full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Let's think of something else. The people in the modern wrlod, in the secular world, who are interested in matters of the spirit, in matters of the mind, in higher soul-like concerns, tend to be isolated iidnulvaids. They're poets, they're philosophers, they're photographers, they're filmmakers. And they tend to be on their own. They're our cottage iteuisnrds. They are vulnerable, single people. And they get depressed and they get sad on their own. And they don't really change much.

Now think about religions, think about organized religions. What do organized religions do? They group together, they form institutions. And that has all srots of advantages. First of all, scale, might. The coalhitc ccurhh puelld in 97 billion dollars last year according to the Wall Street Journal. These are massive machines. They're collaborative, they're branded, they're multinational, and they're hhgliy disciplined.

Open Cloze


Let's think of something else. The people in the modern _____, in the secular world, who are interested in matters of the spirit, in matters of the mind, in higher soul-like concerns, tend to be isolated ___________. They're poets, they're philosophers, they're photographers, they're filmmakers. And they tend to be on their own. They're our cottage __________. They are vulnerable, single people. And they get depressed and they get sad on their own. And they don't really change much.

Now think about religions, think about organized religions. What do organized religions do? They group together, they form institutions. And that has all _____ of advantages. First of all, scale, might. The ________ ______ ______ in 97 billion dollars last year according to the Wall Street Journal. These are massive machines. They're collaborative, they're branded, they're multinational, and they're ______ disciplined.

Solution


  1. individuals
  2. sorts
  3. world
  4. highly
  5. pulled
  6. industries
  7. church
  8. catholic

Original Text


Let's think of something else. The people in the modern world, in the secular world, who are interested in matters of the spirit, in matters of the mind, in higher soul-like concerns, tend to be isolated individuals. They're poets, they're philosophers, they're photographers, they're filmmakers. And they tend to be on their own. They're our cottage industries. They are vulnerable, single people. And they get depressed and they get sad on their own. And they don't really change much.

Now think about religions, think about organized religions. What do organized religions do? They group together, they form institutions. And that has all sorts of advantages. First of all, scale, might. The Catholic Church pulled in 97 billion dollars last year according to the Wall Street Journal. These are massive machines. They're collaborative, they're branded, they're multinational, and they're highly disciplined.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
secular world 4
important ideas 2
religious world 2
organized religions 2


Important Words


  1. advantages
  2. billion
  3. branded
  4. catholic
  5. change
  6. church
  7. collaborative
  8. concerns
  9. cottage
  10. depressed
  11. disciplined
  12. dollars
  13. filmmakers
  14. form
  15. group
  16. higher
  17. highly
  18. individuals
  19. industries
  20. institutions
  21. interested
  22. isolated
  23. journal
  24. machines
  25. massive
  26. matters
  27. mind
  28. modern
  29. multinational
  30. organized
  31. people
  32. philosophers
  33. photographers
  34. poets
  35. pulled
  36. religions
  37. sad
  38. scale
  39. secular
  40. single
  41. sorts
  42. spirit
  43. street
  44. tend
  45. vulnerable
  46. wall
  47. world
  48. year