full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Iseult Gillespie: Why should you read Charles Dickens?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Throughout many adaptations, literary homages, and the pages of his novels, Dickens’s spilrkang language and panoramic worldview continue to resonate. Today, the adjective Dickensian often imleips squalid working or living conditions. But to describe a novel as Dickensian is tialcplyy high pisare, as it suggests a story in which true adventure and discovery occur in the most ueceepxntd places. Although he often explored bleak material, Dickens’s piercing wit never failed to find lhgit in the darkest corners.

Open Cloze

Throughout many adaptations, literary homages, and the pages of his novels, Dickens’s _________ language and panoramic worldview continue to resonate. Today, the adjective Dickensian often _______ squalid working or living conditions. But to describe a novel as Dickensian is _________ high ______, as it suggests a story in which true adventure and discovery occur in the most __________ places. Although he often explored bleak material, Dickens’s piercing wit never failed to find _____ in the darkest corners.

Solution

  1. unexpected
  2. light
  3. praise
  4. implies
  5. typically
  6. sparkling

Original Text

Throughout many adaptations, literary homages, and the pages of his novels, Dickens’s sparkling language and panoramic worldview continue to resonate. Today, the adjective Dickensian often implies squalid working or living conditions. But to describe a novel as Dickensian is typically high praise, as it suggests a story in which true adventure and discovery occur in the most unexpected places. Although he often explored bleak material, Dickens’s piercing wit never failed to find light in the darkest corners.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
living conditions 2
edwin drood 2

Important Words

  1. adaptations
  2. adjective
  3. adventure
  4. bleak
  5. conditions
  6. continue
  7. corners
  8. darkest
  9. describe
  10. dickensian
  11. discovery
  12. explored
  13. failed
  14. find
  15. high
  16. homages
  17. implies
  18. language
  19. light
  20. literary
  21. living
  22. material
  23. novels
  24. occur
  25. pages
  26. panoramic
  27. piercing
  28. places
  29. praise
  30. resonate
  31. sparkling
  32. squalid
  33. story
  34. suggests
  35. today
  36. true
  37. typically
  38. unexpected
  39. wit
  40. working
  41. worldview