full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Daniel Goldstein: The battle between your present and future self
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Do you rbmeemer the story of Odysseus and the Sirens from high shcool or jiuonr high school? There was this hero, Odysseus, who's heading back home after the Trojan War. And he's standing on the deck of his ship, he's talking to his first mate, and he's saying, "Tomorrow, we will sail past those rocks, and on those rkcos sit some beautiful women called srines. And these wemon sing an ennhntaicg song, a song so alluring that all siroals who hear it crash into the rocks and die." Now you would expect, given that, that they would choose an alternate route around the Sirens, but instead Odysseus says, "I want to hear that song. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to pour wax in the ears of you and all the men — stay with me — so that you can't hear the song, and then I'm going to have you tie me to the mast so that I can listen and we can all sail by unaffected." So this is a captain putting the life of every sglnie person on the ship at risk so that he can hear a song.
Open Cloze
Do you ________ the story of Odysseus and the Sirens from high ______ or ______ high school? There was this hero, Odysseus, who's heading back home after the Trojan War. And he's standing on the deck of his ship, he's talking to his first mate, and he's saying, "Tomorrow, we will sail past those rocks, and on those _____ sit some beautiful women called ______. And these _____ sing an __________ song, a song so alluring that all _______ who hear it crash into the rocks and die." Now you would expect, given that, that they would choose an alternate route around the Sirens, but instead Odysseus says, "I want to hear that song. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to pour wax in the ears of you and all the men — stay with me — so that you can't hear the song, and then I'm going to have you tie me to the mast so that I can listen and we can all sail by unaffected." So this is a captain putting the life of every ______ person on the ship at risk so that he can hear a song.
Solution
- school
- remember
- sailors
- sirens
- enchanting
- rocks
- junior
- single
- women
Original Text
Do you remember the story of Odysseus and the Sirens from high school or junior high school? There was this hero, Odysseus, who's heading back home after the Trojan War. And he's standing on the deck of his ship, he's talking to his first mate, and he's saying, "Tomorrow, we will sail past those rocks, and on those rocks sit some beautiful women called Sirens. And these women sing an enchanting song, a song so alluring that all sailors who hear it crash into the rocks and die." Now you would expect, given that, that they would choose an alternate route around the Sirens, but instead Odysseus says, "I want to hear that song. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to pour wax in the ears of you and all the men — stay with me — so that you can't hear the song, and then I'm going to have you tie me to the mast so that I can listen and we can all sail by unaffected." So this is a captain putting the life of every single person on the ship at risk so that he can hear a song.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| commitment devices |
6 |
| savings rate |
5 |
| commitment device |
3 |
| virtual reality |
3 |
| resisting temptation |
2 |
| distribution builder |
2 |
| people find |
2 |
| show people |
2 |
| behavioral time |
2 |
| retirement income |
2 |
| younger face |
2 |
| older face |
2 |
Important Words
- alluring
- alternate
- beautiful
- called
- captain
- choose
- crash
- deck
- die
- ears
- enchanting
- expect
- heading
- hear
- hero
- high
- home
- junior
- life
- listen
- mast
- mate
- men
- odysseus
- person
- pour
- putting
- remember
- risk
- rocks
- route
- sail
- sailors
- school
- ship
- sing
- single
- sirens
- sit
- song
- standing
- stay
- story
- talking
- tie
- trojan
- unaffected
- war
- wax
- women