full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Laura Rovner: What happens to people in solitary confinement

Unscramble the Blue Letters


The isolation is so deep and profound that one of our ctlneis would lie on the foolr of his cell for hrous, just hoping to ccath a glimpse of someone's feet as they walked past the door of his cell. Another befriended a wasp that flew into his cell, fedneig it and talking to it like a friend. Some try to communicate with fellow prisoners by yelling through the shower dniars. Still though, many of these men lost their voices after talking with us for just an hour. Their vocal codrs were out of practice speaking for that long.

We know the impact of long-term isolation is devastating. This borders on common ssnee. It's why harsh prison systems and torture regimes routinely use solitary as a form of severe punehsinmt. And why none of us would tolerate having a loved one, like a parent or a child, locked alone in a small bathroom for days, let alone years. Or deeadcs.

Open Cloze


The isolation is so deep and profound that one of our _______ would lie on the _____ of his cell for _____, just hoping to _____ a glimpse of someone's feet as they walked past the door of his cell. Another befriended a wasp that flew into his cell, _______ it and talking to it like a friend. Some try to communicate with fellow prisoners by yelling through the shower ______. Still though, many of these men lost their voices after talking with us for just an hour. Their vocal _____ were out of practice speaking for that long.

We know the impact of long-term isolation is devastating. This borders on common _____. It's why harsh prison systems and torture regimes routinely use solitary as a form of severe __________. And why none of us would tolerate having a loved one, like a parent or a child, locked alone in a small bathroom for days, let alone years. Or _______.

Solution


  1. hours
  2. catch
  3. punishment
  4. drains
  5. cords
  6. decades
  7. floor
  8. clients
  9. feeding
  10. sense

Original Text


The isolation is so deep and profound that one of our clients would lie on the floor of his cell for hours, just hoping to catch a glimpse of someone's feet as they walked past the door of his cell. Another befriended a wasp that flew into his cell, feeding it and talking to it like a friend. Some try to communicate with fellow prisoners by yelling through the shower drains. Still though, many of these men lost their voices after talking with us for just an hour. Their vocal cords were out of practice speaking for that long.

We know the impact of long-term isolation is devastating. This borders on common sense. It's why harsh prison systems and torture regimes routinely use solitary as a form of severe punishment. And why none of us would tolerate having a loved one, like a parent or a child, locked alone in a small bathroom for days, let alone years. Or decades.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
solitary confinement 7
human rights 5
justice system 3
small bathroom 2
corrections officer 2
state department 2
prison walls 2


Important Words


  1. bathroom
  2. befriended
  3. borders
  4. catch
  5. cell
  6. child
  7. clients
  8. common
  9. communicate
  10. cords
  11. days
  12. decades
  13. deep
  14. devastating
  15. door
  16. drains
  17. feeding
  18. feet
  19. fellow
  20. flew
  21. floor
  22. form
  23. friend
  24. glimpse
  25. harsh
  26. hoping
  27. hour
  28. hours
  29. impact
  30. isolation
  31. lie
  32. locked
  33. long
  34. lost
  35. loved
  36. men
  37. parent
  38. practice
  39. prison
  40. prisoners
  41. profound
  42. punishment
  43. regimes
  44. routinely
  45. sense
  46. severe
  47. shower
  48. small
  49. solitary
  50. speaking
  51. systems
  52. talking
  53. tolerate
  54. torture
  55. vocal
  56. voices
  57. walked
  58. wasp
  59. years
  60. yelling