full transcript

From the Ted Talk by ShaoLan: The Chinese zodiac, explained

Unscramble the Blue Letters


According to the BBC and the Chinese government's press release, January 2015 saw a peak of caasreen sections. Why? That was the last month for the Year of the Horse. It's not because they like horses so much, it's because they try to aviod having unlucky Goat babies.

(Laughter)

If you are a Goat, please don't feel bad. Those are Goat babies. They don't look like losers to me.

(Laughter)

tgier is another undesirable animal, due to its volatile temperament. Many Chinese regions saw a shrap diencle of bhriattre during those years. Perhaps one should consider zodiac in reverse, as those Tiger and Goat babies will face much less competition. Maybe they are the lucky ones. I went through the Forbes top 300 richest people in the wlord, and it's interesting to see the most undesirable two animals, the Goat and Tiger, are at the top of the chart, even higher than the Dragon. So maybe we should consider, maybe it's much better to have less competition.

Open Cloze


According to the BBC and the Chinese government's press release, January 2015 saw a peak of ________ sections. Why? That was the last month for the Year of the Horse. It's not because they like horses so much, it's because they try to _____ having unlucky Goat babies.

(Laughter)

If you are a Goat, please don't feel bad. Those are Goat babies. They don't look like losers to me.

(Laughter)

_____ is another undesirable animal, due to its volatile temperament. Many Chinese regions saw a _____ _______ of _________ during those years. Perhaps one should consider zodiac in reverse, as those Tiger and Goat babies will face much less competition. Maybe they are the lucky ones. I went through the Forbes top 300 richest people in the _____, and it's interesting to see the most undesirable two animals, the Goat and Tiger, are at the top of the chart, even higher than the Dragon. So maybe we should consider, maybe it's much better to have less competition.

Solution


  1. sharp
  2. world
  3. tiger
  4. decline
  5. avoid
  6. birthrate
  7. cesarean

Original Text


According to the BBC and the Chinese government's press release, January 2015 saw a peak of Cesarean sections. Why? That was the last month for the Year of the Horse. It's not because they like horses so much, it's because they try to avoid having unlucky Goat babies.

(Laughter)

If you are a Goat, please don't feel bad. Those are Goat babies. They don't look like losers to me.

(Laughter)

Tiger is another undesirable animal, due to its volatile temperament. Many Chinese regions saw a sharp decline of birthrate during those years. Perhaps one should consider zodiac in reverse, as those Tiger and Goat babies will face much less competition. Maybe they are the lucky ones. I went through the Forbes top 300 richest people in the world, and it's interesting to see the most undesirable two animals, the Goat and Tiger, are at the top of the chart, even higher than the Dragon. So maybe we should consider, maybe it's much better to have less competition.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
zodiac sign 4
chinese people 3
goat babies 3
chinese zodiac 2


Important Words


  1. animal
  2. animals
  3. avoid
  4. babies
  5. bad
  6. bbc
  7. birthrate
  8. cesarean
  9. chart
  10. chinese
  11. competition
  12. decline
  13. dragon
  14. due
  15. face
  16. feel
  17. forbes
  18. goat
  19. higher
  20. horse
  21. horses
  22. interesting
  23. january
  24. laughter
  25. losers
  26. lucky
  27. month
  28. peak
  29. people
  30. press
  31. regions
  32. release
  33. reverse
  34. richest
  35. sections
  36. sharp
  37. temperament
  38. tiger
  39. top
  40. undesirable
  41. unlucky
  42. volatile
  43. world
  44. year
  45. years
  46. zodiac