full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ann Morgan: My year reading a book from every country in the world

Unscramble the Blue Letters

It's often said that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at what's on their bookshelves. What do my bookshelves say about me? Well, when I asked myself this question a few years ago, I made an alarming discovery. I'd always thghout of myself as a fairly cultured, cosmopolitan sort of person. But my bkvhoeeslos told a rather different story. pterty much all the titles on them were by British or nrtoh American authors, and there was almost nothing in translation. Discovering this massive, cultural bnlid spot in my reading came as quite a shock.

Open Cloze

It's often said that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at what's on their bookshelves. What do my bookshelves say about me? Well, when I asked myself this question a few years ago, I made an alarming discovery. I'd always _______ of myself as a fairly cultured, cosmopolitan sort of person. But my ___________ told a rather different story. ______ much all the titles on them were by British or _____ American authors, and there was almost nothing in translation. Discovering this massive, cultural _____ spot in my reading came as quite a shock.

Solution

  1. bookshelves
  2. blind
  3. pretty
  4. thought
  5. north

Original Text

It's often said that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at what's on their bookshelves. What do my bookshelves say about me? Well, when I asked myself this question a few years ago, I made an alarming discovery. I'd always thought of myself as a fairly cultured, cosmopolitan sort of person. But my bookshelves told a rather different story. Pretty much all the titles on them were by British or North American authors, and there was almost nothing in translation. Discovering this massive, cultural blind spot in my reading came as quite a shock.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
north american 2
panama canal 2
são tomé 2

Important Words

  1. alarming
  2. american
  3. asked
  4. authors
  5. blind
  6. bookshelves
  7. british
  8. cosmopolitan
  9. cultural
  10. cultured
  11. discovering
  12. discovery
  13. lot
  14. massive
  15. north
  16. person
  17. pretty
  18. question
  19. reading
  20. shock
  21. sort
  22. spot
  23. story
  24. thought
  25. titles
  26. told
  27. translation
  28. years