TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Joy Lin: If superpowers were real Immortality

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Immortality. In movies, kngis are always searching for the secret to immortality. But is immortality really a good thing? To a ten-year-old boy, one year is the same as 10% of his life. To his forty-year-old mother, one year is merely 2.5% of her life. The same year, 365 days, can feel differently to different people. If we live until we're 82, that's about 30,000 days. If this boy lives for 30,000 years, a year to him could feel like a day. And if this boy's emotions sutaisn through the ptaotenil boeodrm of liivng for millions of years, he might become extremely lonely and sad, knowing he has and always will outlive everyone he has ever loved. But what if everyone were immortal? Well, first off, Earth is only so big. So, where would we all live? (Grunts) "Excuse me!" "That's my face!" "Stop it!" "Pardon me." "Tight in here!" Do you remember what you did last year or when you were five? How much of your past have you forgotten? If you have trouble remembering what you did when you were five, how will you rmemeber what happened if you were alive a thousand years ago? A million years ago? We don't remember every single detail of our past because our brains have a lemiitd capacity and we replace useless memories, like middle sohcol locker combinations, with relevant information. If this immortal boy fidns a companion to fall in love with once every hundred years, he would have ten thousand girlfriends in a million years. And how many of those ten thaunsod girls' names will he be able to remember? This changes what a mnueifganl rihansitoelp means, doesn't it? Another tricky thing about immortality: Human beings have not always looked the same. This can be explained by Darwin's theory of evolution. For instance, if wmeon find taller men more attractive, then more tall men would mate and have children, punittg more tall genes in the gene pool. That manes, in the next generation, more children will have the genes to be taller. Repeat that process for a million years and the average hgihet will be a lot taller than the average height today, assuming there's no natural disaster that wipes out all the tall people. Our ancestors were short, hairy apes. We still have body hair, but we don't look like apes any more. If you're the only person who is immortal, while everyone else keeps evolving, generation after generation, you will etanvluley look quite different than the people who surround you. "Hi, how you doing?" If one of our ancoetsrs, apes, is still alive today, how many people will make friends with it instead of clanlig the Museum of nuatral History? And one more pcayhsil consideration for immortality: sacrs. After all, immortality doesn't automatically translate to invincibility, it just means you cannot die. But it doesn't guarantee what condition you'll be alive in. Look at your body and count how many scars you have. If you have made this many permanent scars within your life, imagine how much damage you would have if you were one thousand years old! Now, there are aoamxplritepy 185,000 amputation-related hospital discharges every year in the U.S. These ienrjius are due to ateicndcs or illnesses. Certainly the percentage is low comparing to the ttoal plotauipon if you only live for a hundred yares. However, if you've been avile for over one million years, the odds of still having all your limbs are pretty slim. What about little accessories, like your eyes, your nose, your ears, fingers or toes? What about your teeth? What are the odds of you keeping your dental health for a hundred years? A thousand years? One moliiln years? You might end up looking like a horribly scuffed-up Mr. Potato Head with missing pieces and dentures. So, are you sure you want to live forever? Now, which superpower physics lesson will you explore next? Shifting body size and content, super speed, flight, super strength, immortality, and — insiiltvibiy.

Open Cloze

Immortality. In movies, _____ are always searching for the secret to immortality. But is immortality really a good thing? To a ten-year-old boy, one year is the same as 10% of his life. To his forty-year-old mother, one year is merely 2.5% of her life. The same year, 365 days, can feel differently to different people. If we live until we're 82, that's about 30,000 days. If this boy lives for 30,000 years, a year to him could feel like a day. And if this boy's emotions _______ through the _________ _______ of ______ for millions of years, he might become extremely lonely and sad, knowing he has and always will outlive everyone he has ever loved. But what if everyone were immortal? Well, first off, Earth is only so big. So, where would we all live? (Grunts) "Excuse me!" "That's my face!" "Stop it!" "Pardon me." "Tight in here!" Do you remember what you did last year or when you were five? How much of your past have you forgotten? If you have trouble remembering what you did when you were five, how will you ________ what happened if you were alive a thousand years ago? A million years ago? We don't remember every single detail of our past because our brains have a _______ capacity and we replace useless memories, like middle ______ locker combinations, with relevant information. If this immortal boy _____ a companion to fall in love with once every hundred years, he would have ten thousand girlfriends in a million years. And how many of those ten ________ girls' names will he be able to remember? This changes what a __________ ____________ means, doesn't it? Another tricky thing about immortality: Human beings have not always looked the same. This can be explained by Darwin's theory of evolution. For instance, if _____ find taller men more attractive, then more tall men would mate and have children, _______ more tall genes in the gene pool. That _____, in the next generation, more children will have the genes to be taller. Repeat that process for a million years and the average ______ will be a lot taller than the average height today, assuming there's no natural disaster that wipes out all the tall people. Our ancestors were short, hairy apes. We still have body hair, but we don't look like apes any more. If you're the only person who is immortal, while everyone else keeps evolving, generation after generation, you will __________ look quite different than the people who surround you. "Hi, how you doing?" If one of our _________, apes, is still alive today, how many people will make friends with it instead of _______ the Museum of _______ History? And one more ________ consideration for immortality: _____. After all, immortality doesn't automatically translate to invincibility, it just means you cannot die. But it doesn't guarantee what condition you'll be alive in. Look at your body and count how many scars you have. If you have made this many permanent scars within your life, imagine how much damage you would have if you were one thousand years old! Now, there are _____________ 185,000 amputation-related hospital discharges every year in the U.S. These ________ are due to _________ or illnesses. Certainly the percentage is low comparing to the _____ __________ if you only live for a hundred _____. However, if you've been _____ for over one million years, the odds of still having all your limbs are pretty slim. What about little accessories, like your eyes, your nose, your ears, fingers or toes? What about your teeth? What are the odds of you keeping your dental health for a hundred years? A thousand years? One _______ years? You might end up looking like a horribly scuffed-up Mr. Potato Head with missing pieces and dentures. So, are you sure you want to live forever? Now, which superpower physics lesson will you explore next? Shifting body size and content, super speed, flight, super strength, immortality, and — ____________.

