full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I come from a conventional, middle-class Nigerian family. My father was a professor. My mother was an administrator. And so we had, as was the norm, live-in domestic help, who would often come from nearby rural villages. So, the year I turned eight, we got a new hsuoe boy. His name was Fide. The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor. My mother sent yams and rice, and our old clothes, to his family. And when I didn't fsinih my dinner, my mother would say, "Finish your food! Don't you know? ppeole like Fide's family have nothing." So I felt enormous pity for Fide's fmliay.

Open Cloze

I come from a conventional, middle-class Nigerian family. My father was a professor. My mother was an administrator. And so we had, as was the norm, live-in domestic help, who would often come from nearby rural villages. So, the year I turned eight, we got a new _____ boy. His name was Fide. The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor. My mother sent yams and rice, and our old clothes, to his family. And when I didn't ______ my dinner, my mother would say, "Finish your food! Don't you know? ______ like Fide's family have nothing." So I felt enormous pity for Fide's ______.

Solution

  1. family
  2. finish
  3. house
  4. people

Original Text

I come from a conventional, middle-class Nigerian family. My father was a professor. My mother was an administrator. And so we had, as was the norm, live-in domestic help, who would often come from nearby rural villages. So, the year I turned eight, we got a new house boy. His name was Fide. The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor. My mother sent yams and rice, and our old clothes, to his family. And when I didn't finish my dinner, my mother would say, "Finish your food! Don't you know? People like Fide's family have nothing." So I felt enormous pity for Fide's family.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
single story 12
roommate knew 7
ginger beer 3
british books 2
chinua achebe 2
american roommate 2
african stories 2
african authenticity 2
stories matter 2

Important Words

  1. administrator
  2. boy
  3. clothes
  4. conventional
  5. dinner
  6. domestic
  7. enormous
  8. family
  9. father
  10. felt
  11. fide
  12. finish
  13. house
  14. mother
  15. nearby
  16. nigerian
  17. norm
  18. people
  19. pity
  20. poor
  21. professor
  22. rice
  23. rural
  24. told
  25. turned
  26. villages
  27. yams
  28. year