full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Elyn Saks: A tale of mental illness -- from the inside

Unscramble the Blue Letters

My best friend Steve, sensing that something was trrelbiy wrong, flew out to New Haven to be with me. Now I'm going to quote from some of my writings: "I opened the door to my siduto apartment. Steve would later tell me that, for all the times he had seen me psychotic, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw that day. For a week or more, I had brelay eaten. I was gunat. I walked as though my legs were wooden. My face looked and felt like a mask. I had closed all the cuainrts in the aremptant, so in the middle of the day the apartment was in near total darkness. The air was fetid, the room a shambles. Steve, both a lwyaer and a psychologist, has treated many patients with severe mnatel illness, and to this day he'll say I was as bad as any he had ever seen. 'Hi,' I said, and then I returned to the couch, where I sat in silence for several memotns. 'Thank you for coming, Steve. Crumbling world, word, voice. Tell the clocks to stop. Time is. Time has come.' 'White is leaving,' Steve said semobrly. 'I'm being pushed into a grave. The situation is grave,' I moan. 'Gravity is pulling me down. I'm sceard. Tell them to get away.'"

Open Cloze

My best friend Steve, sensing that something was ________ wrong, flew out to New Haven to be with me. Now I'm going to quote from some of my writings: "I opened the door to my ______ apartment. Steve would later tell me that, for all the times he had seen me psychotic, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw that day. For a week or more, I had ______ eaten. I was _____. I walked as though my legs were wooden. My face looked and felt like a mask. I had closed all the ________ in the _________, so in the middle of the day the apartment was in near total darkness. The air was fetid, the room a shambles. Steve, both a ______ and a psychologist, has treated many patients with severe ______ illness, and to this day he'll say I was as bad as any he had ever seen. 'Hi,' I said, and then I returned to the couch, where I sat in silence for several _______. 'Thank you for coming, Steve. Crumbling world, word, voice. Tell the clocks to stop. Time is. Time has come.' 'White is leaving,' Steve said ________. 'I'm being pushed into a grave. The situation is grave,' I moan. 'Gravity is pulling me down. I'm ______. Tell them to get away.'"

Solution

  1. scared
  2. lawyer
  3. gaunt
  4. somberly
  5. barely
  6. curtains
  7. moments
  8. apartment
  9. mental
  10. terribly
  11. studio

Original Text

My best friend Steve, sensing that something was terribly wrong, flew out to New Haven to be with me. Now I'm going to quote from some of my writings: "I opened the door to my studio apartment. Steve would later tell me that, for all the times he had seen me psychotic, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw that day. For a week or more, I had barely eaten. I was gaunt. I walked as though my legs were wooden. My face looked and felt like a mask. I had closed all the curtains in the apartment, so in the middle of the day the apartment was in near total darkness. The air was fetid, the room a shambles. Steve, both a lawyer and a psychologist, has treated many patients with severe mental illness, and to this day he'll say I was as bad as any he had ever seen. 'Hi,' I said, and then I returned to the couch, where I sat in silence for several moments. 'Thank you for coming, Steve. Crumbling world, word, voice. Tell the clocks to stop. Time is. Time has come.' 'White is leaving,' Steve said somberly. 'I'm being pushed into a grave. The situation is grave,' I moan. 'Gravity is pulling me down. I'm scared. Tell them to get away.'"

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
mental illness 7
law school 6
yale law 5
severe mental 3
psychiatric hospital 2
loose associations 2
florida sunshine 2
metal bed 2
legs tied 2
feel safe 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
yale law school 3

Important Words

  1. air
  2. apartment
  3. bad
  4. barely
  5. clocks
  6. closed
  7. coming
  8. couch
  9. crumbling
  10. curtains
  11. darkness
  12. day
  13. door
  14. eaten
  15. face
  16. felt
  17. fetid
  18. flew
  19. friend
  20. gaunt
  21. grave
  22. haven
  23. illness
  24. lawyer
  25. leaving
  26. legs
  27. looked
  28. mask
  29. mental
  30. middle
  31. moan
  32. moments
  33. opened
  34. patients
  35. prepared
  36. psychologist
  37. psychotic
  38. pulling
  39. pushed
  40. quote
  41. returned
  42. room
  43. sat
  44. scared
  45. sensing
  46. severe
  47. shambles
  48. silence
  49. situation
  50. somberly
  51. steve
  52. stop
  53. studio
  54. terribly
  55. time
  56. times
  57. total
  58. treated
  59. voice
  60. walked
  61. week
  62. wooden
  63. word
  64. world
  65. wrong