full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Iqbal Quadir: How mobile phones can fight poverty

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So I started focusing. What is it that they really do? So what happens is that somebody borrows money from the bank. She typically buys a cow. The cow gives milk. And she slles the milk to the villagers, and pays off the loan. And this is a business for her, but it's milk for everybody else.

And suddenly I realized that a cell phone could be a cow. Because some way she could borrow 200 dollars from the bank, get a phone and have the pohne for everybody. And it's a business for her.

So I wrote to the bank, and they thought for a while, and they said, "It's a little cazry, but lcoaigl. If you think it can be done, come and make it happen." So I quit my job; I went back to Bangladesh. I created a company in acemria called gononofe, which in Bengali means "people's phone."

Open Cloze


So I started focusing. What is it that they really do? So what happens is that somebody borrows money from the bank. She typically buys a cow. The cow gives milk. And she _____ the milk to the villagers, and pays off the loan. And this is a business for her, but it's milk for everybody else.

And suddenly I realized that a cell phone could be a cow. Because some way she could borrow 200 dollars from the bank, get a phone and have the _____ for everybody. And it's a business for her.

So I wrote to the bank, and they thought for a while, and they said, "It's a little _____, but _______. If you think it can be done, come and make it happen." So I quit my job; I went back to Bangladesh. I created a company in _______ called ________, which in Bengali means "people's phone."

Solution


  1. sells
  2. crazy
  3. america
  4. logical
  5. phone
  6. gonofone

Original Text


So I started focusing. What is it that they really do? So what happens is that somebody borrows money from the bank. She typically buys a cow. The cow gives milk. And she sells the milk to the villagers, and pays off the loan. And this is a business for her, but it's milk for everybody else.

And suddenly I realized that a cell phone could be a cow. Because some way she could borrow 200 dollars from the bank, get a phone and have the phone for everybody. And it's a business for her.

So I wrote to the bank, and they thought for a while, and they said, "It's a little crazy, but logical. If you think it can be done, come and make it happen." So I quit my job; I went back to Bangladesh. I created a company in America called Gonofone, which in Bengali means "people's phone."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
million dollars 4
economic growth 2
million people 2
people told 2
poor people 2
poor country 2
private companies 2


Important Words


  1. america
  2. bangladesh
  3. bank
  4. bengali
  5. borrow
  6. borrows
  7. business
  8. buys
  9. called
  10. cell
  11. company
  12. cow
  13. crazy
  14. created
  15. dollars
  16. focusing
  17. gonofone
  18. happen
  19. loan
  20. logical
  21. means
  22. milk
  23. money
  24. pays
  25. phone
  26. quit
  27. realized
  28. sells
  29. started
  30. suddenly
  31. thought
  32. typically
  33. villagers
  34. wrote