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
- literature
- networks
- america
- optimism
- smallest
- understand
- thought
- democracy
- 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
- accept
- adult
- age
- ajar
- america
- belize
- books
- born
- buried
- change
- child
- college
- color
- degree
- democracy
- door
- english
- face
- family
- graduate
- graduated
- greatest
- ideal
- immigration
- india
- job
- largest
- literature
- living
- moved
- moving
- networks
- nose
- open
- optimism
- religion
- skin
- slam
- slightly
- smallest
- states
- status
- study
- thought
- understand
- united
- wanted
- wide
- wrong