full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alice Rawsthorn: Pirates, nurses and other rebel designers

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So Edward Teach redesigned himself as bakacerbld by playing the part of a merciless bture. He wore heavy jtkaces and big hats to aaeuccttne his height. He grew the bushy black beard that obscured his face. He slung braces of pistols on either shoulder. He even attached matches to the brim of his hat and set them alight, so they sizzled menacingly whenever his ship was poised to attack. And like many pirates of that era, he flew a flag that bore the macabre symbols of a human skull and a pair of crossed bones, because those mfotis had signified death in so many cultures for ceiertuns, that their meaning was instantly roazeblnigce, even in the lawless, illiterate world of the high seas: srreunedr or you'll seuffr. So of course, all his sensible victims surrendered on shigt.

Open Cloze


So Edward Teach redesigned himself as __________ by playing the part of a merciless _____. He wore heavy _______ and big hats to __________ his height. He grew the bushy black beard that obscured his face. He slung braces of pistols on either shoulder. He even attached matches to the brim of his hat and set them alight, so they sizzled menacingly whenever his ship was poised to attack. And like many pirates of that era, he flew a flag that bore the macabre symbols of a human skull and a pair of crossed bones, because those ______ had signified death in so many cultures for _________, that their meaning was instantly ____________, even in the lawless, illiterate world of the high seas: _________ or you'll ______. So of course, all his sensible victims surrendered on _____.

Solution


  1. brute
  2. centuries
  3. jackets
  4. blackbeard
  5. accentuate
  6. recognizable
  7. sight
  8. motifs
  9. surrender
  10. suffer

Original Text


So Edward Teach redesigned himself as Blackbeard by playing the part of a merciless brute. He wore heavy jackets and big hats to accentuate his height. He grew the bushy black beard that obscured his face. He slung braces of pistols on either shoulder. He even attached matches to the brim of his hat and set them alight, so they sizzled menacingly whenever his ship was poised to attack. And like many pirates of that era, he flew a flag that bore the macabre symbols of a human skull and a pair of crossed bones, because those motifs had signified death in so many cultures for centuries, that their meaning was instantly recognizable, even in the lawless, illiterate world of the high seas: surrender or you'll suffer. So of course, all his sensible victims surrendered on sight.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
ying zheng 2
edward teach 2
deadly symbol 2
professional designers 2
arthur zang 2


Important Words


  1. accentuate
  2. alight
  3. attached
  4. attack
  5. beard
  6. big
  7. black
  8. blackbeard
  9. bones
  10. bore
  11. braces
  12. brim
  13. brute
  14. bushy
  15. centuries
  16. crossed
  17. cultures
  18. death
  19. edward
  20. era
  21. face
  22. flag
  23. flew
  24. grew
  25. hat
  26. hats
  27. heavy
  28. height
  29. high
  30. human
  31. illiterate
  32. instantly
  33. jackets
  34. lawless
  35. macabre
  36. matches
  37. meaning
  38. menacingly
  39. merciless
  40. motifs
  41. obscured
  42. pair
  43. part
  44. pirates
  45. pistols
  46. playing
  47. poised
  48. recognizable
  49. redesigned
  50. set
  51. ship
  52. shoulder
  53. sight
  54. signified
  55. sizzled
  56. skull
  57. slung
  58. suffer
  59. surrender
  60. surrendered
  61. symbols
  62. teach
  63. victims
  64. wore
  65. world