full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Judith Heumann: Our fight for disability rights -- and why we're not done yet

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So I'd like to tell you a couple of riddles. How many people do you think it takes to stop traffic on msaidon Avenue during rush hour in New York City? Do you have a guess? How many?

(ainecude members shout out answers)

Fifty. One would be too little. Fifty people. And there were no accessible paddy wagons, so they had to just kind of deal with us.

(Laughter)

(appausle)

But let me tell you another riddle. How many people does it take to stop a bus in New York City when they rfuese to let you on because you're in a whleehiacr? One. That is the right awesnr. So what you have to do though is take your wheelchair —

Open Cloze


So I'd like to tell you a couple of riddles. How many people do you think it takes to stop traffic on _______ Avenue during rush hour in New York City? Do you have a guess? How many?

(________ members shout out answers)

Fifty. One would be too little. Fifty people. And there were no accessible paddy wagons, so they had to just kind of deal with us.

(Laughter)

(________)

But let me tell you another riddle. How many people does it take to stop a bus in New York City when they ______ to let you on because you're in a __________? One. That is the right ______. So what you have to do though is take your wheelchair —

Solution


  1. audience
  2. refuse
  3. answer
  4. madison
  5. wheelchair
  6. applause

Original Text


So I'd like to tell you a couple of riddles. How many people do you think it takes to stop traffic on Madison Avenue during rush hour in New York City? Do you have a guess? How many?

(Audience members shout out answers)

Fifty. One would be too little. Fifty people. And there were no accessible paddy wagons, so they had to just kind of deal with us.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

But let me tell you another riddle. How many people does it take to stop a bus in New York City when they refuse to let you on because you're in a wheelchair? One. That is the right answer. So what you have to do though is take your wheelchair —

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
disabled people 9
rights movement 3
understood discrimination 2
parents lost 2
high schools 2
long island 2
oral exam 2
medical exam 2
civil rights 2
ted talk 2
president bush 2
bush signed 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
president bush signed 2

Important Words


  1. accessible
  2. answer
  3. answers
  4. applause
  5. audience
  6. avenue
  7. bus
  8. city
  9. couple
  10. deal
  11. fifty
  12. guess
  13. hour
  14. kind
  15. laughter
  16. madison
  17. members
  18. paddy
  19. people
  20. refuse
  21. riddle
  22. riddles
  23. rush
  24. shout
  25. stop
  26. takes
  27. traffic
  28. wagons
  29. wheelchair
  30. york