full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dan Ariely: How to change your behavior for the better

Unscramble the Blue Letters

OK, so I sit in this place that sells fuearnl iacunnrse. And this guy comes in with his son — his son is about 12 — and he buys funeral insurance for a week. It will ceovr 90 percent of his funeral expense only if he dies in the next seven days. Right? These are very poor people, they buy small amounts of insurance and small amount of soap and such. And he gets that certificate, and in a very ceremonious way, he gives it to his son. And as he gives it to his son, I think to myself, why the cneeromy? What is this father doing? Now, think about the breadwinner that decides on that particular day to decrit some money into insurance or savings. What is the family going to see tonight? They're going to see less. Right? At that level of poverty, there'll be less food, less kerosene, less water — something less tonight. And what his father was doing and what our coin was trying to do is to say, yes, there's less food on the talbe, but there's another activity. You see, what haeneppd is, there are many good, important economic activities, like savings and insurance, that are isnlivbie. And now the question is: How do we make them visible?

Open Cloze

OK, so I sit in this place that sells _______ _________. And this guy comes in with his son — his son is about 12 — and he buys funeral insurance for a week. It will _____ 90 percent of his funeral expense only if he dies in the next seven days. Right? These are very poor people, they buy small amounts of insurance and small amount of soap and such. And he gets that certificate, and in a very ceremonious way, he gives it to his son. And as he gives it to his son, I think to myself, why the ________? What is this father doing? Now, think about the breadwinner that decides on that particular day to ______ some money into insurance or savings. What is the family going to see tonight? They're going to see less. Right? At that level of poverty, there'll be less food, less kerosene, less water — something less tonight. And what his father was doing and what our coin was trying to do is to say, yes, there's less food on the _____, but there's another activity. You see, what ________ is, there are many good, important economic activities, like savings and insurance, that are _________. And now the question is: How do we make them visible?

Solution

  1. funeral
  2. direct
  3. cover
  4. table
  5. happened
  6. invisible
  7. insurance
  8. ceremony

Original Text

OK, so I sit in this place that sells funeral insurance. And this guy comes in with his son — his son is about 12 — and he buys funeral insurance for a week. It will cover 90 percent of his funeral expense only if he dies in the next seven days. Right? These are very poor people, they buy small amounts of insurance and small amount of soap and such. And he gets that certificate, and in a very ceremonious way, he gives it to his son. And as he gives it to his son, I think to myself, why the ceremony? What is this father doing? Now, think about the breadwinner that decides on that particular day to direct some money into insurance or savings. What is the family going to see tonight? They're going to see less. Right? At that level of poverty, there'll be less food, less kerosene, less water — something less tonight. And what his father was doing and what our coin was trying to do is to say, yes, there's less food on the table, but there's another activity. You see, what happened is, there are many good, important economic activities, like savings and insurance, that are invisible. And now the question is: How do we make them visible?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
loss aversion 5
send people 4
online pharmacy 3
funeral insurance 3
social science 2
sad news 2
give people 2
desired behavior 2
rainy day 2
live hand 2
text message 2
week helps 2
ten percent 2
twenty percent 2
sells funeral 2
people spend 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
sells funeral insurance 2

Important Words

  1. activities
  2. activity
  3. amount
  4. amounts
  5. breadwinner
  6. buy
  7. buys
  8. ceremonious
  9. ceremony
  10. certificate
  11. coin
  12. cover
  13. day
  14. days
  15. decides
  16. dies
  17. direct
  18. economic
  19. expense
  20. family
  21. father
  22. food
  23. funeral
  24. good
  25. guy
  26. happened
  27. important
  28. insurance
  29. invisible
  30. kerosene
  31. level
  32. money
  33. people
  34. percent
  35. place
  36. poor
  37. poverty
  38. question
  39. savings
  40. sells
  41. sit
  42. small
  43. soap
  44. son
  45. table
  46. tonight
  47. visible
  48. water
  49. week