Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION American history in VOA Special English.

VOA: special.2009.11.26

The current economic downturn grew out of a culture of irresponsible lending and borrowing and "a failure of the entire system,"

VOA: special.2009.06.19

But the researchers found that the influence of a friend of a friend of a friend can be greater than that.

VOA: special.2009.01.21

About the size of a small dog, echidnas look like a mixture of a porcupine, an anteater,a pig and a mole.

VOA: special.2009.07.07

When societies cooperate with the aim of creating a public good, there is always the possibility of a free-rider.

VOA: special.2009.03.03

But the researchers did much of their work with a phureja, a kind of a potato that has only one copy.

VOA: special.2009.10.20

Researchers have known since the nineteen thirties that the actively growing tip of a plant releases a hormone called auxin.

VOA: special.2009.10.13

Obsidian is a kind of black glass formed when the heat of a volcano melts the silica material in sand.

VOA: special.2009.09.16

Now, a group of research scientists says it has found evidence of a similar event that happened about 13,000 years ago.

VOA: special.2009.01.20

So you feel like you are a guest in a home instead of a visitor in a huge, impersonal museum.

VOA: special.2009.01.11

But the job of a critic is to sometimes pan the work of a writer, artist or singer.

VOA: special.2010.04.25

There is also an image of a bell inside a copper-colored inkwell on the front of the note.

VOA: special.2010.11.15

He said the world knows of her because of a single act of bravery that struck a deadly blow to racial hatred.

VOA: special.2009.03.08

Bill invented the method of using a hot branding iron to permanently put the mark of a ranch on a cow's skin.

VOA: special.2011.06.11