full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!

Unscramble the Blue Letters


There's a lovely stroy that I read in a futurist magazine many, many yares ago. There was a group of experts who were invited to discuss the future of the city of New York in 1860. And in 1860, this group of pelpoe came together, and they all speculated about what would happen to the city of New York in 100 years, and the clniuoscon was unanimous: The city of New York would not exist in 100 years. Why? Because they looked at the curve and said, if the population keeps growing at this rate, to move the population of New York around, they would have needed six million horses, and the mnruae created by six million horses would be impossible to deal with. They were already dwrinong in manure. (letuhagr) So 1860, they are seeing this drity technology that is going to choke the life out of New York.

Open Cloze


There's a lovely _____ that I read in a futurist magazine many, many _____ ago. There was a group of experts who were invited to discuss the future of the city of New York in 1860. And in 1860, this group of ______ came together, and they all speculated about what would happen to the city of New York in 100 years, and the __________ was unanimous: The city of New York would not exist in 100 years. Why? Because they looked at the curve and said, if the population keeps growing at this rate, to move the population of New York around, they would have needed six million horses, and the ______ created by six million horses would be impossible to deal with. They were already ________ in manure. (________) So 1860, they are seeing this _____ technology that is going to choke the life out of New York.

Solution


  1. drowning
  2. people
  3. manure
  4. dirty
  5. years
  6. laughter
  7. conclusion
  8. story

Original Text


There's a lovely story that I read in a futurist magazine many, many years ago. There was a group of experts who were invited to discuss the future of the city of New York in 1860. And in 1860, this group of people came together, and they all speculated about what would happen to the city of New York in 100 years, and the conclusion was unanimous: The city of New York would not exist in 100 years. Why? Because they looked at the curve and said, if the population keeps growing at this rate, to move the population of New York around, they would have needed six million horses, and the manure created by six million horses would be impossible to deal with. They were already drowning in manure. (Laughter) So 1860, they are seeing this dirty technology that is going to choke the life out of New York.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
local people 5
zambian people 2
community meetings 2
smartest people 2
family doctor 2
peter drucker 2


Important Words


  1. choke
  2. city
  3. conclusion
  4. created
  5. curve
  6. deal
  7. dirty
  8. discuss
  9. drowning
  10. exist
  11. experts
  12. future
  13. futurist
  14. group
  15. growing
  16. happen
  17. horses
  18. impossible
  19. invited
  20. laughter
  21. life
  22. looked
  23. lovely
  24. magazine
  25. manure
  26. million
  27. move
  28. needed
  29. people
  30. population
  31. rate
  32. read
  33. speculated
  34. story
  35. technology
  36. years
  37. york