full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Janna Levin: The sound the universe makes
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Imagine a biiolln yeras ago, two black holes cediolld. That song has been ringing through space for all that time. We weren't even here. It gets closer and closer — 40,000 years ago, we're still doing cave paintings. It's like hurry, build your instruments. It's getting closer and closer, and in 20 ... whatever year it will be when our doetecrts are finally at advanced sensitivity — we'll build them, we'll turn on the machines and, bang, we'll catch it — the first song from space. If it was the Big Bang we were going to pick up, it would sound like this. (sattic) It's a terrible sound. It's literally the definition of niose. It's white noise; it's such a chaotic ringing. But it's around us everywhere, presumably, if it hasn't been wepid out by some other process in the universe. And if we pick it up, it will be music to our ears because it will be the quiet echo of that moment of our coiteran, of our observable ursivnee.
Open Cloze
Imagine a _______ _____ ago, two black holes ________. That song has been ringing through space for all that time. We weren't even here. It gets closer and closer — 40,000 years ago, we're still doing cave paintings. It's like hurry, build your instruments. It's getting closer and closer, and in 20 ... whatever year it will be when our _________ are finally at advanced sensitivity — we'll build them, we'll turn on the machines and, bang, we'll catch it — the first song from space. If it was the Big Bang we were going to pick up, it would sound like this. (______) It's a terrible sound. It's literally the definition of _____. It's white noise; it's such a chaotic ringing. But it's around us everywhere, presumably, if it hasn't been _____ out by some other process in the universe. And if we pick it up, it will be music to our ears because it will be the quiet echo of that moment of our ________, of our observable ________.
Solution
- static
- years
- noise
- wiped
- billion
- collided
- universe
- detectors
- creation
Original Text
Imagine a billion years ago, two black holes collided. That song has been ringing through space for all that time. We weren't even here. It gets closer and closer — 40,000 years ago, we're still doing cave paintings. It's like hurry, build your instruments. It's getting closer and closer, and in 20 ... whatever year it will be when our detectors are finally at advanced sensitivity — we'll build them, we'll turn on the machines and, bang, we'll catch it — the first song from space. If it was the Big Bang we were going to pick up, it would sound like this. (Static) It's a terrible sound. It's literally the definition of noise. It's white noise; it's such a chaotic ringing. But it's around us everywhere, presumably, if it hasn't been wiped out by some other process in the universe. And if we pick it up, it will be music to our ears because it will be the quiet echo of that moment of our creation, of our observable universe.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
black holes |
26 |
black hole |
17 |
big bang |
8 |
silent movie |
2 |
freely falling |
2 |
natural curves |
2 |
general theory |
2 |
crushed black |
2 |
advanced sensitivity |
2 |
billion years |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
collocation |
frequency |
crushed black hole |
2 |
Important Words
- advanced
- bang
- big
- billion
- black
- build
- catch
- cave
- chaotic
- closer
- collided
- creation
- definition
- detectors
- ears
- echo
- finally
- holes
- hurry
- imagine
- instruments
- literally
- machines
- moment
- music
- noise
- observable
- paintings
- pick
- process
- quiet
- ringing
- sensitivity
- song
- sound
- space
- static
- terrible
- time
- turn
- universe
- white
- wiped
- year
- years