TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Thomas Dambo: The fine art of dumpster diving

Unscramble the Blue Letters

vckiy liu, Translator

Elisabeth Buffard, rvwieeer

Ever since I was a kid, I loved trash. (Laughter) I mean, if you think about it, trash is the prceeft building bolkcs for playing and being ctrveiae because trash is for free and you can find it everywhere, and you can always find just as much as you need. Cardboard boxes, books, bottles, broken bicycles or pallets, cfrlooul plastic bags. I would shove them all in a shopping cart, and then I would shove it back to my parents' bcykarad, where I would give it new life in my ever-expanding treetop house, where I sometimes would sit and dream about one day becoming an atsirt. This is me (lhgeutar) when I was five yares old, playing in my parents' trashcan. And back then, my father, he had a bicycle shop, and in the weekend, he would bring me along to the recycle station to get rid of his trash. And to me, the recycle station was like a gigantic toy store filled with everything my yonug heart could desire, like a boobmox that was broken just because somebody had bent their antenna and they had discarded it, or a wodinw with all the glass ictnat that fit perfectly from the skylight for my treetop hosue. I got a pipe that could be a sidle for one of my aiotcn figures. But at the recycle sottain, there was one big problem: it was illegal to dumpster dive. And so me and my father, through the years , had developed a sneaky mhteod where we would park his green company van just in front of the station manager's ofifce, outside the window so it would blcok the entire view of the recycle station and me and my father, behind the truck, could steal all the trash without nobody seeing us. Or as I like to think back then, set the trash free before the dump truck would come and take it and it would be gone forever. My name is Thomas Dambo, and I build giant sculptures of recycled materials while I darem about saving the world from drowning in trash. prtety much my whole life I have been centered around trash, recycling and upcycling, I've been a rapper, I've rapped and had msuic videos about dumpster diving I made TV shows about dumpster dnviig. I've had upcycling workshops with chsmtairs ornaments. I've built countless installations and sculptures, all with the same foucs, to limit our world's trash by showing us all how beautiful and valuable our trash is. But the last nine years, I've been wnrkoig on one super, super big project where I'm building big recycled troll sculptures of srcap wood and hiding them in the forest around the world for us all to go and find. And I will now introduce you to a couple of them. This here is Little tdlie. Little Tilde, she is in a forest in cgoeahenpn, where I also come from - I come from Denmark - and she's hniidg behind a tree because she's a little bit afraid of us humans. Because most of the time when we come to vsiit her forest, we come with a big chainsaw to cut down the very same forest. This one is called hnana Halerød. Hannah has a 350-foot-long tail that is made from peltels that around 70 volunteers have created, and it runs from the nearest parking lot and then through the forest, over a little hill and around the tree and up to where you can then follow it and find where she's standing. This one is called Sigurd. (Laughter) Sigurd is trying to tame a big or little big red car while it's rolling down a hill. And most of my trolls, also like Sigurd, don't really like cars because they find them really noisy and really smelly. This one is Røskva, it is in Maine, here in the United settas. This one is called Jyttes. It is a holding a big tree like little tree hggeur troll, in Mandurah in Australia. This one is called Lost Finn, I just finished it two wekes ago in Vermont. And this one is called the Moon Mother, it is my number 100 troll. I have now finished 118 trolls that can be found in 17 countries all around the world. (Applause) (Applause) Thank you so much. Thousands of vetenrouls have helped me take apart palltes and recycle hundreds of tons of scrap wood that now over 10 million people have gone to visit while all returning home with a valuable lesson, that something made of something old can be just as good as something made of something new. When I'm not on the road, I have my sudito and my wsrokhop at a big old farm in dmneark, where I now employ 23 people full time. And all of our salaries, and including the farm, is generated by rethinking the value of other people's trash. We dumpster dive, we cealn, celloct, oianzgre and build everything from other people's trash. Like my workshop here that is covered in colorful silenghs cut from old aluminum billboards. And before I got here today, I had my old working jeans sewn into this bfuaeitul hat. It takes aiaoppmxrelty five tons of scrap wood to build one of my trllos. And in the United States, 12 miloiln tons of scrap wood is driven to the landfill every year. That is actually enough to build 2.5 million trolls of scrap wood in the United States alone, per year. It's probably a lot more trolls than we need. But my point is, (Laughter) my point is that we could use our waste for so many better things than to grow our landfills bigger and bigger. We could build houses, we could build furniture, toys, homes, probably sapesrrykcs, I think the possibilities are unlimited. I believe that anything can be made out of anything, and that there should be no such thing as tsarh. Yet the world is running out of resources while the world is drowning in trash. But there is a saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure. And if we would all learn to understand the full meaning of this sentence, that one man's trash is another man's tuaserre, that trash equals treasure, that trash equals wealth and opportunity, then we would also understand that our world is actually not drowning in trash. It is filled with wealth and otiprpotnuy to build a better world. And I believe the reason why we don't understand this, it is because we've all grown up in a stiocey that has told us that trash is dirty, it is disgusting and it is dangerous. We've been taught that trash is worthless, and we live in a world where we put those who work with trash at the bottom of our society and at the bottom of our plyloars. But if we want to save the world from drowning in trash, we have to change that mindset. And we have to learn to love our trash for the vlabuale resource it is. And… This is me, 43 years old, at one of the very same rceylce stations that I used to go to with my fahetr as a child. And now I'm no longer an outlaw. Now I have my own container where plpeoe will give me the stuff they don't want anymore, like pallets and old floors and a boombox that's still working, so that I can bnirg it back to my farm, where me and my crew, and my father when he comes to visit, can use it to create new things. I believe we could eailsy set up millions of slaml local partnerships such as this, if we would bring our trash out in the light where people could see it and see the opportunity in it. I found my dream of becoming an artist in a trash can. Trash is a treasure. Trash can make you a millionaire. But treetad without caution, trash is treacherous and can drown the world. And so I will end my talk today with a simple call to action. Look at what is being thrown out at your home. Next time you're cleaning out your garage, at the job where you work, or at the factory that you own, and take rnpitlboissiey for your trash. Take a pohto of your trash. Share that photo with your friends, your family, and your wlord so you can try and find that someone for whom the content of your trash can is a treasure. Because if you don't do so, then you might just be throwing out someone's dream next time the dump truck comes to empty your trash can. Thank you.

