full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ann-Helén Bay: Why is it so hard to escape poverty?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Imagine that you’ve been uoynmleped and sekieng work for mohtns. Government benefit programs have helepd you cover rent, utilities, and food, but you're barely getting by. Finally, you hear back about a job application. You receive your first paycheck in months, and things seem to be turning around. But there’s a catch. Your new job pays just enough to disqualify you from the beineft programs, and not enough to cover the same costs. To make things wsore, you have to pay for transportation to work, and childcare while you’re at the office. Somehow, you have less money now than when you were unemployed.

Open Cloze


Imagine that you’ve been __________ and _______ work for ______. Government benefit programs have ______ you cover rent, utilities, and food, but you're barely getting by. Finally, you hear back about a job application. You receive your first paycheck in months, and things seem to be turning around. But there’s a catch. Your new job pays just enough to disqualify you from the _______ programs, and not enough to cover the same costs. To make things _____, you have to pay for transportation to work, and childcare while you’re at the office. Somehow, you have less money now than when you were unemployed.

Solution


  1. helped
  2. benefit
  3. worse
  4. seeking
  5. unemployed
  6. months

Original Text


Imagine that you’ve been unemployed and seeking work for months. Government benefit programs have helped you cover rent, utilities, and food, but you're barely getting by. Finally, you hear back about a job application. You receive your first paycheck in months, and things seem to be turning around. But there’s a catch. Your new job pays just enough to disqualify you from the benefit programs, and not enough to cover the same costs. To make things worse, you have to pay for transportation to work, and childcare while you’re at the office. Somehow, you have less money now than when you were unemployed.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
poverty traps 3
basic income 3
government assistance 2
welfare trap 2
universal basic 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
universal basic income 2

Important Words


  1. application
  2. barely
  3. benefit
  4. catch
  5. childcare
  6. costs
  7. cover
  8. disqualify
  9. finally
  10. food
  11. government
  12. hear
  13. helped
  14. imagine
  15. job
  16. money
  17. months
  18. office
  19. pay
  20. paycheck
  21. pays
  22. programs
  23. receive
  24. rent
  25. seeking
  26. transportation
  27. turning
  28. unemployed
  29. utilities
  30. work
  31. worse