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

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And we close with an American story.

Today we hear the last part of the Blue Hotel by Stephen Crane. But now,

archaeological research has uncovered another treasure of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, a large private bathhouse.

The explosion of Mount Vesuvius in 70 AD buried Pompeii in thick ash, wreckage, and lava, or hot liquid rock.

Archaeologists are continuing to find remains of the city under the ground.

The bathhouse was part of a large private house, the scientist said.

The bathhouse holds a series of rooms that would have provided hot, warm, or cold conditions.

The art and design of the complex, including mosaic works, also suggest the owner was wealthy.

We have here perhaps the largest thermal complex in a private house in Pompeii, said Gabriel Zachtregal,

director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park.

He explained that Pompeii's powerful and wealthy

set up large spaces at their homes

to hold major gatherings for ceremonies and other purposes.

It was an opportunity to show the wealth in which they lived and also to have a nice thermal treatment, he said.

The baths were unearthed in the so-called Regio 9, a large central area of Pompeii Park that is still unexplored.

Recently, archaeologists working in the same area found a bakery, a laundry,

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