full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alex Smith: An NFL quarterback on overcoming setbacks and self-doubt

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(lhagetur)

What I saw was not cool. It was getqsuore. Mangled and dreofemd. All kinds of purple and blue and red. Fair warning, these pictures are a little ghiarpc. But my leg went from this, the black is the dead tissue, to this. And this. And this. Before it could get rbliuet. But I saw my leg for what it was. And it was mine.

These days, I've come a long way with this guy.

(Applause)

This thing that once represented everything I feared, everything I had lost, it's probably the thing I'm most proud of in my life outside of my wife and kids. So, yeah, I guess she was right, it is pretty cool.

Open Cloze


(________)

What I saw was not cool. It was _________. Mangled and ________. All kinds of purple and blue and red. Fair warning, these pictures are a little _______. But my leg went from this, the black is the dead tissue, to this. And this. And this. Before it could get _______. But I saw my leg for what it was. And it was mine.

These days, I've come a long way with this guy.

(Applause)

This thing that once represented everything I feared, everything I had lost, it's probably the thing I'm most proud of in my life outside of my wife and kids. So, yeah, I guess she was right, it is pretty cool.

Solution


  1. grotesque
  2. laughter
  3. rebuilt
  4. graphic
  5. deformed

Original Text


(Laughter)

What I saw was not cool. It was grotesque. Mangled and deformed. All kinds of purple and blue and red. Fair warning, these pictures are a little graphic. But my leg went from this, the black is the dead tissue, to this. And this. And this. Before it could get rebuilt. But I saw my leg for what it was. And it was mine.

These days, I've come a long way with this guy.

(Applause)

This thing that once represented everything I feared, everything I had lost, it's probably the thing I'm most proud of in my life outside of my wife and kids. So, yeah, I guess she was right, it is pretty cool.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
white sheet 3
absolutely terrified 2
coach harbaugh 2


Important Words


  1. applause
  2. black
  3. blue
  4. cool
  5. days
  6. dead
  7. deformed
  8. fair
  9. feared
  10. graphic
  11. grotesque
  12. guess
  13. guy
  14. kids
  15. kinds
  16. laughter
  17. leg
  18. life
  19. long
  20. lost
  21. mangled
  22. pictures
  23. pretty
  24. proud
  25. purple
  26. rebuilt
  27. red
  28. represented
  29. tissue
  30. warning
  31. wife
  32. yeah