full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Mark Pagel: How language transformed humanity

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Once we have language, we can put our iaeds together and cooperate to have a prosperity that we couldn't have before we acquired it. And this is why our species has prospered around the world while the rest of the animals sit behind bars in zoos, languishing. That's why we build space shtuetls and cadrathles while the rest of the world sticks sticks into the ground to extract termites. All right, if this view of lgugaane and its value in solving the crisis of visual theft is true, any species that acquires it should show an explosion of creativity and prosperity. And this is exactly what the aiccoohlgrael rroced shows.

Open Cloze

Once we have language, we can put our _____ together and cooperate to have a prosperity that we couldn't have before we acquired it. And this is why our species has prospered around the world while the rest of the animals sit behind bars in zoos, languishing. That's why we build space ________ and __________ while the rest of the world sticks sticks into the ground to extract termites. All right, if this view of ________ and its value in solving the crisis of visual theft is true, any species that acquires it should show an explosion of creativity and prosperity. And this is exactly what the _____________ ______ shows.

Solution

  1. archeological
  2. cathedrals
  3. language
  4. record
  5. ideas
  6. shuttles

Original Text

Once we have language, we can put our ideas together and cooperate to have a prosperity that we couldn't have before we acquired it. And this is why our species has prospered around the world while the rest of the animals sit behind bars in zoos, languishing. That's why we build space shuttles and cathedrals while the rest of the world sticks sticks into the ground to extract termites. All right, if this view of language and its value in solving the crisis of visual theft is true, any species that acquires it should show an explosion of creativity and prosperity. And this is exactly what the archeological record shows.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
social learning 6
visual theft 5
cumulative cultural 4
million years 3
hand axe 3
modern world 3
natural selection 2
remote control 2
control device 2
extract termites 2
crack open 2
anthropologists call 2
everyday lives 2
cultural adaptation 2
small groups 2
finished arrows 2
friendship links 2
official languages 2
european union 2
fine motor 2
motor control 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
remote control device 2
cumulative cultural adaptation 2
fine motor control 2

Important Words

  1. acquired
  2. acquires
  3. animals
  4. archeological
  5. bars
  6. build
  7. cathedrals
  8. cooperate
  9. creativity
  10. crisis
  11. explosion
  12. extract
  13. ground
  14. ideas
  15. language
  16. languishing
  17. prospered
  18. prosperity
  19. put
  20. record
  21. rest
  22. show
  23. shows
  24. shuttles
  25. sit
  26. solving
  27. space
  28. species
  29. sticks
  30. termites
  31. theft
  32. true
  33. view
  34. visual
  35. world
  36. zoos