VOA · As It Is
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed4:142025-03-05public 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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01Richard Buckminster Fuller was one of the most unusual thinkers of the 1900s.
02He said his aim in life was to make humans a success in the universe.
03Bucky Fuller, as he was known, spent most of his life searching for new ideas.
04Then, he invented new words to describe his ideas and designs.
05During his long life, he discussed his ideas about technology and human survival.
06He called his idea Dymaxion.
07It came from three words, dynamic, meaning a force, maximum, meaning the most, and ion, which is an atom or group of atoms with an electrical charge.
08R.
09Buckminster Fuller was born in Milton, Massachusetts, in 1895.
10As a child, Bucky Fuller questioned everything.
11He was a very independent thinker at an early age.
12His refusal to accept other people's ideas and rules continued as he grew older.
13He did not complete his education, but joined the American Navy during World War I.
14There, he learned about navigation, mathematics, mechanics, communications, and electronics engineering.
15In 1917, Bucky Fuller married Ann Hewlett.
16Their life together was troubled.
17Their first child died and a second came along, but they had little money.
18Fuller almost gave up hope.
19But then he decided to spend his life in search of designs that could make human existence on Earth easier.
20Fuller's first design was the Dymaxion house.
21It was built in a factory, then moved.
22It did not cost much to build.
23And it did not look like a traditional house in America.
24Its roof was held up by a single support in the center.
25Its walls were made of glass.
26Power came from the sun.
27Water was cleaned and reused.
28Fuller then designed and built the Dymaxion car.
29It looked like the body of an airplane.
30It had three wheels instead of four.
31It could go as fast as 180 kilometers an hour and carry 12 passengers.
32Bucky Fuller had an idea for another building design.
33It would provide the most strength with the least amount of material.
34The main part of his design is a four-sided pyramid.
35To create a building, many pyramids are connected to each other.
36The connecting piece has eight sides.
37Together, these two shapes create a very strong, lightweight, rounded structure.
38Fuller named this structure the geodesic dome.
39It covers more space with less material than any other building ever designed.
40Today, there are about 100,000 geodesic domes in use around the world.
41Most of Fuller's inventions did not earn him much money.
42A lot of what he did earn he spent traveling around the world.
43He told anyone who would listen about his ideas for human life on this planet.
44He called the planet Spaceship Earth.
45People must live on Earth just as astronauts live in a spaceship.
46They must use their supplies wisely and reuse them, he said.
47R.
48Buckminster Fuller died in 1983 at the age of 87.
49I'm Jill Robbins.
50R.
51Buckminster Fuller died in 1983 at the age of 87.
52I'm Jill Robbins.
53I'm Jill Robbins.
54I'm Jill Robbins.
55I'm Jill Robbins.
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