full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Daniel Finkel: Can you solve the time traveling car riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Your time tliavenrg has cusead a few issues with the space-time continuum, like your old high school bully, Riff, now ruling the future with an iron fist. You and the professor have driven your hovering DeLorean back to the past to undo your own meddling. But shortly after you fix your mktaises, another DeLorean appears and crashes into yours. Out step oedlr versions of you and the professor, who apparently had the same idea from somewhere else in the timeline. The professors pinac and explain that the uienrvse could collapse now that you’re both in the same time and place. The only hope is to merge the time streams by having each version of you senisuatomluly time travel home.

Open Cloze


Your time _________ has ______ a few issues with the space-time continuum, like your old high school bully, Riff, now ruling the future with an iron fist. You and the professor have driven your hovering DeLorean back to the past to undo your own meddling. But shortly after you fix your ________, another DeLorean appears and crashes into yours. Out step _____ versions of you and the professor, who apparently had the same idea from somewhere else in the timeline. The professors _____ and explain that the ________ could collapse now that you’re both in the same time and place. The only hope is to merge the time streams by having each version of you ______________ time travel home.

Solution


  1. simultaneously
  2. traveling
  3. older
  4. mistakes
  5. caused
  6. universe
  7. panic

Original Text


Your time traveling has caused a few issues with the space-time continuum, like your old high school bully, Riff, now ruling the future with an iron fist. You and the professor have driven your hovering DeLorean back to the past to undo your own meddling. But shortly after you fix your mistakes, another DeLorean appears and crashes into yours. Out step older versions of you and the professor, who apparently had the same idea from somewhere else in the timeline. The professors panic and explain that the universe could collapse now that you’re both in the same time and place. The only hope is to merge the time streams by having each version of you simultaneously time travel home.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
mile north 4
time travel 2
time gate 2
south pole 2
standard formula 2


Important Words


  1. apparently
  2. appears
  3. bully
  4. caused
  5. collapse
  6. continuum
  7. crashes
  8. delorean
  9. driven
  10. explain
  11. fist
  12. fix
  13. future
  14. high
  15. home
  16. hope
  17. hovering
  18. idea
  19. iron
  20. issues
  21. meddling
  22. merge
  23. mistakes
  24. older
  25. panic
  26. place
  27. professor
  28. professors
  29. riff
  30. ruling
  31. school
  32. shortly
  33. simultaneously
  34. step
  35. streams
  36. time
  37. timeline
  38. travel
  39. traveling
  40. undo
  41. universe
  42. version
  43. versions