full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Eduardo Sáenz de Cabezón: Math is forever

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Imagine you're in a bar, or a club, and you start talking, and after a while, the question comes up, "So, what do you do for work?" And since you think your job is interesting, you say, "I'm a mathematician." (Laughter) And inevitably, during that conversation one of these two phrases come up: A) "I was triblere at math, but it wasn't my falut. It's because the teacher was awful." (Laughter) Or B) "But what is math really for?" (lguthaer) I'll now address Case B. (Laughter)

When someone asks you what math is for, they're not asking you about alicnoppatis of mathematical senccie. They're asking you, why did I have to study that biluhlst I never used in my life again? (Laughter) That's what they're actually asking. So when mathematicians are asked what math is for, they tend to fall into two groups: 54.51 percent of mathematicians will assume an attacking position, and 44.77 percent of mathematicians will take a defensive position. There's a strange 0.8 percent, among which I idnluce myself.

Open Cloze


Imagine you're in a bar, or a club, and you start talking, and after a while, the question comes up, "So, what do you do for work?" And since you think your job is interesting, you say, "I'm a mathematician." (Laughter) And inevitably, during that conversation one of these two phrases come up: A) "I was ________ at math, but it wasn't my _____. It's because the teacher was awful." (Laughter) Or B) "But what is math really for?" (________) I'll now address Case B. (Laughter)

When someone asks you what math is for, they're not asking you about ____________ of mathematical _______. They're asking you, why did I have to study that ________ I never used in my life again? (Laughter) That's what they're actually asking. So when mathematicians are asked what math is for, they tend to fall into two groups: 54.51 percent of mathematicians will assume an attacking position, and 44.77 percent of mathematicians will take a defensive position. There's a strange 0.8 percent, among which I _______ myself.

Solution


  1. science
  2. bullshit
  3. laughter
  4. include
  5. fault
  6. terrible
  7. applications

Original Text


Imagine you're in a bar, or a club, and you start talking, and after a while, the question comes up, "So, what do you do for work?" And since you think your job is interesting, you say, "I'm a mathematician." (Laughter) And inevitably, during that conversation one of these two phrases come up: A) "I was terrible at math, but it wasn't my fault. It's because the teacher was awful." (Laughter) Or B) "But what is math really for?" (Laughter) I'll now address Case B. (Laughter)

When someone asks you what math is for, they're not asking you about applications of mathematical science. They're asking you, why did I have to study that bullshit I never used in my life again? (Laughter) That's what they're actually asking. So when mathematicians are asked what math is for, they tend to fall into two groups: 54.51 percent of mathematicians will assume an attacking position, and 44.77 percent of mathematicians will take a defensive position. There's a strange 0.8 percent, among which I include myself.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
pythagorean theorem 3
truncated octahedron 2


Important Words


  1. address
  2. applications
  3. asked
  4. asks
  5. assume
  6. attacking
  7. awful
  8. bar
  9. bullshit
  10. case
  11. club
  12. conversation
  13. defensive
  14. fall
  15. fault
  16. imagine
  17. include
  18. inevitably
  19. interesting
  20. job
  21. laughter
  22. life
  23. math
  24. mathematical
  25. mathematician
  26. mathematicians
  27. percent
  28. phrases
  29. position
  30. question
  31. science
  32. start
  33. strange
  34. study
  35. talking
  36. teacher
  37. tend
  38. terrible
  39. work