full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Abigail Washburn: Building US-China relations ... by banjo

Unscramble the Blue Letters


If you had caught me sargihtt out of college in the halls of the Vermont State House where I was a lobbyist in training and aeskd me what I was going to do with my life, I would have told you that I'd just passed the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, the Chinese equivalency exam, and I was going to go study law in Beijing, and I was going to improve U.S.-China relations through top-down policy changes and jiducial system rrfomes. (Laughter) (aappulse) I had a plan, and I never ever tguhhot it would have anything to do with the banjo.

Little did I know what a huge impact it would have on me one night when I was at a ptary and I heard a sound coming out of a record player in the corner of a room. And it was Doc Watson singing and playing "Shady Grove." ♫ sadhy Grove, my little love ♫ ♫ Shady Grove, my darlin' ♫ ♫ Shady Grove, my little love ♫ ♫ Going back to hralan ♫ That snoud was just so beautiful, the sound of Doc's voice and the rippling gvoore of the banjo. And after being totally and completely obsessed with the mammoth richness and history of Chinese culture, it was like this total relief to hear something so truly American and so truly awesome. I knew I had to take a banjo with me to China.

Open Cloze


If you had caught me ________ out of college in the halls of the Vermont State House where I was a lobbyist in training and _____ me what I was going to do with my life, I would have told you that I'd just passed the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, the Chinese equivalency exam, and I was going to go study law in Beijing, and I was going to improve U.S.-China relations through top-down policy changes and ________ system _______. (Laughter) (________) I had a plan, and I never ever _______ it would have anything to do with the banjo.

Little did I know what a huge impact it would have on me one night when I was at a _____ and I heard a sound coming out of a record player in the corner of a room. And it was Doc Watson singing and playing "Shady Grove." ♫ _____ Grove, my little love ♫ ♫ Shady Grove, my darlin' ♫ ♫ Shady Grove, my little love ♫ ♫ Going back to ______ ♫ That _____ was just so beautiful, the sound of Doc's voice and the rippling ______ of the banjo. And after being totally and completely obsessed with the mammoth richness and history of Chinese culture, it was like this total relief to hear something so truly American and so truly awesome. I knew I had to take a banjo with me to China.

Solution


  1. party
  2. sound
  3. judicial
  4. thought
  5. straight
  6. harlan
  7. groove
  8. reforms
  9. asked
  10. applause
  11. shady

Original Text


If you had caught me straight out of college in the halls of the Vermont State House where I was a lobbyist in training and asked me what I was going to do with my life, I would have told you that I'd just passed the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, the Chinese equivalency exam, and I was going to go study law in Beijing, and I was going to improve U.S.-China relations through top-down policy changes and judicial system reforms. (Laughter) (Applause) I had a plan, and I never ever thought it would have anything to do with the banjo.

Little did I know what a huge impact it would have on me one night when I was at a party and I heard a sound coming out of a record player in the corner of a room. And it was Doc Watson singing and playing "Shady Grove." ♫ Shady Grove, my little love ♫ ♫ Shady Grove, my darlin' ♫ ♫ Shady Grove, my little love ♫ ♫ Going back to Harlan ♫ That sound was just so beautiful, the sound of Doc's voice and the rippling groove of the banjo. And after being totally and completely obsessed with the mammoth richness and history of Chinese culture, it was like this total relief to hear something so truly American and so truly awesome. I knew I had to take a banjo with me to China.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. american
  2. applause
  3. asked
  4. awesome
  5. banjo
  6. beautiful
  7. beijing
  8. caught
  9. china
  10. chinese
  11. college
  12. coming
  13. completely
  14. corner
  15. culture
  16. doc
  17. equivalency
  18. exam
  19. groove
  20. grove
  21. halls
  22. hanyu
  23. harlan
  24. hear
  25. heard
  26. history
  27. house
  28. huge
  29. impact
  30. improve
  31. judicial
  32. kaoshi
  33. knew
  34. laughter
  35. law
  36. life
  37. lobbyist
  38. love
  39. mammoth
  40. night
  41. obsessed
  42. party
  43. passed
  44. plan
  45. player
  46. playing
  47. policy
  48. record
  49. reforms
  50. relations
  51. relief
  52. richness
  53. rippling
  54. room
  55. shady
  56. shuiping
  57. singing
  58. sound
  59. state
  60. straight
  61. study
  62. system
  63. thought
  64. told
  65. total
  66. totally
  67. training
  68. vermont
  69. voice
  70. watson