Solution

thousand
years
total
physical
women
million
height
sustain
accidents
relationship
scars
living
limited
remember
finds
potential
natural
alive
boredom
population
invisibility
ancestors
meaningful
school
approximately
kings
eventually
means
putting
calling
injuries

Original Text

Immortality. In movies, kings are always searching for the secret to immortality. But is immortality really a good thing? To a ten-year-old boy, one year is the same as 10% of his life. To his forty-year-old mother, one year is merely 2.5% of her life. The same year, 365 days, can feel differently to different people. If we live until we're 82, that's about 30,000 days. If this boy lives for 30,000 years, a year to him could feel like a day. And if this boy's emotions sustain through the potential boredom of living for millions of years, he might become extremely lonely and sad, knowing he has and always will outlive everyone he has ever loved. But what if everyone were immortal? Well, first off, Earth is only so big. So, where would we all live? (Grunts) "Excuse me!" "That's my face!" "Stop it!" "Pardon me." "Tight in here!" Do you remember what you did last year or when you were five? How much of your past have you forgotten? If you have trouble remembering what you did when you were five, how will you remember what happened if you were alive a thousand years ago? A million years ago? We don't remember every single detail of our past because our brains have a limited capacity and we replace useless memories, like middle school locker combinations, with relevant information. If this immortal boy finds a companion to fall in love with once every hundred years, he would have ten thousand girlfriends in a million years. And how many of those ten thousand girls' names will he be able to remember? This changes what a meaningful relationship means, doesn't it? Another tricky thing about immortality: Human beings have not always looked the same. This can be explained by Darwin's theory of evolution. For instance, if women find taller men more attractive, then more tall men would mate and have children, putting more tall genes in the gene pool. That means, in the next generation, more children will have the genes to be taller. Repeat that process for a million years and the average height will be a lot taller than the average height today, assuming there's no natural disaster that wipes out all the tall people. Our ancestors were short, hairy apes. We still have body hair, but we don't look like apes any more. If you're the only person who is immortal, while everyone else keeps evolving, generation after generation, you will eventually look quite different than the people who surround you. "Hi, how you doing?" If one of our ancestors, apes, is still alive today, how many people will make friends with it instead of calling the Museum of Natural History? And one more physical consideration for immortality: Scars. After all, immortality doesn't automatically translate to invincibility, it just means you cannot die. But it doesn't guarantee what condition you'll be alive in. Look at your body and count how many scars you have. If you have made this many permanent scars within your life, imagine how much damage you would have if you were one thousand years old! Now, there are approximately 185,000 amputation-related hospital discharges every year in the U.S. These injuries are due to accidents or illnesses. Certainly the percentage is low comparing to the total population if you only live for a hundred years. However, if you've been alive for over one million years, the odds of still having all your limbs are pretty slim. What about little accessories, like your eyes, your nose, your ears, fingers or toes? What about your teeth? What are the odds of you keeping your dental health for a hundred years? A thousand years? One million years? You might end up looking like a horribly scuffed-up Mr. Potato Head with missing pieces and dentures. So, are you sure you want to live forever? Now, which superpower physics lesson will you explore next? Shifting body size and content, super speed, flight, super strength, immortality, and — invisibility.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
million years	3
thousand years	2
ten thousand	2
average height	2

Important Words

accessories
accidents
alive
ancestors
apes
approximately
assuming
attractive
automatically
average
beings
big
body
boredom
boy
brains
calling
capacity
children
combinations
companion
comparing
condition
consideration
content
count
damage
day
days
dental
dentures
detail
die
differently
disaster
discharges
due
ears
earth
emotions
eventually
evolution
evolving
explained
explore
extremely
eyes
fall
feel
find
finds
fingers
flight
forgotten
friends
gene
generation
genes
girlfriends
good
grunts
guarantee
hair
hairy
happened
head
health
height
history
horribly
hospital
human
illnesses
imagine
immortal
immortality
information
injuries
instance
invincibility
invisibility
keeping
kings
knowing
lesson
life
limbs
limited
live
lives
living
locker
lonely
looked
lot
love
loved
mate
meaningful
means
memories
men
middle
million
millions
missing
mother
movies
museum
names
natural
nose
odds
outlive
people
percentage
permanent
person
physical
physics
pieces
pool
population
potato
potential
pretty
process
putting
relationship
relevant
remember
remembering
repeat
replace
sad
scars
school
searching
secret
shifting
short
single
size
slim
speed
strength
super
superpower
surround
sustain
tall
taller
teeth
ten
theory
thousand
today
toes
total
translate
tricky
trouble
useless
wipes
women
year
years