or picking up a sick child from school – their lives can spiral out of control. This can create a huge amount of chronic stress.

For some people, there is often no light at the end of tunnel. The day-to-day stress never lets up. And it is wears down the body. It harms the natural defenses against disease, puts pressure on the heart, makes muscles tired and can cause depression.

Besides causing physical issues, chronic day-to-day stress can lead to other problems.

It is difficult to plan for tomorrow when you can barely make ends meet today. Poor people often do not have time, energy or resources to plan and successfully complete long-term goals. The daily grind of life can make it more difficult to attend college classes at night in hopes of getting a better job.

Rich people also have stress and face difficulties. But their situations are very different. Rich people’s stress is often linked to career advancement. It is short-term stress that helps lead them to a long-term goal.

Of course, rich people can have terrible things happen to them. But they are usually better prepared.

They usually have better life insurance policies. They may have more professional contacts that often reach far back to college and even high school. These connections can help them get another job should they lose the one they have.

People with money usually have better doctors and medical care than poor people. If a family member develops a drug dependency, for example, a person with money can send them to a drug treatment center.

The rich also have access to support that poor people often don’t.

A poor person may worry a lot about a child getting poor grades in school. A rich person can pay a tutor to help their child. In other words, wealthy people can throw money at their problems. This can greatly reduce stress.

It is important to note that chronic stress can be a problem among poor people in the United States. In other countries, the poor may not experience the same kind of stress.

The Brookings survey found that the Americans most at risk are generally uneducated, lower-income white people. The rates of suicide and addiction to prescription drugs are on the rise among this group.

This same poll found that differences between life satisfaction and stress between rich and poor Americans are very large.

I’m Anna Matteo.

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5.Is Pasta Good for You?

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Macarrão é bom para você?

All credits to V.O.A Learning English.

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

The Italian actress Sophia Loren reportedly once said, “Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.”

But many people consider pasta bad for maintaining a healthy weight. Modern food experts often suggest avoiding pasta and other carbohydrates, such as white rice and potatoes.

That suggestion is bad news to many people. After all, rice is a staple of many Asian countries; potatoes are a staple of some Eastern European diets; and pasta is a staple of the Italian diet and a favorite of people everywhere.

These foods are also called comfort foods. A comfort food reminds you of home and, well, comforts you.

But now, a new study brings great news to pasta lovers around the world. The study suggests that pasta doesn’t make you fat. In fact, the study says pasta may even reduce the chances of obesity. In other words, pasta may make it less likely you will become very overweight.

We should note that this research was done in Italy, where eating pasta is very common.

Mediterranean diet and moderation

The pasta researchers analyzed the diets of more than 23,000 people. They published their findings in the journal Nutrition and Diabetes.

The researchers note that pasta is part of a traditional Mediterranean diet. Many studies have shown that a Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke. However, this study specifically looked at the role that pasta plays.

Pasta, the researchers found, “contributes to a healthy body mass index (BMI), lower waist circumference and better waist-hip ratio.” (Again, think of Sophia Loren.)

Licia Iacoviello is the head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology at the Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Health Care in Pozzilli, Italy. Researchers at this institute conducted the study.

Iacoviello says that the popular view these days is that pasta is not a good choice when you want to lose weight. She adds that “some people completely ban it from their meals.”

But, she says, “In light of this research, we can say that this is not a correct attitude.”

However, before you help yourself to a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs, you should know this: eating too much pasta will not provide the benefits researchers describe.

Iacoviello warns that pasta should be eaten in moderation. And, she says, it should be part of a diet that includes a variety of common Mediterranean foods such as fresh vegetables and fruits, grains, nuts, olive oil and legumes.

In fact, a different study shows that even the fatty foods in the Mediterranean diet are healthy. These fats include olive oil, nuts, avocados, eggs or fatty fish. The Mediterranean diet is light on meat and dairy.

The lead researcher of the study on fats in the Mediterranean diet is Dr. Hanna Bloomfield. She says that people who eat “a Mediterranean diet with no restriction on the fat they eat “have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and type 2 diabetes.”

For this study researchers reviewed results of more than 300 previous studies on the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet.

The combination of these two studies seem to suggest that eating a Mediterranean diet is not only good tasting but good for you.

I’m Anna Matteo.

