full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Julia Sweeney: Letting go of God

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

But I got the new Libra poster, and I started to read my new Libra horoscope, and I was anotishsed to find that it was also toallty me.

(Laughter)

It wasn't until yreas later, looking back on this whole age-of-reason, change-of-birthday thing, that it deawnd on me: I wasn't turning seven when I thought I turned seven. I had a whole other mnoth to do anything I wanted to before God sttread keeping tabs on me. Oh, life can be so cruel. One day, two Mormon missionaries came to my door. Now, I just live off a main thoroughfare in Los Angeles, and my block is — well, it's a natural bengniing for people who are peddling things door to door. Sometimes I get little old laides from the svetneh Day Adventist Church showing me these cartoon prtueics of hevean. And sometimes I get teenagers who promise me that they won't join a gang and just start ribbong people, if I only buy some magazine subscriptions from them. So normally, I just ignore the doorbell, but on this day, I answered. And there stood two boys, each about 19, in white, starched short-sleeved shirts, and they had little name tags that identified them as oiciaffl representatives of the crhuch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they said they had a message for me, from God. I said, "A message for me? From God?" And they said, "Yes." Now, I was raised in the Pacific Northwest, around a lot of Church of Latter-day Saints people and, you know, I've worked with them and even dated them, but I never really knew the doctrine, or what they said to people when they were out on a miosisn, and I guess I was sort of curious, so I said, "Well, please, come in." And they looked really happy, because I don't think this happens to them all that often.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

But I got the new Libra poster, and I started to read my new Libra horoscope, and I was __________ to find that it was also _______ me.

(Laughter)

It wasn't until _____ later, looking back on this whole age-of-reason, change-of-birthday thing, that it ______ on me: I wasn't turning seven when I thought I turned seven. I had a whole other _____ to do anything I wanted to before God _______ keeping tabs on me. Oh, life can be so cruel. One day, two Mormon missionaries came to my door. Now, I just live off a main thoroughfare in Los Angeles, and my block is — well, it's a natural _________ for people who are peddling things door to door. Sometimes I get little old ______ from the _______ Day Adventist Church showing me these cartoon ________ of ______. And sometimes I get teenagers who promise me that they won't join a gang and just start _______ people, if I only buy some magazine subscriptions from them. So normally, I just ignore the doorbell, but on this day, I answered. And there stood two boys, each about 19, in white, starched short-sleeved shirts, and they had little name tags that identified them as ________ representatives of the ______ of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they said they had a message for me, from God. I said, "A message for me? From God?" And they said, "Yes." Now, I was raised in the Pacific Northwest, around a lot of Church of Latter-day Saints people and, you know, I've worked with them and even dated them, but I never really knew the doctrine, or what they said to people when they were out on a _______, and I guess I was sort of curious, so I said, "Well, please, come in." And they looked really happy, because I don't think this happens to them all that often.

Solution


  1. heaven
  2. ladies
  3. astonished
  4. official
  5. mission
  6. years
  7. month
  8. robbing
  9. beginning
  10. dawned
  11. started
  12. pictures
  13. totally
  14. church
  15. seventh

Original Text


(Laughter)

But I got the new Libra poster, and I started to read my new Libra horoscope, and I was astonished to find that it was also totally me.

(Laughter)

It wasn't until years later, looking back on this whole age-of-reason, change-of-birthday thing, that it dawned on me: I wasn't turning seven when I thought I turned seven. I had a whole other month to do anything I wanted to before God started keeping tabs on me. Oh, life can be so cruel. One day, two Mormon missionaries came to my door. Now, I just live off a main thoroughfare in Los Angeles, and my block is — well, it's a natural beginning for people who are peddling things door to door. Sometimes I get little old ladies from the Seventh Day Adventist Church showing me these cartoon pictures of heaven. And sometimes I get teenagers who promise me that they won't join a gang and just start robbing people, if I only buy some magazine subscriptions from them. So normally, I just ignore the doorbell, but on this day, I answered. And there stood two boys, each about 19, in white, starched short-sleeved shirts, and they had little name tags that identified them as official representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and they said they had a message for me, from God. I said, "A message for me? From God?" And they said, "Yes." Now, I was raised in the Pacific Northwest, around a lot of Church of Latter-day Saints people and, you know, I've worked with them and even dated them, but I never really knew the doctrine, or what they said to people when they were out on a mission, and I guess I was sort of curious, so I said, "Well, please, come in." And they looked really happy, because I don't think this happens to them all that often.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
santa claus 4
guy named 3
slumber party 2
virgo poster 2
libra poster 2
god loves 2
totally good 2
reformed egyptian 2
gold plates 2
god gave 2


Important Words


  1. adventist
  2. angeles
  3. answered
  4. astonished
  5. beginning
  6. block
  7. boys
  8. buy
  9. cartoon
  10. christ
  11. church
  12. cruel
  13. curious
  14. dated
  15. dawned
  16. day
  17. doctrine
  18. door
  19. doorbell
  20. find
  21. gang
  22. god
  23. guess
  24. happy
  25. heaven
  26. horoscope
  27. identified
  28. ignore
  29. jesus
  30. join
  31. keeping
  32. knew
  33. ladies
  34. laughter
  35. libra
  36. life
  37. live
  38. looked
  39. los
  40. lot
  41. magazine
  42. main
  43. message
  44. mission
  45. missionaries
  46. month
  47. mormon
  48. natural
  49. northwest
  50. official
  51. pacific
  52. peddling
  53. people
  54. pictures
  55. poster
  56. promise
  57. raised
  58. read
  59. representatives
  60. robbing
  61. saints
  62. seventh
  63. shirts
  64. showing
  65. sort
  66. starched
  67. start
  68. started
  69. stood
  70. subscriptions
  71. tabs
  72. tags
  73. teenagers
  74. thoroughfare
  75. thought
  76. totally
  77. turned
  78. turning
  79. wanted
  80. white
  81. worked
  82. years