full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Steven Johnson: How the "ghost map" helped end a killer disease

Unscramble the Blue Letters


And so one of the fdionnug moments of public health in the 19th century effectively poisoned the water supply of London much more effectively than any modern day bioterrorist could have ever dreamed of doing. So this was the state of London in 1854, and in the middle of all this carnage and offensive conditions, and in the midst of all this scientific confusion about what was actually killing people, it was a very talented caisslc 19th century multi-disciplinarian named John Snow, who was a loacl doctor in Soho in London, who had been arguing for about four or five years that cholera was, in fact, a waterborne dieasse, and had basically cinceonvd nobody of this. The public health authorities had llegary ignored what he had to say. And he'd made the case in a nbeumr of pepars and done a number of studies, but nothing had really stcuk. And part of — what's so interesting about this story to me is that in some ways, it's a great case study in how cultural change happens, how a good idea eunvalelty comes to win out over much worse ideas. And Snow labored for a long time with this great ignisht that everybody ignored.

Open Cloze


And so one of the ________ moments of public health in the 19th century effectively poisoned the water supply of London much more effectively than any modern day bioterrorist could have ever dreamed of doing. So this was the state of London in 1854, and in the middle of all this carnage and offensive conditions, and in the midst of all this scientific confusion about what was actually killing people, it was a very talented _______ 19th century multi-disciplinarian named John Snow, who was a _____ doctor in Soho in London, who had been arguing for about four or five years that cholera was, in fact, a waterborne _______, and had basically _________ nobody of this. The public health authorities had _______ ignored what he had to say. And he'd made the case in a ______ of ______ and done a number of studies, but nothing had really _____. And part of — what's so interesting about this story to me is that in some ways, it's a great case study in how cultural change happens, how a good idea __________ comes to win out over much worse ideas. And Snow labored for a long time with this great _______ that everybody ignored.

Solution


  1. insight
  2. papers
  3. convinced
  4. stuck
  5. disease
  6. eventually
  7. largely
  8. number
  9. founding
  10. local
  11. classic

Original Text


And so one of the founding moments of public health in the 19th century effectively poisoned the water supply of London much more effectively than any modern day bioterrorist could have ever dreamed of doing. So this was the state of London in 1854, and in the middle of all this carnage and offensive conditions, and in the midst of all this scientific confusion about what was actually killing people, it was a very talented classic 19th century multi-disciplinarian named John Snow, who was a local doctor in Soho in London, who had been arguing for about four or five years that cholera was, in fact, a waterborne disease, and had basically convinced nobody of this. The public health authorities had largely ignored what he had to say. And he'd made the case in a number of papers and done a number of studies, but nothing had really stuck. And part of — what's so interesting about this story to me is that in some ways, it's a great case study in how cultural change happens, how a good idea eventually comes to win out over much worse ideas. And Snow labored for a long time with this great insight that everybody ignored.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
public health 3
largest city 2
water supply 2
drunk water 2
cholera outbreak 2


Important Words


  1. arguing
  2. authorities
  3. basically
  4. bioterrorist
  5. carnage
  6. case
  7. century
  8. change
  9. cholera
  10. classic
  11. conditions
  12. confusion
  13. convinced
  14. cultural
  15. day
  16. disease
  17. doctor
  18. dreamed
  19. effectively
  20. eventually
  21. fact
  22. founding
  23. good
  24. great
  25. health
  26. idea
  27. ideas
  28. insight
  29. interesting
  30. john
  31. killing
  32. labored
  33. largely
  34. local
  35. london
  36. long
  37. middle
  38. midst
  39. modern
  40. moments
  41. named
  42. number
  43. offensive
  44. papers
  45. part
  46. people
  47. poisoned
  48. public
  49. scientific
  50. snow
  51. soho
  52. state
  53. story
  54. stuck
  55. studies
  56. study
  57. supply
  58. talented
  59. time
  60. water
  61. waterborne
  62. ways
  63. win
  64. worse
  65. years