VOCABULARY

maintaining a healthy weight | mantendo um peso saudável | After all, rice is a staple of many Asian countries | Afinal, o arroz é um alimento básico de muitos países asiáticos | suggests that pasta doesn’t make you fat | sugere que macarrão não engorda | pasta may even reduce the chances of obesity | macarrão pode até reduzir as chances de obesidade | you will become very overweight | você vai ficar muito acima do peso | heart attack and stroke | ataque cardíaco e derrame | specifically looked at the role that pasta plays | olhou especificamente para o papel que a massa desempenha | the popular view these days | a visão popular nos dias de hoje | However, before you help yourself to a big plate of spaghetti | No entanto, antes de se servir de um grande prato de espaguete | have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease | têm um menor risco de doença cardiovascular

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6.Can Smartphones Send Tastes, Smells, Touch Someday?

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Smartphones podem enviar sabores, cheiros, toque algum dia?

All credits to V.O.A Learning English.

We can express thoughts and feelings and send sounds and pictures on our smartphones today. We also communicate using programs like Skype and Face Time. We can’t send tastes, smells or touch, of course. But scientists in Britain are trying to develop a way for smartphones to do just that.

Adrian David Cheok is a professor at City University in London. He wants people to experience communication using all of their senses.

“In the real world, we can open up the glass, open the window. We can touch, we can taste, we can smell in the real world.”

To give users a sense of taste, researchers designed two electrodes that are placed on the tongue. A chemical process creates different tastes through molecules on the surface of the tongue. This chemical process sends electrical signals that convince the brain that a person is tasting something. They have already created sour, salty, sweet and bitter tastes.

“You put these two silver electrodes in your mouth, you put your tongue in between and then it stimulates electrically your tongue and you get a virtual taste perception in your brain.”

A device called “Scentee” permits users to have the sense of smell. Scentee plugs into a smartphone and can spray tiny clouds of fragrances, including flowers, fruits and coffee. Professor Cheok says the person speaking can activate the device.

“Basically what happens, we have an app, it connects to the Internet and then this will release a scent from your mobile phone.”

Scentee holds a container with about 100 different smells. The container must be replaced when all the scents run out.

The sense of touch comes from a ring-like device. It is connected wirelessly to the smartphone. The device sends a soft, electrical squeeze when a person on the other end of a telephone conversation does the same. Professor Cheok says this permits a kind of wireless touch communication.

“I can be in London and my friend can be in Tokyo, and I can squeeze my finger and then they’ll get a squeeze on their finger through the Internet. It’s a way of touch communication with small mobile devices.”

Professor Cheok says he hopes devices like these will someday be added to houses. He says they may change the future of long-distance communication.

I’m Jonathan Evans.

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7.Robots Ready to Work in Restaurants

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Robôs Prontos para Trabalhar em Restaurantes

All credits to V.O.A Learning English.

For many years, machines have been doing work that people once did, including some difficult jobs.

Search and rescue operations in dangerous environments are often seen as the first areas that will employ high technology robots. But there is another area that may soon take jobs traditionally held by human beings: the restaurant industry.

Teams from around the world competed in early June at the DARPA Robotic Challenge Finals in California.

A team from South Korea and its robot, called DRC-Hubo, won first place in the competition. The second and third place finishers were from the United States.

The robots were required to drive a vehicle, climb up steps and do mechanical work. Such activities are easy for humans to perform, but more difficult for machines.

Not all of the competitors were successful. The failures showed how difficult it is to design effective walking machines.

Recently, crowds gathered for the food machinery and technology show in Tokyo, Japan. They witnessed a robotic chef preparing food. Other machines cooked, baked tasty pastries and even made sushi.

Akihiro Suzuki works at Yaskawa Electric, a company that develops robots. He says robots cannot do everything a human can, but they are able to work without becoming tired.

He says robots cannot taste food, change heating levels or seasonings to get the best flavor. But he says if a food can be easily prepared, a robot can repeat the same movement to reproduce the same meal.

One Japanese woman who saw the robots working wanted to bring them home.

Masayo Mori says she would like to have a husband who could work like a robot.

Suzumo Machinery demonstrated its sushi maker robot. It performs the often difficult work of wrapping the popular Japanese food. Hiroshi Monden is an official with the company.

He says people all over the world now eat sushi, but there are not enough skilled workers to prepare it. He says his machine can help anyone make sushi.

Other robots have been created to help decorate cakes and cut and peel apples.

I’m Bob Doughty.

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8.Why Do Mosquitoes Choose to Bite You?

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Por que os Mosquitos Escolhem Picar Você?

All credits to V.O.A Learning English.

