full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Paul Bloom: Can prejudice ever be a good thing?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

But it's not all emotions, and I want to end by appealing to the power of reason. At some point in his wonderful book "The Better Angels of Our ntaure," sveten Pinker says, the Old Testament says love thy neighbor, and the New Testament says love thy enemy, but I don't love either one of them, not really, but I don't want to kill them. I know I have obligations to them, but my moral feelings to them, my moarl beliefs about how I should bhvaee towards them, aren't grounded in love. What they're grounded in is the usarnntidndeg of human rights, a belief that their life is as valuable to them as my life is to me, and to sopuprt this, he tells a story by the great philosopher Adam Smith, and I want to tell this story too, though I'm going to moidfy it a little bit for modern times.

Open Cloze

But it's not all emotions, and I want to end by appealing to the power of reason. At some point in his wonderful book "The Better Angels of Our ______," ______ Pinker says, the Old Testament says love thy neighbor, and the New Testament says love thy enemy, but I don't love either one of them, not really, but I don't want to kill them. I know I have obligations to them, but my moral feelings to them, my _____ beliefs about how I should ______ towards them, aren't grounded in love. What they're grounded in is the _____________ of human rights, a belief that their life is as valuable to them as my life is to me, and to _______ this, he tells a story by the great philosopher Adam Smith, and I want to tell this story too, though I'm going to ______ it a little bit for modern times.

Solution

  1. moral
  2. nature
  3. steven
  4. modify
  5. understanding
  6. support
  7. behave

Original Text

But it's not all emotions, and I want to end by appealing to the power of reason. At some point in his wonderful book "The Better Angels of Our Nature," Steven Pinker says, the Old Testament says love thy neighbor, and the New Testament says love thy enemy, but I don't love either one of them, not really, but I don't want to kill them. I know I have obligations to them, but my moral feelings to them, my moral beliefs about how I should behave towards them, aren't grounded in love. What they're grounded in is the understanding of human rights, a belief that their life is as valuable to them as my life is to me, and to support this, he tells a story by the great philosopher Adam Smith, and I want to tell this story too, though I'm going to modify it a little bit for modern times.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
great social 2
british adolescents 2
graham crackers 2
compared obama 2
baseball cards 2
black hands 2
changed american 2
american attitudes 2
love thy 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
changed american attitudes 2

Important Words

  1. adam
  2. angels
  3. appealing
  4. behave
  5. belief
  6. beliefs
  7. bit
  8. book
  9. emotions
  10. enemy
  11. feelings
  12. great
  13. grounded
  14. human
  15. kill
  16. life
  17. love
  18. modern
  19. modify
  20. moral
  21. nature
  22. neighbor
  23. obligations
  24. philosopher
  25. pinker
  26. point
  27. power
  28. reason
  29. rights
  30. smith
  31. steven
  32. story
  33. support
  34. tells
  35. testament
  36. thy
  37. times
  38. understanding
  39. valuable
  40. wonderful