full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alyssa Loorya: What I learned from digging under New York City's streets

Unscramble the Blue Letters

And its remote location made it an ideal spot for the city to construct its first poor house. And it's from that period, circa 1735, that we find these bone buttons. These were made by poor persons in the amsslhoue. Poor porsnes in the almshouse were assigned various tasks to earn their keep, among them, shredding old rope for reuse, dressing hemp, picking oakum, mikang bone buttons, in the toughht that hard work would reform these poor persons into productive meermbs of society. The almshouse served several groups: poor needy persons, sturdy beggars, idle wandering vagabonds. And reasons to be admitted? Insanity, pregnancy, or being a widow or an orphan who could no longer pay their way. Which makes this peice all the more interesting. This child's ptale was found within the wllas of the Bridewell. The Bridewell was one of the most feared and notorious prisons of its time, and it happened to have been right next door to the almshouse. In fact, there were porniss on either side of the almshouse, and at times, these institutions were so overcrowded. posnriers and poor persons were sharing the same spaces. And while there is a lot of calomr about how can you expose children to hardened criminals, let's not forget that children as young as twelve were convicted to the bdewielrl for stealing bread. What all this gives us is an insight into life in the 18th ctneury, what it was like to be poor in the 18th century, perhaps being sreeteaggd from a portion of society, perhaps being assigned takss to earn their keep. It was a time when three-fifths of New York City's population were living at or near the subsistence level, if not below. And 10% of the population owned more than half of the city's wealth. The past has a lot to taceh us about our present and our future. I'm a firm believer that in oerdr to have a sualatsnibe future, we must have a well-understood past. Archaeology affords us New Yorkers and pretty much anyone in an ubarn center the opportunity to irprcaootne the knowledge of our past into our present-day dialogues, into the dialogues about our futures, incorporate the iofmatoinrn into our shared spaces, and hopefully, it can bring all of our diverse communities within New York City, again, within any city closer together. And if I can get just one person to think a little bit differently about what they see when they walk down the city sertets, or through an urban park, then I've done my job of sharing the past. Thank you. (Applause)

Open Cloze

And its remote location made it an ideal spot for the city to construct its first poor house. And it's from that period, circa 1735, that we find these bone buttons. These were made by poor persons in the _________. Poor _______ in the almshouse were assigned various tasks to earn their keep, among them, shredding old rope for reuse, dressing hemp, picking oakum, ______ bone buttons, in the _______ that hard work would reform these poor persons into productive _______ of society. The almshouse served several groups: poor needy persons, sturdy beggars, idle wandering vagabonds. And reasons to be admitted? Insanity, pregnancy, or being a widow or an orphan who could no longer pay their way. Which makes this _____ all the more interesting. This child's _____ was found within the _____ of the Bridewell. The Bridewell was one of the most feared and notorious prisons of its time, and it happened to have been right next door to the almshouse. In fact, there were _______ on either side of the almshouse, and at times, these institutions were so overcrowded. _________ and poor persons were sharing the same spaces. And while there is a lot of ______ about how can you expose children to hardened criminals, let's not forget that children as young as twelve were convicted to the _________ for stealing bread. What all this gives us is an insight into life in the 18th _______, what it was like to be poor in the 18th century, perhaps being __________ from a portion of society, perhaps being assigned _____ to earn their keep. It was a time when three-fifths of New York City's population were living at or near the subsistence level, if not below. And 10% of the population owned more than half of the city's wealth. The past has a lot to _____ us about our present and our future. I'm a firm believer that in _____ to have a ___________ future, we must have a well-understood past. Archaeology affords us New Yorkers and pretty much anyone in an _____ center the opportunity to ___________ the knowledge of our past into our present-day dialogues, into the dialogues about our futures, incorporate the ___________ into our shared spaces, and hopefully, it can bring all of our diverse communities within New York City, again, within any city closer together. And if I can get just one person to think a little bit differently about what they see when they walk down the city _______, or through an urban park, then I've done my job of sharing the past. Thank you. (Applause)

