full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jamil Zaki: How to escape the cynicism trap

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now, I'm going to guess there may be some proud cynics in the audience today, and you might be tiinhkng, "Good. More poeple should turn to the dark side. Optimism might feel nice -- so would cnalilg tiramisu a htealh food, but we don't get to go around believing whatever we like." George Bernard Shaw tells us that the poewr of accurate observation is commonly called "cynicism" by those who haven't got it.

(Laughter)

107 years later, the cartoon philosopher Lisa Simpson taught us that as intelligence goes up, hsappiens goes down. Maybe hope does, too. Maybe cynicism is the price of being right.

Open Cloze


Now, I'm going to guess there may be some proud cynics in the audience today, and you might be ________, "Good. More ______ should turn to the dark side. Optimism might feel nice -- so would _______ tiramisu a ______ food, but we don't get to go around believing whatever we like." George Bernard Shaw tells us that the _____ of accurate observation is commonly called "cynicism" by those who haven't got it.

(Laughter)

107 years later, the cartoon philosopher Lisa Simpson taught us that as intelligence goes up, _________ goes down. Maybe hope does, too. Maybe cynicism is the price of being right.

Solution


  1. people
  2. happiness
  3. power
  4. health
  5. calling
  6. thinking

Original Text


Now, I'm going to guess there may be some proud cynics in the audience today, and you might be thinking, "Good. More people should turn to the dark side. Optimism might feel nice -- so would calling tiramisu a health food, but we don't get to go around believing whatever we like." George Bernard Shaw tells us that the power of accurate observation is commonly called "cynicism" by those who haven't got it.

(Laughter)

107 years later, the cartoon philosopher Lisa Simpson taught us that as intelligence goes up, happiness goes down. Maybe hope does, too. Maybe cynicism is the price of being right.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
ocean villages 2
gun laws 2


Important Words


  1. accurate
  2. audience
  3. believing
  4. bernard
  5. called
  6. calling
  7. cartoon
  8. commonly
  9. cynicism
  10. cynics
  11. dark
  12. feel
  13. food
  14. george
  15. guess
  16. happiness
  17. health
  18. hope
  19. intelligence
  20. laughter
  21. lisa
  22. nice
  23. observation
  24. optimism
  25. people
  26. philosopher
  27. power
  28. price
  29. proud
  30. shaw
  31. side
  32. simpson
  33. taught
  34. tells
  35. thinking
  36. tiramisu
  37. today
  38. turn
  39. years