full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Diana Nyad: Never, ever give up

Unscramble the Blue Letters


And we've been on a journey. And the debate has raged, hasn't it, since the Greeks, of isn't it what it's all about? Isn't life about the jueorny, not really the destination? And here we've been on this journey, and the truth is, it's been thrilling. We haven't reached that other shore, and still, our sesne of pride and commitment, unwavering cmmtienomt. When I turned 60, the dream was still alive from having tried this in my 20s — dreamed it and imagined it. The most famous body of water on the Earth today, I imagine, Cuba to Florida. And it was deep. It was deep in my soul.

When I turned 60, it wasn't so much about the athletic accomplishment, it wasn't the ego of "I want to be the first." That's always there and it's undeniable. But it was deeper. It was "how much life is there left?" Let's face it — we're all on a one-way sretet, aren't we? And what are we going to do? What are we going to do as we go forward, to have no rregtes looking back? And all this past year in training, I had that Teddy roeoelvst quote to paraphrase it, floating around in my brain. It says, "You go ahead. You go ahead and sit back in your comfortable chair and you be the critic, you be the observer, while the brave one gets in the ring and engages and gets bloody and gets drtiy and fails over and over and over again, but yet isn't arfaid and isn't tmiid and lievs life in a bold way."

Open Cloze


And we've been on a journey. And the debate has raged, hasn't it, since the Greeks, of isn't it what it's all about? Isn't life about the _______, not really the destination? And here we've been on this journey, and the truth is, it's been thrilling. We haven't reached that other shore, and still, our _____ of pride and commitment, unwavering __________. When I turned 60, the dream was still alive from having tried this in my 20s — dreamed it and imagined it. The most famous body of water on the Earth today, I imagine, Cuba to Florida. And it was deep. It was deep in my soul.

When I turned 60, it wasn't so much about the athletic accomplishment, it wasn't the ego of "I want to be the first." That's always there and it's undeniable. But it was deeper. It was "how much life is there left?" Let's face it — we're all on a one-way ______, aren't we? And what are we going to do? What are we going to do as we go forward, to have no _______ looking back? And all this past year in training, I had that Teddy _________ quote to paraphrase it, floating around in my brain. It says, "You go ahead. You go ahead and sit back in your comfortable chair and you be the critic, you be the observer, while the brave one gets in the ring and engages and gets bloody and gets _____ and fails over and over and over again, but yet isn't ______ and isn't _____ and _____ life in a bold way."

Solution


  1. lives
  2. roosevelt
  3. commitment
  4. dirty
  5. journey
  6. timid
  7. street
  8. regrets
  9. afraid
  10. sense

Original Text


And we've been on a journey. And the debate has raged, hasn't it, since the Greeks, of isn't it what it's all about? Isn't life about the journey, not really the destination? And here we've been on this journey, and the truth is, it's been thrilling. We haven't reached that other shore, and still, our sense of pride and commitment, unwavering commitment. When I turned 60, the dream was still alive from having tried this in my 20s — dreamed it and imagined it. The most famous body of water on the Earth today, I imagine, Cuba to Florida. And it was deep. It was deep in my soul.

When I turned 60, it wasn't so much about the athletic accomplishment, it wasn't the ego of "I want to be the first." That's always there and it's undeniable. But it was deeper. It was "how much life is there left?" Let's face it — we're all on a one-way street, aren't we? And what are we going to do? What are we going to do as we go forward, to have no regrets looking back? And all this past year in training, I had that Teddy Roosevelt quote to paraphrase it, floating around in my brain. It says, "You go ahead. You go ahead and sit back in your comfortable chair and you be the critic, you be the observer, while the brave one gets in the ring and engages and gets bloody and gets dirty and fails over and over and over again, but yet isn't afraid and isn't timid and lives life in a bold way."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
lights attract 3
gulf stream 2
taj mahal 2
training swims 2
epic journey 2


Important Words


  1. accomplishment
  2. afraid
  3. alive
  4. athletic
  5. bloody
  6. body
  7. bold
  8. brain
  9. brave
  10. chair
  11. comfortable
  12. commitment
  13. critic
  14. cuba
  15. debate
  16. deep
  17. deeper
  18. destination
  19. dirty
  20. dream
  21. dreamed
  22. earth
  23. ego
  24. engages
  25. face
  26. fails
  27. famous
  28. floating
  29. florida
  30. greeks
  31. imagine
  32. imagined
  33. journey
  34. left
  35. life
  36. lives
  37. observer
  38. paraphrase
  39. pride
  40. quote
  41. raged
  42. reached
  43. regrets
  44. ring
  45. roosevelt
  46. sense
  47. shore
  48. sit
  49. soul
  50. street
  51. teddy
  52. thrilling
  53. timid
  54. today
  55. training
  56. truth
  57. turned
  58. undeniable
  59. unwavering
  60. water
  61. year