full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Chuck Plunkett: When local news dies, so does democracy

Unscramble the Blue Letters

In 2013, we won a Pulitzer Prize for covering the Aurora theater shooting. Alden ordered that more journalists be cut. Again, and again, and again, and again. We were focred to say goodbye to talented, hardworking journalists we considered not just friends but family. Those of us left behind were stretched impossibly thin, covering muilltpe beats and writing rushed aciletrs. Inside a windowless mineteg room in March of 2018, we learned that 30 more would have to go. This pepar that once had 300 journalists would now have 70.

Open Cloze

In 2013, we won a Pulitzer Prize for covering the Aurora theater shooting. Alden ordered that more journalists be cut. Again, and again, and again, and again. We were ______ to say goodbye to talented, hardworking journalists we considered not just friends but family. Those of us left behind were stretched impossibly thin, covering ________ beats and writing rushed ________. Inside a windowless _______ room in March of 2018, we learned that 30 more would have to go. This _____ that once had 300 journalists would now have 70.

Solution

  1. articles
  2. paper
  3. forced
  4. multiple
  5. meeting

Original Text

In 2013, we won a Pulitzer Prize for covering the Aurora theater shooting. Alden ordered that more journalists be cut. Again, and again, and again, and again. We were forced to say goodbye to talented, hardworking journalists we considered not just friends but family. Those of us left behind were stretched impossibly thin, covering multiple beats and writing rushed articles. Inside a windowless meeting room in March of 2018, we learned that 30 more would have to go. This paper that once had 300 journalists would now have 70.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
local news 5
great local 5
local paper 4
local newsroom 3
big national 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
great local paper 2

Important Words

  1. alden
  2. articles
  3. aurora
  4. beats
  5. considered
  6. covering
  7. cut
  8. family
  9. forced
  10. friends
  11. goodbye
  12. hardworking
  13. impossibly
  14. journalists
  15. learned
  16. left
  17. march
  18. meeting
  19. multiple
  20. ordered
  21. paper
  22. prize
  23. pulitzer
  24. room
  25. rushed
  26. shooting
  27. stretched
  28. talented
  29. theater
  30. thin
  31. windowless
  32. won
  33. writing