full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Richard Dawkins: Why the universe seems so strange

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Middle World — the range of sizes and speeds which we have evolved to feel intuitively comfortable with — is a bit like the narrow range of the ecgeaoemittrlnc stpcerum that we see as lghit of various colors. We're blind to all frequencies outside that, unless we use instruments to help us. Middle World is the narorw range of raltiey which we judge to be normal, as opposed to the qsnueeres of the very small, the very large and the very fast. We could make a similar scale of improbabilities; nothing is ttlaloy impossible. Miracles are just events that are extremely iormapbble. A marble statue could wave its hand at us; the atoms that make up its crystalline structure are all vibrating back and forth anyway. Because there are so many of them, and because there's no agreement among them in their peerrferd direction of movement, the marble, as we see it in Middle World, stays rock steady. But the atoms in the hand could all just happen to move the same way at the same time, and again and again. In this case, the hand would move, and we'd see it waving at us in Middle World. The odds against it, of course, are so graet that if you set out wnitirg zeros at the time of the origin of the universe, you still would not have wirtten enough zeros to this day.

Open Cloze


Middle World — the range of sizes and speeds which we have evolved to feel intuitively comfortable with — is a bit like the narrow range of the _______________ ________ that we see as _____ of various colors. We're blind to all frequencies outside that, unless we use instruments to help us. Middle World is the ______ range of _______ which we judge to be normal, as opposed to the _________ of the very small, the very large and the very fast. We could make a similar scale of improbabilities; nothing is _______ impossible. Miracles are just events that are extremely __________. A marble statue could wave its hand at us; the atoms that make up its crystalline structure are all vibrating back and forth anyway. Because there are so many of them, and because there's no agreement among them in their _________ direction of movement, the marble, as we see it in Middle World, stays rock steady. But the atoms in the hand could all just happen to move the same way at the same time, and again and again. In this case, the hand would move, and we'd see it waving at us in Middle World. The odds against it, of course, are so _____ that if you set out _______ zeros at the time of the origin of the universe, you still would not have _______ enough zeros to this day.

Solution


  1. written
  2. improbable
  3. reality
  4. writing
  5. narrow
  6. spectrum
  7. light
  8. preferred
  9. electromagnetic
  10. totally
  11. queerness
  12. great

Original Text


Middle World — the range of sizes and speeds which we have evolved to feel intuitively comfortable with — is a bit like the narrow range of the electromagnetic spectrum that we see as light of various colors. We're blind to all frequencies outside that, unless we use instruments to help us. Middle World is the narrow range of reality which we judge to be normal, as opposed to the queerness of the very small, the very large and the very fast. We could make a similar scale of improbabilities; nothing is totally impossible. Miracles are just events that are extremely improbable. A marble statue could wave its hand at us; the atoms that make up its crystalline structure are all vibrating back and forth anyway. Because there are so many of them, and because there's no agreement among them in their preferred direction of movement, the marble, as we see it in Middle World, stays rock steady. But the atoms in the hand could all just happen to move the same way at the same time, and again and again. In this case, the hand would move, and we'd see it waving at us in Middle World. The odds against it, of course, are so great that if you set out writing zeros at the time of the origin of the universe, you still would not have written enough zeros to this day.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
middle world 11
empty space 3
richard feynman 2
quantum theory 2
understand quantum 2
air friction 2
steve grand 2
real world 2
world model 2
carbon atoms 2
trouble imagining 2
narrow range 2
electromagnetic spectrum 2


Important Words


  1. agreement
  2. atoms
  3. bit
  4. blind
  5. case
  6. colors
  7. comfortable
  8. crystalline
  9. day
  10. direction
  11. electromagnetic
  12. events
  13. evolved
  14. extremely
  15. fast
  16. feel
  17. frequencies
  18. great
  19. hand
  20. happen
  21. impossible
  22. improbable
  23. instruments
  24. intuitively
  25. judge
  26. large
  27. light
  28. marble
  29. middle
  30. miracles
  31. move
  32. movement
  33. narrow
  34. normal
  35. odds
  36. opposed
  37. origin
  38. preferred
  39. queerness
  40. range
  41. reality
  42. rock
  43. scale
  44. set
  45. similar
  46. sizes
  47. small
  48. spectrum
  49. speeds
  50. statue
  51. stays
  52. steady
  53. structure
  54. time
  55. totally
  56. universe
  57. vibrating
  58. wave
  59. waving
  60. world
  61. writing
  62. written
  63. zeros