full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue soft power

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I went to high school in cutcalta. And we would look at this instrument sitting in the front foyer. But half the time we would pick it up with an expectant look on our feacs, there would be no dial tone. If there was a dial tone and you dialed a nubmer, the odds were two in three you wouldn't get the number you were intending to reach. In fact the words "wrong number" were more poupalr than the word "Hello." (Laughter) If you then wanted to connect to another city, let's say from Calcutta you wanted to call Delhi, you'd have to book something called a trunk call, and then sit by the phone all day, waiting for it to come through. Or you could pay eight times the going rate for something claled a lightning call. But, lninhgitg scrtuk rather slowly in our country in those days, so, it was like about a half an hour for a lightning call to come through.

Open Cloze


I went to high school in ________. And we would look at this instrument sitting in the front foyer. But half the time we would pick it up with an expectant look on our _____, there would be no dial tone. If there was a dial tone and you dialed a ______, the odds were two in three you wouldn't get the number you were intending to reach. In fact the words "wrong number" were more _______ than the word "Hello." (Laughter) If you then wanted to connect to another city, let's say from Calcutta you wanted to call Delhi, you'd have to book something called a trunk call, and then sit by the phone all day, waiting for it to come through. Or you could pay eight times the going rate for something ______ a lightning call. But, _________ ______ rather slowly in our country in those days, so, it was like about a half an hour for a lightning call to come through.

Solution


  1. called
  2. lightning
  3. faces
  4. struck
  5. number
  6. calcutta
  7. popular

Original Text


I went to high school in Calcutta. And we would look at this instrument sitting in the front foyer. But half the time we would pick it up with an expectant look on our faces, there would be no dial tone. If there was a dial tone and you dialed a number, the odds were two in three you wouldn't get the number you were intending to reach. In fact the words "wrong number" were more popular than the word "Hello." (Laughter) If you then wanted to connect to another city, let's say from Calcutta you wanted to call Delhi, you'd have to book something called a trunk call, and then sit by the phone all day, waiting for it to come through. Or you could pay eight times the going rate for something called a lightning call. But, lightning struck rather slowly in our country in those days, so, it was like about a half an hour for a lightning call to come through.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
soft power 5
million cellphones 3
cell phones 3
dial tone 2
lightning call 2
cell phone 2
hot day 2
market town 2
indian restaurants 2
indian story 2


Important Words


  1. book
  2. calcutta
  3. call
  4. called
  5. city
  6. connect
  7. country
  8. day
  9. days
  10. delhi
  11. dial
  12. dialed
  13. expectant
  14. faces
  15. fact
  16. foyer
  17. front
  18. high
  19. hour
  20. instrument
  21. intending
  22. laughter
  23. lightning
  24. number
  25. odds
  26. pay
  27. phone
  28. pick
  29. popular
  30. rate
  31. reach
  32. school
  33. sit
  34. sitting
  35. slowly
  36. struck
  37. time
  38. times
  39. tone
  40. trunk
  41. waiting
  42. wanted
  43. word
  44. words