full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Angel Chang: The wildly complex anatomy of a sneaker

Unscramble the Blue Letters

When manufacturing is complete, the shoes are pgackaed and transported to stores around the globe. For many, these sohes could last years. But for someone running 20 miles a week, a pair of running shoes will start wearing out after roughly 6 months. Since the shoes are made of so many different mtealaris, they’re almost impossible to break down into recyclable components. 20% of these shoes are itreieacnnd, while the rest are tsseod into landfills where they can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.

Open Cloze

When manufacturing is complete, the shoes are ________ and transported to stores around the globe. For many, these _____ could last years. But for someone running 20 miles a week, a pair of running shoes will start wearing out after roughly 6 months. Since the shoes are made of so many different _________, they’re almost impossible to break down into recyclable components. 20% of these shoes are ___________, while the rest are ______ into landfills where they can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.

Solution

  1. packaged
  2. incinerated
  3. tossed
  4. materials
  5. shoes

Original Text

When manufacturing is complete, the shoes are packaged and transported to stores around the globe. For many, these shoes could last years. But for someone running 20 miles a week, a pair of running shoes will start wearing out after roughly 6 months. Since the shoes are made of so many different materials, they’re almost impossible to break down into recyclable components. 20% of these shoes are incinerated, while the rest are tossed into landfills where they can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
synthetic textiles 2
outer soles 2
natural rubber 2
typical sneaker 2
manufacturing processes 2

Important Words

  1. break
  2. complete
  3. components
  4. degrade
  5. globe
  6. impossible
  7. incinerated
  8. landfills
  9. manufacturing
  10. materials
  11. miles
  12. months
  13. packaged
  14. pair
  15. recyclable
  16. rest
  17. roughly
  18. running
  19. shoes
  20. start
  21. stores
  22. tossed
  23. transported
  24. wearing
  25. week
  26. years