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now the voa special english program words and their stories.

some of the most exciting information comes by way of the grapevine.

that is so because reports received through the grapevine are supposed to be secret.the information is all hush,hush.it is whispered into your ear with the understanding that you will not pass it on to others.you feel honored and excited.you are one of the special few to get this information. you can not wait.you must quickly find other ears to pour the information into.and so the information-secret as it is-begins to spread.nobody knows how far.

the expression by the grapevine is more than 100 hundred years old.

the American inventor, Samuel F. Morse is largely responsible for the birth of the expression.among others,he experiment with the idea of telegraphy-sending messages over a wire by electricity .when Morse finally completed his telegraphic instrument,he went before Congress to show that it worked.he sent a message over a wire from Washington to Baltimore.the message was "what hath god wrought?"this was on My 24,1844.

quickly companies began to built telegraph lines from one place to another.men everywhere seemed to be put up poles with strings of wire  for carring telegraphic messages.the workmanship was poor and wires were not put up straight.some of results looked strange.people said they looked like a grapevine.

a large number of the telegraph lines were going in all directions as crooked as the vines that grapes grow on.so was born the expression ,by the grapevine.

some writers believed that the phrase would soon have disappeared were it not for the American Civil War.

soon after the war began in 1861,military commanders started to send battlefield reports by telegraph. people began hearing the phrase by the grapevine to describe false as well as true reports from the battlefield.it was like a game.was it true?who says so?

now,as in those far-off get information by the grapevine remains something of a game.a friend brings you a bit of strange news."no",you say" it just can't  be true,who told you?"comes the answer,"i got it by the by the grapevine."

you relly can not know how much-if any-of the information that comes to you by the grapevine is true or false.still,in the words of old American saying, the person who keeps pulling the grapevine shakes down at least a few grapes.

you have been listening to the voa special english words and their stories . i'm warreon scheer.

qianyoushun

this is the VOA Special English education report.

this week,we visit four websites where students can learn about higher education in the united states.

cappex.com--c-a-p-p-e-x--matches students with colleges and universities.students create a profile about themselves and their interests.the site then suggests to 10 to 20 schools.

but Cappex president Chris Long says that there are no guarantees of admission.the site is free to students.Cappex sells advertising on the site to schools and companies.

CollegeClickTV.com has 30,000 videos of students answering questions about their schools.

i would  recommend honestly taking statistics 263 with professor Alexander.he is absolutely wonderful,the class is a  great class to take and i really enjoy it.

i choose this school because it's in the city and it's really great and the communication school is actually,i think,ranked in the top 5.

"yeah"

it varies every year but it's ranked really high and all the colleges,and you like a really great well-rounded education.And the kids really cool,you meet really fun people.

i came here because i didn't get into NYU.

schools pay collegeclicktv to come on campus. but founder and President Genn Pere says schools do not approve or reject any comments. that does not mean the site was used whatever students Glenn Pere says they must give reasons for their opinions.Zinch.com has video profiles produced by students themselves. co-founder Sid Kromenhoek says it is a place where students can show their abilities and talents.the copmany says more than 600 colleges pay to use the site to serch for students.more than 500,000 high shool students have profiles on the site.

finally ,we come to unigo.com.unigo offers college reviews,videos and othe content created by students Features include "unofficial campus tours" and "advice for dealing with the recession".oh,and of course,dating on campus.

the free site supported by ads has a team of full-time editors. the site was launched to the public last September by a start-up company led by its 26 year old founder.Jordan Goldman says the site is starting with 255 of america's top colleges and will add more.

 unigo,Zinch,college collect tv and cappex are just some of the sites for college searchs on the web.others include mycollege options ,checkmycampus and princeton review.

and that's the voa special english education report written by Nancy Steinbach.our foreign students series continues next week.the series is online at voaspecialenglish.com,i am steve ember.