full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Paula Scher: Great design is serious, not solemn

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Be serious, it says. What it means, of course, is, be solemn. Being solemn is easy. Being serious is hard. Children almost always begin by being serious, which is what makes them so entertaining when compared with adults as a class. adltus, on the whole, are solemn. In piitocls, the rare candidate who is serious, like Adlai stnoseevn, is elisay omhewveelrd by one who is solemn, like Eisenhower. That's because it is hard for most people to recognize seriousness, which is rare, but more comfortable to endorse solemnity, which is commonplace. joigngg, which is commonplace, and widely accepted as good for you, is solemn. Poker is serious. Washington, D.C. is solemn. New York is serious. Going to educational conferences to tell you anything about the future is solemn. Taking a long walk by yourself, during which you devise a frpolooof shcmee for robbing Tiffany's, is serious.

Open Cloze

Be serious, it says. What it means, of course, is, be solemn. Being solemn is easy. Being serious is hard. Children almost always begin by being serious, which is what makes them so entertaining when compared with adults as a class. ______, on the whole, are solemn. In ________, the rare candidate who is serious, like Adlai _________, is ______ ___________ by one who is solemn, like Eisenhower. That's because it is hard for most people to recognize seriousness, which is rare, but more comfortable to endorse solemnity, which is commonplace. _______, which is commonplace, and widely accepted as good for you, is solemn. Poker is serious. Washington, D.C. is solemn. New York is serious. Going to educational conferences to tell you anything about the future is solemn. Taking a long walk by yourself, during which you devise a _________ ______ for robbing Tiffany's, is serious.

Solution

  1. stevenson
  2. scheme
  3. jogging
  4. easily
  5. overwhelmed
  6. adults
  7. foolproof
  8. politics

Original Text

Be serious, it says. What it means, of course, is, be solemn. Being solemn is easy. Being serious is hard. Children almost always begin by being serious, which is what makes them so entertaining when compared with adults as a class. Adults, on the whole, are solemn. In politics, the rare candidate who is serious, like Adlai Stevenson, is easily overwhelmed by one who is solemn, like Eisenhower. That's because it is hard for most people to recognize seriousness, which is rare, but more comfortable to endorse solemnity, which is commonplace. Jogging, which is commonplace, and widely accepted as good for you, is solemn. Poker is serious. Washington, D.C. is solemn. New York is serious. Going to educational conferences to tell you anything about the future is solemn. Taking a long walk by yourself, during which you devise a foolproof scheme for robbing Tiffany's, is serious.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
public theater 4
york times 3
united states 3
solemn design 2
record covers 2
typeface helvetica 2
paul newman 2
city council 2

Important Words

  1. accepted
  2. adlai
  3. adults
  4. candidate
  5. children
  6. class
  7. comfortable
  8. commonplace
  9. compared
  10. conferences
  11. devise
  12. easily
  13. easy
  14. educational
  15. eisenhower
  16. endorse
  17. entertaining
  18. foolproof
  19. future
  20. good
  21. hard
  22. jogging
  23. long
  24. means
  25. overwhelmed
  26. people
  27. poker
  28. politics
  29. rare
  30. recognize
  31. robbing
  32. scheme
  33. seriousness
  34. solemn
  35. solemnity
  36. stevenson
  37. walk
  38. washington
  39. widely
  40. york