full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Soraya Field Fiorio: The epic of Gilgamesh, the king who tried to conquer death

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In 1849, in the ancient city of Nineveh in northern Iraq, archaeologists sifted through dtusy rnemais, hoping to find records to prove that Bible stories were true. What they found instead was one of the oldest libraries in the world. Inscribed on crumbling clay tablets was a 4,000-year-old story so riveting the first person to trlaantse it srtated stripping from eimnexetct.

Called the epic of Gilgamesh, the sorty starts with gmgaliesh, king of the city of Uruk, crashing every wedding and sleeping with the bride before she has a chance to sleep with her husband.

To tame Gilgamesh, the goddess arruu created a rvail claeld Enkidu. Enkidu lived beyond the walls of the city, where chaos reigned and wild animals, invaders, and evil spirits prowled. After a priestess of the goddess iathsr seduced Enkidu, the wild animals beyond the wall rejected him and he vnetured into the city.

Open Cloze


In 1849, in the ancient city of Nineveh in northern Iraq, archaeologists sifted through _____ _______, hoping to find records to prove that Bible stories were true. What they found instead was one of the oldest libraries in the world. Inscribed on crumbling clay tablets was a 4,000-year-old story so riveting the first person to _________ it _______ stripping from __________.

Called the epic of Gilgamesh, the _____ starts with _________, king of the city of Uruk, crashing every wedding and sleeping with the bride before she has a chance to sleep with her husband.

To tame Gilgamesh, the goddess _____ created a _____ ______ Enkidu. Enkidu lived beyond the walls of the city, where chaos reigned and wild animals, invaders, and evil spirits prowled. After a priestess of the goddess ______ seduced Enkidu, the wild animals beyond the wall rejected him and he ________ into the city.

Solution


  1. excitement
  2. called
  3. dusty
  4. gilgamesh
  5. ishtar
  6. remains
  7. started
  8. ventured
  9. aruru
  10. translate
  11. story
  12. rival

Original Text


In 1849, in the ancient city of Nineveh in northern Iraq, archaeologists sifted through dusty remains, hoping to find records to prove that Bible stories were true. What they found instead was one of the oldest libraries in the world. Inscribed on crumbling clay tablets was a 4,000-year-old story so riveting the first person to translate it started stripping from excitement.

Called the epic of Gilgamesh, the story starts with Gilgamesh, king of the city of Uruk, crashing every wedding and sleeping with the bride before she has a chance to sleep with her husband.

To tame Gilgamesh, the goddess Aruru created a rival called Enkidu. Enkidu lived beyond the walls of the city, where chaos reigned and wild animals, invaders, and evil spirits prowled. After a priestess of the goddess Ishtar seduced Enkidu, the wild animals beyond the wall rejected him and he ventured into the city.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
goddess ishtar 2
gilgamesh refused 2


Important Words


  1. ancient
  2. animals
  3. archaeologists
  4. aruru
  5. bible
  6. bride
  7. called
  8. chance
  9. chaos
  10. city
  11. clay
  12. crashing
  13. created
  14. crumbling
  15. dusty
  16. enkidu
  17. epic
  18. evil
  19. excitement
  20. find
  21. gilgamesh
  22. goddess
  23. hoping
  24. husband
  25. inscribed
  26. invaders
  27. iraq
  28. ishtar
  29. king
  30. libraries
  31. lived
  32. nineveh
  33. northern
  34. oldest
  35. person
  36. priestess
  37. prove
  38. prowled
  39. records
  40. reigned
  41. rejected
  42. remains
  43. rival
  44. riveting
  45. seduced
  46. sifted
  47. sleep
  48. sleeping
  49. spirits
  50. started
  51. starts
  52. stories
  53. story
  54. stripping
  55. tablets
  56. tame
  57. translate
  58. true
  59. uruk
  60. ventured
  61. wall
  62. walls
  63. wedding
  64. wild
  65. world