full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jose Miguel Sokoloff: How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns

Unscramble the Blue Letters


And at the beginning, we were so touched by these stories, we were so amazed by these stories, that we thought that maybe the best way to talk to the girelalurs was to have them talk to themselves, so we recroded about a hundred different stories during the first year, and we put them on the radio and television so that the guerrillas in the jungle could hear stories, their stories, or stories smiliar to theirs, and when they heard them, they decided to go out.

I want to tell you one of these stories. This person you see here is Giovanni Andres. gvnnioai Andres is 25 when we took that picture. He had been seven years in the guerrilla, and he had demobilized very recently. His sotry is the following: He was rtereciud when he was 17, and sometime later, in his squadron, if you will, this beautiful girl was recruited, and they fell in love. Their conversations were about what their fialmy was going to be like, what their kids' names would be, how their life would be when they left the guerrilla. But it turns out that love is very strictly forbidden in the lower rknas of the guerrilla, so their romance was discovered and they were speaarted. He was sent very far away, and she was left behind. She was very familiar with the territory, so one nihgt, when she was on guard, she just left, and she went to the army, she demobilized, and she was one of the persons that we had the fortune to talk to, and we were really touched by this story, so we made a radio spot, and it trnus out, by chance, that far away, many, many kilometers north, he heard her on the radio, and when he hread her on the ridao, he said, "What am I doing here? She had the balls to get out. I need to do the same thing." And he did. He walked for two days and two nights, and he risked his life and he got out, and the only thing he wteand was to see her. The only thing that was in his mind was to see her. The story was, they did meet. I know you're wondering if they did meet. They did meet. She had been recruited when she was 15, and she left when she was 17, so there were a lot of other complications, but they did eventually meet. I don't know if they're together now, but I can find out. (ltguhaer) But what I can tell you is that our radio strategy was working.

Open Cloze


And at the beginning, we were so touched by these stories, we were so amazed by these stories, that we thought that maybe the best way to talk to the __________ was to have them talk to themselves, so we ________ about a hundred different stories during the first year, and we put them on the radio and television so that the guerrillas in the jungle could hear stories, their stories, or stories _______ to theirs, and when they heard them, they decided to go out.

I want to tell you one of these stories. This person you see here is Giovanni Andres. ________ Andres is 25 when we took that picture. He had been seven years in the guerrilla, and he had demobilized very recently. His _____ is the following: He was _________ when he was 17, and sometime later, in his squadron, if you will, this beautiful girl was recruited, and they fell in love. Their conversations were about what their ______ was going to be like, what their kids' names would be, how their life would be when they left the guerrilla. But it turns out that love is very strictly forbidden in the lower _____ of the guerrilla, so their romance was discovered and they were _________. He was sent very far away, and she was left behind. She was very familiar with the territory, so one _____, when she was on guard, she just left, and she went to the army, she demobilized, and she was one of the persons that we had the fortune to talk to, and we were really touched by this story, so we made a radio spot, and it _____ out, by chance, that far away, many, many kilometers north, he heard her on the radio, and when he _____ her on the _____, he said, "What am I doing here? She had the balls to get out. I need to do the same thing." And he did. He walked for two days and two nights, and he risked his life and he got out, and the only thing he ______ was to see her. The only thing that was in his mind was to see her. The story was, they did meet. I know you're wondering if they did meet. They did meet. She had been recruited when she was 15, and she left when she was 17, so there were a lot of other complications, but they did eventually meet. I don't know if they're together now, but I can find out. (________) But what I can tell you is that our radio strategy was working.

Solution


  1. giovanni
  2. recruited
  3. ranks
  4. recorded
  5. similar
  6. laughter
  7. guerrillas
  8. family
  9. turns
  10. night
  11. separated
  12. wanted
  13. radio
  14. heard
  15. story

Original Text


And at the beginning, we were so touched by these stories, we were so amazed by these stories, that we thought that maybe the best way to talk to the guerrillas was to have them talk to themselves, so we recorded about a hundred different stories during the first year, and we put them on the radio and television so that the guerrillas in the jungle could hear stories, their stories, or stories similar to theirs, and when they heard them, they decided to go out.

I want to tell you one of these stories. This person you see here is Giovanni Andres. Giovanni Andres is 25 when we took that picture. He had been seven years in the guerrilla, and he had demobilized very recently. His story is the following: He was recruited when he was 17, and sometime later, in his squadron, if you will, this beautiful girl was recruited, and they fell in love. Their conversations were about what their family was going to be like, what their kids' names would be, how their life would be when they left the guerrilla. But it turns out that love is very strictly forbidden in the lower ranks of the guerrilla, so their romance was discovered and they were separated. He was sent very far away, and she was left behind. She was very familiar with the territory, so one night, when she was on guard, she just left, and she went to the army, she demobilized, and she was one of the persons that we had the fortune to talk to, and we were really touched by this story, so we made a radio spot, and it turns out, by chance, that far away, many, many kilometers north, he heard her on the radio, and when he heard her on the radio, he said, "What am I doing here? She had the balls to get out. I need to do the same thing." And he did. He walked for two days and two nights, and he risked his life and he got out, and the only thing he wanted was to see her. The only thing that was in his mind was to see her. The story was, they did meet. I know you're wondering if they did meet. They did meet. She had been recruited when she was 15, and she left when she was 17, so there were a lot of other complications, but they did eventually meet. I don't know if they're together now, but I can find out. (Laughter) But what I can tell you is that our radio strategy was working.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
christmas trees 3
christmas lights 2
demobilized guerrillas 2
giovanni andres 2
christmas tree 2


Important Words


  1. amazed
  2. andres
  3. army
  4. balls
  5. beautiful
  6. beginning
  7. chance
  8. complications
  9. conversations
  10. days
  11. decided
  12. demobilized
  13. discovered
  14. eventually
  15. familiar
  16. family
  17. fell
  18. find
  19. forbidden
  20. fortune
  21. giovanni
  22. girl
  23. guard
  24. guerrilla
  25. guerrillas
  26. hear
  27. heard
  28. jungle
  29. kilometers
  30. laughter
  31. left
  32. life
  33. lot
  34. love
  35. meet
  36. mind
  37. names
  38. night
  39. nights
  40. north
  41. person
  42. persons
  43. picture
  44. put
  45. radio
  46. ranks
  47. recorded
  48. recruited
  49. risked
  50. romance
  51. separated
  52. similar
  53. spot
  54. squadron
  55. stories
  56. story
  57. strategy
  58. strictly
  59. talk
  60. television
  61. territory
  62. thought
  63. touched
  64. turns
  65. walked
  66. wanted
  67. wondering
  68. working
  69. year
  70. years