Open Cloze

_____ liu, Translator

Elisabeth Buffard, ________

Ever since I was a kid, I loved trash. (Laughter) I mean, if you think about it, trash is the _______ building ______ for playing and being ________ because trash is for free and you can find it everywhere, and you can always find just as much as you need. Cardboard boxes, books, bottles, broken bicycles or pallets, ________ plastic bags. I would shove them all in a shopping cart, and then I would shove it back to my parents' ________, where I would give it new life in my ever-expanding treetop house, where I sometimes would sit and dream about one day becoming an ______. This is me (________) when I was five _____ old, playing in my parents' trashcan. And back then, my father, he had a bicycle shop, and in the weekend, he would bring me along to the recycle station to get rid of his trash. And to me, the recycle station was like a gigantic toy store filled with everything my _____ heart could desire, like a _______ that was broken just because somebody had bent their antenna and they had discarded it, or a ______ with all the glass ______ that fit perfectly from the skylight for my treetop _____. I got a pipe that could be a _____ for one of my ______ figures. But at the recycle _______, there was one big problem: it was illegal to dumpster dive. And so me and my father, through the years , had developed a sneaky ______ where we would park his green company van just in front of the station manager's ______, outside the window so it would _____ the entire view of the recycle station and me and my father, behind the truck, could steal all the trash without nobody seeing us. Or as I like to think back then, set the trash free before the dump truck would come and take it and it would be gone forever. My name is Thomas Dambo, and I build giant sculptures of recycled materials while I _____ about saving the world from drowning in trash. ______ much my whole life I have been centered around trash, recycling and upcycling, I've been a rapper, I've rapped and had _____ videos about dumpster diving I made TV shows about dumpster ______. I've had upcycling workshops with _________ ornaments. I've built countless installations and sculptures, all with the same _____, to limit our world's trash by showing us all how beautiful and valuable our trash is. But the last nine years, I've been _______ on one super, super big project where I'm building big recycled troll sculptures of _____ wood and hiding them in the forest around the world for us all to go and find. And I will now introduce you to a couple of them. This here is Little _____. Little Tilde, she is in a forest in __________, where I also come from - I come from Denmark - and she's ______ behind a tree because she's a little bit afraid of us humans. Because most of the time when we come to _____ her forest, we come with a big chainsaw to cut down the very same forest. This one is called _____ Halerød. Hannah has a 350-foot-long tail that is made from _______ that around 70 volunteers have created, and it runs from the nearest parking lot and then through the forest, over a little hill and around the tree and up to where you can then follow it and find where she's standing. This one is called Sigurd. (Laughter) Sigurd is trying to tame a big or little big red car while it's rolling down a hill. And most of my trolls, also like Sigurd, don't really like cars because they find them really noisy and really smelly. This one is Røskva, it is in Maine, here in the United ______. This one is called Jyttes. It is a holding a big tree like little tree ______ troll, in Mandurah in Australia. This one is called Lost Finn, I just finished it two _____ ago in Vermont. And this one is called the Moon Mother, it is my number 100 troll. I have now finished 118 trolls that can be found in 17 countries all around the world. (Applause) (Applause) Thank you so much. Thousands of __________ have helped me take apart _______ and recycle hundreds of tons of scrap wood that now over 10 million people have gone to visit while all returning home with a valuable lesson, that something made of something old can be just as good as something made of something new. When I'm not on the road, I have my ______ and my ________ at a big old farm in _______, where I now employ 23 people full time. And all of our salaries, and including the farm, is generated by rethinking the value of other people's trash. We dumpster dive, we _____, _______, ________ and build everything from other people's trash. Like my workshop here that is covered in colorful ________ cut from old aluminum billboards. And before I got here today, I had my old working jeans sewn into this _________ hat. It takes _____________ five tons of scrap wood to build one of my ______. And in the United States, 12 _______ tons of scrap wood is driven to the landfill every year. That is actually enough to build 2.5 million trolls of scrap wood in the United States alone, per year. It's probably a lot more trolls than we need. But my point is, (Laughter) my point is that we could use our waste for so many better things than to grow our landfills bigger and bigger. We could build houses, we could build furniture, toys, homes, probably ___________, I think the possibilities are unlimited. I believe that anything can be made out of anything, and that there should be no such thing as _____. Yet the world is running out of resources while the world is drowning in trash. But there is a saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure. And if we would all learn to understand the full meaning of this sentence, that one man's trash is another man's ________, that trash equals treasure, that trash equals wealth and opportunity, then we would also understand that our world is actually not drowning in trash. It is filled with wealth and ___________ to build a better world. And I believe the reason why we don't understand this, it is because we've all grown up in a _______ that has told us that trash is dirty, it is disgusting and it is dangerous. We've been taught that trash is worthless, and we live in a world where we put those who work with trash at the bottom of our society and at the bottom of our ________. But if we want to save the world from drowning in trash, we have to change that mindset. And we have to learn to love our trash for the ________ resource it is. And… This is me, 43 years old, at one of the very same _______ stations that I used to go to with my ______ as a child. And now I'm no longer an outlaw. Now I have my own container where ______ will give me the stuff they don't want anymore, like pallets and old floors and a boombox that's still working, so that I can _____ it back to my farm, where me and my crew, and my father when he comes to visit, can use it to create new things. I believe we could ______ set up millions of _____ local partnerships such as this, if we would bring our trash out in the light where people could see it and see the opportunity in it. I found my dream of becoming an artist in a trash can. Trash is a treasure. Trash can make you a millionaire. But _______ without caution, trash is treacherous and can drown the world. And so I will end my talk today with a simple call to action. Look at what is being thrown out at your home. Next time you're cleaning out your garage, at the job where you work, or at the factory that you own, and take ______________ for your trash. Take a _____ of your trash. Share that photo with your friends, your family, and your _____ so you can try and find that someone for whom the content of your trash can is a treasure. Because if you don't do so, then you might just be throwing out someone's dream next time the dump truck comes to empty your trash can. Thank you.

