TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Christina Greer: Gerrymandering How drawing jagged lines can impact an election

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Most people have hared the word "gerrymandering" once or twice, probably during a patsdeiirenl election. What exactly is gerrymandering? Essentially, it's the process of giving one political party an advantage over another political party by redrawing district lines. It's like Democrats trying to gain an advantage over Republicans, or Republicans trying to gain an advantage over Democrats. You see, each party wants to gain as many districts as possible so they can do things like ctoronl the sttae budget, or set themselves up to win even more districts in the future. So to understand how this psercos began, and how it cuonnteis today, we must go back to 1812 in Massachusetts. Elbridge Gerry, the governor of meuaaststschs, supported and segnid a bill to allow redistricting. That is, redrawing the bodnaeuirs that separate districts. The cacth? The new lines would favor Gerry's own political party, the Democratic-Republican ptary, which no longer exists. You see, Gerry wanted his party to win as many state Senate seats as possible. The more members of your party who vote, the more likely you are to win an eceotiln. The new lnies were drawn to include loads of areas that would help Governor Gerry in the future. They were so strange looking that someone said the new districts looked like a salamander. The Boston Gazette added Gerry's name to the word smendaaalr, and voilà! Gerrymandering, the process of dividing up and redrawing districts to give your piiatlocl party an advantage. So how exactly does someone go about protecting their own political party, and actually gerrymandering a district? There are two successful practices. Packing a district, and cracking a district. Packing is the process of drawing district lines and packing in your opponents like cattle, into as few districts as possible. If more districts equals more votes, the fewer the drtitiscs there are, the fewer votes the opposition party will get. Packing, then, deecaerss the opponent's voter strength and influence. Cracking is the opposite: taking one district and cracking it into several pieces. This is usually done in districts where your opponent has many spuproerts. cikcrnag spreads these supporters out among many districts, denying your opponent a lot of vteos. When you have a large number of people who would generally vote for one type of party, those folks are known as a voting bloc. Cracking is a way to break that all up. So when would a party choose to pack their opponent's districts rather than ccark them? Well, that really depends on what the party needs. To dtliue your opponent's voters, you could pack them into one diisctrt and leave the surrounding districts filled with voters of your own party. Or, if you and your party are in power when it's time to redraw district lines, you could redraw districts and crack up a powerful district and spread your opponent's voters out across several neighboring districts. So, Governor Gerry in 1812 wanted to gain an advantage for his party, and redrew district lines in his state in such a crazy way we have a whole new word and way of tiknnihg about how political parties can gain adaeatgvns over their opponents. Politicians think of creative ways to draw districts every few years. So the next time an election comes around, and politicians ask people to vote, be sure to look up the shape of your district and the districts that surround it. How wide does your district stretch across your state? Are all of the districts in your state relatively the same shape? How many other districts does your district touch? But always be sure to ask yourself, does my district look like a salamander?

Open Cloze

Most people have _____ the word "gerrymandering" once or twice, probably during a ____________ election. What exactly is gerrymandering? Essentially, it's the process of giving one political party an advantage over another political party by redrawing district lines. It's like Democrats trying to gain an advantage over Republicans, or Republicans trying to gain an advantage over Democrats. You see, each party wants to gain as many districts as possible so they can do things like _______ the _____ budget, or set themselves up to win even more districts in the future. So to understand how this _______ began, and how it _________ today, we must go back to 1812 in Massachusetts. Elbridge Gerry, the governor of _____________, supported and ______ a bill to allow redistricting. That is, redrawing the __________ that separate districts. The _____? The new lines would favor Gerry's own political party, the Democratic-Republican _____, which no longer exists. You see, Gerry wanted his party to win as many state Senate seats as possible. The more members of your party who vote, the more likely you are to win an ________. The new _____ were drawn to include loads of areas that would help Governor Gerry in the future. They were so strange looking that someone said the new districts looked like a salamander. The Boston Gazette added Gerry's name to the word __________, and voilà! Gerrymandering, the process of dividing up and redrawing districts to give your _________ party an advantage. So how exactly does someone go about protecting their own political party, and actually gerrymandering a district? There are two successful practices. Packing a district, and cracking a district. Packing is the process of drawing district lines and packing in your opponents like cattle, into as few districts as possible. If more districts equals more votes, the fewer the _________ there are, the fewer votes the opposition party will get. Packing, then, _________ the opponent's voter strength and influence. Cracking is the opposite: taking one district and cracking it into several pieces. This is usually done in districts where your opponent has many __________. ________ spreads these supporters out among many districts, denying your opponent a lot of _____. When you have a large number of people who would generally vote for one type of party, those folks are known as a voting bloc. Cracking is a way to break that all up. So when would a party choose to pack their opponent's districts rather than _____ them? Well, that really depends on what the party needs. To ______ your opponent's voters, you could pack them into one ________ and leave the surrounding districts filled with voters of your own party. Or, if you and your party are in power when it's time to redraw district lines, you could redraw districts and crack up a powerful district and spread your opponent's voters out across several neighboring districts. So, Governor Gerry in 1812 wanted to gain an advantage for his party, and redrew district lines in his state in such a crazy way we have a whole new word and way of ________ about how political parties can gain __________ over their opponents. Politicians think of creative ways to draw districts every few years. So the next time an election comes around, and politicians ask people to vote, be sure to look up the shape of your district and the districts that surround it. How wide does your district stretch across your state? Are all of the districts in your state relatively the same shape? How many other districts does your district touch? But always be sure to ask yourself, does my district look like a salamander?

