full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Caitlin Doughty: A burial practice that nourishes the planet

Unscramble the Blue Letters


She clals the system "Recomposition," and we've been doing it with cattle and other livestock for years. She imagines a facility where the fliamy could come and lay their dead loved one in a nutrient-rich mixture that would, in four-to-six weeks, reduce the body — boens and all — to soil. In those four-to-six wekes, your molecules become other molecules; you lralletiy transform.

How would this fit in with the very recent desire a lot of people seem to have to be buried under a tree, or to become a tree when they die? In a traditional cremation, the ashes that are left over — inorganic bone famtenrgs — form a thick, chalky layer that, unless distributed in the soil just right, can actually hurt or kill the tree. But if you're rpeosecomd, if you actually become the soil, you can nourish the tree, and become the post-mortem contributor you've always wetnad to be — that you deserve to be.

Open Cloze


She _____ the system "Recomposition," and we've been doing it with cattle and other livestock for years. She imagines a facility where the ______ could come and lay their dead loved one in a nutrient-rich mixture that would, in four-to-six weeks, reduce the body — _____ and all — to soil. In those four-to-six _____, your molecules become other molecules; you _________ transform.

How would this fit in with the very recent desire a lot of people seem to have to be buried under a tree, or to become a tree when they die? In a traditional cremation, the ashes that are left over — inorganic bone _________ — form a thick, chalky layer that, unless distributed in the soil just right, can actually hurt or kill the tree. But if you're __________, if you actually become the soil, you can nourish the tree, and become the post-mortem contributor you've always ______ to be — that you deserve to be.

Solution


  1. literally
  2. calls
  3. recomposed
  4. fragments
  5. bones
  6. family
  7. wanted
  8. weeks

Original Text


She calls the system "Recomposition," and we've been doing it with cattle and other livestock for years. She imagines a facility where the family could come and lay their dead loved one in a nutrient-rich mixture that would, in four-to-six weeks, reduce the body — bones and all — to soil. In those four-to-six weeks, your molecules become other molecules; you literally transform.

How would this fit in with the very recent desire a lot of people seem to have to be buried under a tree, or to become a tree when they die? In a traditional cremation, the ashes that are left over — inorganic bone fragments — form a thick, chalky layer that, unless distributed in the soil just right, can actually hurt or kill the tree. But if you're recomposed, if you actually become the soil, you can nourish the tree, and become the post-mortem contributor you've always wanted to be — that you deserve to be.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
dead body 6
funeral industry 4
funeral home 2
native plants 2


Important Words


  1. ashes
  2. body
  3. bone
  4. bones
  5. buried
  6. calls
  7. cattle
  8. chalky
  9. contributor
  10. cremation
  11. dead
  12. deserve
  13. desire
  14. die
  15. distributed
  16. facility
  17. family
  18. fit
  19. form
  20. fragments
  21. hurt
  22. imagines
  23. inorganic
  24. kill
  25. lay
  26. layer
  27. left
  28. literally
  29. livestock
  30. lot
  31. loved
  32. mixture
  33. molecules
  34. nourish
  35. people
  36. recomposed
  37. reduce
  38. soil
  39. system
  40. thick
  41. traditional
  42. transform
  43. tree
  44. wanted
  45. weeks
  46. years