full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Billy Collins: Everyday moments, caught in time

Unscramble the Blue Letters

(Video) Narration: "Budapest." My pen moves along the page like the sount of a strange animal shaped like a human arm and dressed in the sleeve of a loose green staeewr. I wcath it sniffing the paper cseelassley, intent as any forager that has nothing on its mind but the gurbs and insects that will allow it to live another day. It wants only to be here tomorrow, derssed perhaps in the sleeve of a plaid shirt, nose pressed against the page, writing a few more dutiful lines while I gaze out the window and imagine Budapest or some other city where I have never been.

Open Cloze

(Video) Narration: "Budapest." My pen moves along the page like the _____ of a strange animal shaped like a human arm and dressed in the sleeve of a loose green _______. I _____ it sniffing the paper ___________, intent as any forager that has nothing on its mind but the _____ and insects that will allow it to live another day. It wants only to be here tomorrow, _______ perhaps in the sleeve of a plaid shirt, nose pressed against the page, writing a few more dutiful lines while I gaze out the window and imagine Budapest or some other city where I have never been.

Solution

  1. ceaselessly
  2. snout
  3. dressed
  4. grubs
  5. sweater
  6. watch

Original Text

(Video) Narration: "Budapest." My pen moves along the page like the snout of a strange animal shaped like a human arm and dressed in the sleeve of a loose green sweater. I watch it sniffing the paper ceaselessly, intent as any forager that has nothing on its mind but the grubs and insects that will allow it to live another day. It wants only to be here tomorrow, dressed perhaps in the sleeve of a plaid shirt, nose pressed against the page, writing a few more dutiful lines while I gaze out the window and imagine Budapest or some other city where I have never been.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
long time 3
high school 2
york city 2

Important Words

  1. animal
  2. arm
  3. budapest
  4. ceaselessly
  5. city
  6. day
  7. dressed
  8. dutiful
  9. forager
  10. gaze
  11. green
  12. grubs
  13. human
  14. imagine
  15. insects
  16. intent
  17. lines
  18. live
  19. loose
  20. mind
  21. moves
  22. nose
  23. page
  24. paper
  25. pen
  26. plaid
  27. pressed
  28. shaped
  29. shirt
  30. sleeve
  31. sniffing
  32. snout
  33. strange
  34. sweater
  35. tomorrow
  36. video
  37. watch
  38. window
  39. writing