full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jacob Soboroff: Why do Americans vote on Tuesdays?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I want to tell you all about a piece of aarmecin hotisry that is so screet, that nobody has done anything about it for 167 years, until right now. And the way that we're going to uncover this vsegiiatl ogran of America past is by asking this question: Why? As we all know — (Laughter) we are in the middle of another presidential election, hotly contested, as you can see. (Laughter) But what you may not know is that American voter turnout ranks near the bottom of all countries in the entire world, 138th of 172 nations. This is the world's most famous damrecocy. So ... Why do we vote on Tuesday? Does anybody know? And as a matter of fact, miihagcn and Arizona are voting tdoay. Here's the answer: Absolutely no good reason whatsoever. (Laughter) I'm not joking. You will not find the answer in the direacotaln of Independence, nor will you find it in the Constitution. It is just a stupid law from 1845. (Laughter) In 1845, Americans traveled by horse and buggy. As did I, evidently. It took a day to get to the county seat to vote, a day to get back, and you couldn't travel on the satbabh, so, Tuesday it was. I don't often travel by horse and buggy, I would imagine most of you don't, so when I found out about this, I was fascinated. I linked up with a gorup clelad, what else — "Why Tuesday?" to go and ask our nation's most prominent elected leredas if they knew the answer to the question, "Why do we vote on Tuesday?" (Video) Rick Santorum: Anybody knows? OK, I'm going to be spuemtd on this. Anybody knows why we vote on Tuesdays? Jacob Soboroff: Do you happen to know? Ron Paul: On Tuesdays? JS: The day after the first mandoy in November. RP: I don't know how that originated. JS: Do you know why we do vote on Tuesday? Newt Gingrich: No. Dick Lugar: No, I don't. (Laughter) Dianne Feinstein: I don't. Darrell Issa: No. John Kerry: In truth, really, I'm not sure why. JS: OK, thanks very much. (leghutar) JS: These are people that live for election day, yet they don't know why we vote on that very day. (Laughter) Chris Rock said, "They don't want you to vote. If they did, we wouldn't vote on a Tuesday in November. Have you ever thrown a party on a Tuesday? (Laughter) No, of course not. Nobody would show up." (Laughter) Here's the cool part. Because we asked this quiosetn, "Why tuadsey?" there is now this bill, the Weekend votnig Act in the Congress of the utenid setats of America. It would move election day from Tuesday to the weekend, so that — duh — more people can vote. (aspulape) It has only taken 167 years, but finally, we are on the verge of changing American history. Thank you very much. (Applause) Thanks a lot. (Applause)

Open Cloze


I want to tell you all about a piece of ________ _______ that is so ______, that nobody has done anything about it for 167 years, until right now. And the way that we're going to uncover this _________ _____ of America past is by asking this question: Why? As we all know — (Laughter) we are in the middle of another presidential election, hotly contested, as you can see. (Laughter) But what you may not know is that American voter turnout ranks near the bottom of all countries in the entire world, 138th of 172 nations. This is the world's most famous _________. So ... Why do we vote on Tuesday? Does anybody know? And as a matter of fact, ________ and Arizona are voting _____. Here's the answer: Absolutely no good reason whatsoever. (Laughter) I'm not joking. You will not find the answer in the ___________ of Independence, nor will you find it in the Constitution. It is just a stupid law from 1845. (Laughter) In 1845, Americans traveled by horse and buggy. As did I, evidently. It took a day to get to the county seat to vote, a day to get back, and you couldn't travel on the _______, so, Tuesday it was. I don't often travel by horse and buggy, I would imagine most of you don't, so when I found out about this, I was fascinated. I linked up with a _____ ______, what else — "Why Tuesday?" to go and ask our nation's most prominent elected _______ if they knew the answer to the question, "Why do we vote on Tuesday?" (Video) Rick Santorum: Anybody knows? OK, I'm going to be _______ on this. Anybody knows why we vote on Tuesdays? Jacob Soboroff: Do you happen to know? Ron Paul: On Tuesdays? JS: The day after the first ______ in November. RP: I don't know how that originated. JS: Do you know why we do vote on Tuesday? Newt Gingrich: No. Dick Lugar: No, I don't. (Laughter) Dianne Feinstein: I don't. Darrell Issa: No. John Kerry: In truth, really, I'm not sure why. JS: OK, thanks very much. (________) JS: These are people that live for election day, yet they don't know why we vote on that very day. (Laughter) Chris Rock said, "They don't want you to vote. If they did, we wouldn't vote on a Tuesday in November. Have you ever thrown a party on a Tuesday? (Laughter) No, of course not. Nobody would show up." (Laughter) Here's the cool part. Because we asked this ________, "Why _______?" there is now this bill, the Weekend ______ Act in the Congress of the ______ ______ of America. It would move election day from Tuesday to the weekend, so that — duh — more people can vote. (________) It has only taken 167 years, but finally, we are on the verge of changing American history. Thank you very much. (Applause) Thanks a lot. (Applause)

