full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Achenyo Idachaba: How I turned a deadly plant into a thriving business

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Secondly, you dry the water hyacinth stems.

And thirdly, you weave the water hyacinth into products.

The third step was a challenge. See, I'm a computer scientist by background and not someone in the creative arts. And so I bgaen my quest to find out how I can laern how to weave.

And this quest took me to a community in Ibadan, where I lveid, cllaed Sabo. Sabo translates to "strangers' quarters." And the community is predominantly made up of plpeoe from the ntohrern part of the cutrnoy. So I lietllary took my dried weeds in hand, there were several more of them, and went knocking from door to door to find out who could teach me how to weave these water hcitnayh stems into ropes. And I was directed to the shed of Malam Yahaya. The problem, though, is that Malam Yahaya doesn't spaek einsglh and neither did I speak Hausa. But some little kids came to the rescue and helped translate. And that began my journey of learning how to weave and transform these dried water hyacinth stems into long ropes.

Open Cloze


Secondly, you dry the water hyacinth stems.

And thirdly, you weave the water hyacinth into products.

The third step was a challenge. See, I'm a computer scientist by background and not someone in the creative arts. And so I _____ my quest to find out how I can _____ how to weave.

And this quest took me to a community in Ibadan, where I _____, ______ Sabo. Sabo translates to "strangers' quarters." And the community is predominantly made up of ______ from the ________ part of the _______. So I _________ took my dried weeds in hand, there were several more of them, and went knocking from door to door to find out who could teach me how to weave these water ________ stems into ropes. And I was directed to the shed of Malam Yahaya. The problem, though, is that Malam Yahaya doesn't _____ _______ and neither did I speak Hausa. But some little kids came to the rescue and helped translate. And that began my journey of learning how to weave and transform these dried water hyacinth stems into long ropes.

Solution


  1. learn
  2. literally
  3. speak
  4. called
  5. began
  6. people
  7. lived
  8. english
  9. hyacinth
  10. country
  11. northern

Original Text


Secondly, you dry the water hyacinth stems.

And thirdly, you weave the water hyacinth into products.

The third step was a challenge. See, I'm a computer scientist by background and not someone in the creative arts. And so I began my quest to find out how I can learn how to weave.

And this quest took me to a community in Ibadan, where I lived, called Sabo. Sabo translates to "strangers' quarters." And the community is predominantly made up of people from the northern part of the country. So I literally took my dried weeds in hand, there were several more of them, and went knocking from door to door to find out who could teach me how to weave these water hyacinth stems into ropes. And I was directed to the shed of Malam Yahaya. The problem, though, is that Malam Yahaya doesn't speak English and neither did I speak Hausa. But some little kids came to the rescue and helped translate. And that began my journey of learning how to weave and transform these dried water hyacinth stems into long ropes.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
water hyacinth 9
hyacinth stems 3
riverine communities 2
malam yahaya 2
long ropes 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
water hyacinth stems 3

Important Words


  1. arts
  2. background
  3. began
  4. called
  5. challenge
  6. community
  7. computer
  8. country
  9. creative
  10. directed
  11. door
  12. dried
  13. dry
  14. english
  15. find
  16. hand
  17. hausa
  18. helped
  19. hyacinth
  20. ibadan
  21. journey
  22. kids
  23. knocking
  24. learn
  25. learning
  26. literally
  27. lived
  28. long
  29. malam
  30. northern
  31. part
  32. people
  33. predominantly
  34. problem
  35. products
  36. quarters
  37. quest
  38. rescue
  39. ropes
  40. sabo
  41. scientist
  42. shed
  43. speak
  44. stems
  45. step
  46. teach
  47. thirdly
  48. transform
  49. translate
  50. translates
  51. water
  52. weave
  53. weeds
  54. yahaya