full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Susan Lupack: The race to decode a mysterious language

Unscramble the Blue Letters


He knew that over crntieues, place names tend to remain constant, and decided to compare Linear B to an ancient salyrably from the island of Cyprus. The Cypriot script was used hundreds of years after Linear B, but some of the symbols were similar— he wroneded if the sounds would be similar, too. When Ventris plugged some of the sounds of the Cypriot syllabary into the laneir B inscriptions, he came up with the word Knossos, the name of the city where Evans had drceoevisd his tablets. In a donimo effect, Ventris unraveled Linear B, with each word revealing more clearly that the language of Linear B was not Minoan, but Greek.

Open Cloze


He knew that over _________, place names tend to remain constant, and decided to compare Linear B to an ancient _________ from the island of Cyprus. The Cypriot script was used hundreds of years after Linear B, but some of the symbols were similar— he ________ if the sounds would be similar, too. When Ventris plugged some of the sounds of the Cypriot syllabary into the ______ B inscriptions, he came up with the word Knossos, the name of the city where Evans had __________ his tablets. In a ______ effect, Ventris unraveled Linear B, with each word revealing more clearly that the language of Linear B was not Minoan, but Greek.

Solution


  1. centuries
  2. syllabary
  3. domino
  4. discovered
  5. wondered
  6. linear

Original Text


He knew that over centuries, place names tend to remain constant, and decided to compare Linear B to an ancient syllabary from the island of Cyprus. The Cypriot script was used hundreds of years after Linear B, but some of the symbols were similar— he wondered if the sounds would be similar, too. When Ventris plugged some of the sounds of the Cypriot syllabary into the Linear B inscriptions, he came up with the word Knossos, the name of the city where Evans had discovered his tablets. In a domino effect, Ventris unraveled Linear B, with each word revealing more clearly that the language of Linear B was not Minoan, but Greek.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
symbol appeared 2
world war 2


Important Words


  1. ancient
  2. centuries
  3. city
  4. compare
  5. constant
  6. cypriot
  7. cyprus
  8. decided
  9. discovered
  10. domino
  11. effect
  12. evans
  13. greek
  14. hundreds
  15. inscriptions
  16. island
  17. knew
  18. knossos
  19. language
  20. linear
  21. minoan
  22. names
  23. place
  24. plugged
  25. remain
  26. revealing
  27. script
  28. similar
  29. sounds
  30. syllabary
  31. symbols
  32. tablets
  33. tend
  34. unraveled
  35. ventris
  36. wondered
  37. word
  38. years