full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jennifer D. Sciubba: The truth about human population decline

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But a head in the sand world isn't as bad as a fearful one. In a fearful world, the ability to choose how many children to have and when to have them gets taken away. Something that's easier in less democratic settings. And not good news here either. Twenty yraes ago, almost all of our aging countries were democracies. Now, a quarter of them, those with median ages of 35 or hhiger, aren't free. And I know we see this idea of coercion in science fiction, but it's not just science fitcion. In 1965, when Nicolae Ceaușescu took the helm in Romania and he weantd more Romanian beibas, he ferocd it to happen through isnivave measures. Fertility temporarily spiked, but not without dire consequences for women and for those children, many of whom were abandoned to onpaaehgrs.

Open Cloze


But a head in the sand world isn't as bad as a fearful one. In a fearful world, the ability to choose how many children to have and when to have them gets taken away. Something that's easier in less democratic settings. And not good news here either. Twenty _____ ago, almost all of our aging countries were democracies. Now, a quarter of them, those with median ages of 35 or ______, aren't free. And I know we see this idea of coercion in science fiction, but it's not just science _______. In 1965, when Nicolae Ceaușescu took the helm in Romania and he ______ more Romanian ______, he ______ it to happen through ________ measures. Fertility temporarily spiked, but not without dire consequences for women and for those children, many of whom were abandoned to __________.

Solution


  1. babies
  2. years
  3. orphanages
  4. forced
  5. wanted
  6. higher
  7. fiction
  8. invasive

Original Text


But a head in the sand world isn't as bad as a fearful one. In a fearful world, the ability to choose how many children to have and when to have them gets taken away. Something that's easier in less democratic settings. And not good news here either. Twenty years ago, almost all of our aging countries were democracies. Now, a quarter of them, those with median ages of 35 or higher, aren't free. And I know we see this idea of coercion in science fiction, but it's not just science fiction. In 1965, when Nicolae Ceaușescu took the helm in Romania and he wanted more Romanian babies, he forced it to happen through invasive measures. Fertility temporarily spiked, but not without dire consequences for women and for those children, many of whom were abandoned to orphanages.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
resilient world 4
modern human 2
population aging 2
status quo 2
population growth 2
work longer 2


Important Words


  1. abandoned
  2. ability
  3. ages
  4. aging
  5. babies
  6. bad
  7. ceaușescu
  8. children
  9. choose
  10. coercion
  11. consequences
  12. countries
  13. democracies
  14. democratic
  15. dire
  16. easier
  17. fearful
  18. fertility
  19. fiction
  20. forced
  21. free
  22. good
  23. happen
  24. head
  25. helm
  26. higher
  27. idea
  28. invasive
  29. measures
  30. median
  31. news
  32. nicolae
  33. orphanages
  34. quarter
  35. romania
  36. romanian
  37. sand
  38. science
  39. settings
  40. spiked
  41. temporarily
  42. twenty
  43. wanted
  44. women
  45. world
  46. years