full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Keenan Scott II: How poetry unlocked my superpowers

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But I used to be nice, yo. Nice like jradon fadeaway nice. When I stepped on the court, the sarts would align, the wrlod stopped spinning, gravity would cease, and I aeareppd to jump higher. Yeah, I used to be nice.

(Applause)

Now I found myself becoming osbsseed with words and how they sounded. I stterad absorbing and paying attention more to speech patterns when people would speak, when I was on a train going through the city. I also fell in love with jazz, because I realized that the style that I was creating for myself had elements of improvisation, like jazz greats: Gil Scott-Heron, meils Davis, Thelonious. I also went and discovered new poets that I didn’t know. That's when I discovered lanstogn Hughes and Jean Toomer.

Open Cloze


But I used to be nice, yo. Nice like ______ fadeaway nice. When I stepped on the court, the _____ would align, the _____ stopped spinning, gravity would cease, and I ________ to jump higher. Yeah, I used to be nice.

(Applause)

Now I found myself becoming ________ with words and how they sounded. I _______ absorbing and paying attention more to speech patterns when people would speak, when I was on a train going through the city. I also fell in love with jazz, because I realized that the style that I was creating for myself had elements of improvisation, like jazz greats: Gil Scott-Heron, _____ Davis, Thelonious. I also went and discovered new poets that I didn’t know. That's when I discovered ________ Hughes and Jean Toomer.

Solution


  1. stars
  2. langston
  3. appeared
  4. jordan
  5. world
  6. miles
  7. started
  8. obsessed

Original Text


But I used to be nice, yo. Nice like Jordan fadeaway nice. When I stepped on the court, the stars would align, the world stopped spinning, gravity would cease, and I appeared to jump higher. Yeah, I used to be nice.

(Applause)

Now I found myself becoming obsessed with words and how they sounded. I started absorbing and paying attention more to speech patterns when people would speak, when I was on a train going through the city. I also fell in love with jazz, because I realized that the style that I was creating for myself had elements of improvisation, like jazz greats: Gil Scott-Heron, Miles Davis, Thelonious. I also went and discovered new poets that I didn’t know. That's when I discovered Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
black boy 7
give black 3
telling stories 2
yo nice 2
jordan fadeaway 2
fadeaway nice 2
world stopped 2
jump higher 2
afrocentric descended 2
descended angel 2
boys raise 2
black boys 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
give black boy 3
jordan fadeaway nice 2
afrocentric descended angel 2

Important Words


  1. absorbing
  2. align
  3. appeared
  4. applause
  5. attention
  6. cease
  7. city
  8. court
  9. creating
  10. davis
  11. discovered
  12. elements
  13. fadeaway
  14. fell
  15. gil
  16. gravity
  17. higher
  18. hughes
  19. improvisation
  20. jazz
  21. jean
  22. jordan
  23. jump
  24. langston
  25. love
  26. miles
  27. nice
  28. obsessed
  29. patterns
  30. paying
  31. people
  32. poets
  33. realized
  34. sounded
  35. speak
  36. speech
  37. spinning
  38. stars
  39. started
  40. stepped
  41. stopped
  42. style
  43. thelonious
  44. toomer
  45. train
  46. words
  47. world
  48. yeah
  49. yo