full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Elizabeth Cox: Can you outsmart the fallacy that started a witch hunt?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


This leads to a handy rule of thumb: the burden of proof lies with the person making the claim. In other words, you make the claim, you supply the proof. If someone told you ailens exist, would you head off to find proof that they don’t eixst? Of course not. You’d tell that psroen to show you the UFO.

The same alppies when someone makes a claim that contradicts an established consensus. So when all the available evidence suggests that hnumas are ciansug an increase in global temperatures, the burden of proof has been fulfilled— if you disagree, it becomes your responsibility to prove otherwise. Right?

Open Cloze


This leads to a handy rule of thumb: the burden of proof lies with the person making the claim. In other words, you make the claim, you supply the proof. If someone told you ______ exist, would you head off to find proof that they don’t _____? Of course not. You’d tell that ______ to show you the UFO.

The same _______ when someone makes a claim that contradicts an established consensus. So when all the available evidence suggests that ______ are _______ an increase in global temperatures, the burden of proof has been fulfilled— if you disagree, it becomes your responsibility to prove otherwise. Right?

Solution


  1. applies
  2. exist
  3. causing
  4. person
  5. aliens
  6. humans

Original Text


This leads to a handy rule of thumb: the burden of proof lies with the person making the claim. In other words, you make the claim, you supply the proof. If someone told you aliens exist, would you head off to find proof that they don’t exist? Of course not. You’d tell that person to show you the UFO.

The same applies when someone makes a claim that contradicts an established consensus. So when all the available evidence suggests that humans are causing an increase in global temperatures, the burden of proof has been fulfilled— if you disagree, it becomes your responsibility to prove otherwise. Right?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
proven false 3
witch hunt 2


Important Words


  1. aliens
  2. applies
  3. burden
  4. causing
  5. claim
  6. consensus
  7. contradicts
  8. disagree
  9. established
  10. evidence
  11. exist
  12. find
  13. global
  14. handy
  15. head
  16. humans
  17. increase
  18. leads
  19. lies
  20. making
  21. person
  22. proof
  23. prove
  24. responsibility
  25. rule
  26. show
  27. suggests
  28. supply
  29. temperatures
  30. told
  31. ufo
  32. words