full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Rutger Bregman: Poverty isn't a lack of character; it's a lack of cash

Unscramble the Blue Letters


It all started when I accidentally stumbled upon a pepar by a few American psychologists. They had traveled 8,000 miles, all the way to inida, for a fascinating sutdy. And it was an exrmpeient with sugarcane farmers. You should know that these farmers collect about 60 percent of their annaul income all at once, right after the harvest. This means that they're relatively poor one part of the year and rich the other. The researchers asked them to do an IQ test before and after the harvest. What they subsequently dcersoievd completely blew my mind. The farmers scored much wrose on the test before the harvest. The effects of living in poverty, it turns out, correspond to losing 14 points of IQ. Now, to give you an idea, that's caboamrple to losing a night's sleep or the effects of alcoholism.

Open Cloze


It all started when I accidentally stumbled upon a _____ by a few American psychologists. They had traveled 8,000 miles, all the way to _____, for a fascinating _____. And it was an __________ with sugarcane farmers. You should know that these farmers collect about 60 percent of their ______ income all at once, right after the harvest. This means that they're relatively poor one part of the year and rich the other. The researchers asked them to do an IQ test before and after the harvest. What they subsequently __________ completely blew my mind. The farmers scored much _____ on the test before the harvest. The effects of living in poverty, it turns out, correspond to losing 14 points of IQ. Now, to give you an idea, that's __________ to losing a night's sleep or the effects of alcoholism.

Solution


  1. india
  2. annual
  3. study
  4. discovered
  5. worse
  6. paper
  7. experiment
  8. comparable

Original Text


It all started when I accidentally stumbled upon a paper by a few American psychologists. They had traveled 8,000 miles, all the way to India, for a fascinating study. And it was an experiment with sugarcane farmers. You should know that these farmers collect about 60 percent of their annual income all at once, right after the harvest. This means that they're relatively poor one part of the year and rich the other. The researchers asked them to do an IQ test before and after the harvest. What they subsequently discovered completely blew my mind. The farmers scored much worse on the test before the harvest. The effects of living in poverty, it turns out, correspond to losing 14 points of IQ. Now, to give you an idea, that's comparable to losing a night's sleep or the effects of alcoholism.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
basic income 6
poverty line 3
dumb decisions 2
professor shafir 2
eradicate poverty 2
martin luther 2
true nature 2


Important Words


  1. accidentally
  2. alcoholism
  3. american
  4. annual
  5. asked
  6. blew
  7. collect
  8. comparable
  9. completely
  10. correspond
  11. discovered
  12. effects
  13. experiment
  14. farmers
  15. fascinating
  16. give
  17. harvest
  18. idea
  19. income
  20. india
  21. iq
  22. living
  23. losing
  24. means
  25. miles
  26. mind
  27. paper
  28. part
  29. percent
  30. points
  31. poor
  32. poverty
  33. psychologists
  34. researchers
  35. rich
  36. scored
  37. sleep
  38. started
  39. study
  40. stumbled
  41. subsequently
  42. sugarcane
  43. test
  44. traveled
  45. turns
  46. worse
  47. year