full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Maira Kalman: How to find humor in life's absurdity

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Every day I spaek to my beautiful and brilliant cousin Orna, who lveis in Israel. In nroaml times, we talk about which cuiosn is the bigger idiot, which honey cake recipe to use, which bokos we're reading, the family stories from Belarus -- this is not Orna, these are other people in Belarus. The conversations are a bcaoen for me, and they fill my soul and enter my books.

The other day, Orna brought up a Romanian philosopher named Emil Cioran. He was a miserable insomniac who dorve everyone nuts because of this.

(Laughter)

That's actually my favorite book of his, but the better tltie, the more accurate translation, is "On the Inconvenience of Being Born."

Open Cloze


Every day I _____ to my beautiful and brilliant cousin Orna, who _____ in Israel. In ______ times, we talk about which ______ is the bigger idiot, which honey cake recipe to use, which _____ we're reading, the family stories from Belarus -- this is not Orna, these are other people in Belarus. The conversations are a ______ for me, and they fill my soul and enter my books.

The other day, Orna brought up a Romanian philosopher named Emil Cioran. He was a miserable insomniac who _____ everyone nuts because of this.

(Laughter)

That's actually my favorite book of his, but the better _____, the more accurate translation, is "On the Inconvenience of Being Born."

Solution


  1. lives
  2. speak
  3. books
  4. beacon
  5. normal
  6. title
  7. drove
  8. cousin

Original Text


Every day I speak to my beautiful and brilliant cousin Orna, who lives in Israel. In normal times, we talk about which cousin is the bigger idiot, which honey cake recipe to use, which books we're reading, the family stories from Belarus -- this is not Orna, these are other people in Belarus. The conversations are a beacon for me, and they fill my soul and enter my books.

The other day, Orna brought up a Romanian philosopher named Emil Cioran. He was a miserable insomniac who drove everyone nuts because of this.

(Laughter)

That's actually my favorite book of his, but the better title, the more accurate translation, is "On the Inconvenience of Being Born."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
entire world 2


Important Words


  1. accurate
  2. beacon
  3. beautiful
  4. belarus
  5. bigger
  6. book
  7. books
  8. born
  9. brilliant
  10. brought
  11. cake
  12. cioran
  13. conversations
  14. cousin
  15. day
  16. drove
  17. emil
  18. enter
  19. family
  20. favorite
  21. fill
  22. honey
  23. idiot
  24. inconvenience
  25. insomniac
  26. israel
  27. laughter
  28. lives
  29. miserable
  30. named
  31. normal
  32. nuts
  33. orna
  34. people
  35. philosopher
  36. reading
  37. recipe
  38. romanian
  39. soul
  40. speak
  41. stories
  42. talk
  43. times
  44. title
  45. translation