full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Kathryn Bouskill: The unforeseen consequences of a fast-paced world

Unscramble the Blue Letters

The first paradox is that we love speed, and we're thrilled by its intensity. But our prehistoric brains aren't really built for it, so we invent roller coasters and race cars and supersonic planes, but we get wahpslih, carsick, jet-lagged. We didn't evolve to multitask. Rather, we evolved to do one thing with incredible fcous, like hunt -- not naceerssliy with gerat seped but with endurance for great distance. But now there's a wnienidg gap between our biology and our lifestyles, a mismatch between what our bodies are built for and what we're making them do. It's a phenomenon my mentors have called "Stone Agers in the fast lane."

Open Cloze

The first paradox is that we love speed, and we're thrilled by its intensity. But our prehistoric brains aren't really built for it, so we invent roller coasters and race cars and supersonic planes, but we get ________, carsick, jet-lagged. We didn't evolve to multitask. Rather, we evolved to do one thing with incredible _____, like hunt -- not ___________ with _____ _____ but with endurance for great distance. But now there's a ________ gap between our biology and our lifestyles, a mismatch between what our bodies are built for and what we're making them do. It's a phenomenon my mentors have called "Stone Agers in the fast lane."

Solution

  1. whiplash
  2. necessarily
  3. speed
  4. widening
  5. great
  6. focus

Original Text

The first paradox is that we love speed, and we're thrilled by its intensity. But our prehistoric brains aren't really built for it, so we invent roller coasters and race cars and supersonic planes, but we get whiplash, carsick, jet-lagged. We didn't evolve to multitask. Rather, we evolved to do one thing with incredible focus, like hunt -- not necessarily with great speed but with endurance for great distance. But now there's a widening gap between our biology and our lifestyles, a mismatch between what our bodies are built for and what we're making them do. It's a phenomenon my mentors have called "Stone Agers in the fast lane."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

Important Words

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  2. biology
  3. bodies
  4. brains
  5. built
  6. called
  7. cars
  8. carsick
  9. coasters
  10. distance
  11. endurance
  12. evolve
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  15. focus
  16. gap
  17. great
  18. hunt
  19. incredible
  20. intensity
  21. invent
  22. lane
  23. lifestyles
  24. love
  25. making
  26. mentors
  27. mismatch
  28. multitask
  29. necessarily
  30. paradox
  31. phenomenon
  32. planes
  33. prehistoric
  34. race
  35. roller
  36. speed
  37. supersonic
  38. thrilled
  39. whiplash
  40. widening