full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ashweetha Shetty: How education helped me rewrite my life

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I was eight years old. I remember that day clearly like it happened just yesterday. My mother is a bidi rellor. She hand-rolls country cigarettes to sustain our family. She is a hard wkorer and spent 10 to 12 hours every day rolling bidis. That particular day she came home and showed me her bidi-rolling wage book. She asked me how much money she has earned that week. I went through that book, and what chuagt my eyes were her thumbprints on each page.

My mother has never been to school. She uses her thumbprints instead of a snutgiare to keep a rocred of her earnings. On that day, for some reason, I wanted to teach her how to hold a pen and wtrie her name. She was reluctant at first. She smiled inteclnnoy and said no. But deep down, I was sure she wtaend to give it a try. With a little bit of perseverance and a lot of effort, we managed to write her name. Her hands were tlrbmenig, and her face was beaming with pride.

Open Cloze


I was eight years old. I remember that day clearly like it happened just yesterday. My mother is a bidi ______. She hand-rolls country cigarettes to sustain our family. She is a hard ______ and spent 10 to 12 hours every day rolling bidis. That particular day she came home and showed me her bidi-rolling wage book. She asked me how much money she has earned that week. I went through that book, and what ______ my eyes were her thumbprints on each page.

My mother has never been to school. She uses her thumbprints instead of a _________ to keep a ______ of her earnings. On that day, for some reason, I wanted to teach her how to hold a pen and _____ her name. She was reluctant at first. She smiled __________ and said no. But deep down, I was sure she ______ to give it a try. With a little bit of perseverance and a lot of effort, we managed to write her name. Her hands were _________, and her face was beaming with pride.

Solution


  1. worker
  2. write
  3. trembling
  4. roller
  5. signature
  6. innocently
  7. record
  8. wanted
  9. caught

Original Text


I was eight years old. I remember that day clearly like it happened just yesterday. My mother is a bidi roller. She hand-rolls country cigarettes to sustain our family. She is a hard worker and spent 10 to 12 hours every day rolling bidis. That particular day she came home and showed me her bidi-rolling wage book. She asked me how much money she has earned that week. I went through that book, and what caught my eyes were her thumbprints on each page.

My mother has never been to school. She uses her thumbprints instead of a signature to keep a record of her earnings. On that day, for some reason, I wanted to teach her how to hold a pen and write her name. She was reluctant at first. She smiled innocently and said no. But deep down, I was sure she wanted to give it a try. With a little bit of perseverance and a lot of effort, we managed to write her name. Her hands were trembling, and her face was beaming with pride.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
bodhi tree 3
poor village 2
village girl 2
fellowship program 2
full scholarship 2
rural youth 2
break free 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
poor village girl 2

Important Words


  1. asked
  2. beaming
  3. bidi
  4. bidis
  5. bit
  6. book
  7. caught
  8. cigarettes
  9. country
  10. day
  11. deep
  12. earned
  13. earnings
  14. effort
  15. eyes
  16. face
  17. family
  18. give
  19. hands
  20. happened
  21. hard
  22. hold
  23. home
  24. hours
  25. innocently
  26. lot
  27. managed
  28. money
  29. mother
  30. page
  31. pen
  32. perseverance
  33. pride
  34. reason
  35. record
  36. reluctant
  37. remember
  38. roller
  39. rolling
  40. school
  41. showed
  42. signature
  43. smiled
  44. spent
  45. sustain
  46. teach
  47. thumbprints
  48. trembling
  49. wage
  50. wanted
  51. week
  52. worker
  53. write
  54. years
  55. yesterday