full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Kristine Tompkins: Let's make the world wild again

Unscramble the Blue Letters


My siblings and I grew up on our great-grandfather's farm in caoirnlifa. It was a lapcsadne of our family and our home. When it was clear that nobody in our generation wanted to take on the heavy burden of ranching, the ranch was sold to a neighbor. The ahnocr of our lives was cut, and we felt adfirt in the acnbese of that land. For the first time, I came to understand that something vllauabe can be best understood not by its presence, but by its absence. It was impossible to know then just how powerful the absence of those things we love would have an impact far into my future.

For 23 yares, my working life was with Yvon Chouinard. I started when he was designing and manufacturing technical rock and ice climbing equipment in a tin shed near the rlraiaod tracks in Ventura. And when Yvon decided to satrt making clothes for climbers and call this business Patagonia, I became one of the first six employees, later becoming CEO and hpeling build a company where creating the best products and doing good by the world was more than just a tglaine.

Open Cloze


My siblings and I grew up on our great-grandfather's farm in __________. It was a _________ of our family and our home. When it was clear that nobody in our generation wanted to take on the heavy burden of ranching, the ranch was sold to a neighbor. The ______ of our lives was cut, and we felt ______ in the _______ of that land. For the first time, I came to understand that something ________ can be best understood not by its presence, but by its absence. It was impossible to know then just how powerful the absence of those things we love would have an impact far into my future.

For 23 _____, my working life was with Yvon Chouinard. I started when he was designing and manufacturing technical rock and ice climbing equipment in a tin shed near the ________ tracks in Ventura. And when Yvon decided to _____ making clothes for climbers and call this business Patagonia, I became one of the first six employees, later becoming CEO and _______ build a company where creating the best products and doing good by the world was more than just a _______.

Solution


  1. adrift
  2. railroad
  3. valuable
  4. california
  5. absence
  6. helping
  7. years
  8. tagline
  9. landscape
  10. anchor
  11. start

Original Text


My siblings and I grew up on our great-grandfather's farm in California. It was a landscape of our family and our home. When it was clear that nobody in our generation wanted to take on the heavy burden of ranching, the ranch was sold to a neighbor. The anchor of our lives was cut, and we felt adrift in the absence of that land. For the first time, I came to understand that something valuable can be best understood not by its presence, but by its absence. It was impossible to know then just how powerful the absence of those things we love would have an impact far into my future.

For 23 years, my working life was with Yvon Chouinard. I started when he was designing and manufacturing technical rock and ice climbing equipment in a tin shed near the railroad tracks in Ventura. And when Yvon decided to start making clothes for climbers and call this business Patagonia, I became one of the first six employees, later becoming CEO and helping build a company where creating the best products and doing good by the world was more than just a tagline.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
national parks 5
million acres 4
patagonia region 2
private land 2
national park 2
fully functioning 2
mountain lions 2
human dignity 2
human life 2


Important Words


  1. absence
  2. adrift
  3. anchor
  4. build
  5. burden
  6. business
  7. california
  8. call
  9. ceo
  10. chouinard
  11. clear
  12. climbers
  13. climbing
  14. clothes
  15. company
  16. creating
  17. cut
  18. decided
  19. designing
  20. employees
  21. equipment
  22. family
  23. farm
  24. felt
  25. future
  26. generation
  27. good
  28. grew
  29. heavy
  30. helping
  31. home
  32. ice
  33. impact
  34. impossible
  35. land
  36. landscape
  37. life
  38. lives
  39. love
  40. making
  41. manufacturing
  42. neighbor
  43. patagonia
  44. powerful
  45. presence
  46. products
  47. railroad
  48. ranch
  49. ranching
  50. rock
  51. shed
  52. siblings
  53. sold
  54. start
  55. started
  56. tagline
  57. technical
  58. time
  59. tin
  60. tracks
  61. understand
  62. understood
  63. valuable
  64. ventura
  65. wanted
  66. working
  67. world
  68. years
  69. yvon