full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Graham Allison: Is war between China and the US inevitable?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Thus, the cnhlalege that will shape our world: a seemingly unstoppable rising China accelerating towards an ataneplpry immovable ruling US, on course for what could be the grandest collision in history. To help us get our minds around this challenge, I'm going to itronudce you to a great thinker, I'm going to present a big idea, and I'm going to pose a most cnaiteseqounl qtuesion. The great thinker is Thucydides. Now, I know his name is a mouthful, and some people have trboule pronouncing it. So, let's do it, one, two, three, together: Thucydides. One more time: Thucydides.

So who was Thucydides? He was the fatehr and founder of history. He wrote the first-ever history book. It's teltid "The History of the Peloponnesian War," about the war in Greece, 2500 years ago. So if nothing else today, you can tweet your friends, "I met a great thienkr. And I can even pronounce his name: Thucydides." So, about this war that destroyed classical Greece, Thucydides wrote famously: "It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this itlsineld in Sparta that made the war inevitable." So the rise of one and the raoicten of the other create a toxic cocktail of pride, arrogance, paaoirna, that drug them both to war.

Open Cloze


Thus, the _________ that will shape our world: a seemingly unstoppable rising China accelerating towards an __________ immovable ruling US, on course for what could be the grandest collision in history. To help us get our minds around this challenge, I'm going to _________ you to a great thinker, I'm going to present a big idea, and I'm going to pose a most _____________ ________. The great thinker is Thucydides. Now, I know his name is a mouthful, and some people have _______ pronouncing it. So, let's do it, one, two, three, together: Thucydides. One more time: Thucydides.

So who was Thucydides? He was the ______ and founder of history. He wrote the first-ever history book. It's ______ "The History of the Peloponnesian War," about the war in Greece, 2500 years ago. So if nothing else today, you can tweet your friends, "I met a great _______. And I can even pronounce his name: Thucydides." So, about this war that destroyed classical Greece, Thucydides wrote famously: "It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this _________ in Sparta that made the war inevitable." So the rise of one and the ________ of the other create a toxic cocktail of pride, arrogance, ________, that drug them both to war.

Solution


  1. trouble
  2. apparently
  3. titled
  4. introduce
  5. question
  6. paranoia
  7. thinker
  8. consequential
  9. father
  10. challenge
  11. instilled
  12. reaction

Original Text


Thus, the challenge that will shape our world: a seemingly unstoppable rising China accelerating towards an apparently immovable ruling US, on course for what could be the grandest collision in history. To help us get our minds around this challenge, I'm going to introduce you to a great thinker, I'm going to present a big idea, and I'm going to pose a most consequential question. The great thinker is Thucydides. Now, I know his name is a mouthful, and some people have trouble pronouncing it. So, let's do it, one, two, three, together: Thucydides. One more time: Thucydides.

So who was Thucydides? He was the father and founder of history. He wrote the first-ever history book. It's titled "The History of the Peloponnesian War," about the war in Greece, 2500 years ago. So if nothing else today, you can tweet your friends, "I met a great thinker. And I can even pronounce his name: Thucydides." So, about this war that destroyed classical Greece, Thucydides wrote famously: "It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made the war inevitable." So the rise of one and the reaction of the other create a toxic cocktail of pride, arrogance, paranoia, that drug them both to war.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
rising power 5
world war 5
ruling power 4
xi jinping 3
china means 3
power threatened 2
power twelve 2
pop quiz 2
brute facts 2
consequential question 2
great thinker 2
great power 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
rising power threatened 2
ruling power twelve 2

Important Words


  1. accelerating
  2. apparently
  3. arrogance
  4. athens
  5. big
  6. book
  7. challenge
  8. china
  9. classical
  10. cocktail
  11. collision
  12. consequential
  13. create
  14. destroyed
  15. drug
  16. father
  17. fear
  18. founder
  19. friends
  20. grandest
  21. great
  22. greece
  23. history
  24. idea
  25. immovable
  26. inevitable
  27. instilled
  28. introduce
  29. met
  30. minds
  31. mouthful
  32. paranoia
  33. peloponnesian
  34. people
  35. pose
  36. present
  37. pride
  38. pronounce
  39. pronouncing
  40. question
  41. reaction
  42. rise
  43. rising
  44. ruling
  45. seemingly
  46. shape
  47. sparta
  48. thinker
  49. thucydides
  50. titled
  51. today
  52. toxic
  53. trouble
  54. tweet
  55. unstoppable
  56. war
  57. wrote
  58. years