full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Chrystia Freeland: The rise of the new global super-rich

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So we're living in the age of the global plutocracy, but we've been slow to notice it. One of the reasons, I think, is a sort of boiled frog pooemhnnen. Changes which are slow and gadarul can be hard to notice even if their ultimate impact is quite dramatic. Think about what hapenepd, after all, to the poor frog. But I think there's something else going on. tialnkg about income inequality, even if you're not on the Forbes 400 list, can make us feel uncomfortable. It feels less positive, less optimistic, to talk about how the pie is seilcd than to think about how to make the pie bigger. And if you do happen to be on the Forbes 400 list, talking about icmone distribution, and inevitably its cousin, income rbeottsiudriin, can be downright threatening.

Open Cloze


So we're living in the age of the global plutocracy, but we've been slow to notice it. One of the reasons, I think, is a sort of boiled frog __________. Changes which are slow and _______ can be hard to notice even if their ultimate impact is quite dramatic. Think about what ________, after all, to the poor frog. But I think there's something else going on. _______ about income inequality, even if you're not on the Forbes 400 list, can make us feel uncomfortable. It feels less positive, less optimistic, to talk about how the pie is ______ than to think about how to make the pie bigger. And if you do happen to be on the Forbes 400 list, talking about ______ distribution, and inevitably its cousin, income ______________, can be downright threatening.

Solution


  1. talking
  2. gradual
  3. phenomenon
  4. sliced
  5. income
  6. happened
  7. redistribution

Original Text


So we're living in the age of the global plutocracy, but we've been slow to notice it. One of the reasons, I think, is a sort of boiled frog phenomenon. Changes which are slow and gradual can be hard to notice even if their ultimate impact is quite dramatic. Think about what happened, after all, to the poor frog. But I think there's something else going on. Talking about income inequality, even if you're not on the Forbes 400 list, can make us feel uncomfortable. It feels less positive, less optimistic, to talk about how the pie is sliced than to think about how to make the pie bigger. And if you do happen to be on the Forbes 400 list, talking about income distribution, and inevitably its cousin, income redistribution, can be downright threatening.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
crony capitalism 5
surging income 3
middle class 3
technology revolution 3
industrial revolution 3
created public 3
national income 2
income distribution 2
billion dollars 2
income inequality 2
superstar effect 2
meritocratic plutocracy 2
global political 2
mere hypothetical 2
tremendous social 2


Important Words


  1. age
  2. bigger
  3. boiled
  4. cousin
  5. distribution
  6. downright
  7. dramatic
  8. feel
  9. feels
  10. forbes
  11. frog
  12. global
  13. gradual
  14. happen
  15. happened
  16. hard
  17. impact
  18. income
  19. inequality
  20. inevitably
  21. list
  22. living
  23. notice
  24. optimistic
  25. phenomenon
  26. pie
  27. plutocracy
  28. poor
  29. positive
  30. reasons
  31. redistribution
  32. sliced
  33. slow
  34. sort
  35. talk
  36. talking
  37. threatening
  38. ultimate
  39. uncomfortable