full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Helen Pearson: Lessons from the longest study on human development

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Now at the start, I said the first lesson from this study was not to be born into poevtry or into ddisgtaavane, because those children tend to follow more difficult paths in their lives. But then I said that parenting matters, and that good parenting, if you can call it that, hlpes children beat the odds and overcome some of those early diadvtgeansas. So wait, does that actually mean, then, that poverty doesn't matter after all? You could argue it doesn't matter if a cilhd is born poor — as long as their parents are good parents, they're going to do just fine. I don't believe that's true. This study sowhs that poverty and parenting matter. And one study actually put figures on that, so it looked at clidhern growing up in persistent poverty and how well they were doing at school. The data showed that even when their parents were doing everything right — putting them to bed on time and reading to them every day and everything else — that only got those children so far. Good pieanntrg only reduced the etoiucadnal gap between the rich and poor children by about 50 percent. Now that means that poverty leaves a really lasting scar, and it means that if we really want to ensure the ssucecs and well-being of the next generation, then tlcanikg child poverty is an incredibly important thing to do.

Open Cloze

Now at the start, I said the first lesson from this study was not to be born into _______ or into ____________, because those children tend to follow more difficult paths in their lives. But then I said that parenting matters, and that good parenting, if you can call it that, _____ children beat the odds and overcome some of those early _____________. So wait, does that actually mean, then, that poverty doesn't matter after all? You could argue it doesn't matter if a _____ is born poor — as long as their parents are good parents, they're going to do just fine. I don't believe that's true. This study _____ that poverty and parenting matter. And one study actually put figures on that, so it looked at ________ growing up in persistent poverty and how well they were doing at school. The data showed that even when their parents were doing everything right — putting them to bed on time and reading to them every day and everything else — that only got those children so far. Good _________ only reduced the ___________ gap between the rich and poor children by about 50 percent. Now that means that poverty leaves a really lasting scar, and it means that if we really want to ensure the _______ and well-being of the next generation, then ________ child poverty is an incredibly important thing to do.

Solution

  1. tackling
  2. success
  3. helps
  4. educational
  5. children
  6. disadvantages
  7. disadvantage
  8. parenting
  9. shows
  10. child
  11. poverty

Original Text

Now at the start, I said the first lesson from this study was not to be born into poverty or into disadvantage, because those children tend to follow more difficult paths in their lives. But then I said that parenting matters, and that good parenting, if you can call it that, helps children beat the odds and overcome some of those early disadvantages. So wait, does that actually mean, then, that poverty doesn't matter after all? You could argue it doesn't matter if a child is born poor — as long as their parents are good parents, they're going to do just fine. I don't believe that's true. This study shows that poverty and parenting matter. And one study actually put figures on that, so it looked at children growing up in persistent poverty and how well they were doing at school. The data showed that even when their parents were doing everything right — putting them to bed on time and reading to them every day and everything else — that only got those children so far. Good parenting only reduced the educational gap between the rich and poor children by about 50 percent. Now that means that poverty leaves a really lasting scar, and it means that if we really want to ensure the success and well-being of the next generation, then tackling child poverty is an incredibly important thing to do.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
data showed 4
british study 3
remarkable study 2
tough start 2
difficult start 2
scientists looked 2
good outcomes 2
bedtime routines 2
school tests 2

Important Words

  1. argue
  2. beat
  3. bed
  4. born
  5. call
  6. child
  7. children
  8. data
  9. day
  10. difficult
  11. disadvantage
  12. disadvantages
  13. early
  14. educational
  15. ensure
  16. figures
  17. fine
  18. follow
  19. gap
  20. generation
  21. good
  22. growing
  23. helps
  24. important
  25. incredibly
  26. lasting
  27. leaves
  28. lesson
  29. lives
  30. long
  31. looked
  32. matter
  33. matters
  34. means
  35. odds
  36. overcome
  37. parenting
  38. parents
  39. paths
  40. percent
  41. persistent
  42. poor
  43. poverty
  44. put
  45. putting
  46. reading
  47. reduced
  48. rich
  49. scar
  50. school
  51. showed
  52. shows
  53. start
  54. study
  55. success
  56. tackling
  57. tend
  58. time
  59. true
  60. wait