full transcript

From the Ted Talk by David Baron: You owe it to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Before I get to bulk of what I have to say, I feel compelled just to meonitn a couple of things about myself. I am not some mystical, sipurtial sort of person. I'm a scicnee writer. I suidetd physics in college. I used to be a science correspondent for NPR. OK, that said: in the course of working on a story for NPR, I got some acdvie from an astronomer that challenged my outlook, and frankly, cenghad my life.

You see, the srtoy was about an eclipse, a partial solar eclipse that was set to cross the country in May of 1994. And the astronomer — I interviewed him, and he explained what was going to happen and how to view it, but he emphasized that, as interesting as a partial solar eclipse is, a much rarer ttoal solar eclipse is ctlolmeepy different. In a total eclipse, for all of two or three minutes, the moon completely blocks the face of the sun, caenirtg what he described as the most awe-inspiring spectacle in all of nature. And so the advice he gave me was this: "Before you die," he said, "you owe it to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse."

Open Cloze


Before I get to bulk of what I have to say, I feel compelled just to _______ a couple of things about myself. I am not some mystical, _________ sort of person. I'm a _______ writer. I _______ physics in college. I used to be a science correspondent for NPR. OK, that said: in the course of working on a story for NPR, I got some ______ from an astronomer that challenged my outlook, and frankly, _______ my life.

You see, the _____ was about an eclipse, a partial solar eclipse that was set to cross the country in May of 1994. And the astronomer — I interviewed him, and he explained what was going to happen and how to view it, but he emphasized that, as interesting as a partial solar eclipse is, a much rarer _____ solar eclipse is __________ different. In a total eclipse, for all of two or three minutes, the moon completely blocks the face of the sun, ________ what he described as the most awe-inspiring spectacle in all of nature. And so the advice he gave me was this: "Before you die," he said, "you owe it to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse."

Solution


  1. spiritual
  2. advice
  3. changed
  4. science
  5. creating
  6. mention
  7. total
  8. studied
  9. completely
  10. story

Original Text


Before I get to bulk of what I have to say, I feel compelled just to mention a couple of things about myself. I am not some mystical, spiritual sort of person. I'm a science writer. I studied physics in college. I used to be a science correspondent for NPR. OK, that said: in the course of working on a story for NPR, I got some advice from an astronomer that challenged my outlook, and frankly, changed my life.

You see, the story was about an eclipse, a partial solar eclipse that was set to cross the country in May of 1994. And the astronomer — I interviewed him, and he explained what was going to happen and how to view it, but he emphasized that, as interesting as a partial solar eclipse is, a much rarer total solar eclipse is completely different. In a total eclipse, for all of two or three minutes, the moon completely blocks the face of the sun, creating what he described as the most awe-inspiring spectacle in all of nature. And so the advice he gave me was this: "Before you die," he said, "you owe it to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
solar eclipse 6
total solar 6
total eclipse 4
partial solar 2
solar corona 2
continental united 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
total solar eclipse 4
partial solar eclipse 2

Important Words


  1. advice
  2. astronomer
  3. blocks
  4. bulk
  5. challenged
  6. changed
  7. college
  8. compelled
  9. completely
  10. correspondent
  11. country
  12. couple
  13. creating
  14. cross
  15. die
  16. eclipse
  17. emphasized
  18. experience
  19. explained
  20. face
  21. feel
  22. frankly
  23. gave
  24. happen
  25. interesting
  26. interviewed
  27. life
  28. mention
  29. minutes
  30. moon
  31. mystical
  32. nature
  33. npr
  34. outlook
  35. owe
  36. partial
  37. person
  38. physics
  39. rarer
  40. science
  41. set
  42. solar
  43. sort
  44. spectacle
  45. spiritual
  46. story
  47. studied
  48. sun
  49. total
  50. view
  51. working
  52. writer