full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ray Zahab: My trek to the South Pole

Unscramble the Blue Letters


A month ago today I stood there: 90 degrees south, the top of the bottom of the world, the gregopaihc South Pole. And I stood there beside two very good friends of mine, Richard Weber and Kevin Vallely. Together we had just broken the world speed rrecod for a trek to the South Pole. It took us 33 days, 23 hours and 55 minutes to get there. We shaved five days off the prvioues best time. And in the pcosres, I became the first person in history to make the erntie 650-mile journey, from Hercules Inlet to South Pole, solely on feet, without skis.

Now, many of you are probably saying, "Wait a sec, is this tough to do?" (Laughter) Imagine, if you will, dragging a sled, as you just saw in that veido clip, with 170 pounds of gear, in it everything you need to srvviue on your Antarctic trek. It's going to be 40 below, every single day. You'll be in a massive headwind. And at some point you're going to have to cross these cracks in the ice, these crevasses. Some of them have a very pcriuaores thin ftoroibgde underneath them that could give way at a moment's nctioe, taking your sled, you, into the asbys, never to be seen again. The punchline to your journey? Look at the horizon. Yes, it's uphill the entire way, because the South Pole is at 10,000 feet, and you're srtanitg at sea leevl.

Open Cloze


A month ago today I stood there: 90 degrees south, the top of the bottom of the world, the __________ South Pole. And I stood there beside two very good friends of mine, Richard Weber and Kevin Vallely. Together we had just broken the world speed ______ for a trek to the South Pole. It took us 33 days, 23 hours and 55 minutes to get there. We shaved five days off the ________ best time. And in the _______, I became the first person in history to make the ______ 650-mile journey, from Hercules Inlet to South Pole, solely on feet, without skis.

Now, many of you are probably saying, "Wait a sec, is this tough to do?" (Laughter) Imagine, if you will, dragging a sled, as you just saw in that _____ clip, with 170 pounds of gear, in it everything you need to _______ on your Antarctic trek. It's going to be 40 below, every single day. You'll be in a massive headwind. And at some point you're going to have to cross these cracks in the ice, these crevasses. Some of them have a very __________ thin __________ underneath them that could give way at a moment's ______, taking your sled, you, into the _____, never to be seen again. The punchline to your journey? Look at the horizon. Yes, it's uphill the entire way, because the South Pole is at 10,000 feet, and you're ________ at sea _____.

Solution


  1. geographic
  2. precarious
  3. starting
  4. process
  5. entire
  6. survive
  7. record
  8. notice
  9. level
  10. footbridge
  11. video
  12. abyss
  13. previous

Original Text


A month ago today I stood there: 90 degrees south, the top of the bottom of the world, the Geographic South Pole. And I stood there beside two very good friends of mine, Richard Weber and Kevin Vallely. Together we had just broken the world speed record for a trek to the South Pole. It took us 33 days, 23 hours and 55 minutes to get there. We shaved five days off the previous best time. And in the process, I became the first person in history to make the entire 650-mile journey, from Hercules Inlet to South Pole, solely on feet, without skis.

Now, many of you are probably saying, "Wait a sec, is this tough to do?" (Laughter) Imagine, if you will, dragging a sled, as you just saw in that video clip, with 170 pounds of gear, in it everything you need to survive on your Antarctic trek. It's going to be 40 below, every single day. You'll be in a massive headwind. And at some point you're going to have to cross these cracks in the ice, these crevasses. Some of them have a very precarious thin footbridge underneath them that could give way at a moment's notice, taking your sled, you, into the abyss, never to be seen again. The punchline to your journey? Look at the horizon. Yes, it's uphill the entire way, because the South Pole is at 10,000 feet, and you're starting at sea level.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
south pole 6
young people 4
single day 2
northern africa 2


Important Words


  1. abyss
  2. antarctic
  3. bottom
  4. broken
  5. clip
  6. cracks
  7. crevasses
  8. cross
  9. day
  10. days
  11. degrees
  12. dragging
  13. entire
  14. feet
  15. footbridge
  16. friends
  17. gear
  18. geographic
  19. give
  20. good
  21. headwind
  22. hercules
  23. history
  24. horizon
  25. hours
  26. ice
  27. imagine
  28. inlet
  29. journey
  30. kevin
  31. laughter
  32. level
  33. massive
  34. minutes
  35. month
  36. notice
  37. person
  38. point
  39. pole
  40. pounds
  41. precarious
  42. previous
  43. process
  44. punchline
  45. record
  46. richard
  47. sea
  48. sec
  49. shaved
  50. single
  51. skis
  52. sled
  53. solely
  54. south
  55. speed
  56. starting
  57. stood
  58. survive
  59. thin
  60. time
  61. today
  62. top
  63. tough
  64. trek
  65. uphill
  66. vallely
  67. video
  68. weber
  69. world