Solution

vicky
responsibility
pallets
people
photo
reviewer
treasure
working
years
focus
pretty
block
young
tilde
diving
house
clean
christmas
valuable
million
skyscrapers
opportunity
organize
backyard
states
bring
trolls
office
method
weeks
action
hiding
easily
hanna
boombox
intact
world
window
denmark
perfect
collect
colorful
trash
dream
slide
father
artist
recycle
volunteers
copenhagen
visit
shingles
beautiful
treated
approximately
blocks
pellets
studio
scrap
hugger
laughter
society
creative
station
payrolls
music
small
workshop

Original Text

Vicky liu, Translator

Elisabeth Buffard, Reviewer

Ever since I was a kid, I loved trash. (Laughter) I mean, if you think about it, trash is the perfect building blocks for playing and being creative because trash is for free and you can find it everywhere, and you can always find just as much as you need. Cardboard boxes, books, bottles, broken bicycles or pallets, colorful plastic bags. I would shove them all in a shopping cart, and then I would shove it back to my parents' backyard, where I would give it new life in my ever-expanding treetop house, where I sometimes would sit and dream about one day becoming an artist. This is me (Laughter) when I was five years old, playing in my parents' trashcan. And back then, my father, he had a bicycle shop, and in the weekend, he would bring me along to the recycle station to get rid of his trash. And to me, the recycle station was like a gigantic toy store filled with everything my young heart could desire, like a boombox that was broken just because somebody had bent their antenna and they had discarded it, or a window with all the glass intact that fit perfectly from the skylight for my treetop house. I got a pipe that could be a slide for one of my action figures. But at the recycle station, there was one big problem: it was illegal to dumpster dive. And so me and my father, through the years , had developed a sneaky method where we would park his green company van just in front of the station manager's office, outside the window so it would block the entire view of the recycle station and me and my father, behind the truck, could steal all the trash without nobody seeing us. Or as I like to think back then, set the trash free before the dump truck would come and take it and it would be gone forever. My name is Thomas Dambo, and I build giant sculptures of recycled materials while I dream about saving the world from drowning in trash. Pretty much my whole life I have been centered around trash, recycling and upcycling, I've been a rapper, I've rapped and had music videos about dumpster diving I made TV shows about dumpster diving. I've had upcycling workshops with Christmas ornaments. I've built countless installations and sculptures, all with the same focus, to limit our world's trash by showing us all how beautiful and valuable our trash is. But the last nine years, I've been working on one super, super big project where I'm building big recycled troll sculptures of scrap wood and hiding them in the forest around the world for us all to go and find. And I will now introduce you to a couple of them. This here is Little Tilde. Little Tilde, she is in a forest in Copenhagen, where I also come from - I come from Denmark - and she's hiding behind a tree because she's a little bit afraid of us humans. Because most of the time when we come to visit her forest, we come with a big chainsaw to cut down the very same forest. This one is called Hanna Halerød. Hannah has a 350-foot-long tail that is made from pellets that around 70 volunteers have created, and it runs from the nearest parking lot and then through the forest, over a little hill and around the tree and up to where you can then follow it and find where she's standing. This one is called Sigurd. (Laughter) Sigurd is trying to tame a big or little big red car while it's rolling down a hill. And most of my trolls, also like Sigurd, don't really like cars because they find them really noisy and really smelly. This one is Røskva, it is in Maine, here in the United States. This one is called Jyttes. It is a holding a big tree like little tree hugger troll, in Mandurah in Australia. This one is called Lost Finn, I just finished it