full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Robert Gupta: Music is medicine, music is sanity

Unscramble the Blue Letters


One day, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez was wkanlig along the sttrees of downtown Los Angeles when he heard beautiful music. And the source was a man, an African-American man, charming, rugged, homeless, playing a viilon that only had two strings.

And I'm telling a story that many of you know, because Steve's columns became the basis for a book, which was tuenrd into a movie, with Robert Downey Jr. acting as Steve Lopez, and Jamie Foxx as natinaehl Anthony Ayers, the Juilliard-trained double bassist whose promising career was cut short by a tragic affliction with paranoid sozhhrenpiica. Nathaniel dropped out of Juilliard, he suffered a complete bkoaredwn, and 30 years later he was living homeless on the streets of Skid Row in dnowowtn Los aelegns. I encourage all of you to read Steve's book or to wacth the movie to understand not only the beautiful bond that formed between these two men, but how music helped sphae that bond, and ualtleitmy was instrumental — if you'll pardon the pun — in helping Nathaniel get off the streets.

Open Cloze


One day, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez was _______ along the _______ of downtown Los Angeles when he heard beautiful music. And the source was a man, an African-American man, charming, rugged, homeless, playing a ______ that only had two strings.

And I'm telling a story that many of you know, because Steve's columns became the basis for a book, which was ______ into a movie, with Robert Downey Jr. acting as Steve Lopez, and Jamie Foxx as _________ Anthony Ayers, the Juilliard-trained double bassist whose promising career was cut short by a tragic affliction with paranoid _____________. Nathaniel dropped out of Juilliard, he suffered a complete _________, and 30 years later he was living homeless on the streets of Skid Row in ________ Los _______. I encourage all of you to read Steve's book or to _____ the movie to understand not only the beautiful bond that formed between these two men, but how music helped _____ that bond, and __________ was instrumental — if you'll pardon the pun — in helping Nathaniel get off the streets.

Solution


  1. streets
  2. violin
  3. ultimately
  4. nathaniel
  5. watch
  6. turned
  7. walking
  8. breakdown
  9. downtown
  10. shape
  11. schizophrenia
  12. angeles

Original Text


One day, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez was walking along the streets of downtown Los Angeles when he heard beautiful music. And the source was a man, an African-American man, charming, rugged, homeless, playing a violin that only had two strings.

And I'm telling a story that many of you know, because Steve's columns became the basis for a book, which was turned into a movie, with Robert Downey Jr. acting as Steve Lopez, and Jamie Foxx as Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, the Juilliard-trained double bassist whose promising career was cut short by a tragic affliction with paranoid schizophrenia. Nathaniel dropped out of Juilliard, he suffered a complete breakdown, and 30 years later he was living homeless on the streets of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. I encourage all of you to read Steve's book or to watch the movie to understand not only the beautiful bond that formed between these two men, but how music helped shape that bond, and ultimately was instrumental — if you'll pardon the pun — in helping Nathaniel get off the streets.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
los angeles 5
downtown los 3
walt disney 3
disney concert 3
concert hall 3
started talking 2
music brought 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
downtown los angeles 3
walt disney concert 3
disney concert hall 3

Important Words


  1. acting
  2. affliction
  3. angeles
  4. anthony
  5. ayers
  6. basis
  7. bassist
  8. beautiful
  9. bond
  10. book
  11. breakdown
  12. career
  13. charming
  14. columnist
  15. columns
  16. complete
  17. cut
  18. day
  19. double
  20. downey
  21. downtown
  22. dropped
  23. encourage
  24. formed
  25. foxx
  26. heard
  27. helped
  28. helping
  29. homeless
  30. instrumental
  31. jamie
  32. jr
  33. juilliard
  34. living
  35. lopez
  36. los
  37. man
  38. men
  39. movie
  40. music
  41. nathaniel
  42. paranoid
  43. pardon
  44. playing
  45. promising
  46. pun
  47. read
  48. robert
  49. row
  50. rugged
  51. schizophrenia
  52. shape
  53. short
  54. skid
  55. source
  56. steve
  57. story
  58. streets
  59. strings
  60. suffered
  61. telling
  62. times
  63. tragic
  64. turned
  65. ultimately
  66. understand
  67. violin
  68. walking
  69. watch
  70. years