Solution

salamander
catch
election
political
districts
decreases
process
continues
thinking
cracking
massachusetts
party
state
crack
supporters
advantages
presidential
dilute
lines
votes
signed
boundaries
heard
district
control

Original Text

Most people have heard the word "gerrymandering" once or twice, probably during a presidential election. What exactly is gerrymandering? Essentially, it's the process of giving one political party an advantage over another political party by redrawing district lines. It's like Democrats trying to gain an advantage over Republicans, or Republicans trying to gain an advantage over Democrats. You see, each party wants to gain as many districts as possible so they can do things like control the state budget, or set themselves up to win even more districts in the future. So to understand how this process began, and how it continues today, we must go back to 1812 in Massachusetts. Elbridge Gerry, the governor of Massachusetts, supported and signed a bill to allow redistricting. That is, redrawing the boundaries that separate districts. The catch? The new lines would favor Gerry's own political party, the Democratic-Republican party, which no longer exists. You see, Gerry wanted his party to win as many state Senate seats as possible. The more members of your party who vote, the more likely you are to win an election. The new lines were drawn to include loads of areas that would help Governor Gerry in the future. They were so strange looking that someone said the new districts looked like a salamander. The Boston Gazette added Gerry's name to the word salamander, and voilà! Gerrymandering, the process of dividing up and redrawing districts to give your political party an advantage. So how exactly does someone go about protecting their own political party, and actually gerrymandering a district? There are two successful practices. Packing a district, and cracking a district. Packing is the process of drawing district lines and packing in your opponents like cattle, into as few districts as possible. If more districts equals more votes, the fewer the districts there are, the fewer votes the opposition party will get. Packing, then, decreases the opponent's voter strength and influence. Cracking is the opposite: taking one district and cracking it into several pieces. This is usually done in districts where your opponent has many supporters. Cracking spreads these supporters out among many districts, denying your opponent a lot of votes. When you have a large number of people who would generally vote for one type of party, those folks are known as a voting bloc. Cracking is a way to break that all up. So when would a party choose to pack their opponent's districts rather than crack them? Well, that really depends on what the party needs. To dilute your opponent's voters, you could pack them into one district and leave the surrounding districts filled with voters of your own party. Or, if you and your party are in power when it's time to redraw district lines, you could redraw districts and crack up a powerful district and spread your opponent's voters out across several neighboring districts. So, Governor Gerry in 1812 wanted to gain an advantage for his party, and redrew district lines in his state in such a crazy way we have a whole new word and way of thinking about how political parties can gain advantages over their opponents. Politicians think of creative ways to draw districts every few years. So the next time an election comes around, and politicians ask people to vote, be sure to look up the shape of your district and the districts that surround it. How wide does your district stretch across your state? Are all of the districts in your state relatively the same shape? How many other districts does your district touch? But always be sure to ask yourself, does my district look like a salamander?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
political party	3
district lines	3
governor gerry	2

Important Words

added
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