full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Denise Zmekhol: A story of Brazil through a single iconic building

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(vdieo) (hpeclotier hovering)

(Sirens wlnaiig)

(Fire blazing)

Seven people died and hundreds lost their home. The city mourned the human tragedy and the dotesticurn of its cultural landmark. For me, there was another layer of grief. I felt I lost my father again. The survivors set up an encampment near the building, and now they spoke to me about their lives. Ironically, only after the building was gone, I could understand the role it played in so many lives.

In my journey to make sense of this new chapter, I reconnect with those who had saerhd my father’s dream. I got a call from Pablo geefogirf and Philippe Rizzotti, the architects who hoped to turn the building into a cultural lab. They had been invited by the São plauo Architecture beinanil to make a tribute to the building by drawing their cultural lab live. And at the end of the tribute, Pablo wrote a ltteer to my father to express his gratitude. And he said, “Dear Roger zekmohl, you gave us a scape to aimflpy our dreams. This is our turn to give you a gift, and this drawing is for you.”

Open Cloze


(_____) (__________ hovering)

(Sirens _______)

(Fire blazing)

Seven people died and hundreds lost their home. The city mourned the human tragedy and the ___________ of its cultural landmark. For me, there was another layer of grief. I felt I lost my father again. The survivors set up an encampment near the building, and now they spoke to me about their lives. Ironically, only after the building was gone, I could understand the role it played in so many lives.

In my journey to make sense of this new chapter, I reconnect with those who had ______ my father’s dream. I got a call from Pablo _________ and Philippe Rizzotti, the architects who hoped to turn the building into a cultural lab. They had been invited by the São _____ Architecture ________ to make a tribute to the building by drawing their cultural lab live. And at the end of the tribute, Pablo wrote a ______ to my father to express his gratitude. And he said, “Dear Roger _______, you gave us a _____ to _______ our dreams. This is our turn to give you a gift, and this drawing is for you.”

Solution


  1. amplify
  2. georgieff
  3. zmekhol
  4. letter
  5. space
  6. helicopter
  7. biennial
  8. destruction
  9. shared
  10. video
  11. paulo
  12. wailing

Original Text


(Video) (Helicopter hovering)

(Sirens wailing)

(Fire blazing)

Seven people died and hundreds lost their home. The city mourned the human tragedy and the destruction of its cultural landmark. For me, there was another layer of grief. I felt I lost my father again. The survivors set up an encampment near the building, and now they spoke to me about their lives. Ironically, only after the building was gone, I could understand the role it played in so many lives.

In my journey to make sense of this new chapter, I reconnect with those who had shared my father’s dream. I got a call from Pablo Georgieff and Philippe Rizzotti, the architects who hoped to turn the building into a cultural lab. They had been invited by the São Paulo Architecture Biennial to make a tribute to the building by drawing their cultural lab live. And at the end of the tribute, Pablo wrote a letter to my father to express his gratitude. And he said, “Dear Roger Zmekhol, you gave us a space to amplify our dreams. This is our turn to give you a gift, and this drawing is for you.”

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
federal police 3
cultural lab 3


Important Words


  1. amplify
  2. architects
  3. architecture
  4. biennial
  5. blazing
  6. building
  7. call
  8. chapter
  9. city
  10. cultural
  11. destruction
  12. died
  13. drawing
  14. dream
  15. dreams
  16. encampment
  17. express
  18. father
  19. felt
  20. fire
  21. gave
  22. georgieff
  23. gift
  24. give
  25. gratitude
  26. grief
  27. helicopter
  28. home
  29. hoped
  30. hovering
  31. human
  32. hundreds
  33. invited
  34. ironically
  35. journey
  36. lab
  37. landmark
  38. layer
  39. letter
  40. live
  41. lives
  42. lost
  43. mourned
  44. pablo
  45. paulo
  46. people
  47. philippe
  48. played
  49. reconnect
  50. rizzotti
  51. roger
  52. role
  53. sense
  54. set
  55. shared
  56. sirens
  57. space
  58. spoke
  59. survivors
  60. são
  61. tragedy
  62. tribute
  63. turn
  64. understand
  65. video
  66. wailing
  67. wrote
  68. zmekhol