full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Honor Harger: A history of the universe in sound

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So today, I'm going to tell you a sroht story of the history of the universe through ltiensnig. It's punctuated by three quick anecdotes, which show how accidental encounters with satrnge noiess gave us some of the most inmtoarpt information we have about space. Now this story doesn't start with vast telescopes or futuristic spacecraft, but a rather more humble technology — and in fact, the very medium which gave us the telecommunications revolution that we're all part of today: the telephone.

It's 1876, it's in bosotn, and this is Alexander Graham Bell who was working with toamhs Watson on the inoivtnen of the telephone. A key part of their tcnaihecl set up was a half-mile long length of wire, which was thrown across the rooftops of several houess in Boston. The line craired the telephone signals that would later make Bell a household name. But like any long length of charged wire, it also inadvertently became an antenna. Thomas Watson spent hours listening to the strange crackles and hisses and chirps and whistles that his adciencatl antenna detected. Now you have to remember, this is 10 years before Heinrich Hertz proved the existence of rdaio waves — 15 years before Nikola Tesla's four-tuned circuit — nearly 20 years before Marconi's first broadcast. So Thomas Watson wasn't listening to us. We didn't have the technology to transmit.

Open Cloze


So today, I'm going to tell you a _____ story of the history of the universe through _________. It's punctuated by three quick anecdotes, which show how accidental encounters with _______ ______ gave us some of the most _________ information we have about space. Now this story doesn't start with vast telescopes or futuristic spacecraft, but a rather more humble technology — and in fact, the very medium which gave us the telecommunications revolution that we're all part of today: the telephone.

It's 1876, it's in ______, and this is Alexander Graham Bell who was working with ______ Watson on the _________ of the telephone. A key part of their _________ set up was a half-mile long length of wire, which was thrown across the rooftops of several ______ in Boston. The line _______ the telephone signals that would later make Bell a household name. But like any long length of charged wire, it also inadvertently became an antenna. Thomas Watson spent hours listening to the strange crackles and hisses and chirps and whistles that his __________ antenna detected. Now you have to remember, this is 10 years before Heinrich Hertz proved the existence of _____ waves — 15 years before Nikola Tesla's four-tuned circuit — nearly 20 years before Marconi's first broadcast. So Thomas Watson wasn't listening to us. We didn't have the technology to transmit.

Solution


  1. noises
  2. houses
  3. boston
  4. technical
  5. short
  6. strange
  7. carried
  8. important
  9. thomas
  10. radio
  11. accidental
  12. invention
  13. listening

Original Text


So today, I'm going to tell you a short story of the history of the universe through listening. It's punctuated by three quick anecdotes, which show how accidental encounters with strange noises gave us some of the most important information we have about space. Now this story doesn't start with vast telescopes or futuristic spacecraft, but a rather more humble technology — and in fact, the very medium which gave us the telecommunications revolution that we're all part of today: the telephone.

It's 1876, it's in Boston, and this is Alexander Graham Bell who was working with Thomas Watson on the invention of the telephone. A key part of their technical set up was a half-mile long length of wire, which was thrown across the rooftops of several houses in Boston. The line carried the telephone signals that would later make Bell a household name. But like any long length of charged wire, it also inadvertently became an antenna. Thomas Watson spent hours listening to the strange crackles and hisses and chirps and whistles that his accidental antenna detected. Now you have to remember, this is 10 years before Heinrich Hertz proved the existence of radio waves — 15 years before Nikola Tesla's four-tuned circuit — nearly 20 years before Marconi's first broadcast. So Thomas Watson wasn't listening to us. We didn't have the technology to transmit.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
radio waves 4
thomas watson 3
big bang 3
celestial objects 2
radio astronomy 2
long length 2
persistent noise 2
radiation left 2


Important Words


  1. accidental
  2. alexander
  3. anecdotes
  4. antenna
  5. bell
  6. boston
  7. broadcast
  8. carried
  9. charged
  10. chirps
  11. circuit
  12. crackles
  13. detected
  14. encounters
  15. existence
  16. fact
  17. futuristic
  18. gave
  19. graham
  20. heinrich
  21. hertz
  22. hisses
  23. history
  24. hours
  25. household
  26. houses
  27. humble
  28. important
  29. inadvertently
  30. information
  31. invention
  32. key
  33. length
  34. line
  35. listening
  36. long
  37. medium
  38. nikola
  39. noises
  40. part
  41. proved
  42. punctuated
  43. quick
  44. radio
  45. remember
  46. revolution
  47. rooftops
  48. set
  49. short
  50. show
  51. signals
  52. space
  53. spacecraft
  54. spent
  55. start
  56. story
  57. strange
  58. technical
  59. technology
  60. telecommunications
  61. telephone
  62. telescopes
  63. thomas
  64. thrown
  65. today
  66. transmit
  67. universe
  68. vast
  69. watson
  70. waves
  71. whistles
  72. wire
  73. working
  74. years