full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dennis E. Shasha: Can you solve the fantasy election riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Here’s what happens: you poll 200 voters, and 130 say they’ll vote for the troll. For about 50%, or 100 of them, the coin will have landed heads. So you can subtract 100 troll veots off his taotl, and know the troll’s real support is 30 to 70, and he’s very likely to lose.

The election comes around, but before the results can be certified a third party candidate swoops in and burns the toellfreew to a crisp. The freshly sniegd and deeply flawed constitution mandates that this cnlgeahelr gets to take his victim’s place in a new ecitelon.

The Dormor Polling Agency sends you back out on the streets with your trutsy coin. Only this time no one is comfortable admitting their preference: supporting the tlorl is still shameful, and nobody wants to express support of a dragon who murdered his way into the race.

Open Cloze


Here’s what happens: you poll 200 voters, and 130 say they’ll vote for the troll. For about 50%, or 100 of them, the coin will have landed heads. So you can subtract 100 troll _____ off his _____, and know the troll’s real support is 30 to 70, and he’s very likely to lose.

The election comes around, but before the results can be certified a third party candidate swoops in and burns the __________ to a crisp. The freshly ______ and deeply flawed constitution mandates that this __________ gets to take his victim’s place in a new ________.

The Dormor Polling Agency sends you back out on the streets with your ______ coin. Only this time no one is comfortable admitting their preference: supporting the _____ is still shameful, and nobody wants to express support of a dragon who murdered his way into the race.

Solution


  1. challenger
  2. treefellow
  3. signed
  4. votes
  5. election
  6. total
  7. troll
  8. trusty

Original Text


Here’s what happens: you poll 200 voters, and 130 say they’ll vote for the troll. For about 50%, or 100 of them, the coin will have landed heads. So you can subtract 100 troll votes off his total, and know the troll’s real support is 30 to 70, and he’s very likely to lose.

The election comes around, but before the results can be certified a third party candidate swoops in and burns the treefellow to a crisp. The freshly signed and deeply flawed constitution mandates that this challenger gets to take his victim’s place in a new election.

The Dormor Polling Agency sends you back out on the streets with your trusty coin. Only this time no one is comfortable admitting their preference: supporting the troll is still shameful, and nobody wants to express support of a dragon who murdered his way into the race.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
dormor polling 2
true preference 2


Important Words


  1. admitting
  2. agency
  3. burns
  4. candidate
  5. certified
  6. challenger
  7. coin
  8. comfortable
  9. constitution
  10. crisp
  11. deeply
  12. dormor
  13. dragon
  14. election
  15. express
  16. flawed
  17. freshly
  18. heads
  19. landed
  20. lose
  21. mandates
  22. murdered
  23. party
  24. place
  25. poll
  26. polling
  27. race
  28. real
  29. results
  30. sends
  31. shameful
  32. signed
  33. streets
  34. subtract
  35. support
  36. supporting
  37. swoops
  38. time
  39. total
  40. treefellow
  41. troll
  42. trusty
  43. vote
  44. voters
  45. votes