full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Georgette Mulheir: The tragedy of orphanages

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Since my first visit to Ceausescu's iitsoniuttn, I've seen hundreds of such places across 18 countries, from the Czech rpbuliec to Sudan. Across all of these diverse lands and cultures, the iisnoutttnis, and the child's journey through them, is drgpeeslisny similar. Lack of stimulation often leads to self-stimulating behaviors like hand-flapping, rocking back and forth, or aggression, and in some institutions, psychiatric drugs are used to control the behavior of these chreildn, whilst in others, children are tied up to pneervt them from harming themselves or others. These children are quickly labeled as having disabilities and transferred to another institution for children with disabilities. Most of these children will never leave the institution again. For those without disabilities, at age three, they're transferred to another institution, and at age seven, to yet another. Segregated according to age and gender, they are araiiltrbry separated from their siblings, often without even a cnchae to say goodbye. There's rarely enough to eat. They are often hungry. The oledr children blluy the little ones. They learn to survive. They learn to defend themselves, or they go under.

Open Cloze

Since my first visit to Ceausescu's ___________, I've seen hundreds of such places across 18 countries, from the Czech ________ to Sudan. Across all of these diverse lands and cultures, the ____________, and the child's journey through them, is ____________ similar. Lack of stimulation often leads to self-stimulating behaviors like hand-flapping, rocking back and forth, or aggression, and in some institutions, psychiatric drugs are used to control the behavior of these ________, whilst in others, children are tied up to _______ them from harming themselves or others. These children are quickly labeled as having disabilities and transferred to another institution for children with disabilities. Most of these children will never leave the institution again. For those without disabilities, at age three, they're transferred to another institution, and at age seven, to yet another. Segregated according to age and gender, they are ___________ separated from their siblings, often without even a ______ to say goodbye. There's rarely enough to eat. They are often hungry. The _____ children _____ the little ones. They learn to survive. They learn to defend themselves, or they go under.

Solution

  1. prevent
  2. arbitrarily
  3. chance
  4. institutions
  5. institution
  6. older
  7. children
  8. republic
  9. depressingly
  10. bully

Original Text

Since my first visit to Ceausescu's institution, I've seen hundreds of such places across 18 countries, from the Czech Republic to Sudan. Across all of these diverse lands and cultures, the institutions, and the child's journey through them, is depressingly similar. Lack of stimulation often leads to self-stimulating behaviors like hand-flapping, rocking back and forth, or aggression, and in some institutions, psychiatric drugs are used to control the behavior of these children, whilst in others, children are tied up to prevent them from harming themselves or others. These children are quickly labeled as having disabilities and transferred to another institution for children with disabilities. Most of these children will never leave the institution again. For those without disabilities, at age three, they're transferred to another institution, and at age seven, to yet another. Segregated according to age and gender, they are arbitrarily separated from their siblings, often without even a chance to say goodbye. There's rarely enough to eat. They are often hungry. The older children bully the little ones. They learn to survive. They learn to defend themselves, or they go under.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
family support 3
million children 2
large institutions 2
support services 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
family support services 2

Important Words

  1. age
  2. aggression
  3. arbitrarily
  4. behavior
  5. behaviors
  6. bully
  7. chance
  8. children
  9. control
  10. countries
  11. cultures
  12. czech
  13. defend
  14. depressingly
  15. disabilities
  16. diverse
  17. drugs
  18. eat
  19. gender
  20. goodbye
  21. harming
  22. hundreds
  23. hungry
  24. institution
  25. institutions
  26. journey
  27. labeled
  28. lack
  29. lands
  30. leads
  31. learn
  32. leave
  33. older
  34. places
  35. prevent
  36. psychiatric
  37. quickly
  38. rarely
  39. republic
  40. rocking
  41. segregated
  42. separated
  43. siblings
  44. similar
  45. stimulation
  46. sudan
  47. survive
  48. tied
  49. transferred
  50. visit