full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Mia Nacamulli: Why should you read Kurt Vonnegut?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Billy Pilgrim can’t sleep because he knows aliens will arrive to abduct him in one hour.

He knows the aliens are coming because he has become “unstuck” in time, canusig him to experience events out of chronological order. Over the course of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-five, he hops back and forth between a childhood trip to the Grand Canyon, his life as a middle-aged optometrist, his captivity in an intergalactic zoo, the humiliations he endured as a war prnioesr, and more.

The title of Slaughterhouse-five and much of its srucoe material came from Vonnegut’s own experiences in World War II. As a prisoner of war, he lived in a former slaughterhouse in Dresden, where he took rgufee in an underground meat locker while Allied forces bembod the city. When he and the other pensroirs flnaily emerged, they found desrden utterly demolished.

Open Cloze


Billy Pilgrim can’t sleep because he knows aliens will arrive to abduct him in one hour.

He knows the aliens are coming because he has become “unstuck” in time, _______ him to experience events out of chronological order. Over the course of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-five, he hops back and forth between a childhood trip to the Grand Canyon, his life as a middle-aged optometrist, his captivity in an intergalactic zoo, the humiliations he endured as a war ________, and more.

The title of Slaughterhouse-five and much of its ______ material came from Vonnegut’s own experiences in World War II. As a prisoner of war, he lived in a former slaughterhouse in Dresden, where he took ______ in an underground meat locker while Allied forces ______ the city. When he and the other _________ _______ emerged, they found _______ utterly demolished.

Solution


  1. source
  2. prisoners
  3. dresden
  4. finally
  5. causing
  6. refuge
  7. prisoner
  8. bombed

Original Text


Billy Pilgrim can’t sleep because he knows aliens will arrive to abduct him in one hour.

He knows the aliens are coming because he has become “unstuck” in time, causing him to experience events out of chronological order. Over the course of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-five, he hops back and forth between a childhood trip to the Grand Canyon, his life as a middle-aged optometrist, his captivity in an intergalactic zoo, the humiliations he endured as a war prisoner, and more.

The title of Slaughterhouse-five and much of its source material came from Vonnegut’s own experiences in World War II. As a prisoner of war, he lived in a former slaughterhouse in Dresden, where he took refuge in an underground meat locker while Allied forces bombed the city. When he and the other prisoners finally emerged, they found Dresden utterly demolished.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. abduct
  2. aliens
  3. allied
  4. arrive
  5. billy
  6. bombed
  7. canyon
  8. captivity
  9. causing
  10. childhood
  11. chronological
  12. city
  13. coming
  14. demolished
  15. dresden
  16. emerged
  17. endured
  18. events
  19. experience
  20. experiences
  21. finally
  22. forces
  23. grand
  24. hops
  25. hour
  26. humiliations
  27. ii
  28. intergalactic
  29. kurt
  30. life
  31. lived
  32. locker
  33. material
  34. meat
  35. optometrist
  36. order
  37. pilgrim
  38. prisoner
  39. prisoners
  40. refuge
  41. slaughterhouse
  42. sleep
  43. source
  44. time
  45. title
  46. trip
  47. underground
  48. utterly
  49. war
  50. world
  51. zoo