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

I'm Ashley Thompson.

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.

Today you will hear stories from Brian Lynn and Anna Mateo.

Later, John Russell presents the Health and Lifestyle Report.

We close the show with the lesson of the day from Andrew Smith and Faith Perlow. But first,

A new government study suggests

U.S. teen smoking rates

reached an all-time low this year.

The study was a survey of American youth carried out by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC.

The survey involved middle school students, which includes grades six through eight

and high school students in grades nine through 12.

Nearly 30,000 students from 283 U.S. schools took part in the effort

which was carried out from January to May.

An estimated 33% of youth took part in the voluntary survey.

The study showed a 20% drop in the number of middle and high school students

who said they recently used at least one tobacco product.

These include cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, nicotine patches, and hookas.

That number decreased from 2.8 million last year to 2.25 million this year.

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