full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Charity Tillemann-Dick: Singing after a double lung transplant

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I cenealcd most of my egtenemagns that summer, but I had one left in Tel Aviv, so I went. After one performance, I could barely drag myself from the stage to the taxicab. I sat down and felt the boold rush down from my face, and in the heat of the drseet, I was freezing cold. My fingers started turning blue, and I was like, "What is going on here?" I heard my heart's valves spinanpg open and closed. The cab stopped, and I pulled my body from it feeling each ounce of weight as I walked to the eatelvor. I fell through my apartment door and crawled to the bathroom where I found my problem: I had forgotten to mix in the most important part of my medicine. I was diyng, and if I didn't mix that stuff up fast, I would never leave that apartment alive. I satretd miinxg, and I felt like everything was going to fall out through one hole or another, but I just kept on going. Finally, with the last bottle in and the last bubble out, I attached the pump to the tubing and lay there hniopg it would kick in soon enough. If it didn't, I'd probably see my father senoor than I anticipated. Thankfully, in a few minutes, I saw the signature hive-like rash appear on my legs, which is a side efefct of the medication, and I knew I'd be okay.

Open Cloze


I ________ most of my ___________ that summer, but I had one left in Tel Aviv, so I went. After one performance, I could barely drag myself from the stage to the taxicab. I sat down and felt the _____ rush down from my face, and in the heat of the ______, I was freezing cold. My fingers started turning blue, and I was like, "What is going on here?" I heard my heart's valves ________ open and closed. The cab stopped, and I pulled my body from it feeling each ounce of weight as I walked to the ________. I fell through my apartment door and crawled to the bathroom where I found my problem: I had forgotten to mix in the most important part of my medicine. I was _____, and if I didn't mix that stuff up fast, I would never leave that apartment alive. I _______ ______, and I felt like everything was going to fall out through one hole or another, but I just kept on going. Finally, with the last bottle in and the last bubble out, I attached the pump to the tubing and lay there ______ it would kick in soon enough. If it didn't, I'd probably see my father ______ than I anticipated. Thankfully, in a few minutes, I saw the signature hive-like rash appear on my legs, which is a side ______ of the medication, and I knew I'd be okay.

Solution


  1. mixing
  2. engagements
  3. dying
  4. started
  5. elevator
  6. snapping
  7. desert
  8. effect
  9. blood
  10. hoping
  11. sooner
  12. canceled

Original Text


I canceled most of my engagements that summer, but I had one left in Tel Aviv, so I went. After one performance, I could barely drag myself from the stage to the taxicab. I sat down and felt the blood rush down from my face, and in the heat of the desert, I was freezing cold. My fingers started turning blue, and I was like, "What is going on here?" I heard my heart's valves snapping open and closed. The cab stopped, and I pulled my body from it feeling each ounce of weight as I walked to the elevator. I fell through my apartment door and crawled to the bathroom where I found my problem: I had forgotten to mix in the most important part of my medicine. I was dying, and if I didn't mix that stuff up fast, I would never leave that apartment alive. I started mixing, and I felt like everything was going to fall out through one hole or another, but I just kept on going. Finally, with the last bottle in and the last bubble out, I attached the pump to the tubing and lay there hoping it would kick in soon enough. If it didn't, I'd probably see my father sooner than I anticipated. Thankfully, in a few minutes, I saw the signature hive-like rash appear on my legs, which is a side effect of the medication, and I knew I'd be okay.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
lung transplant 2
pulmonary hypertension 2
johns hopkins 2


Important Words


  1. alive
  2. anticipated
  3. apartment
  4. attached
  5. aviv
  6. barely
  7. bathroom
  8. blood
  9. blue
  10. body
  11. bottle
  12. bubble
  13. cab
  14. canceled
  15. closed
  16. cold
  17. crawled
  18. desert
  19. door
  20. drag
  21. dying
  22. effect
  23. elevator
  24. engagements
  25. face
  26. fall
  27. fast
  28. father
  29. feeling
  30. fell
  31. felt
  32. finally
  33. fingers
  34. forgotten
  35. freezing
  36. heard
  37. heat
  38. hole
  39. hoping
  40. important
  41. kick
  42. knew
  43. lay
  44. leave
  45. left
  46. legs
  47. medication
  48. medicine
  49. minutes
  50. mix
  51. mixing
  52. open
  53. ounce
  54. part
  55. performance
  56. pulled
  57. pump
  58. rash
  59. rush
  60. sat
  61. side
  62. signature
  63. snapping
  64. sooner
  65. stage
  66. started
  67. stopped
  68. stuff
  69. summer
  70. taxicab
  71. tel
  72. thankfully
  73. tubing
  74. turning
  75. valves
  76. walked
  77. weight