full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Wade Davis: The worldwide web of belief and ritual

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I spent 30 yeras living amongst the people of Chinchero and I always heard about an evnet that I always wanted to piattacprie in. Once each year, the fastest yunog boy in each hamlet is given the honor of becoming a woman. And for one day, he wears the clothing of his sister and he becomes a transvestite, a waylaka. And for that day, he leads all able-bodied men on a run, but it's not your oidranry run. You start off at 11,500 feet. You run down to the base of the sacred mountain, aklqniltaa. You run up to 15,000 feet, descend 3,000 feet. cimlb again over the course of 24 hours. And of course, the waylakama spin, the trajectory of the route, is marked by holy mnouds of Earth, where coke is given to the etrah, libations of alcohol to the wind, the vortex of the feminine is brought to the mountaintop. And the metaphor is clear: you go into the mountain as an individual, but through exhaustion, through sacrifice, you emerge as a cimnuotmy that has once again rmareffied its sense of place in the planet. And at 48, I was the only outsider ever to go through this, only one to finish it. I only managed to do it by chewing more coca leaves in one day than anyone in the 4,000-year history of the plant.

Open Cloze

I spent 30 _____ living amongst the people of Chinchero and I always heard about an _____ that I always wanted to ___________ in. Once each year, the fastest _____ boy in each hamlet is given the honor of becoming a woman. And for one day, he wears the clothing of his sister and he becomes a transvestite, a waylaka. And for that day, he leads all able-bodied men on a run, but it's not your ________ run. You start off at 11,500 feet. You run down to the base of the sacred mountain, __________. You run up to 15,000 feet, descend 3,000 feet. _____ again over the course of 24 hours. And of course, the waylakama spin, the trajectory of the route, is marked by holy ______ of Earth, where coke is given to the _____, libations of alcohol to the wind, the vortex of the feminine is brought to the mountaintop. And the metaphor is clear: you go into the mountain as an individual, but through exhaustion, through sacrifice, you emerge as a _________ that has once again __________ its sense of place in the planet. And at 48, I was the only outsider ever to go through this, only one to finish it. I only managed to do it by chewing more coca leaves in one day than anyone in the 4,000-year history of the plant.

Solution

  1. young
  2. ordinary
  3. years
  4. earth
  5. mounds
  6. reaffirmed
  7. climb
  8. event
  9. community
  10. antakillqa
  11. participate

Original Text

I spent 30 years living amongst the people of Chinchero and I always heard about an event that I always wanted to participate in. Once each year, the fastest young boy in each hamlet is given the honor of becoming a woman. And for one day, he wears the clothing of his sister and he becomes a transvestite, a waylaka. And for that day, he leads all able-bodied men on a run, but it's not your ordinary run. You start off at 11,500 feet. You run down to the base of the sacred mountain, Antakillqa. You run up to 15,000 feet, descend 3,000 feet. Climb again over the course of 24 hours. And of course, the waylakama spin, the trajectory of the route, is marked by holy mounds of Earth, where coke is given to the Earth, libations of alcohol to the wind, the vortex of the feminine is brought to the mountaintop. And the metaphor is clear: you go into the mountain as an individual, but through exhaustion, through sacrifice, you emerge as a community that has once again reaffirmed its sense of place in the planet. And at 48, I was the only outsider ever to go through this, only one to finish it. I only managed to do it by chewing more coca leaves in one day than anyone in the 4,000-year history of the plant.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
failed attempts 4
machu picchu 3
upper paleolithic 2
sacred geography 2
coca leaves 2
ancient tairona 2
cosmic balance 2
elder brothers 2
myriad voices 2
unique answers 2
ensuing millennia 2

Important Words

  1. alcohol
  2. antakillqa
  3. base
  4. boy
  5. brought
  6. chewing
  7. chinchero
  8. climb
  9. clothing
  10. coca
  11. coke
  12. community
  13. day
  14. descend
  15. earth
  16. emerge
  17. event
  18. exhaustion
  19. fastest
  20. feet
  21. feminine
  22. finish
  23. hamlet
  24. heard
  25. history
  26. holy
  27. honor
  28. hours
  29. individual
  30. leads
  31. leaves
  32. libations
  33. living
  34. managed
  35. marked
  36. men
  37. metaphor
  38. mounds
  39. mountain
  40. mountaintop
  41. ordinary
  42. outsider
  43. participate
  44. people
  45. place
  46. planet
  47. plant
  48. reaffirmed
  49. route
  50. run
  51. sacred
  52. sacrifice
  53. sense
  54. sister
  55. spent
  56. spin
  57. start
  58. trajectory
  59. transvestite
  60. vortex
  61. wanted
  62. waylaka
  63. waylakama
  64. wears
  65. wind
  66. woman
  67. year
  68. years
  69. young