full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Pico Iyer: The art of stillness
Unscramble the Blue Letters
And so when I was 29, I decided to remake my entire life in the light of going nowhere. One evening I was coming back from the office, it was after midnight, I was in a taxi driving through tmeis Square, and I suddenly realized that I was racing around so much I could never ctach up with my life. And my life then, as it happened, was pretty much the one I might have dreamed of as a little boy. I had really interesting friends and colleagues, I had a nice apartment on Park auevne and 20th Street. I had, to me, a fascinating job writing about world aifrafs, but I could never separate myself enough from them to hear myself think — or really, to understand if I was truly hppay. And so, I abandoned my dream life for a signle room on the backstreets of Kyoto, Japan, which was the place that had long exerted a strong, really mysterious gaoviitaarntl pull on me. Even as a child I would just look at a painting of Kyoto and feel I recognized it; I knew it before I ever laid eyes on it. But it's also, as you all know, a bftuaiuel city encircled by hills, fllied with more than 2,000 temples and shrines, where peploe have been snittig still for 800 years or more. And quite soon after I moved there, I ended up where I still am with my wife, formerly our kids, in a two-room apartment in the middle of nowhere where we have no bicycle, no car, no TV I can understand, and I still have to support my loved ones as a travel writer and a journalist, so clearly this is not ideal for job aeemdncavnt or for cultural emetecixnt or for social diversion. But I realized that it gives me what I prize most, which is days and huors. I have never once had to use a cell phone there. I almost never have to look at the time, and every moinrng when I wake up, really the day stcteehrs in front of me like an open meadow. And when life throws up one of its nasty surprises, as it will, more than once, when a doctor comes into my room wearing a grave expression, or a car sdduelny veers in front of mine on the freeway, I know, in my bones, that it's the time I've spent going nowhere that is going to sstauin me much more than all the time I've spent racing around to Bhutan or Easter ilsand.
Open Cloze
And so when I was 29, I decided to remake my entire life in the light of going nowhere. One evening I was coming back from the office, it was after midnight, I was in a taxi driving through _____ Square, and I suddenly realized that I was racing around so much I could never _____ up with my life. And my life then, as it happened, was pretty much the one I might have dreamed of as a little boy. I had really interesting friends and colleagues, I had a nice apartment on Park ______ and 20th Street. I had, to me, a fascinating job writing about world _______, but I could never separate myself enough from them to hear myself think — or really, to understand if I was truly _____. And so, I abandoned my dream life for a ______ room on the backstreets of Kyoto, Japan, which was the place that had long exerted a strong, really mysterious _____________ pull on me. Even as a child I would just look at a painting of Kyoto and feel I recognized it; I knew it before I ever laid eyes on it. But it's also, as you all know, a _________ city encircled by hills, ______ with more than 2,000 temples and shrines, where ______ have been _______ still for 800 years or more. And quite soon after I moved there, I ended up where I still am with my wife, formerly our kids, in a two-room apartment in the middle of nowhere where we have no bicycle, no car, no TV I can understand, and I still have to support my loved ones as a travel writer and a journalist, so clearly this is not ideal for job ___________ or for cultural __________ or for social diversion. But I realized that it gives me what I prize most, which is days and _____. I have never once had to use a cell phone there. I almost never have to look at the time, and every _______ when I wake up, really the day _________ in front of me like an open meadow. And when life throws up one of its nasty surprises, as it will, more than once, when a doctor comes into my room wearing a grave expression, or a car ________ veers in front of mine on the freeway, I know, in my bones, that it's the time I've spent going nowhere that is going to _______ me much more than all the time I've spent racing around to Bhutan or Easter ______.
Solution
- catch
- people
- advancement
- sustain
- gravitational
- filled
- single
- island
- excitement
- affairs
- stretches
- suddenly
- beautiful
- hours
- times
- sitting
- morning
- happy
- avenue
Original Text
And so when I was 29, I decided to remake my entire life in the light of going nowhere. One evening I was coming back from the office, it was after midnight, I was in a taxi driving through Times Square, and I suddenly realized that I was racing around so much I could never catch up with my life. And my life then, as it happened, was pretty much the one I might have dreamed of as a little boy. I had really interesting friends and colleagues, I had a nice apartment on Park Avenue and 20th Street. I had, to me, a fascinating job writing about world affairs, but I could never separate myself enough from them to hear myself think — or really, to understand if I was truly happy. And so, I abandoned my dream life for a single room on the backstreets of Kyoto, Japan, which was the place that had long exerted a strong, really mysterious gravitational pull on me. Even as a child I would just look at a painting of Kyoto and feel I recognized it; I knew it before I ever laid eyes on it. But it's also, as you all know, a beautiful city encircled by hills, filled with more than 2,000 temples and shrines, where people have been sitting still for 800 years or more. And quite soon after I moved there, I ended up where I still am with my wife, formerly our kids, in a two-room apartment in the middle of nowhere where we have no bicycle, no car, no TV I can understand, and I still have to support my loved ones as a travel writer and a journalist, so clearly this is not ideal for job advancement or for cultural excitement or for social diversion. But I realized that it gives me what I prize most, which is days and hours. I have never once had to use a cell phone there. I almost never have to look at the time, and every morning when I wake up, really the day stretches in front of me like an open meadow. And when life throws up one of its nasty surprises, as it will, more than once, when a doctor comes into my room wearing a grave expression, or a car suddenly veers in front of mine on the freeway, I know, in my bones, that it's the time I've spent going nowhere that is going to sustain me much more than all the time I've spent racing around to Bhutan or Easter Island.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| travel writer |
2 |
| empty space |
2 |
| cell phone |
2 |
Important Words
- abandoned
- advancement
- affairs
- apartment
- avenue
- backstreets
- beautiful
- bhutan
- bicycle
- bones
- boy
- car
- catch
- cell
- child
- city
- colleagues
- coming
- cultural
- day
- days
- decided
- diversion
- doctor
- dream
- dreamed
- driving
- easter
- encircled
- ended
- entire
- evening
- excitement
- exerted
- expression
- eyes
- fascinating
- feel
- filled
- freeway
- friends
- front
- grave
- gravitational
- happened
- happy
- hear
- hills
- hours
- ideal
- interesting
- island
- japan
- job
- journalist
- kids
- knew
- kyoto
- laid
- life
- light
- long
- loved
- meadow
- middle
- midnight
- morning
- moved
- mysterious
- nasty
- nice
- office
- open
- painting
- park
- people
- phone
- place
- pretty
- prize
- pull
- racing
- realized
- recognized
- remake
- room
- separate
- shrines
- single
- sitting
- social
- spent
- square
- street
- stretches
- strong
- suddenly
- support
- surprises
- sustain
- taxi
- temples
- throws
- time
- times
- travel
- tv
- understand
- veers
- wake
- wearing
- wife
- world
- writer
- writing
- years