full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Stephanie Honchell Smith: What really caused the Irish Potato Famine

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Despite the year’s countless tragedies, many families managed to scrape by. But in 1846, the damp weather returned and the blight worsened, impacting 75% of Ireland's potato yield. British relief efforts diminished substantially in the famine’s second year. And while international aid helped save lives, the overall need was enormous. As the crisis wore on, the government limited who was eligible for rieelf and tasked Ireland with funding the relief efforts themselves by increasing local taxes.

Most merodn historians view these disastrous policies as stemming from a mix of txoic religious ideology, laissez-faire economic policies, and polcaitil infighting. British news sources callously dpecited the Irish as lazy, simple-minded alcoholics, and some London decision-makers beeleivd the faimne was God’s pnuienhmst for these sinful boievhras. Other government officials purposefully blocked efforts to provide meaningful relief due to internal political rivalries. As with famines and food insecurity today, it wasn't a lack of resources preventing the bisirth from aiding irlnaed, but rather a lack of political will.

Open Cloze


Despite the year’s countless tragedies, many families managed to scrape by. But in 1846, the damp weather returned and the blight worsened, impacting 75% of Ireland's potato yield. British relief efforts diminished substantially in the famine’s second year. And while international aid helped save lives, the overall need was enormous. As the crisis wore on, the government limited who was eligible for ______ and tasked Ireland with funding the relief efforts themselves by increasing local taxes.

Most ______ historians view these disastrous policies as stemming from a mix of _____ religious ideology, laissez-faire economic policies, and _________ infighting. British news sources callously ________ the Irish as lazy, simple-minded alcoholics, and some London decision-makers ________ the ______ was God’s __________ for these sinful _________. Other government officials purposefully blocked efforts to provide meaningful relief due to internal political rivalries. As with famines and food insecurity today, it wasn't a lack of resources preventing the _______ from aiding _______, but rather a lack of political will.

Solution


  1. depicted
  2. relief
  3. punishment
  4. toxic
  5. behaviors
  6. famine
  7. believed
  8. political
  9. ireland
  10. modern
  11. british

Original Text


Despite the year’s countless tragedies, many families managed to scrape by. But in 1846, the damp weather returned and the blight worsened, impacting 75% of Ireland's potato yield. British relief efforts diminished substantially in the famine’s second year. And while international aid helped save lives, the overall need was enormous. As the crisis wore on, the government limited who was eligible for relief and tasked Ireland with funding the relief efforts themselves by increasing local taxes.

Most modern historians view these disastrous policies as stemming from a mix of toxic religious ideology, laissez-faire economic policies, and political infighting. British news sources callously depicted the Irish as lazy, simple-minded alcoholics, and some London decision-makers believed the famine was God’s punishment for these sinful behaviors. Other government officials purposefully blocked efforts to provide meaningful relief due to internal political rivalries. As with famines and food insecurity today, it wasn't a lack of resources preventing the British from aiding Ireland, but rather a lack of political will.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
relief efforts 3
damp weather 2
food insecurity 2
public works 2
works projects 2
weather patterns 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
public works projects 2

Important Words


  1. aid
  2. aiding
  3. alcoholics
  4. behaviors
  5. believed
  6. blight
  7. blocked
  8. british
  9. callously
  10. countless
  11. crisis
  12. damp
  13. depicted
  14. diminished
  15. disastrous
  16. due
  17. economic
  18. efforts
  19. eligible
  20. enormous
  21. families
  22. famine
  23. famines
  24. food
  25. funding
  26. government
  27. helped
  28. historians
  29. ideology
  30. impacting
  31. increasing
  32. infighting
  33. insecurity
  34. internal
  35. international
  36. ireland
  37. irish
  38. lack
  39. lazy
  40. limited
  41. lives
  42. local
  43. london
  44. managed
  45. meaningful
  46. mix
  47. modern
  48. news
  49. officials
  50. policies
  51. political
  52. potato
  53. preventing
  54. provide
  55. punishment
  56. purposefully
  57. relief
  58. religious
  59. resources
  60. returned
  61. rivalries
  62. save
  63. scrape
  64. sinful
  65. sources
  66. stemming
  67. substantially
  68. tasked
  69. taxes
  70. today
  71. toxic
  72. tragedies
  73. view
  74. weather
  75. wore
  76. worsened
  77. year
  78. yield