full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sir Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Not far from where I live is a place called Death valely. Death Valley is the hottest, driest place in America, and nothing grows there. Nothing grows there because it doesn't rain. Hence, Death Valley. In the winter of 2004, it rained in daeth Valley. Seven inches of rain fell over a very srhot period. And in the spring of 2005, there was a phenomenon. The whole floor of Death Valley was carpeted in flowers for a while. What it proved is this: that Death Valley isn't dead. It's dormant. Right beneath the surface are these sdees of possibility wtiniag for the right conditions to come about, and with organic systems, if the condnoitis are right, life is inevitable. It happens all the time. You take an area, a school, a district, you change the conditions, give people a different sense of possibility, a different set of exnptectoias, a baedror range of opportunities, you cherish and value the relationships between teachers and learners, you ofefr people the discretion to be creative and to innovate in what they do, and schools that were once befert siprng to life.

Open Cloze

Not far from where I live is a place called Death ______. Death Valley is the hottest, driest place in America, and nothing grows there. Nothing grows there because it doesn't rain. Hence, Death Valley. In the winter of 2004, it rained in _____ Valley. Seven inches of rain fell over a very _____ period. And in the spring of 2005, there was a phenomenon. The whole floor of Death Valley was carpeted in flowers for a while. What it proved is this: that Death Valley isn't dead. It's dormant. Right beneath the surface are these _____ of possibility _______ for the right conditions to come about, and with organic systems, if the __________ are right, life is inevitable. It happens all the time. You take an area, a school, a district, you change the conditions, give people a different sense of possibility, a different set of ____________, a _______ range of opportunities, you cherish and value the relationships between teachers and learners, you _____ people the discretion to be creative and to innovate in what they do, and schools that were once ______ ______ to life.

Solution

  1. bereft
  2. expectations
  3. conditions
  4. offer
  5. spring
  6. valley
  7. short
  8. seeds
  9. broader
  10. death
  11. waiting

Original Text

Not far from where I live is a place called Death Valley. Death Valley is the hottest, driest place in America, and nothing grows there. Nothing grows there because it doesn't rain. Hence, Death Valley. In the winter of 2004, it rained in Death Valley. Seven inches of rain fell over a very short period. And in the spring of 2005, there was a phenomenon. The whole floor of Death Valley was carpeted in flowers for a while. What it proved is this: that Death Valley isn't dead. It's dormant. Right beneath the surface are these seeds of possibility waiting for the right conditions to come about, and with organic systems, if the conditions are right, life is inevitable. It happens all the time. You take an area, a school, a district, you change the conditions, give people a different sense of possibility, a different set of expectations, a broader range of opportunities, you cherish and value the relationships between teachers and learners, you offer people the discretion to be creative and to innovate in what they do, and schools that were once bereft spring to life.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
death valley 6
los angeles 3
child left 3
human life 3
dominant culture 3
dropout crisis 2
improve education 2
awful lot 2
great teachers 2
standardized tests 2
professional development 2
school level 2
real role 2

Important Words

  1. america
  2. area
  3. beneath
  4. bereft
  5. broader
  6. called
  7. carpeted
  8. change
  9. cherish
  10. conditions
  11. creative
  12. dead
  13. death
  14. discretion
  15. district
  16. dormant
  17. driest
  18. expectations
  19. fell
  20. floor
  21. flowers
  22. give
  23. grows
  24. hottest
  25. inches
  26. inevitable
  27. innovate
  28. learners
  29. life
  30. live
  31. offer
  32. opportunities
  33. organic
  34. people
  35. period
  36. phenomenon
  37. place
  38. possibility
  39. proved
  40. rain
  41. rained
  42. range
  43. relationships
  44. school
  45. schools
  46. seeds
  47. sense
  48. set
  49. short
  50. spring
  51. surface
  52. systems
  53. teachers
  54. time
  55. valley
  56. waiting
  57. winter