full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Nancy Etcoff: Happiness and its surprises

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I also put in here the stress response. We're wired for dgreans that are immediate, that are physical, that are imminent, and so our body goes into an incredible reaction where endogenous opioids come in. We have a system that is really ancient, and really there for physical danger. And so over time, this becomes a sterss response, which has enormous effects on the body. csiotorl floods the brain; it destroys hippocampal cells and memory, and can lead to all kinds of health problems.

But unfortunately, we need this system in part. If we were only governed by pleasure we would not survive. We really have two command posts. Emotions are short-lived intense responses to challenge and to oirptoutpny. And each one of them allows us to click into alternate selves that tune in, turn on, drop out thoughts, perceptions, feelings and mmereois. We tend to think of emiootns as just feelings. But in fact, emotions are an all-systems arelt that change what we rebeemmr, what kind of decisions we make, and how we peivecre things.

Open Cloze


I also put in here the stress response. We're wired for _______ that are immediate, that are physical, that are imminent, and so our body goes into an incredible reaction where endogenous opioids come in. We have a system that is really ancient, and really there for physical danger. And so over time, this becomes a ______ response, which has enormous effects on the body. ________ floods the brain; it destroys hippocampal cells and memory, and can lead to all kinds of health problems.

But unfortunately, we need this system in part. If we were only governed by pleasure we would not survive. We really have two command posts. Emotions are short-lived intense responses to challenge and to ___________. And each one of them allows us to click into alternate selves that tune in, turn on, drop out thoughts, perceptions, feelings and ________. We tend to think of ________ as just feelings. But in fact, emotions are an all-systems _____ that change what we ________, what kind of decisions we make, and how we ________ things.

Solution


  1. stress
  2. remember
  3. memories
  4. dangers
  5. opportunity
  6. perceive
  7. emotions
  8. alert
  9. cortisol

Original Text


I also put in here the stress response. We're wired for dangers that are immediate, that are physical, that are imminent, and so our body goes into an incredible reaction where endogenous opioids come in. We have a system that is really ancient, and really there for physical danger. And so over time, this becomes a stress response, which has enormous effects on the body. Cortisol floods the brain; it destroys hippocampal cells and memory, and can lead to all kinds of health problems.

But unfortunately, we need this system in part. If we were only governed by pleasure we would not survive. We really have two command posts. Emotions are short-lived intense responses to challenge and to opportunity. And each one of them allows us to click into alternate selves that tune in, turn on, drop out thoughts, perceptions, feelings and memories. We tend to think of emotions as just feelings. But in fact, emotions are an all-systems alert that change what we remember, what kind of decisions we make, and how we perceive things.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
positive emotions 2
pleasure system 2
universal signal 2
brick wall 2
social status 2


Important Words


  1. alert
  2. alternate
  3. ancient
  4. body
  5. cells
  6. challenge
  7. change
  8. click
  9. command
  10. cortisol
  11. danger
  12. dangers
  13. decisions
  14. destroys
  15. drop
  16. effects
  17. emotions
  18. endogenous
  19. enormous
  20. fact
  21. feelings
  22. floods
  23. governed
  24. health
  25. hippocampal
  26. imminent
  27. incredible
  28. intense
  29. kind
  30. kinds
  31. lead
  32. memories
  33. memory
  34. opioids
  35. opportunity
  36. part
  37. perceive
  38. perceptions
  39. physical
  40. pleasure
  41. posts
  42. problems
  43. put
  44. reaction
  45. remember
  46. response
  47. responses
  48. stress
  49. survive
  50. system
  51. tend
  52. thoughts
  53. time
  54. tune
  55. turn
  56. wired