full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Doug MacKay: You can only save one— who do you choose?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


You are the captain of the morlaly 7, an interstellar crgao transport. On your way to the New Lindley spaceport, you receive a distress call. There’s been an explosion on the Telic 12 and its passengers are running out of oxygen. As you set a course to intercept, you check the Telic 12′s manifest. It’s currently transporting 30 middle-aged individuals from some of Earth’s preosot districts to the labor cetner on New Lindley, where they'll be asgsneid jobs on the spaceport.

But as you approach the tilec 12, you receive a second dstsreis call. A luxury space cruiser called the Pareto has lost a thruster, sending them careening towards an asteroid belt. Without your help, the 20 college stdnutes headed for vacation aboard the Pareto are all doomed.

Open Cloze


You are the captain of the _______ 7, an interstellar _____ transport. On your way to the New Lindley spaceport, you receive a distress call. There’s been an explosion on the Telic 12 and its passengers are running out of oxygen. As you set a course to intercept, you check the Telic 12′s manifest. It’s currently transporting 30 middle-aged individuals from some of Earth’s _______ districts to the labor ______ on New Lindley, where they'll be ________ jobs on the spaceport.

But as you approach the _____ 12, you receive a second ________ call. A luxury space cruiser called the Pareto has lost a thruster, sending them careening towards an asteroid belt. Without your help, the 20 college ________ headed for vacation aboard the Pareto are all doomed.

Solution


  1. telic
  2. distress
  3. mallory
  4. students
  5. cargo
  6. center
  7. poorest
  8. assigned

Original Text


You are the captain of the Mallory 7, an interstellar cargo transport. On your way to the New Lindley spaceport, you receive a distress call. There’s been an explosion on the Telic 12 and its passengers are running out of oxygen. As you set a course to intercept, you check the Telic 12′s manifest. It’s currently transporting 30 middle-aged individuals from some of Earth’s poorest districts to the labor center on New Lindley, where they'll be assigned jobs on the spaceport.

But as you approach the Telic 12, you receive a second distress call. A luxury space cruiser called the Pareto has lost a thruster, sending them careening towards an asteroid belt. Without your help, the 20 college students headed for vacation aboard the Pareto are all doomed.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
distress call 2
average age 2


Important Words


  1. aboard
  2. approach
  3. assigned
  4. asteroid
  5. belt
  6. call
  7. called
  8. captain
  9. careening
  10. cargo
  11. center
  12. check
  13. college
  14. cruiser
  15. distress
  16. districts
  17. doomed
  18. explosion
  19. headed
  20. individuals
  21. intercept
  22. interstellar
  23. jobs
  24. labor
  25. lindley
  26. lost
  27. luxury
  28. mallory
  29. manifest
  30. oxygen
  31. pareto
  32. passengers
  33. poorest
  34. receive
  35. running
  36. sending
  37. set
  38. space
  39. spaceport
  40. students
  41. telic
  42. thruster
  43. transport
  44. transporting
  45. vacation