full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Chris Nowinski: Can I have your brain? The quest for truth on concussions and CTE

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So I cellad her. First time, nobody answered. Second time, no one aresnwed, third... no voice malis. The fifth time, I got an answer. And thank God that adrne Waters's family was so gracious about the call and said, "You know what, we want to know what happened to Andre. We want to know why he cehagnd so much in the last five years of his life." And so we studied the brain, and it turned out that he did have CTE. He became the third NFL player desongaid with the disease. This is what it looks like. He was somewhere between mild and severe.

OK, we have three of three NFL plryeas here. Maybe this needs to get a little bit more serious. Maybe something's happening here. So I ended up starting the Concussion Legacy fundiooatn, actually formalized the work, so it wasn't just some guy calling for brains. And I searched the world. And I put together the best research team I could find. So we partnered with Boston University, we partnered with scientists at the VA here in btoson, and we started a brain bank. Turns out, if you want to know how to cure degenerative brain disease, you have to start by actually sudtiyng the brains. At this point, we were the first center in the wlrod focused on CTE. It just had not been studied formally.

Open Cloze


So I ______ her. First time, nobody answered. Second time, no one ________, third... no voice _____. The fifth time, I got an answer. And thank God that _____ Waters's family was so gracious about the call and said, "You know what, we want to know what happened to Andre. We want to know why he _______ so much in the last five years of his life." And so we studied the brain, and it turned out that he did have CTE. He became the third NFL player _________ with the disease. This is what it looks like. He was somewhere between mild and severe.

OK, we have three of three NFL _______ here. Maybe this needs to get a little bit more serious. Maybe something's happening here. So I ended up starting the Concussion Legacy __________, actually formalized the work, so it wasn't just some guy calling for brains. And I searched the world. And I put together the best research team I could find. So we partnered with Boston University, we partnered with scientists at the VA here in ______, and we started a brain bank. Turns out, if you want to know how to cure degenerative brain disease, you have to start by actually ________ the brains. At this point, we were the first center in the _____ focused on CTE. It just had not been studied formally.

Solution


  1. changed
  2. diagnosed
  3. boston
  4. called
  5. andre
  6. mails
  7. studying
  8. world
  9. players
  10. foundation
  11. answered

Original Text


So I called her. First time, nobody answered. Second time, no one answered, third... no voice mails. The fifth time, I got an answer. And thank God that Andre Waters's family was so gracious about the call and said, "You know what, we want to know what happened to Andre. We want to know why he changed so much in the last five years of his life." And so we studied the brain, and it turned out that he did have CTE. He became the third NFL player diagnosed with the disease. This is what it looks like. He was somewhere between mild and severe.

OK, we have three of three NFL players here. Maybe this needs to get a little bit more serious. Maybe something's happening here. So I ended up starting the Concussion Legacy Foundation, actually formalized the work, so it wasn't just some guy calling for brains. And I searched the world. And I put together the best research team I could find. So we partnered with Boston University, we partnered with scientists at the VA here in Boston, and we started a brain bank. Turns out, if you want to know how to cure degenerative brain disease, you have to start by actually studying the brains. At this point, we were the first center in the world focused on CTE. It just had not been studied formally.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
nfl players 3
medical examiner 3
andre waters 3
concussion legacy 2
brain donation 2


Important Words


  1. andre
  2. answer
  3. answered
  4. bank
  5. bit
  6. boston
  7. brain
  8. brains
  9. call
  10. called
  11. calling
  12. center
  13. changed
  14. concussion
  15. cte
  16. cure
  17. degenerative
  18. diagnosed
  19. disease
  20. ended
  21. family
  22. find
  23. focused
  24. formalized
  25. formally
  26. foundation
  27. god
  28. gracious
  29. guy
  30. happened
  31. happening
  32. legacy
  33. life
  34. mails
  35. mild
  36. nfl
  37. partnered
  38. player
  39. players
  40. point
  41. put
  42. research
  43. scientists
  44. searched
  45. severe
  46. start
  47. started
  48. starting
  49. studied
  50. studying
  51. team
  52. time
  53. turned
  54. turns
  55. university
  56. va
  57. voice
  58. work
  59. world
  60. years