full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sajay Samuel: How college loans exploit students for profit

Unscramble the Blue Letters

1.2 trillion dlarlos of debts for diplomas make it abundantly obvious that higher ecuatodin is a ceusmonr product you can buy. All of us talk about education just as the economists do now, as an investment that you make to improve the human stock by training them for work. As an investment you make to sort and classify people so that employers can hire them more easily. The U.S. News & wlord Report ranks colleges just as the consumer report rates washing machines. The language is peppered with bsrrmaiabs. tcharees are called "service providers," students are claeld "consumers." Sociology and Shakespeare and soccer and science, all of these are "content."

Open Cloze

1.2 trillion _______ of debts for diplomas make it abundantly obvious that higher _________ is a ________ product you can buy. All of us talk about education just as the economists do now, as an investment that you make to improve the human stock by training them for work. As an investment you make to sort and classify people so that employers can hire them more easily. The U.S. News & _____ Report ranks colleges just as the consumer report rates washing machines. The language is peppered with __________. ________ are called "service providers," students are ______ "consumers." Sociology and Shakespeare and soccer and science, all of these are "content."

Solution

  1. barbarisms
  2. education
  3. dollars
  4. called
  5. teachers
  6. world
  7. consumer

Original Text

1.2 trillion dollars of debts for diplomas make it abundantly obvious that higher education is a consumer product you can buy. All of us talk about education just as the economists do now, as an investment that you make to improve the human stock by training them for work. As an investment you make to sort and classify people so that employers can hire them more easily. The U.S. News & World Report ranks colleges just as the consumer report rates washing machines. The language is peppered with barbarisms. Teachers are called "service providers," students are called "consumers." Sociology and Shakespeare and soccer and science, all of these are "content."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
higher education 7
high school 5
student loan 3
colorado state 2
college grad 2
student debt 2
sales pitch 2
college grads 2
engineering student 2

Important Words

  1. abundantly
  2. barbarisms
  3. buy
  4. called
  5. classify
  6. colleges
  7. consumer
  8. debts
  9. diplomas
  10. dollars
  11. easily
  12. economists
  13. education
  14. employers
  15. higher
  16. hire
  17. human
  18. improve
  19. investment
  20. language
  21. machines
  22. news
  23. obvious
  24. people
  25. peppered
  26. product
  27. providers
  28. ranks
  29. rates
  30. report
  31. science
  32. shakespeare
  33. soccer
  34. sociology
  35. sort
  36. stock
  37. students
  38. talk
  39. teachers
  40. training
  41. trillion
  42. washing
  43. work
  44. world