full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Tracy Chevalier: Finding the story inside the painting

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So we've got all the elements for our story. She's in the sudtio with him for a long time. These paintings took a long time to make. They would have spent the time alone, all that time. She's wnireag his wife's pearl earring. She's gogorues. She obviously loves him. She's ctlfcinoed. And does the wife know? Maybe not. And if she doesn't, well — that's the story.

(Laughter)

The next pninaitg I'm going to talk about is called "Boy Building a House of Cards" by Chardin. He's an 18th-century fecrnh painter best known for his still lifes, but he did oloisaccnlay paint people. And in fact, he painted four versions of this painting, different boys building houses of cards, all concentrated. I like this version the best, because some of the boys are older and some are younger, and to me, this one, like Goldilocks's porridge, is just right.

Open Cloze


So we've got all the elements for our story. She's in the ______ with him for a long time. These paintings took a long time to make. They would have spent the time alone, all that time. She's _______ his wife's pearl earring. She's ________. She obviously loves him. She's __________. And does the wife know? Maybe not. And if she doesn't, well — that's the story.

(Laughter)

The next ________ I'm going to talk about is called "Boy Building a House of Cards" by Chardin. He's an 18th-century ______ painter best known for his still lifes, but he did ____________ paint people. And in fact, he painted four versions of this painting, different boys building houses of cards, all concentrated. I like this version the best, because some of the boys are older and some are younger, and to me, this one, like Goldilocks's porridge, is just right.

Solution


  1. studio
  2. wearing
  3. french
  4. gorgeous
  5. occasionally
  6. conflicted
  7. painting

Original Text


So we've got all the elements for our story. She's in the studio with him for a long time. These paintings took a long time to make. They would have spent the time alone, all that time. She's wearing his wife's pearl earring. She's gorgeous. She obviously loves him. She's conflicted. And does the wife know? Maybe not. And if she doesn't, well — that's the story.

(Laughter)

The next painting I'm going to talk about is called "Boy Building a House of Cards" by Chardin. He's an 18th-century French painter best known for his still lifes, but he did occasionally paint people. And in fact, he painted four versions of this painting, different boys building houses of cards, all concentrated. I like this version the best, because some of the boys are older and some are younger, and to me, this one, like Goldilocks's porridge, is just right.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
pearl earring 3
pearl earrings 2
long time 2
national portrait 2


Important Words


  1. boys
  2. building
  3. called
  4. cards
  5. chardin
  6. concentrated
  7. conflicted
  8. earring
  9. elements
  10. fact
  11. french
  12. gorgeous
  13. house
  14. houses
  15. laughter
  16. lifes
  17. long
  18. loves
  19. occasionally
  20. older
  21. paint
  22. painted
  23. painter
  24. painting
  25. paintings
  26. pearl
  27. people
  28. porridge
  29. spent
  30. story
  31. studio
  32. talk
  33. time
  34. version
  35. versions
  36. wearing
  37. wife
  38. younger