full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Justin Davidson: Why glass towers are bad for city life -- and what we need instead

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

Chicken or pasta?

But wrose still, assemblies of glass towers like this one in Moscow sgegust a disdain for the civic and cmuaonml aspects of uarbn living. Right? Buildings like these are itdenend to enrich their owners and tenants, but not necessarily the lives of the rest of us, those of us who nvigaate the spaces between the buildings. And we expect to do so for free. Shiny towers are an invasive species and they are choking our cities and killing off public space. We tend to think of a facade as being like makeup, a decorative layer aeiplpd at the end to a building that's effectively complete. But just because a facade is superficial doesn't mean it's not also deep.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

Chicken or pasta?

But _____ still, assemblies of glass towers like this one in Moscow _______ a disdain for the civic and ________ aspects of _____ living. Right? Buildings like these are ________ to enrich their owners and tenants, but not necessarily the lives of the rest of us, those of us who ________ the spaces between the buildings. And we expect to do so for free. Shiny towers are an invasive species and they are choking our cities and killing off public space. We tend to think of a facade as being like makeup, a decorative layer _______ at the end to a building that's effectively complete. But just because a facade is superficial doesn't mean it's not also deep.

Solution


  1. urban
  2. intended
  3. applied
  4. suggest
  5. worse
  6. communal
  7. navigate

Original Text


(Laughter)

Chicken or pasta?

But worse still, assemblies of glass towers like this one in Moscow suggest a disdain for the civic and communal aspects of urban living. Right? Buildings like these are intended to enrich their owners and tenants, but not necessarily the lives of the rest of us, those of us who navigate the spaces between the buildings. And we expect to do so for free. Shiny towers are an invasive species and they are choking our cities and killing off public space. We tend to think of a facade as being like makeup, a decorative layer applied at the end to a building that's effectively complete. But just because a facade is superficial doesn't mean it's not also deep.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
natural history 3
history museum 3
san francisco 2
surfaces give 2
full range 2
plaza mayor 2
open space 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
natural history museum 2

Important Words


  1. applied
  2. aspects
  3. assemblies
  4. building
  5. buildings
  6. chicken
  7. choking
  8. cities
  9. civic
  10. communal
  11. complete
  12. decorative
  13. deep
  14. disdain
  15. effectively
  16. enrich
  17. expect
  18. facade
  19. free
  20. glass
  21. intended
  22. invasive
  23. killing
  24. laughter
  25. layer
  26. lives
  27. living
  28. makeup
  29. moscow
  30. navigate
  31. necessarily
  32. owners
  33. pasta
  34. public
  35. rest
  36. shiny
  37. space
  38. spaces
  39. species
  40. suggest
  41. superficial
  42. tenants
  43. tend
  44. towers
  45. urban
  46. worse