full transcript

From the Ted Talk by David Epstein: Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Still, technology isn't the only thing pushing athletes forward. While indeed we haven't evolved into a new species in a century, the gene pool within ceimotptvie sports most certainly has changed. In the early half of the 20th century, physical education instructors and coaches had the idea that the average body type was the best for all altethic endeavors: medium height, medium weight, no matter the sport. And this showed in athletes' bodies. In the 1920s, the average elite high-jumper and average elite shot-putter were the same excat size. But as that idea started to fade away, as sports stiistnecs and coaches realized that rather than the average body type, you want highly specialized boedis that fit into certain athletic niches, a form of artificial selection took place, a self-sorting for bodies that fit certain sports, and athletes' bodies became more different from one another. Today, rather than the same size as the average elite high jempur, the agveare eitle shot-putter is two and a half inches taller and 130 pundos heviaer. And this happened throughout the sports world.

Open Cloze


Still, technology isn't the only thing pushing athletes forward. While indeed we haven't evolved into a new species in a century, the gene pool within ___________ sports most certainly has changed. In the early half of the 20th century, physical education instructors and coaches had the idea that the average body type was the best for all ________ endeavors: medium height, medium weight, no matter the sport. And this showed in athletes' bodies. In the 1920s, the average elite high-jumper and average elite shot-putter were the same _____ size. But as that idea started to fade away, as sports __________ and coaches realized that rather than the average body type, you want highly specialized ______ that fit into certain athletic niches, a form of artificial selection took place, a self-sorting for bodies that fit certain sports, and athletes' bodies became more different from one another. Today, rather than the same size as the average elite high ______, the _______ _____ shot-putter is two and a half inches taller and 130 ______ _______. And this happened throughout the sports world.

Solution


  1. jumper
  2. average
  3. elite
  4. scientists
  5. pounds
  6. heavier
  7. exact
  8. athletic
  9. competitive
  10. bodies

Original Text


Still, technology isn't the only thing pushing athletes forward. While indeed we haven't evolved into a new species in a century, the gene pool within competitive sports most certainly has changed. In the early half of the 20th century, physical education instructors and coaches had the idea that the average body type was the best for all athletic endeavors: medium height, medium weight, no matter the sport. And this showed in athletes' bodies. In the 1920s, the average elite high-jumper and average elite shot-putter were the same exact size. But as that idea started to fade away, as sports scientists and coaches realized that rather than the average body type, you want highly specialized bodies that fit into certain athletic niches, a form of artificial selection took place, a self-sorting for bodies that fit certain sports, and athletes' bodies became more different from one another. Today, rather than the same size as the average elite high jumper, the average elite shot-putter is two and a half inches taller and 130 pounds heavier. And this happened throughout the sports world.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
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usain bolt 5
sir roger 5
average elite 5
roger bannister 4
eddy merckx 4
average body 3
body type 3
nba player 3
olympic marathon 2
world record 2
world championships 2
college kids 2
bannister ran 2
merckx cycled 2
gene pool 2
idea started 2
specialized bodies 2
artificial selection 2
data point 2
dozen sports 2
arm span 2
average nba 2
long legs 2
great marathoners 2
surface area 2
human body 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
sir roger bannister 4
roger bannister ran 2
eddy merckx cycled 2
average body type 2
average nba player 2

Important Words


  1. artificial
  2. athletes
  3. athletic
  4. average
  5. bodies
  6. body
  7. century
  8. changed
  9. coaches
  10. competitive
  11. early
  12. education
  13. elite
  14. evolved
  15. exact
  16. fade
  17. fit
  18. form
  19. gene
  20. happened
  21. heavier
  22. height
  23. high
  24. highly
  25. idea
  26. inches
  27. instructors
  28. jumper
  29. matter
  30. medium
  31. niches
  32. physical
  33. place
  34. pool
  35. pounds
  36. pushing
  37. realized
  38. scientists
  39. selection
  40. showed
  41. size
  42. specialized
  43. species
  44. sport
  45. sports
  46. started
  47. taller
  48. technology
  49. today
  50. type
  51. weight
  52. world