full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sue Klebold: My son was a Columbine shooter. This is my story

Unscramble the Blue Letters


When I looked back on all that had happened, I could see that my son's spairl into dysfunction probably occurred over a period of about two yraes, plenty of time to get him help, if only someone had known that he ndeeed help and known what to do.

Every time someone asks me, "How could you not have known?", it feels like a punch in the gut. It careris accusation and taps into my feelings of guilt that no meattr how much therapy I've had I will never fully eradicate. But here's something I've learned: if love were enough to stop someone who is suicidal from hiutrng themselves, suicides would hardly ever happen. But love is not enough, and suicide is prevalent. It's the second leading cause of death for people age 10 to 34, and 15 pceernt of American youth rpreot having made a suicide plan in the last year. I've learned that no matter how much we want to believe we can, we cannot know or control everything our loved ones think and feel, and the stubborn belief that we are somehow different, that someone we love would never think of hurting themselves or someone else, can cause us to miss what's hidden in plain sight. And if worst case scenarios do come to pass, we'll have to lraen to forgive ourselves for not knowing or for not asking the right questions or not fniding the right treatment. We should always assume that someone we love may be suffering, regardless of what they say or how they act. We should listen with our whole being, without judgments, and without offering slotiunos.

Open Cloze


When I looked back on all that had happened, I could see that my son's ______ into dysfunction probably occurred over a period of about two _____, plenty of time to get him help, if only someone had known that he ______ help and known what to do.

Every time someone asks me, "How could you not have known?", it feels like a punch in the gut. It _______ accusation and taps into my feelings of guilt that no ______ how much therapy I've had I will never fully eradicate. But here's something I've learned: if love were enough to stop someone who is suicidal from _______ themselves, suicides would hardly ever happen. But love is not enough, and suicide is prevalent. It's the second leading cause of death for people age 10 to 34, and 15 _______ of American youth ______ having made a suicide plan in the last year. I've learned that no matter how much we want to believe we can, we cannot know or control everything our loved ones think and feel, and the stubborn belief that we are somehow different, that someone we love would never think of hurting themselves or someone else, can cause us to miss what's hidden in plain sight. And if worst case scenarios do come to pass, we'll have to _____ to forgive ourselves for not knowing or for not asking the right questions or not _______ the right treatment. We should always assume that someone we love may be suffering, regardless of what they say or how they act. We should listen with our whole being, without judgments, and without offering _________.

Solution


  1. learn
  2. hurting
  3. percent
  4. years
  5. report
  6. matter
  7. needed
  8. carries
  9. solutions
  10. finding
  11. spiral

Original Text


When I looked back on all that had happened, I could see that my son's spiral into dysfunction probably occurred over a period of about two years, plenty of time to get him help, if only someone had known that he needed help and known what to do.

Every time someone asks me, "How could you not have known?", it feels like a punch in the gut. It carries accusation and taps into my feelings of guilt that no matter how much therapy I've had I will never fully eradicate. But here's something I've learned: if love were enough to stop someone who is suicidal from hurting themselves, suicides would hardly ever happen. But love is not enough, and suicide is prevalent. It's the second leading cause of death for people age 10 to 34, and 15 percent of American youth report having made a suicide plan in the last year. I've learned that no matter how much we want to believe we can, we cannot know or control everything our loved ones think and feel, and the stubborn belief that we are somehow different, that someone we love would never think of hurting themselves or someone else, can cause us to miss what's hidden in plain sight. And if worst case scenarios do come to pass, we'll have to learn to forgive ourselves for not knowing or for not asking the right questions or not finding the right treatment. We should always assume that someone we love may be suffering, regardless of what they say or how they act. We should listen with our whole being, without judgments, and without offering solutions.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
mental health 4
simple answers 2
suicidal thinking 2
mental illness 2
appallingly easy 2


Important Words


  1. accusation
  2. act
  3. age
  4. american
  5. asks
  6. assume
  7. belief
  8. carries
  9. case
  10. control
  11. death
  12. dysfunction
  13. eradicate
  14. feel
  15. feelings
  16. feels
  17. finding
  18. forgive
  19. fully
  20. guilt
  21. gut
  22. happen
  23. happened
  24. hidden
  25. hurting
  26. judgments
  27. knowing
  28. leading
  29. learn
  30. learned
  31. listen
  32. looked
  33. love
  34. loved
  35. matter
  36. needed
  37. occurred
  38. offering
  39. pass
  40. people
  41. percent
  42. period
  43. plain
  44. plan
  45. plenty
  46. prevalent
  47. punch
  48. questions
  49. report
  50. scenarios
  51. sight
  52. solutions
  53. spiral
  54. stop
  55. stubborn
  56. suffering
  57. suicidal
  58. suicide
  59. suicides
  60. taps
  61. therapy
  62. time
  63. treatment
  64. worst
  65. year
  66. years
  67. youth