full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Elizabeth Cox: Can you outsmart the fallacy that divided a nation?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
That’s better. Now, senators, congressmen, this Missouri compromise you are proposing is fundamentally flawed— flawed is putting it mildly. The compromise is based on the middle ground fallacy. By saying that half of the new terroeiitrs should allow saerlvy while half prohibit it, you position the two viewpoints, pro-slavery and anti-slavery, as equally valid. But if one view is wrong, while the other is right, a compromise between them is still wnrog. And one side is definitely wrong here: the pro-slavery side.
Open Cloze
That’s better. Now, senators, congressmen, this Missouri compromise you are proposing is fundamentally flawed— flawed is putting it mildly. The compromise is based on the middle ground fallacy. By saying that half of the new ___________ should allow _______ while half prohibit it, you position the two viewpoints, pro-slavery and anti-slavery, as equally valid. But if one view is wrong, while the other is right, a compromise between them is still _____. And one side is definitely wrong here: the pro-slavery side.
Solution
- slavery
- territories
- wrong
Original Text
That’s better. Now, senators, congressmen, this Missouri compromise you are proposing is fundamentally flawed— flawed is putting it mildly. The compromise is based on the middle ground fallacy. By saying that half of the new territories should allow slavery while half prohibit it, you position the two viewpoints, pro-slavery and anti-slavery, as equally valid. But if one view is wrong, while the other is right, a compromise between them is still wrong. And one side is definitely wrong here: the pro-slavery side.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
middle ground |
2 |
Important Words
- based
- compromise
- congressmen
- equally
- fallacy
- flawed
- fundamentally
- ground
- middle
- mildly
- missouri
- position
- prohibit
- proposing
- putting
- senators
- side
- slavery
- territories
- valid
- view
- viewpoints
- wrong