full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

Unscramble the Blue Letters


It's perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living. It's perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of craeer anxiety. I want to look now, if I may, at some of the reasons why we might be feeling anxiety about our careers. Why we might be victims of these career crises, as we're weipneg softly into our pillows. One of the reasons why we might be sfurienfg is that we are surrounded by sbons.

In a way, I've got some bad news, particularly to anybody who's come to oorxfd from abroad. There's a real plbroem with senborby, because sometimes people from outside the U.K. imagine that snobbery is a distinctively U.K. phenomenon, fixated on country houses and titles. The bad news is that's not true. Snobbery is a global phenomenon; we are a global organization, this is a global pomnnheeon. What is a snob? A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you, and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are. That is snobbery.

Open Cloze


It's perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living. It's perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of ______ anxiety. I want to look now, if I may, at some of the reasons why we might be feeling anxiety about our careers. Why we might be victims of these career crises, as we're _______ softly into our pillows. One of the reasons why we might be _________ is that we are surrounded by _____.

In a way, I've got some bad news, particularly to anybody who's come to ______ from abroad. There's a real _______ with ________, because sometimes people from outside the U.K. imagine that snobbery is a distinctively U.K. phenomenon, fixated on country houses and titles. The bad news is that's not true. Snobbery is a global phenomenon; we are a global organization, this is a global __________. What is a snob? A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you, and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are. That is snobbery.

Solution


  1. weeping
  2. career
  3. phenomenon
  4. oxford
  5. snobs
  6. snobbery
  7. suffering
  8. problem

Original Text


It's perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living. It's perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety. I want to look now, if I may, at some of the reasons why we might be feeling anxiety about our careers. Why we might be victims of these career crises, as we're weeping softly into our pillows. One of the reasons why we might be suffering is that we are surrounded by snobs.

In a way, I've got some bad news, particularly to anybody who's come to Oxford from abroad. There's a real problem with snobbery, because sometimes people from outside the U.K. imagine that snobbery is a distinctively U.K. phenomenon, fixated on country houses and titles. The bad news is that's not true. Snobbery is a global phenomenon; we are a global organization, this is a global phenomenon. What is a snob? A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you, and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are. That is snobbery.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
material goods 3
strictly defined 2
beautiful idea 2
modern society 2
kind tells 2
tabloid newspaper 2
tragic art 2
alain de 2


Important Words


  1. anxiety
  2. bad
  3. calm
  4. career
  5. careers
  6. complete
  7. country
  8. crises
  9. distinctively
  10. easier
  11. feeling
  12. fixated
  13. free
  14. global
  15. good
  16. harder
  17. houses
  18. imagine
  19. living
  20. news
  21. organization
  22. oxford
  23. part
  24. people
  25. phenomenon
  26. pillows
  27. problem
  28. real
  29. reasons
  30. small
  31. snob
  32. snobbery
  33. snobs
  34. softly
  35. stay
  36. suffering
  37. surrounded
  38. takes
  39. titles
  40. true
  41. victims
  42. vision
  43. weeping