full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Julian Baggini: Is there a real you?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Is there a real you? This might seem to you like a very odd quiteosn. Because, you might ask, how do we find the real you, how do you know what the real you is? And so forth.

But the idea that there must be a real you, surely that's oovuibs. If there's anything real in the wrold, it's you. Well, I'm not quite sure. At least we have to understand a bit better what that means. Now certainly, I think there are lots of things in our culture around us which sort of reinforce the idea that for each one of us, we have a kind of a core, an ecsense. There is something about what it means to be you which dnieefs you, and it's kind of pnnaemert and unchanging. The most kind of crdue way in which we have it, are things like horoscopes. You know, pleope are very wedded to these, actually. People put them on their Facebook profile as though they are mgeiannul, you even know your Chinese horoscope as well. There are also more scientific vrosiens of this, all sorts of ways of profiling pilrnseaoty type, such as the Myers-Briggs tests, for example. I don't know if you've done those. A lot of companies use these for recruitment. You answer a lot of qnesotuis, and this is supposed to reveal something about your core personality. And of course, the popular fascination with this is enormous. In magazines like this, you'll see, in the bottom left corner, they'll ardstveie in virtually every issue some kind of personality thing. And if you pick up one of those magazines, it's hard to resist, isn't it? Doing the test to find what is your learning style, what is your loving style, or what is your working style? Are you this kind of person or that?

Open Cloze


Is there a real you? This might seem to you like a very odd ________. Because, you might ask, how do we find the real you, how do you know what the real you is? And so forth.

But the idea that there must be a real you, surely that's _______. If there's anything real in the _____, it's you. Well, I'm not quite sure. At least we have to understand a bit better what that means. Now certainly, I think there are lots of things in our culture around us which sort of reinforce the idea that for each one of us, we have a kind of a core, an _______. There is something about what it means to be you which _______ you, and it's kind of _________ and unchanging. The most kind of _____ way in which we have it, are things like horoscopes. You know, ______ are very wedded to these, actually. People put them on their Facebook profile as though they are _________, you even know your Chinese horoscope as well. There are also more scientific ________ of this, all sorts of ways of profiling ___________ type, such as the Myers-Briggs tests, for example. I don't know if you've done those. A lot of companies use these for recruitment. You answer a lot of _________, and this is supposed to reveal something about your core personality. And of course, the popular fascination with this is enormous. In magazines like this, you'll see, in the bottom left corner, they'll _________ in virtually every issue some kind of personality thing. And if you pick up one of those magazines, it's hard to resist, isn't it? Doing the test to find what is your learning style, what is your loving style, or what is your working style? Are you this kind of person or that?

Solution


  1. permanent
  2. questions
  3. crude
  4. people
  5. question
  6. world
  7. personality
  8. versions
  9. essence
  10. meaningul
  11. obvious
  12. defines
  13. advertise

Original Text


Is there a real you? This might seem to you like a very odd question. Because, you might ask, how do we find the real you, how do you know what the real you is? And so forth.

But the idea that there must be a real you, surely that's obvious. If there's anything real in the world, it's you. Well, I'm not quite sure. At least we have to understand a bit better what that means. Now certainly, I think there are lots of things in our culture around us which sort of reinforce the idea that for each one of us, we have a kind of a core, an essence. There is something about what it means to be you which defines you, and it's kind of permanent and unchanging. The most kind of crude way in which we have it, are things like horoscopes. You know, people are very wedded to these, actually. People put them on their Facebook profile as though they are meaningul, you even know your Chinese horoscope as well. There are also more scientific versions of this, all sorts of ways of profiling personality type, such as the Myers-Briggs tests, for example. I don't know if you've done those. A lot of companies use these for recruitment. You answer a lot of questions, and this is supposed to reveal something about your core personality. And of course, the popular fascination with this is enormous. In magazines like this, you'll see, in the bottom left corner, they'll advertise in virtually every issue some kind of personality thing. And if you pick up one of those magazines, it's hard to resist, isn't it? Doing the test to find what is your learning style, what is your loving style, or what is your working style? Are you this kind of person or that?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. advertise
  2. answer
  3. bit
  4. bottom
  5. chinese
  6. companies
  7. core
  8. corner
  9. crude
  10. culture
  11. defines
  12. enormous
  13. essence
  14. facebook
  15. fascination
  16. find
  17. hard
  18. horoscope
  19. horoscopes
  20. idea
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  22. kind
  23. learning
  24. left
  25. lot
  26. lots
  27. loving
  28. magazines
  29. meaningul
  30. means
  31. obvious
  32. odd
  33. people
  34. permanent
  35. person
  36. personality
  37. pick
  38. popular
  39. profile
  40. profiling
  41. put
  42. question
  43. questions
  44. real
  45. recruitment
  46. reinforce
  47. resist
  48. reveal
  49. scientific
  50. sort
  51. sorts
  52. style
  53. supposed
  54. surely
  55. test
  56. tests
  57. type
  58. unchanging
  59. understand
  60. versions
  61. virtually
  62. ways
  63. wedded
  64. working
  65. world