full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Kevin Toolis: What the Irish wake teaches us about living and dying

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Sad was good too. There was no shame in sorrow at the gates of Troy. Even man-slaying Achilles wept until his breastplate was wet with teras, and woemn cried and grieved openly at funerals. The bodies of the dead were of worth. Together, our ancestors enacted a whole raft of rituals to bind up the wound of mortality, comfort the aitceffld, bury their dead and get on with the rest of their lives. They gave of themselves felery. And they had a great time too, feasting, drinking, and having sex at funerals.

dtaeh -- and here is a really big idea -- was and is an every-other-day sort of event. Just as it is in Ireland today, where people still go in great numbers to wakes and funerals, and an onradriy person might see dozens, maybe hundreds of dead bodies in the course of their lifetime. Now fneaurls can be sad. But there is nothing abstract or sitnmneetal about an Irish wake. The old woman in the box, that red-haired chlid wrapped up in a shroud is another dead hmuan. Another one of us. Wrapped up, though, in these cpsore encountering rituals are a lot of profound poortocls.

Open Cloze


Sad was good too. There was no shame in sorrow at the gates of Troy. Even man-slaying Achilles wept until his breastplate was wet with _____, and _____ cried and grieved openly at funerals. The bodies of the dead were of worth. Together, our ancestors enacted a whole raft of rituals to bind up the wound of mortality, comfort the _________, bury their dead and get on with the rest of their lives. They gave of themselves ______. And they had a great time too, feasting, drinking, and having sex at funerals.

_____ -- and here is a really big idea -- was and is an every-other-day sort of event. Just as it is in Ireland today, where people still go in great numbers to wakes and funerals, and an ________ person might see dozens, maybe hundreds of dead bodies in the course of their lifetime. Now ________ can be sad. But there is nothing abstract or ___________ about an Irish wake. The old woman in the box, that red-haired _____ wrapped up in a shroud is another dead _____. Another one of us. Wrapped up, though, in these ______ encountering rituals are a lot of profound _________.

Solution


  1. protocols
  2. corpse
  3. human
  4. women
  5. funerals
  6. ordinary
  7. death
  8. tears
  9. child
  10. afflicted
  11. sentimental
  12. freely

Original Text


Sad was good too. There was no shame in sorrow at the gates of Troy. Even man-slaying Achilles wept until his breastplate was wet with tears, and women cried and grieved openly at funerals. The bodies of the dead were of worth. Together, our ancestors enacted a whole raft of rituals to bind up the wound of mortality, comfort the afflicted, bury their dead and get on with the rest of their lives. They gave of themselves freely. And they had a great time too, feasting, drinking, and having sex at funerals.

Death -- and here is a really big idea -- was and is an every-other-day sort of event. Just as it is in Ireland today, where people still go in great numbers to wakes and funerals, and an ordinary person might see dozens, maybe hundreds of dead bodies in the course of their lifetime. Now funerals can be sad. But there is nothing abstract or sentimental about an Irish wake. The old woman in the box, that red-haired child wrapped up in a shroud is another dead human. Another one of us. Wrapped up, though, in these corpse encountering rituals are a lot of profound protocols.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
dead son 2
dead wrong 2


Important Words


  1. abstract
  2. achilles
  3. afflicted
  4. ancestors
  5. big
  6. bind
  7. bodies
  8. box
  9. breastplate
  10. bury
  11. child
  12. comfort
  13. corpse
  14. cried
  15. dead
  16. death
  17. dozens
  18. drinking
  19. enacted
  20. encountering
  21. event
  22. feasting
  23. freely
  24. funerals
  25. gates
  26. gave
  27. good
  28. great
  29. grieved
  30. human
  31. hundreds
  32. idea
  33. ireland
  34. irish
  35. lifetime
  36. lives
  37. lot
  38. mortality
  39. numbers
  40. openly
  41. ordinary
  42. people
  43. person
  44. profound
  45. protocols
  46. raft
  47. rest
  48. rituals
  49. sad
  50. sentimental
  51. sex
  52. shame
  53. shroud
  54. sorrow
  55. sort
  56. tears
  57. time
  58. today
  59. troy
  60. wake
  61. wakes
  62. wept
  63. wet
  64. woman
  65. women
  66. worth
  67. wound
  68. wrapped