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

  1. static
  2. years
  3. noise
  4. wiped
  5. billion
  6. collided
  7. universe
  8. detectors
  9. 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

  1. advanced
  2. bang
  3. big
  4. billion
  5. black
  6. build
  7. catch
  8. cave
  9. chaotic
  10. closer
  11. collided
  12. creation
  13. definition
  14. detectors
  15. ears
  16. echo
  17. finally
  18. holes
  19. hurry
  20. imagine
  21. instruments
  22. literally
  23. machines
  24. moment
  25. music
  26. noise
  27. observable
  28. paintings
  29. pick
  30. process
  31. quiet
  32. ringing
  33. sensitivity
  34. song
  35. sound
  36. space
  37. static
  38. terrible
  39. time
  40. turn
  41. universe
  42. white
  43. wiped
  44. year
  45. years