full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lucianne Walkowicz: Let's not use Mars as a backup planet

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I wrory — I worry that this excitement about colonizing Mars and other planets carries with it a long, dark shadow: the implication and beelif by some that Mars will be there to save us from the self-inflicted destruction of the only truly habitable planet we know of, the eatrh. As much as I love interplanetary exploration, I deeply disagree with this idea. There are many excellent reasons to go to Mars, but for anyone to tell you that Mars will be there to back up humanity is like the captain of the tnitiac telling you that the real party is happening later on the loaifebts. (Laughter) (appsaule)

Open Cloze

I _____ — I worry that this excitement about colonizing Mars and other planets carries with it a long, dark shadow: the implication and ______ by some that Mars will be there to save us from the self-inflicted destruction of the only truly habitable planet we know of, the _____. As much as I love interplanetary exploration, I deeply disagree with this idea. There are many excellent reasons to go to Mars, but for anyone to tell you that Mars will be there to back up humanity is like the captain of the _______ telling you that the real party is happening later on the _________. (Laughter) (________)

Solution

  1. titanic
  2. worry
  3. lifeboats
  4. applause
  5. belief
  6. earth

Original Text

I worry — I worry that this excitement about colonizing Mars and other planets carries with it a long, dark shadow: the implication and belief by some that Mars will be there to save us from the self-inflicted destruction of the only truly habitable planet we know of, the Earth. As much as I love interplanetary exploration, I deeply disagree with this idea. There are many excellent reasons to go to Mars, but for anyone to tell you that Mars will be there to back up humanity is like the captain of the Titanic telling you that the real party is happening later on the lifeboats. (Laughter) (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
potentially habitable 2
interplanetary exploration 2
planetary preservation 2

Important Words

  1. applause
  2. belief
  3. captain
  4. carries
  5. colonizing
  6. dark
  7. deeply
  8. destruction
  9. disagree
  10. earth
  11. excellent
  12. excitement
  13. exploration
  14. habitable
  15. happening
  16. humanity
  17. idea
  18. implication
  19. interplanetary
  20. laughter
  21. lifeboats
  22. long
  23. love
  24. mars
  25. party
  26. planet
  27. planets
  28. real
  29. reasons
  30. save
  31. telling
  32. titanic
  33. worry