Title:
An Air Show for Showing Off; West Bank's Speed
Sisters
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
One of the largest air shows in the United States is
also one of the largest trade shows in the aircraft
industry. AirVenture took place in July at an
airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Ron Wagner is from
the Experimental Aircraft Association, which holds
the event each year. He said almost every major
manufacturer and many smaller ones were represented.
Visitors could find everything from old passenger
planes to new unmanned aircraft, like the Predator
drone. But Ron Wagner says the spirit of the event
is best represented by the pilots and engineers who
build their own aircraft. He said: "Much of the
modern innovation has come from the home builder
community in the United States. We have a lot of
freedom to build, design and fly airplanes for our
own use." If you are more interested in fast cars,
here is a new turn in the world of motorsports. The
Speed Sisters are a racing team of eight Palestinian
women in the West Bank. The team is a dream come
true for Suna Aweidah, the captain. But not everyone
was happy to see her in the driver's seat of the BMW
race car she drives. She says her family thought
motor racing was not safe and mainly for men. But
she says there is no sport that is especially for
men or especially for women. She says women can
compete with men in all kinds of sports. In June,
the Speed Sisters became the first all-female racing
team to compete in the Speed Test, a popular race in
the West Bank. They faced some mechanical problems.
But one of them finished in the top ten. The team
includes Muslims and Christians, mothers, a
librarian, a business student and a woman who
competed in a beauty pageant. Two of the drivers
were born into racing families. The Speed Sisters
received money from the British Consulate in
Jerusalem to buy a race car. They also received
driving lessons and guidance from two British women
in motorsports, Helen Elstrop and Sue Sanders. Ms.
Sanders says she knew right away the Speed Sisters
had the drive to succeed. She said it did not matter
whether they spoke the same language or had the same
culture. They had the same desire to succeed and be
the best. And that's the VOA Special English
Economics Report. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of
our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. You can
also find us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube at VOA
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personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
