VOA · As It Is
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed4:242025-03-03public domain
As It Is is VOA Learning English's daily news magazine. Each report covers a current story in clear, learner-speed English with a controlled vocabulary — the closest thing to real news broadcasts that intermediate learners can fully digest, and ideal raw material for dictation.
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01The Hershey Company has been a historic name in the American candy industry for many years, and the chocolate maker has one person to thank for its famous identity, Milton Hershey.
02Hershey was born in 1857 in central Pennsylvania.
03His mother was a member of the Mennonite Church.
04The religious group valued self-denial, a limitation of one's own interests and desires, as well as community service.
05Milton Hershey's father worked at many different jobs.
06Because of this, the family moved several times during Milton's childhood.
07He stopped attending school when he was just 12 years old and started working different jobs.
08He also launched several businesses, but all of them failed.
09Hershey's first big success came after he experimented with candy making and discovered a new way to make caramels.
10He found that his caramels turned out better when they were made with fresh milk.
11When an English candy importer tasted Hershey's caramels, he placed a large order.
12This made his first company, the Lancaster Candy Company, a success.
13Hershey soon became one of Pennsylvania's top businessmen.
14He was selling his candies all across the United States and Europe.
15In 1893, Hershey attended the World's Fair and saw chocolate-making machines from Germany.
16At that time, he decided chocolate was the likely future of the candy business and bought the machines.
17He moved the equipment to Pennsylvania and sold the Lancaster Candy Company.
18He then worked on a new plan to build a large chocolate factory along with a town to support it.
19Michael D'Antonio wrote a book about Milton Hershey.
20He wrote that Hershey got the idea for his town from the Cadbury family in Britain.
21The Cadburys made chocolates.
22They also built a factory surrounded by a town.
23The book says Hershey wanted to do the same.
24Hershey paid for many buildings in the town.
25He wanted to create a place where his factory's workers could own their own houses.
26Hershey's town was modern.
27It had nice houses, large public buildings, and an electric railway system for easy transportation.
28Nearby farms provided the chocolate factory with fresh milk for its products.
29Milton Hershey died in 1945.
30He left behind the company, the town, a school, and a trust that supports it.
31At the time of his death, the company he built was said to have produced about 90% of all the milk chocolate made in the United States.
32Today, Hershey, Pennsylvania is unlike any other town in the U.S.
33For example, the streetlights are shaped like the candy called Hershey's Kisses.
34The air often smells like chocolate.
35And millions of people visit every year.
36This special town has a very fitting name.
37The sweetest place on Earth.
38I'm John Russell.
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
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