full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Pico Iyer: The beauty of what we'll never know

Unscramble the Blue Letters


For eight straight neremvobs, recently, I traveled every year across Japan with the dlaai Lama. And the one thing he said every day that most seemed to give people reassurance and confidence was, "I don't know."

"What's going to happen to Tibet?" "When are we ever going to get world peace?" "What's the best way to raise children?"

"Frankly," says this very wise man, "I don't know."

The neobl Prize-winning economist diaenl Kahneman has spent more than 60 years now researching human bhvaoier, and his conclusion is that we are always much more cniedfont of what we think we know than we should be. We have, as he memorably puts it, an "unlimited ability to ignore our iaongncre." We know — quote, unqtoue — our team is going to win this weekend, and we only remember that knowledge on the rare occasions when we're right. Most of the time, we're in the dark. And that's where real intimacy lies.

Open Cloze


For eight straight _________, recently, I traveled every year across Japan with the _____ Lama. And the one thing he said every day that most seemed to give people reassurance and confidence was, "I don't know."

"What's going to happen to Tibet?" "When are we ever going to get world peace?" "What's the best way to raise children?"

"Frankly," says this very wise man, "I don't know."

The _____ Prize-winning economist ______ Kahneman has spent more than 60 years now researching human ________, and his conclusion is that we are always much more _________ of what we think we know than we should be. We have, as he memorably puts it, an "unlimited ability to ignore our _________." We know — quote, _______ — our team is going to win this weekend, and we only remember that knowledge on the rare occasions when we're right. Most of the time, we're in the dark. And that's where real intimacy lies.

Solution


  1. behavior
  2. ignorance
  3. daniel
  4. dalai
  5. confident
  6. nobel
  7. unquote
  8. novembers

Original Text


For eight straight Novembers, recently, I traveled every year across Japan with the Dalai Lama. And the one thing he said every day that most seemed to give people reassurance and confidence was, "I don't know."

"What's going to happen to Tibet?" "When are we ever going to get world peace?" "What's the best way to raise children?"

"Frankly," says this very wise man, "I don't know."

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman has spent more than 60 years now researching human behavior, and his conclusion is that we are always much more confident of what we think we know than we should be. We have, as he memorably puts it, an "unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance." We know — quote, unquote — our team is going to win this weekend, and we only remember that knowledge on the rare occasions when we're right. Most of the time, we're in the dark. And that's where real intimacy lies.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. ability
  2. behavior
  3. children
  4. conclusion
  5. confidence
  6. confident
  7. dalai
  8. daniel
  9. dark
  10. day
  11. economist
  12. give
  13. happen
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  15. ignorance
  16. ignore
  17. intimacy
  18. japan
  19. kahneman
  20. knowledge
  21. lama
  22. lies
  23. man
  24. memorably
  25. nobel
  26. novembers
  27. occasions
  28. peace
  29. people
  30. puts
  31. quote
  32. raise
  33. rare
  34. real
  35. reassurance
  36. remember
  37. researching
  38. spent
  39. straight
  40. team
  41. tibet
  42. time
  43. traveled
  44. unquote
  45. weekend
  46. win
  47. wise
  48. world
  49. year
  50. years