full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Anders Fjellberg: Two nameless bodies washed up on the beach. Here are their stories

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So a couple of years into the Syrian war, the family fled dcausmas and went to the neighboring country, Jordan. Their father had problems finding work in Jordan, and Mouaz could not continue his studies, so he figured, "OK, the best thing I can do to help my family would be to go somewhere where I can fnsiih my studies and find work." So he goes to Turkey.

In Turkey, he's not accepted at a uevrsnitiy, and once he had left jdaron as a refugee, he was not allowed to reenter. So then he decides to head for the UK, where his uncle lives. He makes it into Algeria, walks into Libya, pays a people smuggler to help him with the crossing into Italy by boat, and from there on he hdeas to Dunkirk, the city right next to Calais by the English Channel. We know he made at least 12 failed attempts to cross the egislnh Channel by hiding in a turck. But at some point, he must have given up all hope. The last night we know he was alive, he spent at a cheap hotel close to the train station in dukrink. We found his name in the rdroces, and he seems to have stayed there alone. The day after, he went into caalis, eeretnd a sports shop a cupole of minutes before 8 o'clock in the evening, along with Shadi Kataf. They both bought wutiests, and the woman in the shop was the last person we know of to have seen them alive. We have tried to figure out where Shadi met Mouaz, but we weren't able to do that. But they do have a similar story. We first haerd about Shadi after a csiuon of his, living in Germany, had read an Arabic translation of the story made of Mouaz on feboaock. So we got in touch with him. Shadi, a couple of yares older than Mouaz, was also raesid in Damascus. He was a wnkoirg kind of guy. He ran a tire repair shop and later worked in a printing company. He lived with his extended fmliay, but their house got bombed early in the war. So the family fled to an area of Damascus known as Camp Yarmouk.

Open Cloze


So a couple of years into the Syrian war, the family fled ________ and went to the neighboring country, Jordan. Their father had problems finding work in Jordan, and Mouaz could not continue his studies, so he figured, "OK, the best thing I can do to help my family would be to go somewhere where I can ______ my studies and find work." So he goes to Turkey.

In Turkey, he's not accepted at a __________, and once he had left ______ as a refugee, he was not allowed to reenter. So then he decides to head for the UK, where his uncle lives. He makes it into Algeria, walks into Libya, pays a people smuggler to help him with the crossing into Italy by boat, and from there on he _____ to Dunkirk, the city right next to Calais by the English Channel. We know he made at least 12 failed attempts to cross the _______ Channel by hiding in a _____. But at some point, he must have given up all hope. The last night we know he was alive, he spent at a cheap hotel close to the train station in _______. We found his name in the _______, and he seems to have stayed there alone. The day after, he went into ______, _______ a sports shop a ______ of minutes before 8 o'clock in the evening, along with Shadi Kataf. They both bought ________, and the woman in the shop was the last person we know of to have seen them alive. We have tried to figure out where Shadi met Mouaz, but we weren't able to do that. But they do have a similar story. We first _____ about Shadi after a ______ of his, living in Germany, had read an Arabic translation of the story made of Mouaz on ________. So we got in touch with him. Shadi, a couple of _____ older than Mouaz, was also ______ in Damascus. He was a _______ kind of guy. He ran a tire repair shop and later worked in a printing company. He lived with his extended ______, but their house got bombed early in the war. So the family fled to an area of Damascus known as Camp Yarmouk.

Solution


  1. working
  2. years
  3. english
  4. couple
  5. facebook
  6. wetsuits
  7. damascus
  8. truck
  9. cousin
  10. heads
  11. calais
  12. heard
  13. jordan
  14. entered
  15. family
  16. dunkirk
  17. finish
  18. university
  19. records
  20. raised

Original Text


So a couple of years into the Syrian war, the family fled Damascus and went to the neighboring country, Jordan. Their father had problems finding work in Jordan, and Mouaz could not continue his studies, so he figured, "OK, the best thing I can do to help my family would be to go somewhere where I can finish my studies and find work." So he goes to Turkey.

In Turkey, he's not accepted at a university, and once he had left Jordan as a refugee, he was not allowed to reenter. So then he decides to head for the UK, where his uncle lives. He makes it into Algeria, walks into Libya, pays a people smuggler to help him with the crossing into Italy by boat, and from there on he heads to Dunkirk, the city right next to Calais by the English Channel. We know he made at least 12 failed attempts to cross the English Channel by hiding in a truck. But at some point, he must have given up all hope. The last night we know he was alive, he spent at a cheap hotel close to the train station in Dunkirk. We found his name in the records, and he seems to have stayed there alone. The day after, he went into Calais, entered a sports shop a couple of minutes before 8 o'clock in the evening, along with Shadi Kataf. They both bought wetsuits, and the woman in the shop was the last person we know of to have seen them alive. We have tried to figure out where Shadi met Mouaz, but we weren't able to do that. But they do have a similar story. We first heard about Shadi after a cousin of his, living in Germany, had read an Arabic translation of the story made of Mouaz on Facebook. So we got in touch with him. Shadi, a couple of years older than Mouaz, was also raised in Damascus. He was a working kind of guy. He ran a tire repair shop and later worked in a printing company. He lived with his extended family, but their house got bombed early in the war. So the family fled to an area of Damascus known as Camp Yarmouk.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
english channel 4
mouaz al 3
al balkhi 3
limited access 3
started searching 2
dna samples 2
family fled 2
find work 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
mouaz al balkhi 3

Important Words


  1. accepted
  2. algeria
  3. alive
  4. allowed
  5. arabic
  6. area
  7. attempts
  8. boat
  9. bombed
  10. bought
  11. calais
  12. camp
  13. channel
  14. cheap
  15. city
  16. close
  17. company
  18. continue
  19. country
  20. couple
  21. cousin
  22. cross
  23. crossing
  24. damascus
  25. day
  26. decides
  27. dunkirk
  28. early
  29. english
  30. entered
  31. evening
  32. extended
  33. facebook
  34. failed
  35. family
  36. father
  37. figure
  38. figured
  39. find
  40. finding
  41. finish
  42. fled
  43. germany
  44. guy
  45. head
  46. heads
  47. heard
  48. hiding
  49. hope
  50. hotel
  51. house
  52. italy
  53. jordan
  54. kataf
  55. kind
  56. left
  57. libya
  58. lived
  59. lives
  60. living
  61. met
  62. minutes
  63. mouaz
  64. neighboring
  65. night
  66. older
  67. pays
  68. people
  69. person
  70. point
  71. printing
  72. problems
  73. raised
  74. ran
  75. read
  76. records
  77. reenter
  78. refugee
  79. repair
  80. shadi
  81. shop
  82. similar
  83. smuggler
  84. spent
  85. sports
  86. station
  87. stayed
  88. story
  89. studies
  90. syrian
  91. tire
  92. touch
  93. train
  94. translation
  95. truck
  96. turkey
  97. uk
  98. uncle
  99. university
  100. walks
  101. war
  102. wetsuits
  103. woman
  104. work
  105. worked
  106. working
  107. yarmouk
  108. years