full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Joy Sun: Should you donate differently?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Well, why did I spend a ddaece doing other sutff for the poor? Honestly, I beelveid that I could do more good with money for the poor than the poor could do for themselves. I held two assumptions: One, that poor people are poor in part because they're uneducated and don't make good choices; two is that we then need people like me to figure out what they need and get it to them. It tnurs out, the evidence says otherwise. In recent years, researchers have been studying what happens when we give poor people cash. dnzeos of studies show across the braod that people use cash transfers to ivrpome their own lives. Pregnant women in Uruguay buy better food and give birth to healthier babies. Sri Lankan men invest in their businesses. Researchers who studied our work in kyena found that poelpe invested in a range of assets, from livestock to equipment to home iemvpntmores, and they saw increases in income from bssuines and farming one year after the cash was sent. None of these studies found that people spend more on drinking or smoking or that people work less. In fact, they work more.

Open Cloze

Well, why did I spend a ______ doing other _____ for the poor? Honestly, I ________ that I could do more good with money for the poor than the poor could do for themselves. I held two assumptions: One, that poor people are poor in part because they're uneducated and don't make good choices; two is that we then need people like me to figure out what they need and get it to them. It _____ out, the evidence says otherwise. In recent years, researchers have been studying what happens when we give poor people cash. ______ of studies show across the _____ that people use cash transfers to _______ their own lives. Pregnant women in Uruguay buy better food and give birth to healthier babies. Sri Lankan men invest in their businesses. Researchers who studied our work in _____ found that ______ invested in a range of assets, from livestock to equipment to home ____________, and they saw increases in income from ________ and farming one year after the cash was sent. None of these studies found that people spend more on drinking or smoking or that people work less. In fact, they work more.

Solution

  1. business
  2. believed
  3. decade
  4. people
  5. turns
  6. board
  7. stuff
  8. improve
  9. dozens
  10. kenya
  11. improvements

Original Text

Well, why did I spend a decade doing other stuff for the poor? Honestly, I believed that I could do more good with money for the poor than the poor could do for themselves. I held two assumptions: One, that poor people are poor in part because they're uneducated and don't make good choices; two is that we then need people like me to figure out what they need and get it to them. It turns out, the evidence says otherwise. In recent years, researchers have been studying what happens when we give poor people cash. Dozens of studies show across the board that people use cash transfers to improve their own lives. Pregnant women in Uruguay buy better food and give birth to healthier babies. Sri Lankan men invest in their businesses. Researchers who studied our work in Kenya found that people invested in a range of assets, from livestock to equipment to home improvements, and they saw increases in income from business and farming one year after the cash was sent. None of these studies found that people spend more on drinking or smoking or that people work less. In fact, they work more.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
cash transfers 3
poorest people 2
poor people 2
cell phone 2
send money 2

Important Words

  1. assets
  2. babies
  3. believed
  4. birth
  5. board
  6. business
  7. businesses
  8. buy
  9. cash
  10. decade
  11. dozens
  12. drinking
  13. equipment
  14. evidence
  15. fact
  16. farming
  17. figure
  18. food
  19. give
  20. good
  21. healthier
  22. held
  23. home
  24. honestly
  25. improve
  26. improvements
  27. income
  28. increases
  29. invest
  30. invested
  31. kenya
  32. lankan
  33. lives
  34. livestock
  35. men
  36. money
  37. part
  38. people
  39. poor
  40. pregnant
  41. range
  42. researchers
  43. show
  44. smoking
  45. spend
  46. sri
  47. studied
  48. studies
  49. studying
  50. stuff
  51. transfers
  52. turns
  53. uneducated
  54. uruguay
  55. women
  56. work
  57. year
  58. years