full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Enrique Peñalosa: Why buses represent democracy in action

Unscramble the Blue Letters


We have been so used to ieatnquily, sometimes, that it's before our noses and we do not see it. Less than 100 yeras ago, women could not vote, and it seemed normal, in the same way that it seems normal today to see a bus in traffic. In fact, when I became moyar, applying that democratic principle that public good prevails over private interest, that a bus with 100 people has a right to 100 times more road space than a car, we implemented a mass transit system based on buses in exclusive lanes. We called it TransMilenio, in order to make buses sexier. And one thing is that it is also a very beautiful democratic symbol, because as buses zoom by, expensive cars stcuk in traffic, it clearly is almost a picture of democracy at work. In fact, it's not just a matter of equity. It doesn't take Ph.D.'s. A committee of 12-year-old children would find out in 20 minutes that the most efficient way to use scarce road space is with exclusive laens for besus. In fact, buses are not sexy, but they are the only possible means to bring mass tsranit to all aaers of fast growing developing cities. They also have great capacity. For example, this steysm in Guangzhou is moving more prgsaneses our dieoirctn than all subway lines in cihna, except for one line in Beijing, at a fraction of the cost.

Open Cloze


We have been so used to __________, sometimes, that it's before our noses and we do not see it. Less than 100 _____ ago, women could not vote, and it seemed normal, in the same way that it seems normal today to see a bus in traffic. In fact, when I became _____, applying that democratic principle that public good prevails over private interest, that a bus with 100 people has a right to 100 times more road space than a car, we implemented a mass transit system based on buses in exclusive lanes. We called it TransMilenio, in order to make buses sexier. And one thing is that it is also a very beautiful democratic symbol, because as buses zoom by, expensive cars _____ in traffic, it clearly is almost a picture of democracy at work. In fact, it's not just a matter of equity. It doesn't take Ph.D.'s. A committee of 12-year-old children would find out in 20 minutes that the most efficient way to use scarce road space is with exclusive _____ for _____. In fact, buses are not sexy, but they are the only possible means to bring mass _______ to all _____ of fast growing developing cities. They also have great capacity. For example, this ______ in Guangzhou is moving more __________ our _________ than all subway lines in _____, except for one line in Beijing, at a fraction of the cost.

Solution


  1. passengers
  2. system
  3. buses
  4. stuck
  5. china
  6. lanes
  7. mayor
  8. years
  9. direction
  10. areas
  11. transit
  12. inequality

Original Text


We have been so used to inequality, sometimes, that it's before our noses and we do not see it. Less than 100 years ago, women could not vote, and it seemed normal, in the same way that it seems normal today to see a bus in traffic. In fact, when I became mayor, applying that democratic principle that public good prevails over private interest, that a bus with 100 people has a right to 100 times more road space than a car, we implemented a mass transit system based on buses in exclusive lanes. We called it TransMilenio, in order to make buses sexier. And one thing is that it is also a very beautiful democratic symbol, because as buses zoom by, expensive cars stuck in traffic, it clearly is almost a picture of democracy at work. In fact, it's not just a matter of equity. It doesn't take Ph.D.'s. A committee of 12-year-old children would find out in 20 minutes that the most efficient way to use scarce road space is with exclusive lanes for buses. In fact, buses are not sexy, but they are the only possible means to bring mass transit to all areas of fast growing developing cities. They also have great capacity. For example, this system in Guangzhou is moving more passengers our direction than all subway lines in China, except for one line in Beijing, at a fraction of the cost.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
developing country 5
road space 5
united states 4
public transport 3
mass transit 3
difficult battle 3
percent urban 3
developing world 2
world cities 2
developing countries 2
private property 2
market economy 2
exclusive lanes 2
protected bikeways 2
equally important 2
protected bicycle 2
bicycle ways 2
country cities 2
human beings 2
latin america 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
developing world cities 2
protected bicycle ways 2
developing country cities 2

Important Words


  1. applying
  2. areas
  3. based
  4. beautiful
  5. beijing
  6. bring
  7. bus
  8. buses
  9. called
  10. capacity
  11. car
  12. cars
  13. children
  14. china
  15. cities
  16. committee
  17. cost
  18. democracy
  19. democratic
  20. developing
  21. direction
  22. efficient
  23. equity
  24. exclusive
  25. expensive
  26. fact
  27. fast
  28. find
  29. fraction
  30. good
  31. great
  32. growing
  33. guangzhou
  34. implemented
  35. inequality
  36. interest
  37. lanes
  38. line
  39. lines
  40. mass
  41. matter
  42. mayor
  43. means
  44. minutes
  45. moving
  46. normal
  47. noses
  48. order
  49. passengers
  50. people
  51. ph
  52. picture
  53. prevails
  54. principle
  55. private
  56. public
  57. road
  58. scarce
  59. sexier
  60. sexy
  61. space
  62. stuck
  63. subway
  64. symbol
  65. system
  66. times
  67. today
  68. traffic
  69. transit
  70. transmilenio
  71. vote
  72. women
  73. work
  74. years
  75. zoom