full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Becky Blanton: The year I was homeless

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Nighttime temperatures in the van rarely dropped below 80 dreeegs Fahrenheit, making it difficult or impossible to selep. Food rotted in the heat. Ice in my ice cseht melted within hours, and it was pretty miserable. I couldn't afford to find an apartment, or couldn't afford an apartment that would allow me to have the Rottweiler and the cat. And I refused to give them up, so I stayed in the van. And when the heat made me too sick to walk the 50 feet to the public restroom outside my van at night, I used a bucket and a trash bag as a toilet.

When winter weather set in, the temuaeperrts doepprd below fenrzeig. And they stayed there. And I faced a whole new set of challenges. I parked a different place every night so I would avoid being ntoeicd and helsasd by the police. I didn't always succeed.

Open Cloze


Nighttime temperatures in the van rarely dropped below 80 _______ Fahrenheit, making it difficult or impossible to _____. Food rotted in the heat. Ice in my ice _____ melted within hours, and it was pretty miserable. I couldn't afford to find an apartment, or couldn't afford an apartment that would allow me to have the Rottweiler and the cat. And I refused to give them up, so I stayed in the van. And when the heat made me too sick to walk the 50 feet to the public restroom outside my van at night, I used a bucket and a trash bag as a toilet.

When winter weather set in, the ____________ _______ below ________. And they stayed there. And I faced a whole new set of challenges. I parked a different place every night so I would avoid being _______ and _______ by the police. I didn't always succeed.

Solution


  1. chest
  2. sleep
  3. temperatures
  4. freezing
  5. degrees
  6. noticed
  7. dropped
  8. hassled

Original Text


Nighttime temperatures in the van rarely dropped below 80 degrees Fahrenheit, making it difficult or impossible to sleep. Food rotted in the heat. Ice in my ice chest melted within hours, and it was pretty miserable. I couldn't afford to find an apartment, or couldn't afford an apartment that would allow me to have the Rottweiler and the cat. And I refused to give them up, so I stayed in the van. And when the heat made me too sick to walk the 50 feet to the public restroom outside my van at night, I used a bucket and a trash bag as a toilet.

When winter weather set in, the temperatures dropped below freezing. And they stayed there. And I faced a whole new set of challenges. I parked a different place every night so I would avoid being noticed and hassled by the police. I didn't always succeed.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
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Important Words


  1. afford
  2. apartment
  3. avoid
  4. bag
  5. bucket
  6. cat
  7. challenges
  8. chest
  9. degrees
  10. difficult
  11. dropped
  12. faced
  13. fahrenheit
  14. feet
  15. find
  16. food
  17. freezing
  18. give
  19. hassled
  20. heat
  21. hours
  22. ice
  23. impossible
  24. making
  25. melted
  26. miserable
  27. night
  28. nighttime
  29. noticed
  30. parked
  31. place
  32. police
  33. pretty
  34. public
  35. rarely
  36. refused
  37. restroom
  38. rotted
  39. rottweiler
  40. set
  41. sick
  42. sleep
  43. stayed
  44. succeed
  45. temperatures
  46. toilet
  47. trash
  48. van
  49. walk
  50. weather
  51. winter