full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Carlos Bautista: The awful logic of land mines -- and an app that helps people avoid them

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I met Adriana Rodriguez about five years ago while I was working for the Colombian government as a dntaumreocy fkilmemar. During the conflict, she was forced to lavee her hosue ... with her kids in her arms. One day, one of her neighbors was killed while he stepped on a land mine. He was actually inside an abandoned house, not outside, a house exactly like the one adnaira was forced to leave. Ever since, she has been living with the fear that she, or her cirlehdn, might step on a land mine.

You know, the Colombian cnlifoct has been running for so long that neither me nor my mom have seen our country in peace, and for someone like me, who has been living detached from all this suffering, there was only two options: either I get used to it, or I can try to change it with all my haert. And I have to admit that for almost 30 years, I was getting used to it, you know? But something changed for me when I met my wife. She is a political scientist completely passionate about the Colombian armed conflict. She helped me to understand how deeply our country has been affected by land miens and by war. We dedceid to come here to the United States in search of new skills that would enable us to cbuinttore in a fair way to our society, and maybe even help heal it.

Open Cloze


I met Adriana Rodriguez about five years ago while I was working for the Colombian government as a ___________ _________. During the conflict, she was forced to _____ her _____ ... with her kids in her arms. One day, one of her neighbors was killed while he stepped on a land mine. He was actually inside an abandoned house, not outside, a house exactly like the one _______ was forced to leave. Ever since, she has been living with the fear that she, or her ________, might step on a land mine.

You know, the Colombian ________ has been running for so long that neither me nor my mom have seen our country in peace, and for someone like me, who has been living detached from all this suffering, there was only two options: either I get used to it, or I can try to change it with all my _____. And I have to admit that for almost 30 years, I was getting used to it, you know? But something changed for me when I met my wife. She is a political scientist completely passionate about the Colombian armed conflict. She helped me to understand how deeply our country has been affected by land _____ and by war. We _______ to come here to the United States in search of new skills that would enable us to __________ in a fair way to our society, and maybe even help heal it.

Solution


  1. heart
  2. conflict
  3. filmmaker
  4. decided
  5. adriana
  6. mines
  7. children
  8. leave
  9. house
  10. contribute
  11. documentary

Original Text


I met Adriana Rodriguez about five years ago while I was working for the Colombian government as a documentary filmmaker. During the conflict, she was forced to leave her house ... with her kids in her arms. One day, one of her neighbors was killed while he stepped on a land mine. He was actually inside an abandoned house, not outside, a house exactly like the one Adriana was forced to leave. Ever since, she has been living with the fear that she, or her children, might step on a land mine.

You know, the Colombian conflict has been running for so long that neither me nor my mom have seen our country in peace, and for someone like me, who has been living detached from all this suffering, there was only two options: either I get used to it, or I can try to change it with all my heart. And I have to admit that for almost 30 years, I was getting used to it, you know? But something changed for me when I met my wife. She is a political scientist completely passionate about the Colombian armed conflict. She helped me to understand how deeply our country has been affected by land mines and by war. We decided to come here to the United States in search of new skills that would enable us to contribute in a fair way to our society, and maybe even help heal it.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
land mines 8
mines buried 2
colombian government 2
colombian armed 2
armed conflict 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
land mines buried 2
colombian armed conflict 2

Important Words


  1. abandoned
  2. admit
  3. adriana
  4. affected
  5. armed
  6. arms
  7. change
  8. changed
  9. children
  10. colombian
  11. completely
  12. conflict
  13. contribute
  14. country
  15. day
  16. decided
  17. deeply
  18. detached
  19. documentary
  20. enable
  21. fair
  22. fear
  23. filmmaker
  24. forced
  25. government
  26. heal
  27. heart
  28. helped
  29. house
  30. kids
  31. killed
  32. land
  33. leave
  34. living
  35. long
  36. met
  37. mines
  38. mom
  39. neighbors
  40. passionate
  41. peace
  42. political
  43. rodriguez
  44. running
  45. scientist
  46. search
  47. skills
  48. society
  49. states
  50. step
  51. stepped
  52. suffering
  53. understand
  54. united
  55. war
  56. wife
  57. working
  58. years