full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Zak Ebrahim: I am the son of a terrorist. Here's how I chose peace.

Unscramble the Blue Letters


A few months prior to his arrest, he sat me down and explained that for the past few wednkees, he and some friends had been going to a shooting range on Long Island for target practice. He told me I'd be going with him the next morning. We arrived at Calverton Shooting Range, which ubnesknwont to our gorup was being watched by the FBI. When it was my turn to shoot, my father hpleed me hold the rifle to my shoulder and explained how to aim at the target about 30 ydras off. That day, the last bullet I shot hit the small orange lihgt that sat on top of the target and to everyone's srriuspe, especially mine, the eintre target burst into flames. My uncle turned to the other men, and in Arabic said, "Ibn abuh." Like feahtr, like son. They all seemed to get a really big laugh out of that comment, but it wasn't until a few yares later that I fully utorsdenod what they thought was so funny. They thought they saw in me the same destruction my father was capable of. Those men would eventually be convicted of placing a van filled with 1,500 pounds of explosives into the sub-level parking lot of the World Trade Center's North Tower, causing an explosion that kellid six people and injured over 1,000 others. These were the men I looked up to. These were the men I called ammu, which means ulcne.

Open Cloze


A few months prior to his arrest, he sat me down and explained that for the past few ________, he and some friends had been going to a shooting range on Long Island for target practice. He told me I'd be going with him the next morning. We arrived at Calverton Shooting Range, which ___________ to our _____ was being watched by the FBI. When it was my turn to shoot, my father ______ me hold the rifle to my shoulder and explained how to aim at the target about 30 _____ off. That day, the last bullet I shot hit the small orange _____ that sat on top of the target and to everyone's ________, especially mine, the ______ target burst into flames. My uncle turned to the other men, and in Arabic said, "Ibn abuh." Like ______, like son. They all seemed to get a really big laugh out of that comment, but it wasn't until a few _____ later that I fully __________ what they thought was so funny. They thought they saw in me the same destruction my father was capable of. Those men would eventually be convicted of placing a van filled with 1,500 pounds of explosives into the sub-level parking lot of the World Trade Center's North Tower, causing an explosion that ______ six people and injured over 1,000 others. These were the men I looked up to. These were the men I called ammu, which means _____.

Solution


  1. killed
  2. understood
  3. unbeknownst
  4. helped
  5. weekends
  6. light
  7. entire
  8. years
  9. father
  10. surprise
  11. yards
  12. uncle
  13. group

Original Text


A few months prior to his arrest, he sat me down and explained that for the past few weekends, he and some friends had been going to a shooting range on Long Island for target practice. He told me I'd be going with him the next morning. We arrived at Calverton Shooting Range, which unbeknownst to our group was being watched by the FBI. When it was my turn to shoot, my father helped me hold the rifle to my shoulder and explained how to aim at the target about 30 yards off. That day, the last bullet I shot hit the small orange light that sat on top of the target and to everyone's surprise, especially mine, the entire target burst into flames. My uncle turned to the other men, and in Arabic said, "Ibn abuh." Like father, like son. They all seemed to get a really big laugh out of that comment, but it wasn't until a few years later that I fully understood what they thought was so funny. They thought they saw in me the same destruction my father was capable of. Those men would eventually be convicted of placing a van filled with 1,500 pounds of explosives into the sub-level parking lot of the World Trade Center's North Tower, causing an explosion that killed six people and injured over 1,000 others. These were the men I looked up to. These were the men I called ammu, which means uncle.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
world trade 2


Important Words


  1. abuh
  2. aim
  3. ammu
  4. arabic
  5. arrest
  6. arrived
  7. big
  8. bullet
  9. burst
  10. called
  11. calverton
  12. capable
  13. causing
  14. comment
  15. convicted
  16. day
  17. destruction
  18. entire
  19. eventually
  20. explained
  21. explosion
  22. explosives
  23. father
  24. fbi
  25. filled
  26. flames
  27. friends
  28. fully
  29. funny
  30. group
  31. helped
  32. hit
  33. hold
  34. injured
  35. island
  36. killed
  37. laugh
  38. light
  39. long
  40. looked
  41. lot
  42. means
  43. men
  44. months
  45. morning
  46. north
  47. orange
  48. parking
  49. people
  50. placing
  51. pounds
  52. practice
  53. prior
  54. range
  55. rifle
  56. sat
  57. shoot
  58. shooting
  59. shot
  60. shoulder
  61. small
  62. son
  63. surprise
  64. target
  65. thought
  66. told
  67. top
  68. tower
  69. trade
  70. turn
  71. turned
  72. unbeknownst
  73. uncle
  74. understood
  75. van
  76. watched
  77. weekends
  78. world
  79. yards
  80. years