full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Jared Diamond: How societies can grow old better
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Well, what has cgneahd in the status of the elderly today compared to their status in traditional societies? There have been a few changes for the better and more changes for the worse. Big changes for the better include the fact that today we enjoy much longer lives, much better health in our old age, and much better recreational opportunities. Another change for the better is that we now have specialized retirement feiciltais and pmgroars to take care of old pelope. Changes for the worse begin with the creul reality that we now have more old people and fewer yuong people than at any time in the past. That mneas that all those old people are more of a burden on the few young people, and that each old person has less iviaudnidl value. Another big change for the worse in the status of the elderly is the breaking of social ties with age, because older people, their children, and their fdierns, all move and scatter independently of each other many times during their lives. We Americans move on the average every five years. Hence our older people are likely to end up living distant from their children and the friends of their youth. Yet another cghnae for the worse in the status of the elderly is frmoal retirement from the workforce, carrying with it a loss of work feiirsnhdps and a loss of the self-esteem associated with work. Perhaps the biggest change for the worse is that our elderly are objectively less useful than in traditional societies. Widespread literacy means that they are no legonr useful as repositories of knowledge. When we want some imarofinton, we look it up in a book or we Google it instead of finding some old person to ask. The slow pace of technological change in traditional societies means that what someone learns there as a child is still useful when that person is old, but the rapid pace of technological change today means that what we learn as children is no longer useful 60 yaers later. And conversely, we older people are not fluent in the tocgolnehies essential for surviving in modern sectoiy. For example, as a 15-year-old, I was considered outstandingly good at mnyltpliiug numbers because I had memorized the multiplication tables and I know how to use logarithms and I'm quick at manipulating a silde rule. Today, though, those skills are uerltty useless because any idiot can now multiply eight-digit numbers accurately and instantly with a pokcet calculator. Conversely, I at age 75 am incompetent at skills eetssainl for everyday life. My family's first TV set in 1948 had only three knobs that I quickly mastered: an on-off switch, a volume knob, and a channel selector knob. Today, just to watch a pogrram on the TV set in my own house, I have to operate a 41-button TV remote that utterly defeats me. I have to telephone my 25-year-old sons and ask them to talk me through it while I try to push those wretched 41 buttons.
Open Cloze
Well, what has _______ in the status of the elderly today compared to their status in traditional societies? There have been a few changes for the better and more changes for the worse. Big changes for the better include the fact that today we enjoy much longer lives, much better health in our old age, and much better recreational opportunities. Another change for the better is that we now have specialized retirement __________ and ________ to take care of old ______. Changes for the worse begin with the _____ reality that we now have more old people and fewer _____ people than at any time in the past. That _____ that all those old people are more of a burden on the few young people, and that each old person has less __________ value. Another big change for the worse in the status of the elderly is the breaking of social ties with age, because older people, their children, and their _______, all move and scatter independently of each other many times during their lives. We Americans move on the average every five years. Hence our older people are likely to end up living distant from their children and the friends of their youth. Yet another ______ for the worse in the status of the elderly is ______ retirement from the workforce, carrying with it a loss of work ___________ and a loss of the self-esteem associated with work. Perhaps the biggest change for the worse is that our elderly are objectively less useful than in traditional societies. Widespread literacy means that they are no ______ useful as repositories of knowledge. When we want some ___________, we look it up in a book or we Google it instead of finding some old person to ask. The slow pace of technological change in traditional societies means that what someone learns there as a child is still useful when that person is old, but the rapid pace of technological change today means that what we learn as children is no longer useful 60 _____ later. And conversely, we older people are not fluent in the ____________ essential for surviving in modern _______. For example, as a 15-year-old, I was considered outstandingly good at ___________ numbers because I had memorized the multiplication tables and I know how to use logarithms and I'm quick at manipulating a _____ rule. Today, though, those skills are _______ useless because any idiot can now multiply eight-digit numbers accurately and instantly with a ______ calculator. Conversely, I at age 75 am incompetent at skills _________ for everyday life. My family's first TV set in 1948 had only three knobs that I quickly mastered: an on-off switch, a volume knob, and a channel selector knob. Today, just to watch a _______ on the TV set in my own house, I have to operate a 41-button TV remote that utterly defeats me. I have to telephone my 25-year-old sons and ask them to talk me through it while I try to push those wretched 41 buttons.
