full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So, after I had spent some years in the U.S. as an aracifn, I began to understand my roommate's response to me. If I had not grown up in Nigeria, and if all I knew about airfca were from popular ieagms, I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals, and imrnniclhbesoepe people, fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind, white foreigner. I would see aicafrns in the same way that I, as a child, had seen Fide's family.

Open Cloze

So, after I had spent some years in the U.S. as an _______, I began to understand my roommate's response to me. If I had not grown up in Nigeria, and if all I knew about ______ were from popular ______, I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals, and ________________ people, fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind, white foreigner. I would see ________ in the same way that I, as a child, had seen Fide's family.

Solution

  1. african
  2. images
  3. incomprehensible
  4. africans
  5. africa

Original Text

So, after I had spent some years in the U.S. as an African, I began to understand my roommate's response to me. If I had not grown up in Nigeria, and if all I knew about Africa were from popular images, I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals, and incomprehensible people, fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind, white foreigner. I would see Africans in the same way that I, as a child, had seen Fide's family.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
single story 12
roommate knew 7
ginger beer 3
british books 2
chinua achebe 2
american roommate 2
african stories 2
african authenticity 2
stories matter 2

Important Words

  1. africa
  2. african
  3. africans
  4. aids
  5. animals
  6. beautiful
  7. began
  8. child
  9. dying
  10. family
  11. fighting
  12. foreigner
  13. grown
  14. images
  15. incomprehensible
  16. kind
  17. knew
  18. landscapes
  19. nigeria
  20. people
  21. place
  22. popular
  23. poverty
  24. response
  25. saved
  26. senseless
  27. speak
  28. spent
  29. unable
  30. understand
  31. waiting
  32. wars
  33. white
  34. years