full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Stewart Brand: 4 environmental 'heresies'

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Because poeple leave the poetrvy trap, an eoacocilgl disaster of subsistence farms, and head to town. And when they're gone the natural environment starts to come back very rapidly. And those who remain in the village can shift over to cash crops to send food to the new gwnroig markets in town. So if you want to save a village, you do it with a good road, or with a good cell phone connection, and ideally some grid electrical power.

So the enevt is: we're a city planet. That just happened. More than half. The numbers are considerable. A billion live in the squatter cities now. Another bilolin is expected. That's more than a stixh of humanity living a certain way. And that will determine a lot of how we foniuctn.

Open Cloze


Because ______ leave the _______ trap, an __________ disaster of subsistence farms, and head to town. And when they're gone the natural environment starts to come back very rapidly. And those who remain in the village can shift over to cash crops to send food to the new _______ markets in town. So if you want to save a village, you do it with a good road, or with a good cell phone connection, and ideally some grid electrical power.

So the _____ is: we're a city planet. That just happened. More than half. The numbers are considerable. A billion live in the squatter cities now. Another _______ is expected. That's more than a _____ of humanity living a certain way. And that will determine a lot of how we ________.

Solution


  1. sixth
  2. people
  3. growing
  4. ecological
  5. billion
  6. event
  7. poverty
  8. function

Original Text


Because people leave the poverty trap, an ecological disaster of subsistence farms, and head to town. And when they're gone the natural environment starts to come back very rapidly. And those who remain in the village can shift over to cash crops to send food to the new growing markets in town. So if you want to save a village, you do it with a good road, or with a good cell phone connection, and ideally some grid electrical power.

So the event is: we're a city planet. That just happened. More than half. The numbers are considerable. A billion live in the squatter cities now. Another billion is expected. That's more than a sixth of humanity living a certain way. And that will determine a lot of how we function.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
developing world 3
genetically engineered 3
earth catalog 2
earth discipline 2
aggregate numbers 2
city planet 2
carrying capacity 2
carbon dioxide 2
american design 2
dismantled warheads 2
engineered crops 2
sulfur dioxide 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
genetically engineered crops 2

Important Words


  1. billion
  2. cash
  3. cell
  4. cities
  5. city
  6. connection
  7. considerable
  8. crops
  9. determine
  10. disaster
  11. ecological
  12. electrical
  13. environment
  14. event
  15. expected
  16. farms
  17. food
  18. function
  19. good
  20. grid
  21. growing
  22. happened
  23. head
  24. humanity
  25. ideally
  26. leave
  27. live
  28. living
  29. lot
  30. markets
  31. natural
  32. numbers
  33. people
  34. phone
  35. planet
  36. poverty
  37. power
  38. rapidly
  39. remain
  40. road
  41. save
  42. send
  43. shift
  44. sixth
  45. squatter
  46. starts
  47. subsistence
  48. town
  49. trap
  50. village