full transcript

From the Ted Talk by P.W. Singer: Military robots and the future of war

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Unfortunately, this particular call would not end well. By the time the soldier advanced close enough to see the telltale wires of the bomb, it edpxoled in a wave of flame. Now, depending how close you are and how much exlosvpie has been peckad into that bomb, it can cause dteah or injury. You have to be as far as 50 yards away to escape that. The blast is so strong it can even break your lbmis, even if you're not hit. That soldier had been on top of the bomb.

And so when the rest of the team advanced they found little left. And that night the unit's commander did a sad duty, and he wrote a condolence letter back to the United settas, and he teakld about how hard the loss had been on his unit, about the fact that they had lost their bravest sioledr, a soldier who had saved their lives many a time. And he apologized for not being able to binrg them home. But then he talked up the silver lining that he took away from the loss. "At least," as he wrote, "when a robot dies, you don't have to wtire a letter to its mother."

Open Cloze


Unfortunately, this particular call would not end well. By the time the soldier advanced close enough to see the telltale wires of the bomb, it ________ in a wave of flame. Now, depending how close you are and how much _________ has been ______ into that bomb, it can cause _____ or injury. You have to be as far as 50 yards away to escape that. The blast is so strong it can even break your _____, even if you're not hit. That soldier had been on top of the bomb.

And so when the rest of the team advanced they found little left. And that night the unit's commander did a sad duty, and he wrote a condolence letter back to the United ______, and he ______ about how hard the loss had been on his unit, about the fact that they had lost their bravest _______, a soldier who had saved their lives many a time. And he apologized for not being able to _____ them home. But then he talked up the silver lining that he took away from the loss. "At least," as he wrote, "when a robot dies, you don't have to _____ a letter to its mother."

Solution


  1. write
  2. explosive
  3. states
  4. bring
  5. death
  6. limbs
  7. packed
  8. talked
  9. exploded
  10. soldier

Original Text


Unfortunately, this particular call would not end well. By the time the soldier advanced close enough to see the telltale wires of the bomb, it exploded in a wave of flame. Now, depending how close you are and how much explosive has been packed into that bomb, it can cause death or injury. You have to be as far as 50 yards away to escape that. The blast is so strong it can even break your limbs, even if you're not hit. That soldier had been on top of the bomb.

And so when the rest of the team advanced they found little left. And that night the unit's commander did a sad duty, and he wrote a condolence letter back to the United States, and he talked about how hard the loss had been on his unit, about the fact that they had lost their bravest soldier, a soldier who had saved their lives many a time. And he apologized for not being able to bring them home. But then he talked up the silver lining that he took away from the loss. "At least," as he wrote, "when a robot dies, you don't have to write a letter to its mother."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
science fiction 3
american soldiers 2
iraqi insurgents 2
drone pilots 2
ripple effects 2
video clips 2
basketball game 2
predator drone 2
real world 2


Important Words


  1. advanced
  2. apologized
  3. blast
  4. bomb
  5. bravest
  6. break
  7. bring
  8. call
  9. close
  10. commander
  11. condolence
  12. death
  13. depending
  14. dies
  15. duty
  16. escape
  17. exploded
  18. explosive
  19. fact
  20. flame
  21. hard
  22. hit
  23. home
  24. injury
  25. left
  26. letter
  27. limbs
  28. lining
  29. lives
  30. loss
  31. lost
  32. mother
  33. night
  34. packed
  35. rest
  36. robot
  37. sad
  38. saved
  39. silver
  40. soldier
  41. states
  42. strong
  43. talked
  44. team
  45. telltale
  46. time
  47. top
  48. unit
  49. united
  50. wave
  51. wires
  52. write
  53. wrote
  54. yards