full transcript

From the Ted Talk by David Hoffman: Sputnik mania

Unscramble the Blue Letters


You're watching snippets from "Sputnik," my fifth documentary feature, which is just about completed. It tlles the story of Sputnik, and the story of what happened to America as a result. For days after the launch, Sputnik was a wonderful curiosity. A man-made moon visible by ordinary cneiizts, it inspired awe and pdrie that humans had finally lnaceuhd an object into space.

But just three days later, on a day they called Red Monday, the media and the politicians told us, and we believed, that snutpik was proof that our enemy had beaten us in science and technology, and that they could now attack us with hydrogen bmobs, using their Sputnik rckoet as an IBM msilsie.

Open Cloze


You're watching snippets from "Sputnik," my fifth documentary feature, which is just about completed. It _____ the story of Sputnik, and the story of what happened to America as a result. For days after the launch, Sputnik was a wonderful curiosity. A man-made moon visible by ordinary ________, it inspired awe and _____ that humans had finally ________ an object into space.

But just three days later, on a day they called Red Monday, the media and the politicians told us, and we believed, that _______ was proof that our enemy had beaten us in science and technology, and that they could now attack us with hydrogen _____, using their Sputnik ______ as an IBM _______.

Solution


  1. bombs
  2. tells
  3. rocket
  4. citizens
  5. missile
  6. sputnik
  7. pride
  8. launched

Original Text


You're watching snippets from "Sputnik," my fifth documentary feature, which is just about completed. It tells the story of Sputnik, and the story of what happened to America as a result. For days after the launch, Sputnik was a wonderful curiosity. A man-made moon visible by ordinary citizens, it inspired awe and pride that humans had finally launched an object into space.

But just three days later, on a day they called Red Monday, the media and the politicians told us, and we believed, that Sputnik was proof that our enemy had beaten us in science and technology, and that they could now attack us with hydrogen bombs, using their Sputnik rocket as an IBM missile.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
good fortune 2


Important Words


  1. america
  2. attack
  3. awe
  4. beaten
  5. believed
  6. bombs
  7. called
  8. citizens
  9. completed
  10. curiosity
  11. day
  12. days
  13. documentary
  14. enemy
  15. feature
  16. finally
  17. happened
  18. humans
  19. hydrogen
  20. ibm
  21. inspired
  22. launch
  23. launched
  24. media
  25. missile
  26. monday
  27. moon
  28. object
  29. ordinary
  30. politicians
  31. pride
  32. proof
  33. red
  34. result
  35. rocket
  36. science
  37. snippets
  38. space
  39. sputnik
  40. story
  41. technology
  42. tells
  43. told
  44. visible
  45. watching
  46. wonderful