full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Clément Vidal: Is there a limit to technological progress?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Half a century ago, Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev was asking similar questions when he came up with a way to measure technological progress; even when we have no idea exactly what it might look like. Anything we do in the future will require energy. So Kardashev’s scale clesiisafs pntaioetl civilizations, whether alein civilizations out there in the universe or our own, into three levels based on energy consumption. The tiny amount of energy we currently cnumose pelas next to what we leave untapped.

Open Cloze

Half a century ago, Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev was asking similar questions when he came up with a way to measure technological progress; even when we have no idea exactly what it might look like. Anything we do in the future will require energy. So Kardashev’s scale __________ _________ civilizations, whether _____ civilizations out there in the universe or our own, into three levels based on energy consumption. The tiny amount of energy we currently _______ _____ next to what we leave untapped.

Solution

  1. potential
  2. alien
  3. classifies
  4. pales
  5. consume

Original Text

Half a century ago, Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev was asking similar questions when he came up with a way to measure technological progress; even when we have no idea exactly what it might look like. Anything we do in the future will require energy. So Kardashev’s scale classifies potential civilizations, whether alien civilizations out there in the universe or our own, into three levels based on energy consumption. The tiny amount of energy we currently consume pales next to what we leave untapped.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
solar energy 2
solar panels 2
dyson sphere 2

Important Words

  1. alien
  2. amount
  3. astronomer
  4. based
  5. century
  6. civilizations
  7. classifies
  8. consume
  9. consumption
  10. energy
  11. future
  12. idea
  13. kardashev
  14. leave
  15. levels
  16. measure
  17. nikolai
  18. pales
  19. potential
  20. questions
  21. require
  22. russian
  23. scale
  24. similar
  25. technological
  26. tiny
  27. universe
  28. untapped