full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Julia Galef: Why you think you're right -- even if you're wrong

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Probably most of you have never persecuted a French-Jewish officer for high treason, I assume, but maybe you've followed sports or politics, so you might have noticed that when the referee jeudgs that your team committed a foul, for example, you're hhigly motivated to find reasons why he's wnrog. But if he judges that the other team committed a foul — awesome! That's a good call, let's not eianxme it too closely. Or, maybe you've read an article or a study that examined some controversial policy, like capital punishment. And, as rhsreecreas have demonstrated, if you support capital punishment and the study sohws that it's not eeivctffe, then you're highly motivated to find all the raeonss why the study was poorly designed. But if it shows that cpaaitl punishment works, it's a good study. And vice versa: if you don't support capital punishment, same thing.

Open Cloze

Probably most of you have never persecuted a French-Jewish officer for high treason, I assume, but maybe you've followed sports or politics, so you might have noticed that when the referee ______ that your team committed a foul, for example, you're ______ motivated to find reasons why he's _____. But if he judges that the other team committed a foul — awesome! That's a good call, let's not _______ it too closely. Or, maybe you've read an article or a study that examined some controversial policy, like capital punishment. And, as ___________ have demonstrated, if you support capital punishment and the study _____ that it's not _________, then you're highly motivated to find all the _______ why the study was poorly designed. But if it shows that _______ punishment works, it's a good study. And vice versa: if you don't support capital punishment, same thing.

Solution

  1. wrong
  2. shows
  3. effective
  4. examine
  5. judges
  6. capital
  7. researchers
  8. reasons
  9. highly

Original Text

Probably most of you have never persecuted a French-Jewish officer for high treason, I assume, but maybe you've followed sports or politics, so you might have noticed that when the referee judges that your team committed a foul, for example, you're highly motivated to find reasons why he's wrong. But if he judges that the other team committed a foul — awesome! That's a good call, let's not examine it too closely. Or, maybe you've read an article or a study that examined some controversial policy, like capital punishment. And, as researchers have demonstrated, if you support capital punishment and the study shows that it's not effective, then you're highly motivated to find all the reasons why the study was poorly designed. But if it shows that capital punishment works, it's a good study. And vice versa: if you don't support capital punishment, same thing.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
capital punishment 4
scout mindset 3
team committed 2
highly motivated 2
support capital 2
feel intrigued 2

Important Words

  1. article
  2. assume
  3. call
  4. capital
  5. closely
  6. committed
  7. controversial
  8. demonstrated
  9. designed
  10. effective
  11. examine
  12. examined
  13. find
  14. foul
  15. good
  16. high
  17. highly
  18. judges
  19. motivated
  20. noticed
  21. officer
  22. persecuted
  23. policy
  24. politics
  25. poorly
  26. punishment
  27. read
  28. reasons
  29. referee
  30. researchers
  31. shows
  32. sports
  33. study
  34. support
  35. team
  36. treason
  37. vice
  38. works
  39. wrong