full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Cara Greene Epstein: How theater weathers wars, outlasts empires and survives pandemics

Unscramble the Blue Letters

But while ttehraes may be dark, theater as an art form has the potential to shine a lgiht on how we can perocss and use this time apart to build a brighter, more eatulqibe, hiaelhter future together. Theater is the oldest art form we humans have. We know that the Greeks were writing pyals as early as the fifth century BC, but theater goes back before that. It goes back before we learned to write, to call-and-response around feirs. and — who knows? — maybe before we learn to bilud fire itself. Theater has outlasted empires, weathered wars and survived plagues. In the early 1600s, theaters were closed over 60 percent of the time in London, and that's still looked at as one of the most fertile and innovative periods of time in Western theater history. The plays that were written then are still performed taody over 400 years later.

Open Cloze

But while ________ may be dark, theater as an art form has the potential to shine a _____ on how we can _______ and use this time apart to build a brighter, more _________, _________ future together. Theater is the oldest art form we humans have. We know that the Greeks were writing _____ as early as the fifth century BC, but theater goes back before that. It goes back before we learned to write, to call-and-response around _____. and — who knows? — maybe before we learn to _____ fire itself. Theater has outlasted empires, weathered wars and survived plagues. In the early 1600s, theaters were closed over 60 percent of the time in London, and that's still looked at as one of the most fertile and innovative periods of time in Western theater history. The plays that were written then are still performed _____ over 400 years later.

Solution

  1. healthier
  2. build
  3. light
  4. theaters
  5. process
  6. plays
  7. fires
  8. today
  9. equitable

Original Text

But while theaters may be dark, theater as an art form has the potential to shine a light on how we can process and use this time apart to build a brighter, more equitable, healthier future together. Theater is the oldest art form we humans have. We know that the Greeks were writing plays as early as the fifth century BC, but theater goes back before that. It goes back before we learned to write, to call-and-response around fires. and — who knows? — maybe before we learn to build fire itself. Theater has outlasted empires, weathered wars and survived plagues. In the early 1600s, theaters were closed over 60 percent of the time in London, and that's still looked at as one of the most fertile and innovative periods of time in Western theater history. The plays that were written then are still performed today over 400 years later.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
creative person 3
feel anxious 3
theater artists 2
hard time 2
art form 2
survived plagues 2
western theater 2
great work 2

Important Words

  1. art
  2. bc
  3. brighter
  4. build
  5. century
  6. closed
  7. dark
  8. early
  9. empires
  10. equitable
  11. fertile
  12. fire
  13. fires
  14. form
  15. future
  16. greeks
  17. healthier
  18. history
  19. humans
  20. innovative
  21. learn
  22. learned
  23. light
  24. london
  25. looked
  26. oldest
  27. outlasted
  28. percent
  29. performed
  30. periods
  31. plagues
  32. plays
  33. potential
  34. process
  35. shine
  36. survived
  37. theater
  38. theaters
  39. time
  40. today
  41. wars
  42. weathered
  43. western
  44. write
  45. writing
  46. written
  47. years