full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Kavita Ramdas: Radical women, embracing tradition

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I was born and raised here in iinda, and I learned from an early age to be dpeely suspicious of the aunties and uncles who would bend down, pat us on the head and then say to my parents with no problem at all, "Poor things. You only have three daughters. But you're young, you could still try again." My sense of oturage about women's rights was brought to a boil when I was about 11. My aunt, an incredibly articulate and brilliant woamn, was widowed early. A flock of relatives descended on her. They took off her colorful sari. They made her wear a white one. They wiped her bindi off her fraoheed. They broke her bangles. Her daughter, Rani, a few years older than me, sat in her lap bewildered, not knowing what had happened to the cdinfneot woman she once knew as her mother. Late that nhigt, I heard my mhteor begging my father, "Please do something Ramu. Can't you intervene?" And my fheatr, in a low voice, muttering, "I'm just the youngest brother, there's nothing I can do. This is tiaidortn." That's the night I learned the rleus about what it means to be female in this wlord. Women don't make those rules, but they dinfee us, and they define our opportunities and our chances. And men are affected by those rules too. My father, who had fought in three wars, could not save his own sister from this suffering.

Open Cloze

I was born and raised here in _____, and I learned from an early age to be ______ suspicious of the aunties and uncles who would bend down, pat us on the head and then say to my parents with no problem at all, "Poor things. You only have three daughters. But you're young, you could still try again." My sense of _______ about women's rights was brought to a boil when I was about 11. My aunt, an incredibly articulate and brilliant _____, was widowed early. A flock of relatives descended on her. They took off her colorful sari. They made her wear a white one. They wiped her bindi off her ________. They broke her bangles. Her daughter, Rani, a few years older than me, sat in her lap bewildered, not knowing what had happened to the _________ woman she once knew as her mother. Late that _____, I heard my ______ begging my father, "Please do something Ramu. Can't you intervene?" And my ______, in a low voice, muttering, "I'm just the youngest brother, there's nothing I can do. This is _________." That's the night I learned the _____ about what it means to be female in this _____. Women don't make those rules, but they ______ us, and they define our opportunities and our chances. And men are affected by those rules too. My father, who had fought in three wars, could not save his own sister from this suffering.

Solution

  1. father
  2. outrage
  3. tradition
  4. world
  5. woman
  6. mother
  7. define
  8. deeply
  9. night
  10. india
  11. forehead
  12. rules
  13. confident

Original Text

I was born and raised here in India, and I learned from an early age to be deeply suspicious of the aunties and uncles who would bend down, pat us on the head and then say to my parents with no problem at all, "Poor things. You only have three daughters. But you're young, you could still try again." My sense of outrage about women's rights was brought to a boil when I was about 11. My aunt, an incredibly articulate and brilliant woman, was widowed early. A flock of relatives descended on her. They took off her colorful sari. They made her wear a white one. They wiped her bindi off her forehead. They broke her bangles. Her daughter, Rani, a few years older than me, sat in her lap bewildered, not knowing what had happened to the confident woman she once knew as her mother. Late that night, I heard my mother begging my father, "Please do something Ramu. Can't you intervene?" And my father, in a low voice, muttering, "I'm just the youngest brother, there's nothing I can do. This is tradition." That's the night I learned the rules about what it means to be female in this world. Women don't make those rules, but they define us, and they define our opportunities and our chances. And men are affected by those rules too. My father, who had fought in three wars, could not save his own sister from this suffering.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
peace talks 3
traditional music 2
writes songs 2
small group 2
peace accord 2

Important Words

  1. affected
  2. age
  3. articulate
  4. aunt
  5. aunties
  6. bangles
  7. begging
  8. bend
  9. bewildered
  10. bindi
  11. boil
  12. born
  13. brilliant
  14. broke
  15. brother
  16. brought
  17. chances
  18. colorful
  19. confident
  20. daughter
  21. daughters
  22. deeply
  23. define
  24. descended
  25. early
  26. father
  27. female
  28. flock
  29. forehead
  30. fought
  31. happened
  32. head
  33. heard
  34. incredibly
  35. india
  36. intervene
  37. knew
  38. knowing
  39. lap
  40. late
  41. learned
  42. means
  43. men
  44. mother
  45. muttering
  46. night
  47. older
  48. opportunities
  49. outrage
  50. parents
  51. pat
  52. problem
  53. raised
  54. ramu
  55. rani
  56. relatives
  57. rights
  58. rules
  59. sari
  60. sat
  61. save
  62. sense
  63. sister
  64. suffering
  65. suspicious
  66. tradition
  67. uncles
  68. voice
  69. wars
  70. wear
  71. white
  72. widowed
  73. wiped
  74. woman
  75. women
  76. world
  77. years
  78. young
  79. youngest