full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Caroline Paul: To raise brave girls, encourage adventure

Unscramble the Blue Letters

There was a study involving a poanlryugd fire pole, ironically, in which researchers saw that little girls were very likely to be wernad by both their moms and dads about the fire pole's risk, and if the little girls still wanted to play on the fire pole, a parent was very likely to assist her. But the little boys? They were encouraged to play on the fire pole despite any trepidations that they might have, and often the ptraens offered gauidnce on how to use it on their own. So what message does this send to both boys and girls? Well, that girls are fragile and more in need of help, and that boys can and should master difficult tsaks by themselves. It says that girls should be frauefl and boys should be gutsy.

Open Cloze

There was a study involving a __________ fire pole, ironically, in which researchers saw that little girls were very likely to be ______ by both their moms and dads about the fire pole's risk, and if the little girls still wanted to play on the fire pole, a parent was very likely to assist her. But the little boys? They were encouraged to play on the fire pole despite any trepidations that they might have, and often the _______ offered ________ on how to use it on their own. So what message does this send to both boys and girls? Well, that girls are fragile and more in need of help, and that boys can and should master difficult _____ by themselves. It says that girls should be _______ and boys should be gutsy.

Solution

  1. parents
  2. warned
  3. tasks
  4. playground
  5. guidance
  6. fearful

Original Text

There was a study involving a playground fire pole, ironically, in which researchers saw that little girls were very likely to be warned by both their moms and dads about the fire pole's risk, and if the little girls still wanted to play on the fire pole, a parent was very likely to assist her. But the little boys? They were encouraged to play on the fire pole despite any trepidations that they might have, and often the parents offered guidance on how to use it on their own. So what message does this send to both boys and girls? Well, that girls are fragile and more in need of help, and that boys can and should master difficult tasks by themselves. It says that girls should be fearful and boys should be gutsy.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
world record 4
playground fire 2
fire pole 2
steep hill 2

Important Words

  1. assist
  2. boys
  3. dads
  4. difficult
  5. encouraged
  6. fearful
  7. fire
  8. fragile
  9. girls
  10. guidance
  11. gutsy
  12. involving
  13. ironically
  14. master
  15. message
  16. moms
  17. offered
  18. parent
  19. parents
  20. play
  21. playground
  22. pole
  23. researchers
  24. risk
  25. send
  26. study
  27. tasks
  28. trepidations
  29. wanted
  30. warned