Solution


  1. secret
  2. organ
  3. democracy
  4. vestigial
  5. sabbath
  6. stumped
  7. michigan
  8. group
  9. called
  10. united
  11. declaration
  12. states
  13. tuesday
  14. history
  15. voting
  16. today
  17. leaders
  18. monday
  19. question
  20. laughter
  21. american
  22. applause

Original Text


I want to tell you all about a piece of American history that is so secret, that nobody has done anything about it for 167 years, until right now. And the way that we're going to uncover this vestigial organ of America past is by asking this question: Why? As we all know — (Laughter) we are in the middle of another presidential election, hotly contested, as you can see. (Laughter) But what you may not know is that American voter turnout ranks near the bottom of all countries in the entire world, 138th of 172 nations. This is the world's most famous democracy. So ... Why do we vote on Tuesday? Does anybody know? And as a matter of fact, Michigan and Arizona are voting today. Here's the answer: Absolutely no good reason whatsoever. (Laughter) I'm not joking. You will not find the answer in the Declaration of Independence, nor will you find it in the Constitution. It is just a stupid law from 1845. (Laughter) In 1845, Americans traveled by horse and buggy. As did I, evidently. It took a day to get to the county seat to vote, a day to get back, and you couldn't travel on the Sabbath, so, Tuesday it was. I don't often travel by horse and buggy, I would imagine most of you don't, so when I found out about this, I was fascinated. I linked up with a group called, what else — "Why Tuesday?" to go and ask our nation's most prominent elected leaders if they knew the answer to the question, "Why do we vote on Tuesday?" (Video) Rick Santorum: Anybody knows? OK, I'm going to be stumped on this. Anybody knows why we vote on Tuesdays? Jacob Soboroff: Do you happen to know? Ron Paul: On Tuesdays? JS: The day after the first Monday in November. RP: I don't know how that originated. JS: Do you know why we do vote on Tuesday? Newt Gingrich: No. Dick Lugar: No, I don't. (Laughter) Dianne Feinstein: I don't. Darrell Issa: No. John Kerry: In truth, really, I'm not sure why. JS: OK, thanks very much. (Laughter) JS: These are people that live for election day, yet they don't know why we vote on that very day. (Laughter) Chris Rock said, "They don't want you to vote. If they did, we wouldn't vote on a Tuesday in November. Have you ever thrown a party on a Tuesday? (Laughter) No, of course not. Nobody would show up." (Laughter) Here's the cool part. Because we asked this question, "Why Tuesday?" there is now this bill, the Weekend Voting Act in the Congress of the United States of America. It would move election day from Tuesday to the weekend, so that — duh — more people can vote. (Applause) It has only taken 167 years, but finally, we are on the verge of changing American history. Thank you very much. (Applause) Thanks a lot. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
american history 2


Important Words


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  2. act
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  4. american
  5. americans
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  22. darrell
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  24. declaration
  25. democracy
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  27. dick
  28. duh
  29. elected
  30. election
  31. entire
  32. evidently
  33. fact
  34. famous
  35. fascinated
  36. finally
  37. find
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  40. happen
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  47. john
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  77. ron
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  89. truth
  90. tuesday
  91. tuesdays
  92. turnout
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  95. verge
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  97. video
  98. vote
  99. voter
  100. voting
  101. weekend
  102. whatsoever
  103. world
  104. years