full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jon Gray: The power of the Afro pick

Unscramble the Blue Letters

In the 50s, dancer Ruth Beckford and a lot of jazz senrigs were tired of straightening their hair, so they said, all right, we're going to just let it grow naturally and started rocking natural, close-cropped hair. And in the 60s, that style evolved with the formation of the Afro, which was the cropped hair, natural, picked out into a more spherical shape. You had civil rights leaders, activists, that adeoptd the hrlyastie as a means of rebellion and black pidre. And then you had mcunaiiss like James Brown, who was infamously known for chemically straightening his hair, reject that and go narautl. It went hand-in-hand with his music, so he had songs like "Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm pruod."

Open Cloze

In the 50s, dancer Ruth Beckford and a lot of jazz _______ were tired of straightening their hair, so they said, all right, we're going to just let it grow naturally and started rocking natural, close-cropped hair. And in the 60s, that style evolved with the formation of the Afro, which was the cropped hair, natural, picked out into a more spherical shape. You had civil rights leaders, activists, that _______ the _________ as a means of rebellion and black _____. And then you had _________ like James Brown, who was infamously known for chemically straightening his hair, reject that and go _______. It went hand-in-hand with his music, so he had songs like "Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm _____."

Solution

  1. singers
  2. hairstyle
  3. natural
  4. adopted
  5. musicians
  6. pride
  7. proud

Original Text

In the 50s, dancer Ruth Beckford and a lot of jazz singers were tired of straightening their hair, so they said, all right, we're going to just let it grow naturally and started rocking natural, close-cropped hair. And in the 60s, that style evolved with the formation of the Afro, which was the cropped hair, natural, picked out into a more spherical shape. You had civil rights leaders, activists, that adopted the hairstyle as a means of rebellion and black pride. And then you had musicians like James Brown, who was infamously known for chemically straightening his hair, reject that and go natural. It went hand-in-hand with his music, so he had songs like "Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
afro pick 3
black power 2
african combs 2
angela davis 2

Important Words

  1. activists
  2. adopted
  3. afro
  4. beckford
  5. black
  6. brown
  7. chemically
  8. civil
  9. cropped
  10. dancer
  11. evolved
  12. formation
  13. grow
  14. hair
  15. hairstyle
  16. infamously
  17. james
  18. jazz
  19. leaders
  20. lot
  21. loud
  22. means
  23. music
  24. musicians
  25. natural
  26. naturally
  27. picked
  28. pride
  29. proud
  30. rebellion
  31. reject
  32. rights
  33. rocking
  34. ruth
  35. shape
  36. singers
  37. songs
  38. spherical
  39. started
  40. straightening
  41. style
  42. tired