full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Mohamad Jebara: This company pays kids to do their math homework

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I was top of my class, and we were about to start the Extension mtahs course. I was really excited about this brand new topic coming up, complex nrmeubs. I like complex. My teehcar was priming us for the concepts with some questions about square rotos. Square of nine — three; square of 256 — stixeen. Too easy. Then she asked the trick question: What about the square root of negative one? Of course, we were all over it — "Come on, Miss! We all know you can't take the square root of a negative." "That's true in the real world," she said. "But in the complex wrold, the square root of negative one is the imaginary number i."

Open Cloze

I was top of my class, and we were about to start the Extension _____ course. I was really excited about this brand new topic coming up, complex _______. I like complex. My _______ was priming us for the concepts with some questions about square _____. Square of nine — three; square of 256 — _______. Too easy. Then she asked the trick question: What about the square root of negative one? Of course, we were all over it — "Come on, Miss! We all know you can't take the square root of a negative." "That's true in the real world," she said. "But in the complex _____, the square root of negative one is the imaginary number i."

Solution

  1. sixteen
  2. roots
  3. maths
  4. teacher
  5. numbers
  6. world

Original Text

I was top of my class, and we were about to start the Extension Maths course. I was really excited about this brand new topic coming up, complex numbers. I like complex. My teacher was priming us for the concepts with some questions about square roots. Square of nine — three; square of 256 — sixteen. Too easy. Then she asked the trick question: What about the square root of negative one? Of course, we were all over it — "Come on, Miss! We all know you can't take the square root of a negative." "That's true in the real world," she said. "But in the complex world, the square root of negative one is the imaginary number i."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
high school 3
square root 3
student outcomes 3
weekly maths 3
loved mathematics 2
study mathematics 2
improve student 2
program regularly 2
biggest challenge 2
test scores 2
weekly subscription 2
subscription fee 2
business model 2
user base 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
weekly subscription fee 2

Important Words

  1. asked
  2. brand
  3. class
  4. coming
  5. complex
  6. concepts
  7. easy
  8. excited
  9. extension
  10. imaginary
  11. maths
  12. negative
  13. number
  14. numbers
  15. priming
  16. questions
  17. real
  18. root
  19. roots
  20. sixteen
  21. square
  22. start
  23. teacher
  24. top
  25. topic
  26. trick
  27. true
  28. world