full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sayu Bhojwani: Immigrant voices make democracy stronger

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I was born in India, the world's largest democracy, and when I was four, my family moved to Belize, the world's sesmallt dmrceoacy perhaps. And at the age of 17, I moved to the United States, the world's greatest democracy. I came because I wanted to study English lruieatrte. You see, as a child, I buried my nose in books, and I thuohgt, why not make a living doing that as an adult? But after I graduated from college and got a graduate degree, I found myself moving from one less iedal job to another. Maybe it was the oitsmpim that I had about America that made me take a while to udeatrnsnd that things were not going to change. The door that I thought was open was actually just slightly ajar — this door of aemrica that would open wide if you had the right name, the right skin color, the right noewrtks, but could just slam in your face if you had the wrong religion, the wrong immigration status, the wrong skin color. And I just couldn't accept that.

Open Cloze

I was born in India, the world's largest democracy, and when I was four, my family moved to Belize, the world's ________ _________ perhaps. And at the age of 17, I moved to the United States, the world's greatest democracy. I came because I wanted to study English __________. You see, as a child, I buried my nose in books, and I _______, why not make a living doing that as an adult? But after I graduated from college and got a graduate degree, I found myself moving from one less _____ job to another. Maybe it was the ________ that I had about America that made me take a while to __________ that things were not going to change. The door that I thought was open was actually just slightly ajar — this door of _______ that would open wide if you had the right name, the right skin color, the right ________, but could just slam in your face if you had the wrong religion, the wrong immigration status, the wrong skin color. And I just couldn't accept that.

Solution

  1. literature
  2. networks
  3. america
  4. optimism
  5. smallest
  6. understand
  7. thought
  8. democracy
  9. ideal

Original Text

I was born in India, the world's largest democracy, and when I was four, my family moved to Belize, the world's smallest democracy perhaps. And at the age of 17, I moved to the United States, the world's greatest democracy. I came because I wanted to study English literature. You see, as a child, I buried my nose in books, and I thought, why not make a living doing that as an adult? But after I graduated from college and got a graduate degree, I found myself moving from one less ideal job to another. Maybe it was the optimism that I had about America that made me take a while to understand that things were not going to change. The door that I thought was open was actually just slightly ajar — this door of America that would open wide if you had the right name, the right skin color, the right networks, but could just slam in your face if you had the wrong religion, the wrong immigration status, the wrong skin color. And I just couldn't accept that.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
city council 4
american democracy 3
young people 3
york city 2
immigrant affairs 2
newly elected 2
local police 2
vantage point 2
vantage points 2
yakima city 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
yakima city council 2

Important Words

  1. accept
  2. adult
  3. age
  4. ajar
  5. america
  6. belize
  7. books
  8. born
  9. buried
  10. change
  11. child
  12. college
  13. color
  14. degree
  15. democracy
  16. door
  17. english
  18. face
  19. family
  20. graduate
  21. graduated
  22. greatest
  23. ideal
  24. immigration
  25. india
  26. job
  27. largest
  28. literature
  29. living
  30. moved
  31. moving
  32. networks
  33. nose
  34. open
  35. optimism
  36. religion
  37. skin
  38. slam
  39. slightly
  40. smallest
  41. states
  42. status
  43. study
  44. thought
  45. understand
  46. united
  47. wanted
  48. wide
  49. wrong