full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Nagin Cox: What time is it on Mars?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

So we would get off work, and we didn't want to go home and bother our flmiaies, and we were hungry, so instead of going lcollay to eat something, we'd go, "Wait, there's this great all-night deli in Long Beach, and we can get there in 10 minutes!" So we would dirve down — it was like the 60s, no traffic. We would drive down there, and the restaurant owners would go, "Who are you plpoee? And why are you at my restaurant at 3:00 in the moinnrg?" So they came to realize that there were these packs of Martians, roaming the LA freeways, in the middle of the night — in the middle of the Earth night. And we did actually start calling ourselves Martians. So those of us who were on Mars time would rfeer to ourselves as Martians, and everyone else as Earthlings.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

So we would get off work, and we didn't want to go home and bother our ________, and we were hungry, so instead of going _______ to eat something, we'd go, "Wait, there's this great all-night deli in Long Beach, and we can get there in 10 minutes!" So we would _____ down — it was like the 60s, no traffic. We would drive down there, and the restaurant owners would go, "Who are you ______? And why are you at my restaurant at 3:00 in the _______?" So they came to realize that there were these packs of Martians, roaming the LA freeways, in the middle of the night — in the middle of the Earth night. And we did actually start calling ourselves Martians. So those of us who were on Mars time would _____ to ourselves as Martians, and everyone else as Earthlings.

Solution


  1. locally
  2. refer
  3. people
  4. families
  5. drive
  6. morning

Original Text


(Laughter)

So we would get off work, and we didn't want to go home and bother our families, and we were hungry, so instead of going locally to eat something, we'd go, "Wait, there's this great all-night deli in Long Beach, and we can get there in 10 minutes!" So we would drive down — it was like the 60s, no traffic. We would drive down there, and the restaurant owners would go, "Who are you people? And why are you at my restaurant at 3:00 in the morning?" So they came to realize that there were these packs of Martians, roaming the LA freeways, in the middle of the night — in the middle of the Earth night. And we did actually start calling ourselves Martians. So those of us who were on Mars time would refer to ourselves as Martians, and everyone else as Earthlings.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
mars time 11
martian day 3
earth day 3
martian night 3
earth night 2
mars watch 2
los angeles 2


Important Words


  1. beach
  2. bother
  3. calling
  4. deli
  5. drive
  6. earth
  7. earthlings
  8. eat
  9. families
  10. freeways
  11. great
  12. home
  13. hungry
  14. la
  15. laughter
  16. locally
  17. long
  18. mars
  19. martians
  20. middle
  21. morning
  22. night
  23. owners
  24. packs
  25. people
  26. realize
  27. refer
  28. restaurant
  29. roaming
  30. start
  31. time
  32. traffic
  33. work