full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alex Gendler: Can you solve the rebel supplies riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Why does this scenario seem easier? fmarlloy, it’s the same problem – two possible conditions for the top of the box, and two for the bottom. But in this case, they’re based on fiialmar real-world needs, and we easily understand that while vegetarians only eat vableegets, they’re not the only ones who do so. In the original problem, the rules seemed more aarrirtby, and when they’re abstracted that way, the logical connections become harder to see.

In your case, you’ve managed to get enough supplies through to enable the resistance to fghit another day. And you did it by thinking outside the box – both sides of it.

Open Cloze


Why does this scenario seem easier? ________, it’s the same problem – two possible conditions for the top of the box, and two for the bottom. But in this case, they’re based on ________ real-world needs, and we easily understand that while vegetarians only eat __________, they’re not the only ones who do so. In the original problem, the rules seemed more _________, and when they’re abstracted that way, the logical connections become harder to see.

In your case, you’ve managed to get enough supplies through to enable the resistance to _____ another day. And you did it by thinking outside the box – both sides of it.

Solution


  1. fight
  2. familiar
  3. formally
  4. vegetables
  5. arbitrary

Original Text


Why does this scenario seem easier? Formally, it’s the same problem – two possible conditions for the top of the box, and two for the bottom. But in this case, they’re based on familiar real-world needs, and we easily understand that while vegetarians only eat vegetables, they’re not the only ones who do so. In the original problem, the rules seemed more arbitrary, and when they’re abstracted that way, the logical connections become harder to see.

In your case, you’ve managed to get enough supplies through to enable the resistance to fight another day. And you did it by thinking outside the box – both sides of it.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
red top 4


Important Words


  1. abstracted
  2. arbitrary
  3. based
  4. bottom
  5. box
  6. case
  7. conditions
  8. connections
  9. day
  10. easier
  11. easily
  12. eat
  13. enable
  14. familiar
  15. fight
  16. formally
  17. harder
  18. logical
  19. managed
  20. original
  21. problem
  22. resistance
  23. rules
  24. scenario
  25. sides
  26. supplies
  27. thinking
  28. top
  29. understand
  30. vegetables
  31. vegetarians