Solution
- people
- friends
- society
- essential
- longer
- pocket
- facilities
- cruel
- young
- technologies
- change
- utterly
- formal
- years
- individual
- changed
- program
- information
- multiplying
- means
- friendships
- slide
- programs
Original Text
Well, what has changed in the status of the elderly today compared to their status in traditional societies? There have been a few changes for the better and more changes for the worse. Big changes for the better include the fact that today we enjoy much longer lives, much better health in our old age, and much better recreational opportunities. Another change for the better is that we now have specialized retirement facilities and programs to take care of old people. Changes for the worse begin with the cruel reality that we now have more old people and fewer young people than at any time in the past. That means that all those old people are more of a burden on the few young people, and that each old person has less individual value. Another big change for the worse in the status of the elderly is the breaking of social ties with age, because older people, their children, and their friends, all move and scatter independently of each other many times during their lives. We Americans move on the average every five years. Hence our older people are likely to end up living distant from their children and the friends of their youth. Yet another change for the worse in the status of the elderly is formal retirement from the workforce, carrying with it a loss of work friendships and a loss of the self-esteem associated with work. Perhaps the biggest change for the worse is that our elderly are objectively less useful than in traditional societies. Widespread literacy means that they are no longer useful as repositories of knowledge. When we want some information, we look it up in a book or we Google it instead of finding some old person to ask. The slow pace of technological change in traditional societies means that what someone learns there as a child is still useful when that person is old, but the rapid pace of technological change today means that what we learn as children is no longer useful 60 years later. And conversely, we older people are not fluent in the technologies essential for surviving in modern society. For example, as a 15-year-old, I was considered outstandingly good at multiplying numbers because I had memorized the multiplication tables and I know how to use logarithms and I'm quick at manipulating a slide rule. Today, though, those skills are utterly useless because any idiot can now multiply eight-digit numbers accurately and instantly with a pocket calculator. Conversely, I at age 75 am incompetent at skills essential for everyday life. My family's first TV set in 1948 had only three knobs that I quickly mastered: an on-off switch, a volume knob, and a channel selector knob. Today, just to watch a program on the TV set in my own house, I have to operate a 41-button TV remote that utterly defeats me. I have to telephone my 25-year-old sons and ask them to talk me through it while I try to push those wretched 41 buttons.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| older people |
26 |
| traditional societies |
18 |
| tribal societies |
4 |
| younger people |
4 |
| big societies |
3 |
| younger patients |
3 |
| lifelong friends |
2 |
| cultural values |
2 |
| older americans |
2 |
| big disadvantage |
2 |
| explicit policy |
2 |
| young people |
2 |
| technological change |
2 |
| tv set |
2 |
| dropping atomic |
2 |
| atomic bombs |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
| collocation |
frequency |
| dropping atomic bombs |
2 |
Important Words
- accurately
- age
- americans
- average
- big
- biggest
- book
- breaking
- burden
- buttons
- calculator
- care
- carrying
- change
- changed
- channel
- child
- children
- compared
- considered
- conversely
- cruel
- defeats
- distant
- elderly
- enjoy
- essential
- everyday
- facilities
- fact
- finding
- fluent
- formal
- friends
- friendships
- good
- google
- health
- house
- idiot
- include
- incompetent
- independently
- individual
- information
- instantly
- knob
- knobs
- knowledge
- learn
- learns
- life
- literacy
- lives
- living
- logarithms
- longer
- loss
- manipulating
- means
- memorized
- modern
- move
- multiplication
- multiply
- multiplying
- numbers
- objectively
- older
- operate
- opportunities
- outstandingly
- pace
- people
- person
- pocket
- program
- programs
- push
- quick
- quickly
- rapid
- reality
- recreational
- remote
- repositories
- retirement
- rule
- scatter
- selector
- set
- skills
- slide
- slow
- social
- societies
- society
- sons
- specialized
- status
- surviving
- switch
- tables
- talk
- technological
- technologies
- telephone
- ties
- time
- times
- today
- traditional
- tv
- useless
- utterly
- volume
- watch
- widespread
- work
- workforce
- worse
- wretched
- years
- young
- youth