Mosquitoes have an extraordinary ability to target humans far away and fly straight to their unprotected skin.

Regrettably, mosquitoes can do more than cause an itchy wound. Some mosquitoes spread several serious diseases, including Dengue, yellow fever and malaria.

Over one million people worldwide die from these mosquito-borne diseases each year. New research now shows how mosquitoes choose who to bite.

Mosquitoes need blood to survive. They are attracted to human skin and breath. They smell the carbon dioxide gas — which all mammals breathe out. This gas is how mosquitoes know that a warm-blooded creature is nearby.

But mosquitoes also use their eyes and sense of touch. Michael Dickinson is a professor at the California Institute of Technology. His research shows how these small insects, with even smaller brains, use three senses to find a blood meal.

“We suspected from research that we had been doing on fruit flies that vision might play a very large and underappreciated role in allowing the mosquito to really home in on the potential host target.”

Michael Dickinson’s team used plumes – material that rises into the air — of carbon dioxide gas into a wind tunnel. They then used cameras to record the mosquitoes. The insects followed the plume.

Then, the scientists placed dark objects on the lighter colored floor and walls of the tunnel. Mr. Dickinson said, at first, the mosquitoes showed no interest in the objects at all.

“What was quite striking and quite surprising is that the mosquitos fly back and forth for hours–these are hungry females–and they completely ignore the objects on the floor and wall of the tunnel.

But the moment that they get a hit of CO2, they change their behavior quite dramatically and now would become attracted to these little visual blobs.”

This suggested to the researchers that a mosquito’s sense of smell is more important in the search for food. Once mosquitoes catch a smell of a human or animal, they also follow visual cues.

“This really makes a lot of sense because if the mosquitoes were distracted by every visual object in their world, they would just waste all their time. This case, they only start paying attention when their nose tells them that there might be a host nearby.”

This process happens several times over the course of a mosquito’s flight. Michael Dickinson explains.

“What some of the details of our experiments indicated is that it’s very hard to fool them over the long run. They will always get their man or woman over time because they’ll just keep repeating this strategy until they find a yummy meal. “

Matt DeGennaro is a scientist at Florida International University. He says understanding a mosquito’s way of finding its host could help prevent those insects from biting. He is working to create genetic changes that affect the mosquito’s sense of smell.

“We need to know which genes control this process at all these different stages. And then we can use that knowledge to design a new perfume that could block the mosquito’s sensation of us or could trigger certain receptors that signal danger to the mosquito and then cause them to stay away.”

The study, published in Current Biology, details the steps of the mosquito’s flight so that we may one day have a fighting chance against the biting insect.

I’m Marsha James.

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9.Scientists Could be Closer to AIDS Cure

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Cientistas Podem Estar Mais Perto da Cura da AIDS

All credits to V.O.A Learning English.

Since the start of the deadly AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, scientists have been working towards a cure. Now, they may be close to finding one.

Researchers have developed a method to cut the viral DNA from a person’s infected cells. It is called CRISPR/Cas9 and it means the person could be virus-free.

DNA is a substance that carries genetic information in the cells of animals and plants.

This gene-editing took place in a scientific lab, but has not been tested on humans yet.

“It’s a big step,” said Kamel Khalili, Ph.D. He is lead researcher and chair at the Department of Neuroscience at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He and his team made the discovery.

But more tests have to be done to know if it will be a cure for the millions of patients infected with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS.

Antiretroviral drugs have been doing a good job of keeping the AIDS virus from reproducing. Such a good job that levels of HIV are just about undetectable in infected people who take the medicine.

But even with the drugs, the virus stays in the body’s “T-cells,” which are T-lymphocytes. AIDS damages the immune system, hurting the body’s ability to fight off disease.

So the drugs are kind of a “Band-Aid solution,” Khalili explained. They keep the virus from growing. But they do not eliminate the memory of the virus from the cells.

And, the moment antiretroviral drugs are stopped, the HIV comes back to life and begins making more HIV, which is the AIDS virus.

Khalili and his team of scientists appear to have found a way to cut this viral DNA from infected people’s cells.

In their lab, they took cells from people infected with the HIV virus. They removed the part of the cell that was holding the virus.

He said they had “in some cases, near 90 percent of the virus replication or production dropped in the patient samples after treatment in the laboratory.”

Khalili and his team have not actually cured any patients yet. However, he believes this gene-editing technology could possibly cure AIDS.

“Elimination of the virus can lead to the cure.” He said, “it’s an exciting time, and the reason is the technologies are available and the methods are in place and our knowledge has increased.”

