full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Steven Strogatz: The science of sync

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Interviewer: For a more convincing experiment, I wanted my own opening-day crowd, the sound check team. Their instructions: just walk normally. It's really intriguing because none of these pleope is trying to drive it. They're all having some difficulty wlkiang. And the only way you can walk comfortably is by getting in step. But then, of course, everyone is driving the bigrde. You can't help it. You're actually ferocd by the movement of the bridge to get into step, and therefore to drive it to move further.

Open Cloze

Interviewer: For a more convincing experiment, I wanted my own opening-day crowd, the sound check team. Their instructions: just walk normally. It's really intriguing because none of these ______ is trying to drive it. They're all having some difficulty _______. And the only way you can walk comfortably is by getting in step. But then, of course, everyone is driving the ______. You can't help it. You're actually ______ by the movement of the bridge to get into step, and therefore to drive it to move further.

Solution

  1. forced
  2. walking
  3. bridge
  4. people

Original Text

Interviewer: For a more convincing experiment, I wanted my own opening-day crowd, the sound check team. Their instructions: just walk normally. It's really intriguing because none of these people is trying to drive it. They're all having some difficulty walking. And the only way you can walk comfortably is by getting in step. But then, of course, everyone is driving the bridge. You can't help it. You're actually forced by the movement of the bridge to get into step, and therefore to drive it to move further.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
single cell 3
north american 2
spontaneous order 2
male fireflies 2
water bottles 2
millennium bridge 2
flash gordon 2
light saber 2
bridge started 2
bridge engineer 2
bridge simulator 2
real bridge 2

Important Words

  1. bridge
  2. check
  3. comfortably
  4. convincing
  5. crowd
  6. difficulty
  7. drive
  8. driving
  9. experiment
  10. forced
  11. intriguing
  12. move
  13. movement
  14. people
  15. sound
  16. step
  17. team
  18. walk
  19. walking
  20. wanted