full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ziyah Gafić: Everyday objects, tragic histories

Unscramble the Blue Letters


These items are recovered from numerous mass graves, and the main goal of this collection of the items is a unique process of identifying those who disappeared in the killings, the first act of genocide on European soil since the Holocaust. Not a single body should remain undiscovered or uiitnfnedied. Once recovered, these ietms that the victims carried with them on their way to eecxotiun are carefully ceaenld, analyzed, catalogued and stored. Thousands of artifacts are packed in wihte plastic bags just like the ones you see on CSI. These objects are used as a forensic tool in visual ifdtainctiieon of the victims, but they are also used as very vuablale frniosec evidence in the ongoing war crimes trials. Survivors are occasionally called to try to identify these items physically, but physical brniwsog is extremely dcufiilft, an ineffective and painful process. Once the fniescros and doctors and lawyers are done with these objects, they become orphans of the narrative. Many of them get destroyed, believe it or not, or they get simply seevlhd, out of sight and out of mind.

Open Cloze


These items are recovered from numerous mass graves, and the main goal of this collection of the items is a unique process of identifying those who disappeared in the killings, the first act of genocide on European soil since the Holocaust. Not a single body should remain undiscovered or ____________. Once recovered, these _____ that the victims carried with them on their way to _________ are carefully _______, analyzed, catalogued and stored. Thousands of artifacts are packed in _____ plastic bags just like the ones you see on CSI. These objects are used as a forensic tool in visual ______________ of the victims, but they are also used as very ________ ________ evidence in the ongoing war crimes trials. Survivors are occasionally called to try to identify these items physically, but physical ________ is extremely _________, an ineffective and painful process. Once the _________ and doctors and lawyers are done with these objects, they become orphans of the narrative. Many of them get destroyed, believe it or not, or they get simply _______, out of sight and out of mind.

Solution


  1. valuable
  2. cleaned
  3. browsing
  4. difficult
  5. forensics
  6. items
  7. execution
  8. unidentified
  9. forensic
  10. white
  11. shelved
  12. identification

Original Text


These items are recovered from numerous mass graves, and the main goal of this collection of the items is a unique process of identifying those who disappeared in the killings, the first act of genocide on European soil since the Holocaust. Not a single body should remain undiscovered or unidentified. Once recovered, these items that the victims carried with them on their way to execution are carefully cleaned, analyzed, catalogued and stored. Thousands of artifacts are packed in white plastic bags just like the ones you see on CSI. These objects are used as a forensic tool in visual identification of the victims, but they are also used as very valuable forensic evidence in the ongoing war crimes trials. Survivors are occasionally called to try to identify these items physically, but physical browsing is extremely difficult, an ineffective and painful process. Once the forensics and doctors and lawyers are done with these objects, they become orphans of the narrative. Many of them get destroyed, believe it or not, or they get simply shelved, out of sight and out of mind.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
victims carried 2
numerous mass 2


Important Words


  1. act
  2. analyzed
  3. artifacts
  4. bags
  5. body
  6. browsing
  7. called
  8. carefully
  9. carried
  10. catalogued
  11. cleaned
  12. collection
  13. crimes
  14. csi
  15. destroyed
  16. difficult
  17. disappeared
  18. doctors
  19. european
  20. evidence
  21. execution
  22. extremely
  23. forensic
  24. forensics
  25. genocide
  26. goal
  27. graves
  28. holocaust
  29. identification
  30. identify
  31. identifying
  32. ineffective
  33. items
  34. killings
  35. lawyers
  36. main
  37. mass
  38. mind
  39. narrative
  40. numerous
  41. objects
  42. occasionally
  43. ongoing
  44. orphans
  45. packed
  46. painful
  47. physical
  48. physically
  49. plastic
  50. process
  51. recovered
  52. remain
  53. shelved
  54. sight
  55. simply
  56. single
  57. soil
  58. stored
  59. survivors
  60. thousands
  61. tool
  62. trials
  63. undiscovered
  64. unidentified
  65. unique
  66. valuable
  67. victims
  68. visual
  69. war
  70. white