full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Suki Kim: This is what it's like to go undercover in North Korea

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Next, I tried to teach them essay writing. But that turned out to be nearly impossible. Essays are about coming up with one's own thesis, and making an evidence-based argument to prove it. These students, however, were simply told what to think, and they obeyed. In their wlrod, critical thinking was not allowed.

I also gave them the weekly assignment of wirintg a preonasl letter, to anybody. It took a long time, but eventually some of them began to write to their methros, their friends, their girlfriends. Although those were just homework, and would never reach their intended recipients, my stdtuens slowly began to reveal their true feelings in them. They wrote that they were fed up with the sameness of everything. They were worried about their fuutre. In those letters, they rarely ever monnteeid their Great ldaeer.

Open Cloze


Next, I tried to teach them essay writing. But that turned out to be nearly impossible. Essays are about coming up with one's own thesis, and making an evidence-based argument to prove it. These students, however, were simply told what to think, and they obeyed. In their _____, critical thinking was not allowed.

I also gave them the weekly assignment of _______ a ________ letter, to anybody. It took a long time, but eventually some of them began to write to their _______, their friends, their girlfriends. Although those were just homework, and would never reach their intended recipients, my ________ slowly began to reveal their true feelings in them. They wrote that they were fed up with the sameness of everything. They were worried about their ______. In those letters, they rarely ever _________ their Great ______.

Solution


  1. mentioned
  2. writing
  3. students
  4. future
  5. world
  6. personal
  7. mothers
  8. leader

Original Text


Next, I tried to teach them essay writing. But that turned out to be nearly impossible. Essays are about coming up with one's own thesis, and making an evidence-based argument to prove it. These students, however, were simply told what to think, and they obeyed. In their world, critical thinking was not allowed.

I also gave them the weekly assignment of writing a personal letter, to anybody. It took a long time, but eventually some of them began to write to their mothers, their friends, their girlfriends. Although those were just homework, and would never reach their intended recipients, my students slowly began to reveal their true feelings in them. They wrote that they were fed up with the sameness of everything. They were worried about their future. In those letters, they rarely ever mentioned their Great Leader.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
north korea 5
great leader 5
north korean 4


Important Words


  1. allowed
  2. argument
  3. assignment
  4. began
  5. coming
  6. critical
  7. essay
  8. essays
  9. eventually
  10. fed
  11. feelings
  12. friends
  13. future
  14. gave
  15. girlfriends
  16. great
  17. homework
  18. impossible
  19. intended
  20. leader
  21. letter
  22. letters
  23. long
  24. making
  25. mentioned
  26. mothers
  27. obeyed
  28. personal
  29. prove
  30. rarely
  31. reach
  32. recipients
  33. reveal
  34. sameness
  35. simply
  36. slowly
  37. students
  38. teach
  39. thesis
  40. thinking
  41. time
  42. told
  43. true
  44. turned
  45. weekly
  46. world
  47. worried
  48. write
  49. writing
  50. wrote