“And hopefully, there will be funding to take us toward this exciting moment for developing the cure strategy by eliminating viral DNA using editing techniques.”

He said that he hopes human tests could begin in two to three years. But that depends on funding.

The work was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

HIV/AIDS has been a devastating disease since it was first discovered in the early 1980s. Since then, the World Health Organization says almost 78 million people have been infected with the HIV virus. About 39 million people have died of HIV/AIDS.

At the end of 2013, 35 million people worldwide were living with HIV, according to the WHO.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected by the virus. Nearly 71 percent of people in the world who live with HIV are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

And while the drug therapy can control the virus, not everyone infected can get or afford it. Also, some who take it report side effects.

I’m Anne Ball.

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10.What It Takes to Be an Astronaut?

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O Que é Preciso para Ser um Astronauta?

All credits to V.O.A Learning English.

Is it your dream to fly and to work in space?

Do you want to be a NASA astronaut?

Like many jobs, the first thing would be to fill out the application.

A recording-breaking 18,300 people filled out applications recently to be an astronaut. NASA — the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — said that is how many people applied when it announced it was filling its 2017 Astronaut Candidate program.

But out of those 18,300 applicants, just eight to 14 will be hired by the U.S. space agency.

That means chances of becoming an astronaut are less than 0.08 percent. That makes getting into this program 65 times harder than getting into Harvard University. Their acceptance rate is 5.2 percent.

It will take NASA 18 months to decide who will be in the new class of astronauts.

Anne Roemer is NASA’s Selection Manager. She said it is a very hard job — making the selections — one they will do “very carefully.”

“It starts by us reviewing all of the files to make sure they meet the basic qualifications, and then we actually utilize our current team of astronauts to come in and review the files as well.”

The first requirement is the applicants must be U.S. citizens. They need a college degree in engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science, or mathematics. They also need at least three years of experience in a similar field or at least 1,000 hours as a jet airline pilot.

There are requirements to pass a physical test. And then there are personality tests as well.

What kinds of personality qualities is NASA looking for in an astronaut?

“I think leadership, teamwork, the ability to both work on a team, lead a team, but also follow, be a follower on a team. Communications certainly plays a role, so it’s some pretty common skills that I think translate into even other professions.”

About 120 applicants will be invited to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, for a first round of interviews. Then, about half of them will go back for a second round.

Once the astronauts are selected, they must complete two years of training. This is when astronauts learn “a little bit of everything about spaceflight,” Roemer said. Things like learning about all the systems used by NASA, and Russian language training.

Until the U.S. has a working vehicle to launch into space, NASA still depends on Russia to get astronauts into space.

They also learn EVA, or Extravehicular Activities. In other words, they learn all about walking in space.

“So they do a little bit of everything in that two-year window before moving into that mission specific training.”

This is the group that may fly on as many as three new spacecraft still being developed. They include NASA’s Orion, which will be taking people into deep space exploration. NASA hopes to get humans to Mars in the 2030s.

If you are you a young person interested in a space career later, Roemer offers this advice:

“The piece of advice that we always like to tell young folks that are interested is to pick a career that you are passionate and enthusiastic about, because you tend to do well with things you like, and then being an astronaut would be the icing on the cake to hopefully what would otherwise a very fulfilling career.”

If you are chosen to be an astronaut, you would be part of a rare and prestigious group. The first seven astronauts were picked from the military in 1959. Since then, only 338 others have been chosen as NASA astronauts.

I’m Anne Ball.

VOCABULARY

fill out the application | preencha o requerimento | just eight to 14 will be hired by the U.S. space agency | apenas oito a 14 serão contratados pela agência espacial dos EUA | Their acceptance rate is 5.2 percent | Sua taxa de aceitação é de 5,2 por cento | to make sure they meet the basic qualifications | para certificar-se de que eles atendem às qualificações básicas | the applicants must be U.S. citizens | os candidatos devem ser cidadãos dos EUA | They need a college degree | Eles precisam de um diploma universitário | there are personality tests as well | há testes de personalidade também | for a first round of interviews | para uma primeira rodada de entrevistas | they must complete two years of training | eles devem completar dois anos de treinamento | in that two-year window before moving into that mission | naquela janela de dois anos antes de passar para essa missão | o hopefully what would otherwise a very fulfilling career | outra forma uma carreira muito gratificante | you would be part of a rare and prestigious group | você faria parte de um grupo raro e prestigioso

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