Title:
Visiting the National Arboretum in Washington
Description: This is
a VOA Special English General News Report.
See text below
Text:
The United States National Arboretum is famous for
its flowers, trees and plants. The Arboretum is just
a short drive from the center of Washington, D.C.
Yet visitors often feel like they are far from the
busy city.
Sam Augusta brought his one-year-old son to play by
the water.
SAM AUGUSTA: We like to come and take a look at the
fish, and the lotus flowers and a lot of the plants.
Hes never seen the fish up close like this before.
Joan Love often visits the Arboretum. She says she
knows about almost every plant here.
JOAN LOVE: I mean theres so much to see here and so
much to do here. But one thing is, you dont even
know youre in Washington, D.C. Youre just here in
all this wonderfulness.
The Arboretum also is home to what were once pieces
of the United States Capitol. These sandstone
columns formerly stood at the eastern entrance to
the building. They were given to the Arboretum when
the Capitol was repaired in 1958.
Thomas Elias served as director of the Arboretum for
16 years.
THOMAS ELIAS: The National Arboretum was established
in 1927 by an act of Congress as a research and
educational facility, devoted to studying plants,
and disseminating information to the American
public.
Each year, the Arboretum sends scientists to collect
plants from around the world. Those plants are
brought back to Washington and planted. Some are
used to study ways to grow plants with resistance to
insects or disease.
The Arboretum also has an area with plants that can
be used to make fuels.
THOMAS ELIAS: Its to demonstrate to people and show
people what the plants that can be used to generate
bio-fuel or ethanol as a substitute for fuel. So we
selected 21 different plants that can be used in
some way to generate fuel.
The bio-fuel display has plants like alfalfa,
sunflowers and soybeans. The Arboretum has many
areas of interest. But what most visitors say they
like best is the calm and natural beauty. Here, they
feel far from Washington and the world of politics.
Im Faith Lapidus.
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Hi. I
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.
