full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Steven Pinker: Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Now, it's not that they hate the fruits of progress, mind you. Most academics and pundits would rather have their surgery with assiheetna than without it. It's the idea of progress that rnakels the ceithtnrag class. If you believe that humans can improve their lot, I have been told, that means that you have a bnild fitah and a quasi-religious belief in the outmoded superstition and the false promise of the myth of the onward march of inexorable progress. You are a cheerleader for vulgar American can-doism, with the rah-rah sripit of boardroom ideology, Silicon Valley and the Chamber of Commerce. You are a practitioner of Whig hiostry, a naive optimist, a Pollyanna and, of course, a Pangloss, adiulnlg to the Voltaire character who declared, "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds."

Open Cloze

Now, it's not that they hate the fruits of progress, mind you. Most academics and pundits would rather have their surgery with __________ than without it. It's the idea of progress that _______ the __________ class. If you believe that humans can improve their lot, I have been told, that means that you have a _____ _____ and a quasi-religious belief in the outmoded superstition and the false promise of the myth of the onward march of inexorable progress. You are a cheerleader for vulgar American can-doism, with the rah-rah ______ of boardroom ideology, Silicon Valley and the Chamber of Commerce. You are a practitioner of Whig _______, a naive optimist, a Pollyanna and, of course, a Pangloss, ________ to the Voltaire character who declared, "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds."

Solution

  1. alluding
  2. anesthesia
  3. spirit
  4. chattering
  5. faith
  6. history
  7. rankles
  8. blind

Original Text

Now, it's not that they hate the fruits of progress, mind you. Most academics and pundits would rather have their surgery with anesthesia than without it. It's the idea of progress that rankles the chattering class. If you believe that humans can improve their lot, I have been told, that means that you have a blind faith and a quasi-religious belief in the outmoded superstition and the false promise of the myth of the onward march of inexorable progress. You are a cheerleader for vulgar American can-doism, with the rah-rah spirit of boardroom ideology, Silicon Valley and the Chamber of Commerce. You are a practitioner of Whig history, a naive optimist, a Pollyanna and, of course, a Pangloss, alluding to the Voltaire character who declared, "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
million tons 4
extreme poverty 4
nuclear weapons 3
united states 3
climate change 3
particulate matter 2
sulfur dioxide 2
world population 2
intellectuals hate 2
hate progress 2
natural response 2
enhance human 2
human nature 2

Important Words

  1. academics
  2. alluding
  3. american
  4. anesthesia
  5. belief
  6. blind
  7. boardroom
  8. chamber
  9. character
  10. chattering
  11. cheerleader
  12. class
  13. commerce
  14. declared
  15. faith
  16. false
  17. fruits
  18. hate
  19. history
  20. humans
  21. idea
  22. ideology
  23. improve
  24. inexorable
  25. lot
  26. march
  27. means
  28. mind
  29. myth
  30. naive
  31. onward
  32. optimist
  33. outmoded
  34. pangloss
  35. pollyanna
  36. practitioner
  37. progress
  38. promise
  39. pundits
  40. rankles
  41. silicon
  42. spirit
  43. superstition
  44. surgery
  45. told
  46. valley
  47. voltaire
  48. vulgar
  49. whig
  50. worlds