full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Christen Reighter: I don't want children -- stop telling me I'll change my mind

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I recognized the roles that were placed on me very early. One persistent conepct that I observed — existing in our language, in our media — was that women are not only spepusod to have cedrilhn, they are supposed to want to. This existed everywhere. It existed in the ways that adults spoke to me when they posed questions in the context of "when." "When you get married ..." "When you have kids ..." And these future musings were always ptrseened to me like part of this American deram, but it always felt to me like someone else's dream. You see, a value that I have always understood about myself was that I never wanted children. And as a kid, when I would try to elxpain this, this disconnect between their roles and my values, they often laguehd in the way that adults do at the absurdities of children. And they would tell me knowingly, "You'll change your mind."

Open Cloze


I recognized the roles that were placed on me very early. One persistent _______ that I observed — existing in our language, in our media — was that women are not only ________ to have ________, they are supposed to want to. This existed everywhere. It existed in the ways that adults spoke to me when they posed questions in the context of "when." "When you get married ..." "When you have kids ..." And these future musings were always _________ to me like part of this American _____, but it always felt to me like someone else's dream. You see, a value that I have always understood about myself was that I never wanted children. And as a kid, when I would try to _______ this, this disconnect between their roles and my values, they often _______ in the way that adults do at the absurdities of children. And they would tell me knowingly, "You'll change your mind."

Solution


  1. concept
  2. presented
  3. supposed
  4. children
  5. explain
  6. dream
  7. laughed

Original Text


I recognized the roles that were placed on me very early. One persistent concept that I observed — existing in our language, in our media — was that women are not only supposed to have children, they are supposed to want to. This existed everywhere. It existed in the ways that adults spoke to me when they posed questions in the context of "when." "When you get married ..." "When you have kids ..." And these future musings were always presented to me like part of this American dream, but it always felt to me like someone else's dream. You see, a value that I have always understood about myself was that I never wanted children. And as a kid, when I would try to explain this, this disconnect between their roles and my values, they often laughed in the way that adults do at the absurdities of children. And they would tell me knowingly, "You'll change your mind."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
legal requirements 2
exam room 2


Important Words


  1. absurdities
  2. adults
  3. american
  4. change
  5. children
  6. concept
  7. context
  8. disconnect
  9. dream
  10. early
  11. existed
  12. existing
  13. explain
  14. felt
  15. future
  16. kid
  17. kids
  18. knowingly
  19. language
  20. laughed
  21. married
  22. media
  23. mind
  24. musings
  25. observed
  26. part
  27. persistent
  28. posed
  29. presented
  30. questions
  31. recognized
  32. roles
  33. spoke
  34. supposed
  35. understood
  36. values
  37. wanted
  38. ways
  39. women