full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alyssa-Amor Gibbons: How to design climate-resilient buildings

Unscramble the Blue Letters

After the abolition of the enslavement of African and Indigenous peoples in Barbados, my ancestors, newly freed, couldn't just go and find land to build their homes. Their lands, unlike them, were still property or "chattel" of the former enslavers. So out of this conundrum the Bajan chattel house was born. chatetl houess were modest homes bluit entirely of timber, with no nails mind you, and sat on tlhtgiy pckaed caorl stone. The dilemma was that they had to be robust enough to survive the harsh temperaments of our toicrapl weather, yet somehow trpemraoy, so that inevitably, when there was some kind of "dispute" between a former enslaver and a newly freed man or woman, he or she could qilucky grab a couple of friends and family, pack up and move at a moment's notice for safety.

Open Cloze

After the abolition of the enslavement of African and Indigenous peoples in Barbados, my ancestors, newly freed, couldn't just go and find land to build their homes. Their lands, unlike them, were still property or "chattel" of the former enslavers. So out of this conundrum the Bajan chattel house was born. _______ ______ were modest homes _____ entirely of timber, with no nails mind you, and sat on _______ ______ _____ stone. The dilemma was that they had to be robust enough to survive the harsh temperaments of our ________ weather, yet somehow _________, so that inevitably, when there was some kind of "dispute" between a former enslaver and a newly freed man or woman, he or she could _______ grab a couple of friends and family, pack up and move at a moment's notice for safety.

Solution

  1. temporary
  2. coral
  3. tightly
  4. quickly
  5. built
  6. chattel
  7. houses
  8. packed
  9. tropical

Original Text

After the abolition of the enslavement of African and Indigenous peoples in Barbados, my ancestors, newly freed, couldn't just go and find land to build their homes. Their lands, unlike them, were still property or "chattel" of the former enslavers. So out of this conundrum the Bajan chattel house was born. Chattel houses were modest homes built entirely of timber, with no nails mind you, and sat on tightly packed coral stone. The dilemma was that they had to be robust enough to survive the harsh temperaments of our tropical weather, yet somehow temporary, so that inevitably, when there was some kind of "dispute" between a former enslaver and a newly freed man or woman, he or she could quickly grab a couple of friends and family, pack up and move at a moment's notice for safety.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

Important Words

  1. abolition
  2. african
  3. ancestors
  4. bajan
  5. barbados
  6. born
  7. build
  8. built
  9. chattel
  10. conundrum
  11. coral
  12. couple
  13. dilemma
  14. enslavement
  15. enslaver
  16. enslavers
  17. family
  18. find
  19. freed
  20. friends
  21. grab
  22. harsh
  23. homes
  24. house
  25. houses
  26. indigenous
  27. inevitably
  28. kind
  29. land
  30. lands
  31. man
  32. mind
  33. modest
  34. move
  35. nails
  36. newly
  37. notice
  38. pack
  39. packed
  40. peoples
  41. property
  42. quickly
  43. robust
  44. safety
  45. sat
  46. stone
  47. survive
  48. temperaments
  49. temporary
  50. tightly
  51. timber
  52. tropical
  53. weather
  54. woman