full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jehane Noujaim: My wish A global day of film

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Did a stint at MTV, made a film called "Startup.com," and I've done a cuploe of music fmils. But in 2003, when the war in Iraq was about to start, it was a very surreal feilneg for me, because before the war started, there was kind of this media war that was going on. And I was watching television in New York, and there seemed to be just one point of view that was coming across, and the cgvreoae went from the US sttae Department to ebeddemd troops. And what was coming across on the news was that there was going to be this clean war and precision bmonbgis, and the Iraqis would be greeting the Americans as liberators, and throwing ferowls at their feet in the streets of Baghdad. And I knew that there was a ceptmloley other story that was taking place in the Middle East, where my parents were. I knew that there was a completely other story being told, and I was tninhikg, "How are people supposed to communicate with each other when they're getting completely different messages, and nobody knows what the other's being told? How are pepole supposed to have any kind of common unrdstadnneig or know how to move together into the future? So I knew that I had to go there. I just wanted to be in the center. I had no plan. I had no funding. I didn't even have a camera at the time — I had somebody bring it there, because I weantd to get access to Al Jazeera, George Bush's favorite channel, and a place which I was very curious about because it's disliked by many governments across the Arab wlord, and also called the mouthpiece of Osama Bin Laden by some people in the US government.

Open Cloze

Did a stint at MTV, made a film called "Startup.com," and I've done a ______ of music _____. But in 2003, when the war in Iraq was about to start, it was a very surreal _______ for me, because before the war started, there was kind of this media war that was going on. And I was watching television in New York, and there seemed to be just one point of view that was coming across, and the ________ went from the US _____ Department to ________ troops. And what was coming across on the news was that there was going to be this clean war and precision ________, and the Iraqis would be greeting the Americans as liberators, and throwing _______ at their feet in the streets of Baghdad. And I knew that there was a __________ other story that was taking place in the Middle East, where my parents were. I knew that there was a completely other story being told, and I was ________, "How are people supposed to communicate with each other when they're getting completely different messages, and nobody knows what the other's being told? How are ______ supposed to have any kind of common _____________ or know how to move together into the future? So I knew that I had to go there. I just wanted to be in the center. I had no plan. I had no funding. I didn't even have a camera at the time — I had somebody bring it there, because I ______ to get access to Al Jazeera, George Bush's favorite channel, and a place which I was very curious about because it's disliked by many governments across the Arab _____, and also called the mouthpiece of Osama Bin Laden by some people in the US government.

Solution

  1. thinking
  2. understanding
  3. coverage
  4. completely
  5. world
  6. couple
  7. bombings
  8. wanted
  9. state
  10. feeling
  11. films
  12. flowers
  13. embedded
  14. people

Original Text

Did a stint at MTV, made a film called "Startup.com," and I've done a couple of music films. But in 2003, when the war in Iraq was about to start, it was a very surreal feeling for me, because before the war started, there was kind of this media war that was going on. And I was watching television in New York, and there seemed to be just one point of view that was coming across, and the coverage went from the US State Department to embedded troops. And what was coming across on the news was that there was going to be this clean war and precision bombings, and the Iraqis would be greeting the Americans as liberators, and throwing flowers at their feet in the streets of Baghdad. And I knew that there was a completely other story that was taking place in the Middle East, where my parents were. I knew that there was a completely other story being told, and I was thinking, "How are people supposed to communicate with each other when they're getting completely different messages, and nobody knows what the other's being told? How are people supposed to have any kind of common understanding or know how to move together into the future? So I knew that I had to go there. I just wanted to be in the center. I had no plan. I had no funding. I didn't even have a camera at the time — I had somebody bring it there, because I wanted to get access to Al Jazeera, George Bush's favorite channel, and a place which I was very curious about because it's disliked by many governments across the Arab world, and also called the mouthpiece of Osama Bin Laden by some people in the US government.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
al jazeera 7
independent voices 5
arab world 3
give power 3
communal experience 3
world peace 2
exchange student 2
people supposed 2
josh rushing 2
israeli military 2
project films 2
day echo 2

Important Words

  1. access
  2. al
  3. americans
  4. arab
  5. baghdad
  6. bin
  7. bombings
  8. bring
  9. called
  10. camera
  11. center
  12. channel
  13. clean
  14. coming
  15. common
  16. communicate
  17. completely
  18. couple
  19. coverage
  20. curious
  21. department
  22. disliked
  23. east
  24. embedded
  25. favorite
  26. feeling
  27. feet
  28. film
  29. films
  30. flowers
  31. funding
  32. future
  33. george
  34. government
  35. governments
  36. greeting
  37. iraq
  38. iraqis
  39. jazeera
  40. kind
  41. knew
  42. laden
  43. liberators
  44. media
  45. messages
  46. middle
  47. mouthpiece
  48. move
  49. mtv
  50. music
  51. news
  52. osama
  53. parents
  54. people
  55. place
  56. plan
  57. point
  58. precision
  59. start
  60. started
  61. state
  62. stint
  63. story
  64. streets
  65. supposed
  66. surreal
  67. television
  68. thinking
  69. throwing
  70. time
  71. told
  72. troops
  73. understanding
  74. view
  75. wanted
  76. war
  77. watching
  78. world
  79. york