full transcript

From the Ted Talk by David Damberger: What happens when an NGO admits failure

Unscramble the Blue Letters


When looking at these pictures, one of my great colleagues said, "Everything people see from Africa doesn't matter. And everything that matters from Africa, people don't get to see." And this prbolem goes a lot further that just broken down water points. Owen, after seeing this waetr point, doieerscvd not more than 30 feet away: "Hey there's another set of taps that look really broken down, too, but they're not attached to the system." And he asked the ciomumnty, "What's that?" They said: "Oh, that's the American government gravity-fed water system." It was built over ten years ago. He said, "What happened to that?" They said, "Oh, it also broke down about a year and a half later." How is it that a pcoejrt that faeild ten years ago was rebuilt with almost the same technology, same process, and had exactly the same failure ten years later?

Open Cloze


When looking at these pictures, one of my great colleagues said, "Everything people see from Africa doesn't matter. And everything that matters from Africa, people don't get to see." And this _______ goes a lot further that just broken down water points. Owen, after seeing this _____ point, __________ not more than 30 feet away: "Hey there's another set of taps that look really broken down, too, but they're not attached to the system." And he asked the _________, "What's that?" They said: "Oh, that's the American government gravity-fed water system." It was built over ten years ago. He said, "What happened to that?" They said, "Oh, it also broke down about a year and a half later." How is it that a _______ that ______ ten years ago was rebuilt with almost the same technology, same process, and had exactly the same failure ten years later?

Solution


  1. community
  2. failed
  3. project
  4. discovered
  5. water
  6. problem

Original Text


When looking at these pictures, one of my great colleagues said, "Everything people see from Africa doesn't matter. And everything that matters from Africa, people don't get to see." And this problem goes a lot further that just broken down water points. Owen, after seeing this water point, discovered not more than 30 feet away: "Hey there's another set of taps that look really broken down, too, but they're not attached to the system." And he asked the community, "What's that?" They said: "Oh, that's the American government gravity-fed water system." It was built over ten years ago. He said, "What happened to that?" They said, "Oh, it also broke down about a year and a half later." How is it that a project that failed ten years ago was rebuilt with almost the same technology, same process, and had exactly the same failure ten years later?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
ten years 5
fresh water 4
staff members 3
water points 3
software side 3
gained access 2
aid industry 2
admitting failure 2
collect water 2
rainwater harvesting 2


Important Words


  1. africa
  2. american
  3. asked
  4. attached
  5. broke
  6. broken
  7. built
  8. colleagues
  9. community
  10. discovered
  11. failed
  12. failure
  13. feet
  14. government
  15. great
  16. happened
  17. lot
  18. matter
  19. matters
  20. owen
  21. people
  22. pictures
  23. point
  24. points
  25. problem
  26. process
  27. project
  28. rebuilt
  29. set
  30. system
  31. taps
  32. technology
  33. ten
  34. water
  35. year
  36. years