full transcript
"From the Ted Talk by Sebastian Junger: Why veterans miss war"

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I was leaning against some sbndgaas one morning, not much going on, sort of spacing out, and some sand was kicked into the side of, sort of hit the side of my face. Something hit the side of my face, and I didn't know what it was. You have to understand about bullets that they go a lot faster than sound, so if someone shoots at you from a few hundred meters, the bullet goes by you, or hits you obviously, half a second or so before the suond catches up to it. So I had some sand sprayed in the side of my face. Half a second later, I haerd dut-dut-dut-dut-duh. It was machine gun fire. It was the first round, the first burst of an hour-long firefight. What had happened was the bullet hit, a bullet hit three or four iechns from the side of my head. ingmaie, just think about it, because I certainly did, think about the angle of ditavieon that seavd my life. At 400 merets, it missed me by three inches. Just think about the math on that. Every guy up there had some experience like that, at least once, if not many times.

Open Cloze

I was leaning against some ________ one morning, not much going on, sort of spacing out, and some sand was kicked into the side of, sort of hit the side of my face. Something hit the side of my face, and I didn't know what it was. You have to understand about bullets that they go a lot faster than sound, so if someone shoots at you from a few hundred meters, the bullet goes by you, or hits you obviously, half a second or so before the _____ catches up to it. So I had some sand sprayed in the side of my face. Half a second later, I _____ dut-dut-dut-dut-duh. It was machine gun fire. It was the first round, the first burst of an hour-long firefight. What had happened was the bullet hit, a bullet hit three or four ______ from the side of my head. _______, just think about it, because I certainly did, think about the angle of _________ that _____ my life. At 400 ______, it missed me by three inches. Just think about the math on that. Every guy up there had some experience like that, at least once, if not many times.

Solution

  1. inches
  2. saved
  3. deviation
  4. sandbags
  5. sound
  6. imagine
  7. heard
  8. meters

Original Text

I was leaning against some sandbags one morning, not much going on, sort of spacing out, and some sand was kicked into the side of, sort of hit the side of my face. Something hit the side of my face, and I didn't know what it was. You have to understand about bullets that they go a lot faster than sound, so if someone shoots at you from a few hundred meters, the bullet goes by you, or hits you obviously, half a second or so before the sound catches up to it. So I had some sand sprayed in the side of my face. Half a second later, I heard dut-dut-dut-dut-duh. It was machine gun fire. It was the first round, the first burst of an hour-long firefight. What had happened was the bullet hit, a bullet hit three or four inches from the side of my head. Imagine, just think about it, because I certainly did, think about the angle of deviation that saved my life. At 400 meters, it missed me by three inches. Just think about the math on that. Every guy up there had some experience like that, at least once, if not many times.

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
young men 4

Important Words

  1. angle
  2. bullet
  3. bullets
  4. burst
  5. catches
  6. deviation
  7. experience
  8. face
  9. faster
  10. fire
  11. firefight
  12. gun
  13. guy
  14. happened
  15. head
  16. heard
  17. hit
  18. hits
  19. imagine
  20. inches
  21. kicked
  22. leaning
  23. life
  24. lot
  25. machine
  26. math
  27. meters
  28. missed
  29. morning
  30. sand
  31. sandbags
  32. saved
  33. shoots
  34. side
  35. sort
  36. sound
  37. spacing
  38. sprayed
  39. times
  40. understand