Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Katie Weaver.

And I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.

This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases especially written for people learning

English.

On today's program, John Russell tells about the American inventor who made the television possible in all about America.

Anna Mateo reports on efforts to improve the apple tree.

Then Jill Robbins shares ways to prevent brain wasting.

Finally, Jill returns for the lesson of the day with Andrew Smith.

But first, television has made it possible for people around the world to share in many

different experiences, sports, music shows, films, and more.

Yet many people would find it difficult to name the inventor of the television.

They might also be surprised to learn that the inventor came up with the idea when he was just 14 years old.

Today, we explore the life of one of the great inventors of 20th century America.

Philo Taylor Farnsworth Phil Philo Farnsworth was born in August 1906, near Indian Creek,

in the western state of Utah. The house he lived in for the first few years of his life had no electricity. But Philo read about electricity

and quickly began to experiment with it. One night, Philo read a magazine story about the idea of

sending pictures and sound through the air. The story said some of the

world's best scientists were working on the idea. It said these scientists were using special

machines to try to make a kind of device to send pictures.

Fourteen-year-old Philo decided these famous scientists were wrong.

He decided that mechanical devices would never work.

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