full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Casey Gerald: Embrace your raw, strange magic

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But if my perfect walk could not bring my mother back, I found that this approach had other uses. I found that everyone else in charge around me levod nothing more than peetfoicrn, obedience, submission. Or at least if I submitted, they wouldn't bteohr me too much. So I took a bargain that I'd later see in a psoirn, a Stasi prison in Berlin, on a sign that read, "He who adapts can live tolerably." It was a bargain that helped ensure I had a place to stay and food to eat; a bargain that won me praise of trceheas and kin, strangers; a bargain that paid off big time, it seemed, when one day at 17, a man from Yale showed up at my high school to ruecrit me for Yale's football team. It felt as out of the blue to me then as it may to you now. The Yale man said — everybody said — that this was the best thing that could ever happen to me, the best thing that could haeppn to the whole community. "Take this ticket, boy," they told me. I was not so sure. Yale seemed another world entire: a cold, foreign, hostile pacle. On the first day of my recruiting visit, I texted my sister an excuse for not going. "These peolpe are so wired." She replied, "You'll fit right in."

Open Cloze


But if my perfect walk could not bring my mother back, I found that this approach had other uses. I found that everyone else in charge around me _____ nothing more than __________, obedience, submission. Or at least if I submitted, they wouldn't ______ me too much. So I took a bargain that I'd later see in a ______, a Stasi prison in Berlin, on a sign that read, "He who adapts can live tolerably." It was a bargain that helped ensure I had a place to stay and food to eat; a bargain that won me praise of ________ and kin, strangers; a bargain that paid off big time, it seemed, when one day at 17, a man from Yale showed up at my high school to _______ me for Yale's football team. It felt as out of the blue to me then as it may to you now. The Yale man said — everybody said — that this was the best thing that could ever happen to me, the best thing that could ______ to the whole community. "Take this ticket, boy," they told me. I was not so sure. Yale seemed another world entire: a cold, foreign, hostile _____. On the first day of my recruiting visit, I texted my sister an excuse for not going. "These ______ are so _____." She replied, "You'll fit right in."

Solution


  1. happen
  2. place
  3. people
  4. loved
  5. teachers
  6. weird
  7. recruit
  8. bother
  9. prison
  10. perfection

Original Text


But if my perfect walk could not bring my mother back, I found that this approach had other uses. I found that everyone else in charge around me loved nothing more than perfection, obedience, submission. Or at least if I submitted, they wouldn't bother me too much. So I took a bargain that I'd later see in a prison, a Stasi prison in Berlin, on a sign that read, "He who adapts can live tolerably." It was a bargain that helped ensure I had a place to stay and food to eat; a bargain that won me praise of teachers and kin, strangers; a bargain that paid off big time, it seemed, when one day at 17, a man from Yale showed up at my high school to recruit me for Yale's football team. It felt as out of the blue to me then as it may to you now. The Yale man said — everybody said — that this was the best thing that could ever happen to me, the best thing that could happen to the whole community. "Take this ticket, boy," they told me. I was not so sure. Yale seemed another world entire: a cold, foreign, hostile place. On the first day of my recruiting visit, I texted my sister an excuse for not going. "These people are so weird." She replied, "You'll fit right in."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
wrong side 2
longer believed 2


Important Words


  1. adapts
  2. approach
  3. bargain
  4. berlin
  5. big
  6. blue
  7. bother
  8. boy
  9. bring
  10. charge
  11. cold
  12. community
  13. day
  14. ensure
  15. excuse
  16. felt
  17. fit
  18. food
  19. football
  20. foreign
  21. happen
  22. helped
  23. high
  24. hostile
  25. kin
  26. live
  27. loved
  28. man
  29. mother
  30. obedience
  31. paid
  32. people
  33. perfect
  34. perfection
  35. place
  36. praise
  37. prison
  38. read
  39. recruit
  40. recruiting
  41. replied
  42. school
  43. showed
  44. sign
  45. sister
  46. stasi
  47. stay
  48. submission
  49. submitted
  50. teachers
  51. team
  52. texted
  53. ticket
  54. time
  55. told
  56. tolerably
  57. visit
  58. walk
  59. weird
  60. won
  61. world
  62. yale