full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Elizabeth Cox: What really happened to the Library of Alexandria?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


ltceaod in the royal district of the city, the Library of Alexandria may have been built with grand hetsieinllc columns, native Egyptian influences, or a unique blend of the two—there are no suinivrvg accounts of its ahrirecuctte. We do know it had lecture halls, classrooms, and, of course, shelves. As soon as the building was cpmlotee, Ptolemy I began to fill it with primarily Greek and Egyptian scrolls. He invited scholars to live and study in aexandilra at his expense. The library grew as they contributed their own mnuicsrpats, but the rulers of Alexandria still wanted a copy of every book in the world.

Open Cloze


_______ in the royal district of the city, the Library of Alexandria may have been built with grand ___________ columns, native Egyptian influences, or a unique blend of the two—there are no _________ accounts of its ____________. We do know it had lecture halls, classrooms, and, of course, shelves. As soon as the building was ________, Ptolemy I began to fill it with primarily Greek and Egyptian scrolls. He invited scholars to live and study in __________ at his expense. The library grew as they contributed their own ___________, but the rulers of Alexandria still wanted a copy of every book in the world.

Solution


  1. manuscripts
  2. hellenistic
  3. alexandria
  4. located
  5. complete
  6. surviving
  7. architecture

Original Text


Located in the royal district of the city, the Library of Alexandria may have been built with grand Hellenistic columns, native Egyptian influences, or a unique blend of the two—there are no surviving accounts of its architecture. We do know it had lecture halls, classrooms, and, of course, shelves. As soon as the building was complete, Ptolemy I began to fill it with primarily Greek and Egyptian scrolls. He invited scholars to live and study in Alexandria at his expense. The library grew as they contributed their own manuscripts, but the rulers of Alexandria still wanted a copy of every book in the world.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
find information 2


Important Words


  1. accounts
  2. alexandria
  3. architecture
  4. began
  5. blend
  6. book
  7. building
  8. built
  9. city
  10. classrooms
  11. columns
  12. complete
  13. contributed
  14. copy
  15. district
  16. egyptian
  17. expense
  18. fill
  19. grand
  20. greek
  21. grew
  22. halls
  23. hellenistic
  24. influences
  25. invited
  26. lecture
  27. library
  28. live
  29. located
  30. manuscripts
  31. native
  32. primarily
  33. ptolemy
  34. royal
  35. rulers
  36. scholars
  37. scrolls
  38. shelves
  39. study
  40. surviving
  41. unique
  42. wanted
  43. world