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, hear about the life and useful work of American inventor Thomas Edison.

Then get advice about saying no to improve health and workplace cooperation.

A UN agency wants to provide cancer drugs to children in poor countries.

After that, find out why it will cost more to climb the world's highest mountain.

We close the show with the lesson of the day.

But first...

The inventor Thomas Alva Edison had a major effect on the lives of people around the world.

Thomas Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph, and his work with motion pictures.

Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in Mylan, Ohio.

He was mostly self-taught.

His mother taught him reading, writing, and mathematics.

He learned from books, and he experimented.

At the age of ten, he experimented with chemicals and electricity.

He built a telegraph machine, and, at the age of 16, he went to work as a telegraph operator.

He continued his work with electricity, making improved telegraph machines, and he invented

an electrical voting machine. Edison earned enough money from his early inventions to start his own

company in 1871. Instead of working alone, he worked with a group of employees on many different

...