full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Aditi Gupta: A taboo-free way to talk about periods

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Periods. Blood. Menstruation. Gross. Secret. Hidden. Why?

A natural biological process that every girl and woman goes through every month for about half of her life. A phenomenon that is so snnagiicift that the survival and propagation of our species dpndees on it. Yet we consider it a taboo. We feel awkward and shameful talking about it.

When I got my first periods, I was told to keep it a seecrt from others — even from my father and brother. Later when this chapter aprepaed in our textbooks, our biology teehacr sikeppd the sjcuebt.

(Laughter)

You know what I learned from it? I learned that it is really sfhuemal to talk about it. I learned to be ashamed of my body. I learned to stay unaware of periods in order to stay decent.

Open Cloze


Periods. Blood. Menstruation. Gross. Secret. Hidden. Why?

A natural biological process that every girl and woman goes through every month for about half of her life. A phenomenon that is so ___________ that the survival and propagation of our species _______ on it. Yet we consider it a taboo. We feel awkward and shameful talking about it.

When I got my first periods, I was told to keep it a ______ from others — even from my father and brother. Later when this chapter ________ in our textbooks, our biology _______ _______ the _______.

(Laughter)

You know what I learned from it? I learned that it is really ________ to talk about it. I learned to be ashamed of my body. I learned to stay unaware of periods in order to stay decent.

Solution


  1. significant
  2. depends
  3. secret
  4. shameful
  5. appeared
  6. skipped
  7. subject
  8. teacher

Original Text


Periods. Blood. Menstruation. Gross. Secret. Hidden. Why?

A natural biological process that every girl and woman goes through every month for about half of her life. A phenomenon that is so significant that the survival and propagation of our species depends on it. Yet we consider it a taboo. We feel awkward and shameful talking about it.

When I got my first periods, I was told to keep it a secret from others — even from my father and brother. Later when this chapter appeared in our textbooks, our biology teacher skipped the subject.

(Laughter)

You know what I learned from it? I learned that it is really shameful to talk about it. I learned to be ashamed of my body. I learned to stay unaware of periods in order to stay decent.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
educate girls 3
teach girls 3
menstrual hygiene 2
menstruating girls 2
restrictive customs 2
girls curious 2
menstrual awareness 2


Important Words


  1. appeared
  2. ashamed
  3. awkward
  4. biological
  5. biology
  6. blood
  7. body
  8. brother
  9. chapter
  10. decent
  11. depends
  12. father
  13. feel
  14. girl
  15. gross
  16. hidden
  17. laughter
  18. learned
  19. life
  20. menstruation
  21. month
  22. natural
  23. order
  24. periods
  25. phenomenon
  26. process
  27. propagation
  28. secret
  29. shameful
  30. significant
  31. skipped
  32. species
  33. stay
  34. subject
  35. survival
  36. taboo
  37. talk
  38. talking
  39. teacher
  40. textbooks
  41. told
  42. unaware
  43. woman