full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ory Okolloh: How I became an activist

Unscramble the Blue Letters

And I want to tell you that this is my story, OK? And it's the story of many of the Africans who are here. We start with poverty. I didn't grow up in the slums or anything that dire, but I know what it is to grow up without having money, or being able to support family. Euvin was talking about bellwether signs. The bellwether for whether our family was broke or not was bsraeafkt. You know, when things were good, we had eggs and sausages. When things were bad, we had porridge. And like many African fimaiels, my parents could never save because they supported siblings, cnsuios, you know, their parents, and things were always dicey. Now, when I was born, they realized they had a ptetry sarmt kid, and they didn't want me to go to the nhhobgroioed school, which was free.

Open Cloze

And I want to tell you that this is my story, OK? And it's the story of many of the Africans who are here. We start with poverty. I didn't grow up in the slums or anything that dire, but I know what it is to grow up without having money, or being able to support family. Euvin was talking about bellwether signs. The bellwether for whether our family was broke or not was _________. You know, when things were good, we had eggs and sausages. When things were bad, we had porridge. And like many African ________, my parents could never save because they supported siblings, _______, you know, their parents, and things were always dicey. Now, when I was born, they realized they had a ______ _____ kid, and they didn't want me to go to the ____________ school, which was free.

Solution

  1. neighborhood
  2. cousins
  3. pretty
  4. smart
  5. families
  6. breakfast

Original Text

And I want to tell you that this is my story, OK? And it's the story of many of the Africans who are here. We start with poverty. I didn't grow up in the slums or anything that dire, but I know what it is to grow up without having money, or being able to support family. Euvin was talking about bellwether signs. The bellwether for whether our family was broke or not was breakfast. You know, when things were good, we had eggs and sausages. When things were bad, we had porridge. And like many African families, my parents could never save because they supported siblings, cousins, you know, their parents, and things were always dicey. Now, when I was born, they realized they had a pretty smart kid, and they didn't want me to go to the neighborhood school, which was free.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
school fees 2
money ran 2
african blogs 2
south africa 2
east africa 2
harvard law 2
law school 2

Important Words

  1. african
  2. africans
  3. bad
  4. bellwether
  5. born
  6. breakfast
  7. broke
  8. cousins
  9. dicey
  10. dire
  11. eggs
  12. euvin
  13. families
  14. family
  15. free
  16. good
  17. grow
  18. kid
  19. money
  20. neighborhood
  21. parents
  22. porridge
  23. poverty
  24. pretty
  25. realized
  26. sausages
  27. save
  28. school
  29. siblings
  30. signs
  31. slums
  32. smart
  33. start
  34. story
  35. support
  36. supported
  37. talking