full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sebastian Junger: Why veterans miss war

Unscramble the Blue Letters


You can imagine how that pylas out in combat. At rpseetro, every guy up there was almost killed, including me, including my good friend Tim Hetherington, who was later killed in Libya. There were guys winlakg around with bullet holes in their uniforms, rounds that had cut through the frbiac and didn't touch their bodies.

I was leaning against some sandbags one moirnng, not much going on, sort of spacing out, and some sand was keikcd into the side of, sort of hit the side of my face. Something hit the side of my face, and I didn't know what it was. You have to uterdasnnd about bullets that they go a lot faster than snoud, so if someone shoots at you from a few hundred meters, the bullet goes by you, or hits you obviously, half a second or so before the sound catches up to it. So I had some sand seayrpd in the side of my face. Half a second later, I heard dut-dut-dut-dut-duh. It was machine gun fire. It was the first round, the first burst of an hour-long firefight. What had happened was the bullet hit, a bullet hit three or four iehcns from the side of my head. Imagine, just think about it, because I certainly did, think about the angle of deviation that svaed my life. At 400 meters, it missed me by three inches. Just think about the math on that. Every guy up there had some experience like that, at least once, if not many times.

Open Cloze


You can imagine how that _____ out in combat. At ________, every guy up there was almost killed, including me, including my good friend Tim Hetherington, who was later killed in Libya. There were guys _______ around with bullet holes in their uniforms, rounds that had cut through the ______ and didn't touch their bodies.

I was leaning against some sandbags one _______, not much going on, sort of spacing out, and some sand was ______ into the side of, sort of hit the side of my face. Something hit the side of my face, and I didn't know what it was. You have to __________ about bullets that they go a lot faster than _____, so if someone shoots at you from a few hundred meters, the bullet goes by you, or hits you obviously, half a second or so before the sound catches up to it. So I had some sand _______ in the side of my face. Half a second later, I heard dut-dut-dut-dut-duh. It was machine gun fire. It was the first round, the first burst of an hour-long firefight. What had happened was the bullet hit, a bullet hit three or four ______ from the side of my head. Imagine, just think about it, because I certainly did, think about the angle of deviation that _____ my life. At 400 meters, it missed me by three inches. Just think about the math on that. Every guy up there had some experience like that, at least once, if not many times.

Solution


  1. inches
  2. kicked
  3. plays
  4. sound
  5. understand
  6. walking
  7. sprayed
  8. fabric
  9. morning
  10. restrepo
  11. saved

Original Text


You can imagine how that plays out in combat. At Restrepo, every guy up there was almost killed, including me, including my good friend Tim Hetherington, who was later killed in Libya. There were guys walking around with bullet holes in their uniforms, rounds that had cut through the fabric and didn't touch their bodies.

I was leaning against some sandbags one morning, not much going on, sort of spacing out, and some sand was kicked into the side of, sort of hit the side of my face. Something hit the side of my face, and I didn't know what it was. You have to understand about bullets that they go a lot faster than sound, so if someone shoots at you from a few hundred meters, the bullet goes by you, or hits you obviously, half a second or so before the sound catches up to it. So I had some sand sprayed in the side of my face. Half a second later, I heard dut-dut-dut-dut-duh. It was machine gun fire. It was the first round, the first burst of an hour-long firefight. What had happened was the bullet hit, a bullet hit three or four inches from the side of my head. Imagine, just think about it, because I certainly did, think about the angle of deviation that saved my life. At 400 meters, it missed me by three inches. Just think about the math on that. Every guy up there had some experience like that, at least once, if not many times.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
young men 4
american soldiers 2
battle company 2
young women 2
remembers people 2


Important Words


  1. angle
  2. bodies
  3. bullet
  4. bullets
  5. burst
  6. catches
  7. combat
  8. cut
  9. deviation
  10. experience
  11. fabric
  12. face
  13. faster
  14. fire
  15. firefight
  16. friend
  17. good
  18. gun
  19. guy
  20. guys
  21. happened
  22. head
  23. heard
  24. hetherington
  25. hit
  26. hits
  27. holes
  28. imagine
  29. inches
  30. including
  31. kicked
  32. killed
  33. leaning
  34. libya
  35. life
  36. lot
  37. machine
  38. math
  39. meters
  40. missed
  41. morning
  42. plays
  43. restrepo
  44. rounds
  45. sand
  46. sandbags
  47. saved
  48. shoots
  49. side
  50. sort
  51. sound
  52. spacing
  53. sprayed
  54. tim
  55. times
  56. touch
  57. understand
  58. uniforms
  59. walking