TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Sandra Fisher-Martins: The right to understand

Unscramble the Blue Letters

The story I want to tell you about, started to me, in 1996 when I was syuitndg in England. One day, I was glancing through my bank statement (I didn't have much to look at) and I've noticed that in the upper corner there was a symbol, that I'm going to show you, saying that dmnoecut had been made in pilan language, for me to uenrsadtnd it. The idea interested me; I tried to find out what that was and I found out that there was a cgmaapin for the simplification of lagunage, which was the "Plain English Campaign". I thought it was a fabulous idea, for about one day or two, and I've never thought about it since. When I came back to Portugal, for good, I came across with several documents - for example, my work contract, the papers I had to sign to buy a house, the electricity bill — a series of documents that reminded me of that bank statement. Not because they were equally clear and simple, but because they were the exact opposite. Because I had to read everything twice or thrice, to begin to understand what was wtteirn there. And then, that little seed that had been sown in 1996, started germinating. And one day, I found myself entering through my boss' office and quitting my job to dedcitae myself to this. And so, what did I find out, right off the start? I found out that it was a much more severe polberm than I thought. It wasn't only about these documents being complex and annoying, it was the fact that Portuguese people's liatcery — literacy is the hability to understand written dmuotnecs — is extremely low. I'm going to show you a cahrt about Portuguese people's literacy [rate]. You know that about 10, 11% of people, in prgatuol,

Open Cloze

The story I want to tell you about, started to me, in 1996 when I was ________ in England. One day, I was glancing through my bank statement (I didn't have much to look at) and I've noticed that in the upper corner there was a symbol, that I'm going to show you, saying that ________ had been made in _____ language, for me to __________ it. The idea interested me; I tried to find out what that was and I found out that there was a ________ for the simplification of ________, which was the "Plain English Campaign". I thought it was a fabulous idea, for about one day or two, and I've never thought about it since. When I came back to Portugal, for good, I came across with several documents - for example, my work contract, the papers I had to sign to buy a house, the electricity bill — a series of documents that reminded me of that bank statement. Not because they were equally clear and simple, but because they were the exact opposite. Because I had to read everything twice or thrice, to begin to understand what was _______ there. And then, that little seed that had been sown in 1996, started germinating. And one day, I found myself entering through my boss' office and quitting my job to ________ myself to this. And so, what did I find out, right off the start? I found out that it was a much more severe _______ than I thought. It wasn't only about these documents being complex and annoying, it was the fact that Portuguese people's ________ — literacy is the hability to understand written _________ — is extremely low. I'm going to show you a _____ about Portuguese people's literacy [rate]. You know that about 10, 11% of people, in ________,

Solution

written
campaign
dedicate
literacy
understand
studying
document
language
chart
plain
documents
portugal
problem

Original Text

The story I want to tell you about, started to me, in 1996 when I was studying in England. One day, I was glancing through my bank statement (I didn't have much to look at) and I've noticed that in the upper corner there was a symbol, that I'm going to show you, saying that document had been made in plain language, for me to understand it. The idea interested me; I tried to find out what that was and I found out that there was a campaign for the simplification of language, which was the "Plain English Campaign". I thought it was a fabulous idea, for about one day or two, and I've never thought about it since. When I came back to Portugal, for good, I came across with several documents - for example, my work contract, the papers I had to sign to buy a house, the electricity bill — a series of documents that reminded me of that bank statement. Not because they were equally clear and simple, but because they were the exact opposite. Because I had to read everything twice or thrice, to begin to understand what was written there. And then, that little seed that had been sown in 1996, started germinating. And one day, I found myself entering through my boss' office and quitting my job to dedicate myself to this. And so, what did I find out, right off the start? I found out that it was a much more severe problem than I thought. It wasn't only about these documents being complex and annoying, it was the fact that Portuguese people's literacy — literacy is the hability to understand written documents — is extremely low. I'm going to show you a chart about Portuguese people's literacy [rate]. You know that about 10, 11% of people, in Portugal,

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
bank statement	2
package leaflet	2
bank check	2
private sector	2
string theory	2
public documents	2
educate people	2
united states	2

Important Words

annoying
bank
bill
buy
campaign
chart
clear
complex
contract
corner
day
dedicate
document
documents
electricity
england
english
entering
equally
exact
extremely
fabulous
fact
find
germinating
glancing
good
hability
house
idea
interested
job
language
literacy
noticed
office
papers
people
plain
portugal
portuguese
problem
quitting
rate
read
reminded
seed
series
severe
show
sign
simple
simplification
sown
start
started
statement
story
studying
symbol
thought
thrice
understand
upper
work
written