full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Stephanie Honchell Smith: The rise and fall of the Mughal Empire

Unscramble the Blue Letters


bubar died just four yaers after that fateful battle, but his own memoirs and the work of his descendants immortalized him in colorful fashion. His daughter, Gulbadan, recalled in her own memoir how Babur— having recently given up drinking— filled a newly-constructed pool with lemonade rather than wine. His grandson, akabr, commissioned exquisite mnatriuie paintings of Babur’s stories— one depicted the empire’s founder riding through his camp, dnenlkury slumped over his horse.

It was Akbar who consolidated Mughal pewor. He established pntetrooics for peasants— which in turn increased their productivity and geenarted more tax revenue— and embarked on military cngapimas to enxapd Mughal territory. Princes who swore allegiance to him were rewarded, while he made brutal examples of those who resisted, killing them and many of their subjects. His conquests opened access to port cities on the Indian Ocean, which connected the Mughals to Arab, Chinese, Ottoman, and European traders, bringing in icncalubllae wealth, including silver and new coprs from the Americas.

Open Cloze


_____ died just four _____ after that fateful battle, but his own memoirs and the work of his descendants immortalized him in colorful fashion. His daughter, Gulbadan, recalled in her own memoir how Babur— having recently given up drinking— filled a newly-constructed pool with lemonade rather than wine. His grandson, _____, commissioned exquisite _________ paintings of Babur’s stories— one depicted the empire’s founder riding through his camp, _________ slumped over his horse.

It was Akbar who consolidated Mughal _____. He established ___________ for peasants— which in turn increased their productivity and _________ more tax revenue— and embarked on military _________ to ______ Mughal territory. Princes who swore allegiance to him were rewarded, while he made brutal examples of those who resisted, killing them and many of their subjects. His conquests opened access to port cities on the Indian Ocean, which connected the Mughals to Arab, Chinese, Ottoman, and European traders, bringing in ____________ wealth, including silver and new _____ from the Americas.

Solution


  1. campaigns
  2. generated
  3. power
  4. years
  5. incalculable
  6. expand
  7. crops
  8. miniature
  9. babur
  10. protections
  11. akbar
  12. drunkenly

Original Text


Babur died just four years after that fateful battle, but his own memoirs and the work of his descendants immortalized him in colorful fashion. His daughter, Gulbadan, recalled in her own memoir how Babur— having recently given up drinking— filled a newly-constructed pool with lemonade rather than wine. His grandson, Akbar, commissioned exquisite miniature paintings of Babur’s stories— one depicted the empire’s founder riding through his camp, drunkenly slumped over his horse.

It was Akbar who consolidated Mughal power. He established protections for peasants— which in turn increased their productivity and generated more tax revenue— and embarked on military campaigns to expand Mughal territory. Princes who swore allegiance to him were rewarded, while he made brutal examples of those who resisted, killing them and many of their subjects. His conquests opened access to port cities on the Indian Ocean, which connected the Mughals to Arab, Chinese, Ottoman, and European traders, bringing in incalculable wealth, including silver and new crops from the Americas.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
turn increased 2
east india 2
india company 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
east india company 2

Important Words


  1. access
  2. akbar
  3. allegiance
  4. americas
  5. arab
  6. babur
  7. battle
  8. bringing
  9. brutal
  10. camp
  11. campaigns
  12. chinese
  13. cities
  14. colorful
  15. commissioned
  16. connected
  17. conquests
  18. consolidated
  19. crops
  20. daughter
  21. depicted
  22. descendants
  23. died
  24. drunkenly
  25. embarked
  26. established
  27. european
  28. examples
  29. expand
  30. exquisite
  31. fashion
  32. fateful
  33. filled
  34. founder
  35. generated
  36. grandson
  37. gulbadan
  38. horse
  39. immortalized
  40. incalculable
  41. including
  42. increased
  43. indian
  44. killing
  45. lemonade
  46. memoir
  47. memoirs
  48. military
  49. miniature
  50. mughal
  51. mughals
  52. ocean
  53. opened
  54. ottoman
  55. paintings
  56. pool
  57. port
  58. power
  59. princes
  60. productivity
  61. protections
  62. recalled
  63. resisted
  64. rewarded
  65. riding
  66. silver
  67. slumped
  68. subjects
  69. swore
  70. tax
  71. territory
  72. traders
  73. turn
  74. wealth
  75. wine
  76. work
  77. years