full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Iseult Gillespie: Why should you read "Waiting for Godot"?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Born in Dublin, Beckett studied English, French and Italian before moving to Paris, where he spent most of his life writing theatre, poetry and porse. While bcetket had a lifelong love of language, he also made space for silence by incorporating gaps, pauses and moments of emptiness into his work. This was a key feature of his trademark uneven tempo and baclk humor, which became polaupr throughout the tethrae of the Absurd. He also cultivated a mysterious persona, and refused to confirm or deny any speculations about the meaning of his work. This kept audiences guesinsg, increasing their fascination with his surreal worlds and etniigamc crerctahas.

Open Cloze

Born in Dublin, Beckett studied English, French and Italian before moving to Paris, where he spent most of his life writing theatre, poetry and _____. While _______ had a lifelong love of language, he also made space for silence by incorporating gaps, pauses and moments of emptiness into his work. This was a key feature of his trademark uneven tempo and _____ humor, which became _______ throughout the _______ of the Absurd. He also cultivated a mysterious persona, and refused to confirm or deny any speculations about the meaning of his work. This kept audiences ________, increasing their fascination with his surreal worlds and _________ __________.

Solution

  1. black
  2. enigmatic
  3. popular
  4. prose
  5. theatre
  6. beckett
  7. guessing
  8. characters

Original Text

Born in Dublin, Beckett studied English, French and Italian before moving to Paris, where he spent most of his life writing theatre, poetry and prose. While Beckett had a lifelong love of language, he also made space for silence by incorporating gaps, pauses and moments of emptiness into his work. This was a key feature of his trademark uneven tempo and black humor, which became popular throughout the Theatre of the Absurd. He also cultivated a mysterious persona, and refused to confirm or deny any speculations about the meaning of his work. This kept audiences guessing, increasing their fascination with his surreal worlds and enigmatic characters.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

Important Words

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  2. audiences
  3. beckett
  4. black
  5. born
  6. characters
  7. confirm
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  10. dublin
  11. emptiness
  12. english
  13. enigmatic
  14. fascination
  15. feature
  16. french
  17. gaps
  18. guessing
  19. humor
  20. incorporating
  21. increasing
  22. italian
  23. key
  24. language
  25. life
  26. lifelong
  27. love
  28. meaning
  29. moments
  30. moving
  31. mysterious
  32. paris
  33. pauses
  34. persona
  35. poetry
  36. popular
  37. prose
  38. refused
  39. silence
  40. space
  41. speculations
  42. spent
  43. studied
  44. surreal
  45. tempo
  46. theatre
  47. trademark
  48. uneven
  49. work
  50. worlds
  51. writing