full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Iseult Gillespie: The Japanese folktale of the selfish scholar

Unscramble the Blue Letters


The burial was complete, but the taboo of death weighed heavily on the scholar. How could he have been so foolish, to shirk his most important rule and corrupt his dniive jnueroy? After a tormented night, he resolved to go back to the shrine to clnasee himself.

To his surprise, the usually qieut temple was filled with people, all gathering around a medium who cmoieutmancd directly with the kami. The man hid himself, not daring approach in case anyone glimpse his polluted soul. But the medium had other ways of seeing, and called him forward from the crowd.

Ready to be forsaken, the scholar acoapphred the holy woman. But the medium merely smiled. She took his impure hand in hers, and whispered a blessing only he could hear— thanking him for his kindness. In that moment, the salochr dseirevocd a great spiritual secret: contamination and corruption are two very different things.

Open Cloze


The burial was complete, but the taboo of death weighed heavily on the scholar. How could he have been so foolish, to shirk his most important rule and corrupt his ______ _______? After a tormented night, he resolved to go back to the shrine to _______ himself.

To his surprise, the usually _____ temple was filled with people, all gathering around a medium who ____________ directly with the kami. The man hid himself, not daring approach in case anyone glimpse his polluted soul. But the medium had other ways of seeing, and called him forward from the crowd.

Ready to be forsaken, the scholar __________ the holy woman. But the medium merely smiled. She took his impure hand in hers, and whispered a blessing only he could hear— thanking him for his kindness. In that moment, the _______ __________ a great spiritual secret: contamination and corruption are two very different things.

Solution


  1. communicated
  2. journey
  3. quiet
  4. discovered
  5. divine
  6. scholar
  7. approached
  8. cleanse

Original Text


The burial was complete, but the taboo of death weighed heavily on the scholar. How could he have been so foolish, to shirk his most important rule and corrupt his divine journey? After a tormented night, he resolved to go back to the shrine to cleanse himself.

To his surprise, the usually quiet temple was filled with people, all gathering around a medium who communicated directly with the kami. The man hid himself, not daring approach in case anyone glimpse his polluted soul. But the medium had other ways of seeing, and called him forward from the crowd.

Ready to be forsaken, the scholar approached the holy woman. But the medium merely smiled. She took his impure hand in hers, and whispered a blessing only he could hear— thanking him for his kindness. In that moment, the scholar discovered a great spiritual secret: contamination and corruption are two very different things.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
spirit world 2


Important Words


  1. approach
  2. approached
  3. blessing
  4. burial
  5. called
  6. case
  7. cleanse
  8. communicated
  9. complete
  10. contamination
  11. corrupt
  12. corruption
  13. crowd
  14. daring
  15. death
  16. discovered
  17. divine
  18. filled
  19. foolish
  20. forsaken
  21. gathering
  22. glimpse
  23. great
  24. hand
  25. heavily
  26. hid
  27. holy
  28. important
  29. impure
  30. journey
  31. kami
  32. kindness
  33. man
  34. medium
  35. moment
  36. night
  37. people
  38. polluted
  39. quiet
  40. ready
  41. resolved
  42. rule
  43. scholar
  44. shirk
  45. shrine
  46. smiled
  47. soul
  48. spiritual
  49. surprise
  50. taboo
  51. temple
  52. thanking
  53. tormented
  54. ways
  55. weighed
  56. whispered
  57. woman