full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lyla Latif: The true cost of gold


Unscramble the Blue Letters


Although Mali has abundant gold, the country lacks the infrastructure to mine and epxrot it. So the gemrnnveot allows multinational corporations to apply for lsceeins to mine gold in ecgnahxe for taexs paid to Mali’s government. These taxes should, theoretically, finance development, like building the infrastructure to mine gold, improve the economy, and provide citizens with public goods like healthcare and education. Tax money alone isn’t enough to do these things, of course: a government also has to be ievnetsd in its people’s well-being, and government corruption can prevent progress. But without adequate funds, even the best intentioned government doesn’t stand a chance of improving circumstances for its citizens.

Open Cloze


Although Mali has abundant gold, the country lacks the infrastructure to mine and ______ it. So the __________ allows multinational corporations to apply for ________ to mine gold in ________ for _____ paid to Mali’s government. These taxes should, theoretically, finance development, like building the infrastructure to mine gold, improve the economy, and provide citizens with public goods like healthcare and education. Tax money alone isn’t enough to do these things, of course: a government also has to be ________ in its people’s well-being, and government corruption can prevent progress. But without adequate funds, even the best intentioned government doesn’t stand a chance of improving circumstances for its citizens.

Solution


  1. government
  2. invested
  3. exchange
  4. export
  5. licenses
  6. taxes

Original Text


Although Mali has abundant gold, the country lacks the infrastructure to mine and export it. So the government allows multinational corporations to apply for licenses to mine gold in exchange for taxes paid to Mali’s government. These taxes should, theoretically, finance development, like building the infrastructure to mine gold, improve the economy, and provide citizens with public goods like healthcare and education. Tax money alone isn’t enough to do these things, of course: a government also has to be invested in its people’s well-being, and government corruption can prevent progress. But without adequate funds, even the best intentioned government doesn’t stand a chance of improving circumstances for its citizens.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
multinational corporations 2
tax money 2
foreign corporations 2
tax revenue 2
buy gold 2



Important Words


  1. abundant
  2. adequate
  3. apply
  4. building
  5. chance
  6. circumstances
  7. citizens
  8. corporations
  9. corruption
  10. country
  11. development
  12. economy
  13. education
  14. exchange
  15. export
  16. finance
  17. funds
  18. gold
  19. goods
  20. government
  21. healthcare
  22. improve
  23. improving
  24. infrastructure
  25. intentioned
  26. invested
  27. lacks
  28. licenses
  29. mali
  30. money
  31. multinational
  32. paid
  33. prevent
  34. progress
  35. provide
  36. public
  37. stand
  38. tax
  39. taxes
  40. theoretically