full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Kenneth Shinozuka: My simple invention, designed to keep my grandfather safe

Unscramble the Blue Letters


What's the fastest growing threat to Americans' health? Cancer? Heart attacks? Diabetes? The answer is actually none of these; it's Alzheimer's disease. Every 67 seconds, someone in the United States is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. As the number of Alzheimer's patients treplis by the year 2050, caring for them, as well as the rest of the aging population, will become an overwhelming societal chgelnale.

My family has experienced fstnhirad the struggles of caring for an Alzheimer's ptaneit. Growing up in a family with three generations, I've always been very close to my grandfather. When I was four years old, my grandfather and I were walking in a park in Japan when he suddenly got lost. It was one of the scariest mneotms I've ever experienced in my life, and it was also the first itnascne that iemronfd us that my grandfather had Alzheimer's dsesiae. Over the past 12 yares, his condition got worse and worse, and his wiedanrng in particular caused my family a lot of stsres. My aunt, his primary caregiver, really struggled to stay awake at night to keep an eye on him, and even then often failed to catch him leaivng the bed. I became really concerned about my aunt's well-being as well as my grandfather's safety. I searched extensively for a solution that could help my family's problems, but couldn't find one.

Open Cloze


What's the fastest growing threat to Americans' health? Cancer? Heart attacks? Diabetes? The answer is actually none of these; it's Alzheimer's disease. Every 67 seconds, someone in the United States is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. As the number of Alzheimer's patients _______ by the year 2050, caring for them, as well as the rest of the aging population, will become an overwhelming societal _________.

My family has experienced _________ the struggles of caring for an Alzheimer's _______. Growing up in a family with three generations, I've always been very close to my grandfather. When I was four years old, my grandfather and I were walking in a park in Japan when he suddenly got lost. It was one of the scariest _______ I've ever experienced in my life, and it was also the first ________ that ________ us that my grandfather had Alzheimer's _______. Over the past 12 _____, his condition got worse and worse, and his _________ in particular caused my family a lot of ______. My aunt, his primary caregiver, really struggled to stay awake at night to keep an eye on him, and even then often failed to catch him _______ the bed. I became really concerned about my aunt's well-being as well as my grandfather's safety. I searched extensively for a solution that could help my family's problems, but couldn't find one.

Solution


  1. stress
  2. instance
  3. patient
  4. years
  5. wandering
  6. firsthand
  7. moments
  8. leaving
  9. informed
  10. challenge
  11. triples
  12. disease

Original Text


What's the fastest growing threat to Americans' health? Cancer? Heart attacks? Diabetes? The answer is actually none of these; it's Alzheimer's disease. Every 67 seconds, someone in the United States is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. As the number of Alzheimer's patients triples by the year 2050, caring for them, as well as the rest of the aging population, will become an overwhelming societal challenge.

My family has experienced firsthand the struggles of caring for an Alzheimer's patient. Growing up in a family with three generations, I've always been very close to my grandfather. When I was four years old, my grandfather and I were walking in a park in Japan when he suddenly got lost. It was one of the scariest moments I've ever experienced in my life, and it was also the first instance that informed us that my grandfather had Alzheimer's disease. Over the past 12 years, his condition got worse and worse, and his wandering in particular caused my family a lot of stress. My aunt, his primary caregiver, really struggled to stay awake at night to keep an eye on him, and even then often failed to catch him leaving the bed. I became really concerned about my aunt's well-being as well as my grandfather's safety. I searched extensively for a solution that could help my family's problems, but couldn't find one.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
pressure sensor 2
sock model 2
smartphone app 2


Important Words


  1. aging
  2. answer
  3. attacks
  4. aunt
  5. awake
  6. bed
  7. cancer
  8. caregiver
  9. caring
  10. catch
  11. caused
  12. challenge
  13. close
  14. concerned
  15. condition
  16. diabetes
  17. diagnosed
  18. disease
  19. experienced
  20. extensively
  21. eye
  22. failed
  23. family
  24. fastest
  25. find
  26. firsthand
  27. generations
  28. grandfather
  29. growing
  30. health
  31. heart
  32. informed
  33. instance
  34. japan
  35. leaving
  36. life
  37. lost
  38. lot
  39. moments
  40. night
  41. number
  42. overwhelming
  43. park
  44. patient
  45. patients
  46. population
  47. primary
  48. problems
  49. rest
  50. safety
  51. scariest
  52. searched
  53. seconds
  54. societal
  55. solution
  56. states
  57. stay
  58. stress
  59. struggled
  60. struggles
  61. suddenly
  62. threat
  63. triples
  64. united
  65. walking
  66. wandering
  67. worse
  68. year
  69. years