full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Thomas P. Campbell: Weaving narratives in museum galleries

Unscramble the Blue Letters

My kind of eureka mnemot came a few years later, when I was studying the art of the crutos of Northern Europe, and of course it was very much ducsesisd in terms of the paintings and the scpuetulrs and the architecture of the day. But as I began to read htsioiracl dunmocets and contemporary descriptions, I found there was a kind of a missing cnopenomt, for everywhere I came across descriptions of tapestries. Tapestries were ubiquitous between the mdilde Ages and, really, well into the 18th century, and it was pretty aprnepat why. Tapestries were portable. You could roll them up, send them ahead of you, and in the time it took to hang them up, you could transform a cold, dank interior into a richly colored setting. Tapestries effectively provided a vast canvas on which the patrons of the day could depict the heroes with whom they wanted to be associated, or even themselves, and in addition to that, tapestries were hugely epseivxne. They required scores of hlghiy skilled weavers wokrnig over extended podiers of time with very expensive materials — the wools, the silks, even gold and silver thread. So, all in all, in an age when the visual image of any kind was rare, tapestries were an incredibly potent form of propaganda.

Open Cloze

My kind of eureka ______ came a few years later, when I was studying the art of the ______ of Northern Europe, and of course it was very much _________ in terms of the paintings and the __________ and the architecture of the day. But as I began to read __________ _________ and contemporary descriptions, I found there was a kind of a missing _________, for everywhere I came across descriptions of tapestries. Tapestries were ubiquitous between the ______ Ages and, really, well into the 18th century, and it was pretty ________ why. Tapestries were portable. You could roll them up, send them ahead of you, and in the time it took to hang them up, you could transform a cold, dank interior into a richly colored setting. Tapestries effectively provided a vast canvas on which the patrons of the day could depict the heroes with whom they wanted to be associated, or even themselves, and in addition to that, tapestries were hugely _________. They required scores of ______ skilled weavers _______ over extended _______ of time with very expensive materials — the wools, the silks, even gold and silver thread. So, all in all, in an age when the visual image of any kind was rare, tapestries were an incredibly potent form of propaganda.

Solution

  1. courts
  2. discussed
  3. component
  4. highly
  5. moment
  6. apparent
  7. middle
  8. working
  9. sculptures
  10. periods
  11. historical
  12. documents
  13. expensive

Original Text

My kind of eureka moment came a few years later, when I was studying the art of the courts of Northern Europe, and of course it was very much discussed in terms of the paintings and the sculptures and the architecture of the day. But as I began to read historical documents and contemporary descriptions, I found there was a kind of a missing component, for everywhere I came across descriptions of tapestries. Tapestries were ubiquitous between the Middle Ages and, really, well into the 18th century, and it was pretty apparent why. Tapestries were portable. You could roll them up, send them ahead of you, and in the time it took to hang them up, you could transform a cold, dank interior into a richly colored setting. Tapestries effectively provided a vast canvas on which the patrons of the day could depict the heroes with whom they wanted to be associated, or even themselves, and in addition to that, tapestries were hugely expensive. They required scores of highly skilled weavers working over extended periods of time with very expensive materials — the wools, the silks, even gold and silver thread. So, all in all, in an age when the visual image of any kind was rare, tapestries were an incredibly potent form of propaganda.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
dog pooping 2

Important Words

  1. addition
  2. age
  3. ages
  4. apparent
  5. architecture
  6. art
  7. began
  8. canvas
  9. century
  10. cold
  11. colored
  12. component
  13. contemporary
  14. courts
  15. dank
  16. day
  17. depict
  18. descriptions
  19. discussed
  20. documents
  21. effectively
  22. eureka
  23. europe
  24. expensive
  25. extended
  26. form
  27. gold
  28. hang
  29. heroes
  30. highly
  31. historical
  32. hugely
  33. image
  34. incredibly
  35. interior
  36. kind
  37. materials
  38. middle
  39. missing
  40. moment
  41. northern
  42. paintings
  43. patrons
  44. periods
  45. portable
  46. potent
  47. pretty
  48. propaganda
  49. rare
  50. read
  51. required
  52. richly
  53. roll
  54. scores
  55. sculptures
  56. send
  57. setting
  58. silks
  59. silver
  60. skilled
  61. studying
  62. tapestries
  63. terms
  64. thread
  65. time
  66. transform
  67. ubiquitous
  68. vast
  69. visual
  70. wanted
  71. weavers
  72. wools
  73. working
  74. years