two weeks ago in Vermont. And this one is called the Moon Mother, it is my number 100 troll. I have now finished 118 trolls that can be found in 17 countries all around the world. (Applause) (Applause) Thank you so much. Thousands of volunteers have helped me take apart pallets and recycle hundreds of tons of scrap wood that now over 10 million people have gone to visit while all returning home with a valuable lesson, that something made of something old can be just as good as something made of something new. When I'm not on the road, I have my studio and my workshop at a big old farm in Denmark, where I now employ 23 people full time. And all of our salaries, and including the farm, is generated by rethinking the value of other people's trash. We dumpster dive, we clean, collect, organize and build everything from other people's trash. Like my workshop here that is covered in colorful shingles cut from old aluminum billboards. And before I got here today, I had my old working jeans sewn into this beautiful hat. It takes approximately five tons of scrap wood to build one of my trolls. And in the United States, 12 million tons of scrap wood is driven to the landfill every year. That is actually enough to build 2.5 million trolls of scrap wood in the United States alone, per year. It's probably a lot more trolls than we need. But my point is, (Laughter) my point is that we could use our waste for so many better things than to grow our landfills bigger and bigger. We could build houses, we could build furniture, toys, homes, probably skyscrapers, I think the possibilities are unlimited. I believe that anything can be made out of anything, and that there should be no such thing as trash. Yet the world is running out of resources while the world is drowning in trash. But there is a saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure. And if we would all learn to understand the full meaning of this sentence, that one man's trash is another man's treasure, that trash equals treasure, that trash equals wealth and opportunity, then we would also understand that our world is actually not drowning in trash. It is filled with wealth and opportunity to build a better world. And I believe the reason why we don't understand this, it is because we've all grown up in a society that has told us that trash is dirty, it is disgusting and it is dangerous. We've been taught that trash is worthless, and we live in a world where we put those who work with trash at the bottom of our society and at the bottom of our payrolls. But if we want to save the world from drowning in trash, we have to change that mindset. And we have to learn to love our trash for the valuable resource it is. And… This is me, 43 years old, at one of the very same recycle stations that I used to go to with my father as a child. And now I'm no longer an outlaw. Now I have my own container where people will give me the stuff they don't want anymore, like pallets and old floors and a boombox that's still working, so that I can bring it back to my farm, where me and my crew, and my father when he comes to visit, can use it to create new things. I believe we could easily set up millions of small local partnerships such as this, if we would bring our trash out in the light where people could see it and see the opportunity in it. I found my dream of becoming an artist in a trash can. Trash is a treasure. Trash can make you a millionaire. But treated without caution, trash is treacherous and can drown the world. And so I will end my talk today with a simple call to action. Look at what is being thrown out at your home. Next time you're cleaning out your garage, at the job where you work, or at the factory that you own, and take responsibility for your trash. Take a photo of your trash. Share that photo with your friends, your family, and your world so you can try and find that someone for whom the content of your trash can is a treasure. Because if you don't do so, then you might just be throwing out someone's dream next time the dump truck comes to empty your trash can. Thank you.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
scrap wood	5
recycle station	3
dump truck	2
dumpster diving	2
united states	2
trash equals	2

