full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I grew up in Europe, and World War II caught me when I was between seven and 10 years old. And I realized how few of the grown-ups that I knew were able to wisanhttd the tragedies that the war visited on them — how few of them could even rsbelmee a normal, contented, satisfied, happy life once their job, their home, their security was destroyed by the war. So I became interested in usndrieadntng what contributed to a life that was wtroh living. And I tried, as a child, as a teenager, to read philosophy and to get involved in art and religion and many other ways that I could see as a possible anwser to that qiteuosn. And finally I edned up encountering psychology by chance.

Open Cloze


I grew up in Europe, and World War II caught me when I was between seven and 10 years old. And I realized how few of the grown-ups that I knew were able to _________ the tragedies that the war visited on them — how few of them could even ________ a normal, contented, satisfied, happy life once their job, their home, their security was destroyed by the war. So I became interested in _____________ what contributed to a life that was _____ living. And I tried, as a child, as a teenager, to read philosophy and to get involved in art and religion and many other ways that I could see as a possible ______ to that ________. And finally I _____ up encountering psychology by chance.

Solution


  1. resemble
  2. question
  3. answer
  4. understanding
  5. worth
  6. ended
  7. withstand

Original Text


I grew up in Europe, and World War II caught me when I was between seven and 10 years old. And I realized how few of the grown-ups that I knew were able to withstand the tragedies that the war visited on them — how few of them could even resemble a normal, contented, satisfied, happy life once their job, their home, their security was destroyed by the war. So I became interested in understanding what contributed to a life that was worth living. And I tried, as a child, as a teenager, to read philosophy and to get involved in art and religion and many other ways that I could see as a possible answer to that question. And finally I ended up encountering psychology by chance.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
everyday life 4
flying saucers 3
united states 2
ecstatic state 2
poet describes 2
set point 2


Important Words


  1. answer
  2. art
  3. caught
  4. chance
  5. child
  6. contented
  7. contributed
  8. destroyed
  9. encountering
  10. ended
  11. europe
  12. finally
  13. grew
  14. happy
  15. home
  16. ii
  17. interested
  18. involved
  19. job
  20. knew
  21. life
  22. living
  23. normal
  24. philosophy
  25. psychology
  26. question
  27. read
  28. realized
  29. religion
  30. resemble
  31. satisfied
  32. security
  33. teenager
  34. tragedies
  35. understanding
  36. visited
  37. war
  38. ways
  39. withstand
  40. world
  41. worth
  42. years