full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Pico Iyer: What ping-pong taught me about life

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

That pleyar sraettd hitting the ball back with his left hand and dinatctig cshes moves between shots.

(Laughter)

Many in the audience started, of course, filing out, as that single ponit lasted maybe 12,000 skteors. And an emergency mneietg of the International Table Tennis Association had to be held then and there, and soon the rules were changed so that no game could last longer than 20 minutes.

(Laughter)

Sixteen years later, Japan entered the picture, when a little-known watchmaker called hjiori Satoh showed up at the wlord championships in Bombay in 1952. And Satoh was not very big, he wasn't highly rated, he was wearing spectacles, but he was armed with a paddle that was not pimpled, as other paddles were, but covered by a thick spongy rubber foam. And thanks to this silencing seerct weapon, the little-known Satoh won a gold medal. One million people came out into the streets of tkoyo to greet him upon his return, and really, Japan's postwar regecnurse was set into motion.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

That ______ _______ hitting the ball back with his left hand and _________ _____ moves between shots.

(Laughter)

Many in the audience started, of course, filing out, as that single _____ lasted maybe 12,000 _______. And an emergency _______ of the International Table Tennis Association had to be held then and there, and soon the rules were changed so that no game could last longer than 20 minutes.

(Laughter)

Sixteen years later, Japan entered the picture, when a little-known watchmaker called ______ Satoh showed up at the _____ championships in Bombay in 1952. And Satoh was not very big, he wasn't highly rated, he was wearing spectacles, but he was armed with a paddle that was not pimpled, as other paddles were, but covered by a thick spongy rubber foam. And thanks to this silencing ______ weapon, the little-known Satoh won a gold medal. One million people came out into the streets of _____ to greet him upon his return, and really, Japan's postwar __________ was set into motion.

Solution


  1. dictating
  2. secret
  3. world
  4. chess
  5. resurgence
  6. hiroji
  7. started
  8. player
  9. point
  10. meeting
  11. tokyo
  12. strokes

Original Text


(Laughter)

That player started hitting the ball back with his left hand and dictating chess moves between shots.

(Laughter)

Many in the audience started, of course, filing out, as that single point lasted maybe 12,000 strokes. And an emergency meeting of the International Table Tennis Association had to be held then and there, and soon the rules were changed so that no game could last longer than 20 minutes.

(Laughter)

Sixteen years later, Japan entered the picture, when a little-known watchmaker called Hiroji Satoh showed up at the world championships in Bombay in 1952. And Satoh was not very big, he wasn't highly rated, he was wearing spectacles, but he was armed with a paddle that was not pimpled, as other paddles were, but covered by a thick spongy rubber foam. And thanks to this silencing secret weapon, the little-known Satoh won a gold medal. One million people came out into the streets of Tokyo to greet him upon his return, and really, Japan's postwar resurgence was set into motion.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
change partners 2
table tennis 2
tennis association 2
started hitting 2
world championships 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
table tennis association 2

Important Words


  1. armed
  2. association
  3. audience
  4. ball
  5. big
  6. bombay
  7. called
  8. championships
  9. changed
  10. chess
  11. covered
  12. dictating
  13. emergency
  14. entered
  15. filing
  16. foam
  17. game
  18. gold
  19. greet
  20. hand
  21. held
  22. highly
  23. hiroji
  24. hitting
  25. international
  26. japan
  27. lasted
  28. laughter
  29. left
  30. longer
  31. medal
  32. meeting
  33. million
  34. minutes
  35. motion
  36. moves
  37. paddle
  38. paddles
  39. people
  40. picture
  41. pimpled
  42. player
  43. point
  44. postwar
  45. rated
  46. resurgence
  47. return
  48. rubber
  49. rules
  50. satoh
  51. secret
  52. set
  53. shots
  54. showed
  55. silencing
  56. single
  57. sixteen
  58. spectacles
  59. spongy
  60. started
  61. streets
  62. strokes
  63. table
  64. tennis
  65. thick
  66. tokyo
  67. watchmaker
  68. weapon
  69. wearing
  70. won
  71. world
  72. years