Important Words

action
afraid
aluminum
antenna
anymore
applause
approximately
artist
australia
backyard
bags
beautiful
bent
bicycle
bicycles
big
bigger
billboards
bit
block
blocks
books
boombox
bottles
bottom
boxes
bring
broken
buffard
build
building
built
call
called
car
cardboard
cars
cart
caution
centered
chainsaw
change
child
christmas
clean
cleaning
collect
colorful
company
container
content
copenhagen
countless
countries
couple
covered
create
created
creative
crew
cut
dambo
dangerous
day
denmark
desire
developed
dirty
discarded
disgusting
dive
diving
dream
driven
drown
drowning
dump
dumpster
easily
elisabeth
employ
empty
entire
equals
factory
family
farm
father
figures
filled
find
finished
finn
fit
floors
focus
follow
forest
free
friends
front
full
furniture
garage
generated
giant
gigantic
give
glass
good
green
grow
grown
halerød
hanna
hannah
hat
heart
helped
hiding
hill
holding
home
homes
house
houses
hugger
humans
hundreds
illegal
including
installations
intact
introduce
jeans
job
jyttes
kid
landfill
landfills
laughter
learn
lesson
life
light
limit
liu
live
local
longer
lost
lot
love
loved
maine
mandurah
materials
meaning
method
million
millionaire
millions
mindset
moon
mother
music
nearest
noisy
number
office
opportunity
organize
ornaments
outlaw
pallets
park
parking
partnerships
payrolls
pellets
people
perfect
perfectly
photo
pipe
plastic
playing
point
possibilities
pretty
project
put
rapped
rapper
reason
recycle
recycled
recycling
red
resource
resources
responsibility
rethinking
returning
reviewer
rid
road
rolling
running
runs
røskva
salaries
save
saving
scrap
sculptures
sentence
set
sewn
share
shingles
shop
shopping
shove
showing
shows
sigurd
simple
sit
skylight
skyscrapers
slide
small
smelly
sneaky
society
standing
states
station
stations
steal
store
studio
stuff
super
tail
takes
talk
tame
taught
thomas
thousands
throwing
thrown
tilde
time
today
told
tons
toy
toys
translator
trash
trashcan
treacherous
treasure
treated
tree
treetop
troll
trolls
truck
tv
understand
united
unlimited
upcycling
valuable
van
vermont
vicky
videos
view
visit
volunteers
waste
wealth
weekend
weeks
window
wood
work
working
workshop
workshops
world
worthless
year
years
young