full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

He was obsessed with it!

And fllnaiy, he had a baohtrukrgeh. Vlasic Pickles came to him, and they said, "Doctor Moskowitz, we want to make the perfect pcklie." And he said, "There is no perfect pickle; there are only pecerft pickles." And he came back to them and he said, "You don't just need to iomrvpe your regular; you need to create zesty." And that's where we got zesty pickles. Then the next person came to him: Campbell's Soup. And this was even more important.

In fact, Campbell's Soup is where hwoard made his reputation. Campbell's made pegro, and Prego, in the early 80s, was struggling next to Ragù, which was the dmnoinat sthtepgai sauce of the 70s and 80s. In the industry — I don't know whether you care about this, or how much time I have to go into this. But it was, teallhniccy speaking — this is an aside — Prego is a better tomato sauce than Ragù. The quality of the tomato paste is much better; the spice mix is far superior; it adheres to the pasta in a much more pleasing way. In fact, they would do the famous bowl test back in the 70s with Ragù and Prego. You'd have a plate of spaghetti, and you would pour it on, right? And the Ragù would all go to the bottom, and the Prego would sit on top. That's cllead "adherence." And, anyway, despite the fact that they were far superior in adherence, and the quality of their tomato paste, Prego was struggling.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

He was obsessed with it!

And _______, he had a ____________. Vlasic Pickles came to him, and they said, "Doctor Moskowitz, we want to make the perfect ______." And he said, "There is no perfect pickle; there are only _______ pickles." And he came back to them and he said, "You don't just need to _______ your regular; you need to create zesty." And that's where we got zesty pickles. Then the next person came to him: Campbell's Soup. And this was even more important.

In fact, Campbell's Soup is where ______ made his reputation. Campbell's made _____, and Prego, in the early 80s, was struggling next to Ragù, which was the ________ _________ sauce of the 70s and 80s. In the industry — I don't know whether you care about this, or how much time I have to go into this. But it was, ___________ speaking — this is an aside — Prego is a better tomato sauce than Ragù. The quality of the tomato paste is much better; the spice mix is far superior; it adheres to the pasta in a much more pleasing way. In fact, they would do the famous bowl test back in the 70s with Ragù and Prego. You'd have a plate of spaghetti, and you would pour it on, right? And the Ragù would all go to the bottom, and the Prego would sit on top. That's ______ "adherence." And, anyway, despite the fact that they were far superior in adherence, and the quality of their tomato paste, Prego was struggling.

Solution


  1. prego
  2. called
  3. spaghetti
  4. pickle
  5. dominant
  6. howard
  7. perfect
  8. breakthrough
  9. technically
  10. finally
  11. improve

Original Text


(Laughter)

He was obsessed with it!

And finally, he had a breakthrough. Vlasic Pickles came to him, and they said, "Doctor Moskowitz, we want to make the perfect pickle." And he said, "There is no perfect pickle; there are only perfect pickles." And he came back to them and he said, "You don't just need to improve your regular; you need to create zesty." And that's where we got zesty pickles. Then the next person came to him: Campbell's Soup. And this was even more important.

In fact, Campbell's Soup is where Howard made his reputation. Campbell's made Prego, and Prego, in the early 80s, was struggling next to Ragù, which was the dominant spaghetti sauce of the 70s and 80s. In the industry — I don't know whether you care about this, or how much time I have to go into this. But it was, technically speaking — this is an aside — Prego is a better tomato sauce than Ragù. The quality of the tomato paste is much better; the spice mix is far superior; it adheres to the pasta in a much more pleasing way. In fact, they would do the famous bowl test back in the 70s with Ragù and Prego. You'd have a plate of spaghetti, and you would pour it on, right? And the Ragù would all go to the bottom, and the Prego would sit on top. That's called "adherence." And, anyway, despite the fact that they were far superior in adherence, and the quality of their tomato paste, Prego was struggling.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
spaghetti sauce 13
tomato sauce 4
food industry 4
grey poupon 4
diet pepsi 3
percent sweetness 2
howard loves 2
howard looked 2
sauce business 2
american people 2
extra chunky 2
yellow mustard 2
people happy 2
howard moskowitz 2
platonic notion 2
italian tomato 2
culturally authentic 2
authentic tomato 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
spaghetti sauce business 2
culturally authentic tomato 2

Important Words


  1. adherence
  2. adheres
  3. bottom
  4. bowl
  5. breakthrough
  6. called
  7. care
  8. create
  9. dominant
  10. early
  11. fact
  12. famous
  13. finally
  14. howard
  15. important
  16. improve
  17. industry
  18. laughter
  19. mix
  20. moskowitz
  21. obsessed
  22. pasta
  23. paste
  24. perfect
  25. person
  26. pickle
  27. pickles
  28. plate
  29. pleasing
  30. pour
  31. prego
  32. quality
  33. ragù
  34. reputation
  35. sauce
  36. sit
  37. soup
  38. spaghetti
  39. speaking
  40. spice
  41. struggling
  42. superior
  43. technically
  44. test
  45. time
  46. tomato
  47. top
  48. vlasic
  49. zesty