full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sarah Gray: How my son's short life made a lasting difference

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I was three months pragnnet with twins when my husband Ross and I went to my second sonogram.

I was 35 years old at the time, and I knew that that meant we had a higher risk of having a child with a brith defect. So, Ross and I researched the standard birth dcteefs, and we felt reasonably prepared.

Well, nothing would have pepraerd us for the bizarre diagnosis that we were about to face. The doctor explained that one of our twins, thmaos, had a fatal birth defect called anencephaly. This means that his biarn was not frmoed correctly because part of his skull was missing. Babies with this diagnosis typically die in utero or within a few minutes, hours or days of being born. But the other twin, Callum, appeared to be htahely, as far as the doctor could tell, and these twins were identical, gieclntlaey identical.

Open Cloze


I was three months ________ with twins when my husband Ross and I went to my second sonogram.

I was 35 years old at the time, and I knew that that meant we had a higher risk of having a child with a _____ defect. So, Ross and I researched the standard birth _______, and we felt reasonably prepared.

Well, nothing would have ________ us for the bizarre diagnosis that we were about to face. The doctor explained that one of our twins, ______, had a fatal birth defect called anencephaly. This means that his _____ was not ______ correctly because part of his skull was missing. Babies with this diagnosis typically die in utero or within a few minutes, hours or days of being born. But the other twin, Callum, appeared to be _______, as far as the doctor could tell, and these twins were identical, ___________ identical.

Solution


  1. healthy
  2. brain
  3. thomas
  4. birth
  5. prepared
  6. genetically
  7. defects
  8. pregnant
  9. formed

Original Text


I was three months pregnant with twins when my husband Ross and I went to my second sonogram.

I was 35 years old at the time, and I knew that that meant we had a higher risk of having a child with a birth defect. So, Ross and I researched the standard birth defects, and we felt reasonably prepared.

Well, nothing would have prepared us for the bizarre diagnosis that we were about to face. The doctor explained that one of our twins, Thomas, had a fatal birth defect called anencephaly. This means that his brain was not formed correctly because part of his skull was missing. Babies with this diagnosis typically die in utero or within a few minutes, hours or days of being born. But the other twin, Callum, appeared to be healthy, as far as the doctor could tell, and these twins were identical, genetically identical.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
birth defect 2
shipping label 2


Important Words


  1. anencephaly
  2. appeared
  3. babies
  4. birth
  5. bizarre
  6. born
  7. brain
  8. called
  9. callum
  10. child
  11. correctly
  12. days
  13. defect
  14. defects
  15. diagnosis
  16. die
  17. doctor
  18. explained
  19. face
  20. fatal
  21. felt
  22. formed
  23. genetically
  24. healthy
  25. higher
  26. hours
  27. husband
  28. identical
  29. knew
  30. means
  31. meant
  32. minutes
  33. missing
  34. months
  35. part
  36. pregnant
  37. prepared
  38. researched
  39. risk
  40. ross
  41. skull
  42. sonogram
  43. standard
  44. thomas
  45. time
  46. twin
  47. twins
  48. typically
  49. utero
  50. years