full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness

Unscramble the Blue Letters


From field studies to laboratory stedius, we see that winning or losing an election, gaining or losing a romantic partner, getting or not getting a promotion, passing or not passing a college test, on and on, have far less impact, less intensity and much less duration than pleope expect them to have. A recent sdtuy — this almost floors me — a recent study snhowig how major life traumas acffet people suggests that if it happened over three months ago, with only a few eoinpctxes, it has no impact whatsoever on your hsiepnaps. Why? Because happiness can be synthesized. Sir Thomas Brown wrote in 1642, "I am the happiest man alive. I have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity. I am more ilrnanleuvbe than Achilles; fortune hath not one place to hit me." What kind of rbekaarlme machinery does this guy have in his head?

Open Cloze


From field studies to laboratory _______, we see that winning or losing an election, gaining or losing a romantic partner, getting or not getting a promotion, passing or not passing a college test, on and on, have far less impact, less intensity and much less duration than ______ expect them to have. A recent _____ — this almost floors me — a recent study _______ how major life traumas ______ people suggests that if it happened over three months ago, with only a few __________, it has no impact whatsoever on your _________. Why? Because happiness can be synthesized. Sir Thomas Brown wrote in 1642, "I am the happiest man alive. I have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity. I am more ____________ than Achilles; fortune hath not one place to hit me." What kind of __________ machinery does this guy have in his head?

Solution


  1. people
  2. happiness
  3. study
  4. remarkable
  5. affect
  6. showing
  7. invulnerable
  8. exceptions
  9. studies

Original Text


From field studies to laboratory studies, we see that winning or losing an election, gaining or losing a romantic partner, getting or not getting a promotion, passing or not passing a college test, on and on, have far less impact, less intensity and much less duration than people expect them to have. A recent study — this almost floors me — a recent study showing how major life traumas affect people suggests that if it happened over three months ago, with only a few exceptions, it has no impact whatsoever on your happiness. Why? Because happiness can be synthesized. Sir Thomas Brown wrote in 1642, "I am the happiest man alive. I have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity. I am more invulnerable than Achilles; fortune hath not one place to hit me." What kind of remarkable machinery does this guy have in his head?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
synthetic happiness 5
monet prints 3
million years 2
prefrontal cortex 2
human beings 2
marvelous adaptation 2
shopping mall 2
remarkable machinery 2
people synthesizing 2
synthesizing happiness 2
moreese bickham 2
amnesiac patients 2
normal controls 2
psychological immune 2


Important Words


  1. adversity
  2. affect
  3. alive
  4. brown
  5. college
  6. convert
  7. duration
  8. election
  9. exceptions
  10. expect
  11. field
  12. floors
  13. fortune
  14. gaining
  15. guy
  16. happened
  17. happiest
  18. happiness
  19. hath
  20. head
  21. hit
  22. impact
  23. intensity
  24. invulnerable
  25. kind
  26. laboratory
  27. life
  28. losing
  29. machinery
  30. major
  31. man
  32. months
  33. partner
  34. passing
  35. people
  36. place
  37. poverty
  38. promotion
  39. prosperity
  40. remarkable
  41. riches
  42. romantic
  43. showing
  44. sir
  45. studies
  46. study
  47. suggests
  48. synthesized
  49. test
  50. thomas
  51. traumas
  52. whatsoever
  53. winning
  54. wrote