full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Elif Shafak: The politics of fiction

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Many plepoe visited my gnmhodaretr, people with severe acne on their faces or warts on their hdans. Each time, my grandmother would utter some wodrs in Arabic, take a red aplpe and stab it with as many rose thorns as the number of warts she wanted to remove. Then one by one, she would encircle these thorns with dark ink. A week later, the patient would come back for a follow-up examination. Now, I'm arwae that I should not be saying such things in front of an andeucie of scholars and scientists, but the truth is, of all the people who visited my grandmother for their skin conditions, I did not see anyone go back unhappy or unhealed. I asked her how she did this. Was it the power of praying? In response she said, "Yes, praying is effective, but also beware of the power of circles."

Open Cloze


Many ______ visited my ___________, people with severe acne on their faces or warts on their _____. Each time, my grandmother would utter some _____ in Arabic, take a red _____ and stab it with as many rose thorns as the number of warts she wanted to remove. Then one by one, she would encircle these thorns with dark ink. A week later, the patient would come back for a follow-up examination. Now, I'm _____ that I should not be saying such things in front of an ________ of scholars and scientists, but the truth is, of all the people who visited my grandmother for their skin conditions, I did not see anyone go back unhappy or unhealed. I asked her how she did this. Was it the power of praying? In response she said, "Yes, praying is effective, but also beware of the power of circles."

Solution


  1. words
  2. people
  3. audience
  4. aware
  5. grandmother
  6. apple
  7. hands

Original Text


Many people visited my grandmother, people with severe acne on their faces or warts on their hands. Each time, my grandmother would utter some words in Arabic, take a red apple and stab it with as many rose thorns as the number of warts she wanted to remove. Then one by one, she would encircle these thorns with dark ink. A week later, the patient would come back for a follow-up examination. Now, I'm aware that I should not be saying such things in front of an audience of scholars and scientists, but the truth is, of all the people who visited my grandmother for their skin conditions, I did not see anyone go back unhappy or unhealed. I asked her how she did this. Was it the power of praying? In response she said, "Yes, praying is effective, but also beware of the power of circles."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
identity politics 4
writing fiction 3
supernatural creatures 2
turkish woman 2
cultural ghettos 2
started writing 2
love writing 2
authors feel 2
muslim women 2
fictional characters 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
started writing fiction 2

Important Words


  1. acne
  2. apple
  3. arabic
  4. asked
  5. audience
  6. aware
  7. beware
  8. circles
  9. conditions
  10. dark
  11. effective
  12. encircle
  13. examination
  14. faces
  15. front
  16. grandmother
  17. hands
  18. ink
  19. number
  20. patient
  21. people
  22. power
  23. praying
  24. red
  25. remove
  26. response
  27. rose
  28. scholars
  29. scientists
  30. severe
  31. skin
  32. stab
  33. thorns
  34. time
  35. truth
  36. unhappy
  37. unhealed
  38. utter
  39. visited
  40. wanted
  41. warts
  42. week
  43. words