full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alexander MacDonald: How centuries of sci-fi sparked spaceflight

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Other stories would soon fololw, most notably by Cyrano de Bergerac, with his "Lunar Tales." By the mid-17th century, the idea of people building machines that could travel to the heaevns was gronwig in complexity and technical nuance. And yet, in the late 17th century, this intellectual progress effectively ceased. People still told stroeis about getting to the Moon, but they relied on the old ideas or, once again, on dreams or on mgiac. Why? Well, because the discovery of the laws of gravity by Newton and the invention of the vacuum pump by rberot Hooke and Robert Boyle meant that people now understood that a condition of vacuum existed between the planets, and consequentially between the Earth and the Moon. And they had no way of overcoming this, no way of tnhniikg about overcoming this. And so, for well over a century, the idea of a voyage to the Moon made very little itullacenetl progress until the rise of the Industrial rielotuvon and the dlemeopnvet of steam engines and boilers and most importantly, pressure vlseses. And these gave people the tools to think about how they could build a culapse that could resist the vacuum of space.

Open Cloze

Other stories would soon ______, most notably by Cyrano de Bergerac, with his "Lunar Tales." By the mid-17th century, the idea of people building machines that could travel to the _______ was _______ in complexity and technical nuance. And yet, in the late 17th century, this intellectual progress effectively ceased. People still told _______ about getting to the Moon, but they relied on the old ideas or, once again, on dreams or on _____. Why? Well, because the discovery of the laws of gravity by Newton and the invention of the vacuum pump by ______ Hooke and Robert Boyle meant that people now understood that a condition of vacuum existed between the planets, and consequentially between the Earth and the Moon. And they had no way of overcoming this, no way of ________ about overcoming this. And so, for well over a century, the idea of a voyage to the Moon made very little ____________ progress until the rise of the Industrial __________ and the ___________ of steam engines and boilers and most importantly, pressure _______. And these gave people the tools to think about how they could build a _______ that could resist the vacuum of space.

Solution

  1. growing
  2. heavens
  3. magic
  4. follow
  5. stories
  6. vessels
  7. thinking
  8. robert
  9. revolution
  10. capsule
  11. intellectual
  12. development

Original Text

Other stories would soon follow, most notably by Cyrano de Bergerac, with his "Lunar Tales." By the mid-17th century, the idea of people building machines that could travel to the heavens was growing in complexity and technical nuance. And yet, in the late 17th century, this intellectual progress effectively ceased. People still told stories about getting to the Moon, but they relied on the old ideas or, once again, on dreams or on magic. Why? Well, because the discovery of the laws of gravity by Newton and the invention of the vacuum pump by Robert Hooke and Robert Boyle meant that people now understood that a condition of vacuum existed between the planets, and consequentially between the Earth and the Moon. And they had no way of overcoming this, no way of thinking about overcoming this. And so, for well over a century, the idea of a voyage to the Moon made very little intellectual progress until the rise of the Industrial Revolution and the development of steam engines and boilers and most importantly, pressure vessels. And these gave people the tools to think about how they could build a capsule that could resist the vacuum of space.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
liquid fuel 3
write stories 2
goose machine 2
build machines 2
intellectual progress 2
apollo program 2
cherry tree 2
economic origins 2

Important Words

  1. bergerac
  2. boilers
  3. boyle
  4. build
  5. building
  6. capsule
  7. ceased
  8. century
  9. complexity
  10. condition
  11. consequentially
  12. cyrano
  13. de
  14. development
  15. discovery
  16. dreams
  17. earth
  18. effectively
  19. engines
  20. existed
  21. follow
  22. gave
  23. gravity
  24. growing
  25. heavens
  26. hooke
  27. idea
  28. ideas
  29. importantly
  30. industrial
  31. intellectual
  32. invention
  33. late
  34. laws
  35. machines
  36. magic
  37. meant
  38. moon
  39. newton
  40. notably
  41. nuance
  42. overcoming
  43. people
  44. planets
  45. pressure
  46. progress
  47. pump
  48. relied
  49. resist
  50. revolution
  51. rise
  52. robert
  53. space
  54. steam
  55. stories
  56. tales
  57. technical
  58. thinking
  59. told
  60. tools
  61. travel
  62. understood
  63. vacuum
  64. vessels
  65. voyage