Solution

  1. bridewell
  2. piece
  3. streets
  4. clamor
  5. persons
  6. almshouse
  7. tasks
  8. members
  9. teach
  10. century
  11. prisons
  12. thought
  13. plate
  14. sustainable
  15. urban
  16. prisoners
  17. walls
  18. information
  19. incorporate
  20. order
  21. making
  22. segregated

Original Text

And its remote location made it an ideal spot for the city to construct its first poor house. And it's from that period, circa 1735, that we find these bone buttons. These were made by poor persons in the almshouse. Poor persons in the almshouse were assigned various tasks to earn their keep, among them, shredding old rope for reuse, dressing hemp, picking oakum, making bone buttons, in the thought that hard work would reform these poor persons into productive members of society. The almshouse served several groups: poor needy persons, sturdy beggars, idle wandering vagabonds. And reasons to be admitted? Insanity, pregnancy, or being a widow or an orphan who could no longer pay their way. Which makes this piece all the more interesting. This child's plate was found within the walls of the Bridewell. The Bridewell was one of the most feared and notorious prisons of its time, and it happened to have been right next door to the almshouse. In fact, there were prisons on either side of the almshouse, and at times, these institutions were so overcrowded. Prisoners and poor persons were sharing the same spaces. And while there is a lot of clamor about how can you expose children to hardened criminals, let's not forget that children as young as twelve were convicted to the Bridewell for stealing bread. What all this gives us is an insight into life in the 18th century, what it was like to be poor in the 18th century, perhaps being segregated from a portion of society, perhaps being assigned tasks to earn their keep. It was a time when three-fifths of New York City's population were living at or near the subsistence level, if not below. And 10% of the population owned more than half of the city's wealth. The past has a lot to teach us about our present and our future. I'm a firm believer that in order to have a sustainable future, we must have a well-understood past. Archaeology affords us New Yorkers and pretty much anyone in an urban center the opportunity to incorporate the knowledge of our past into our present-day dialogues, into the dialogues about our futures, incorporate the information into our shared spaces, and hopefully, it can bring all of our diverse communities within New York City, again, within any city closer together. And if I can get just one person to think a little bit differently about what they see when they walk down the city streets, or through an urban park, then I've done my job of sharing the past. Thank you. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
poor persons 4
city streets 2
york city 2
city hall 2

Important Words

  1. admitted
  2. affords
  3. almshouse
  4. applause
  5. archaeology
  6. assigned
  7. beggars
  8. believer
  9. bit
  10. bone
  11. bread
  12. bridewell
  13. bring
  14. buttons
  15. center
  16. century
  17. children
  18. circa
  19. city
  20. clamor
  21. closer
  22. communities
  23. construct
  24. convicted
  25. criminals
  26. dialogues
  27. differently
  28. diverse
  29. door
  30. dressing
  31. earn
  32. expose
  33. fact
  34. feared
  35. find
  36. firm
  37. forget
  38. future
  39. futures
  40. happened
  41. hard
  42. hardened
  43. hemp
  44. house
  45. ideal
  46. idle
  47. incorporate
  48. information
  49. insanity
  50. insight
  51. institutions
  52. interesting
  53. job
  54. knowledge
  55. level
  56. life
  57. living
  58. location
  59. longer
  60. lot
  61. making
  62. members
  63. needy
  64. notorious
  65. oakum
  66. opportunity
  67. order
  68. orphan
  69. overcrowded
  70. owned
  71. park
  72. pay
  73. period
  74. person
  75. persons
  76. picking
  77. piece
  78. plate
  79. poor
  80. population
  81. portion
  82. pregnancy
  83. present
  84. pretty
  85. prisoners
  86. prisons
  87. productive
  88. reasons
  89. reform
  90. remote
  91. reuse
  92. rope
  93. segregated
  94. served
  95. shared
  96. sharing
  97. shredding
  98. side
  99. society
  100. spaces
  101. spot
  102. stealing
  103. streets
  104. sturdy
  105. subsistence
  106. sustainable
  107. tasks
  108. teach
  109. thought
  110. time
  111. times
  112. twelve
  113. urban
  114. vagabonds
  115. walk
  116. walls
  117. wandering
  118. wealth
  119. widow
  120. work
  121. york
  122. yorkers
  123. young