full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Stephen Petranek: 10 ways the world could end

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Voice: Steve, I have some adaiitnodl hats downstairs.)

SP: So, what can we do about this? Oh, by the way, we're overdue. It's been 780,000 years since this happened. So, it should have happened about 480,000 yreas ago. Oh, and here's one other thing. Scientists think now our magnetic field may be diminished by about five percent. So, maybe we're in the throes of it. One of the problems of trying to figure out how healthy the Earth is, is that we have — you know, we don't have good weather data from 60 years ago, much less data on things like the ozone layer.

So, there's a fairly simple soitolun to this. There's going to be a lot of cheap rocketry that's going to come oinnle in about six or seven years that gets us into the low atmosphere very cphaely. You know, we can make oznoe from car tpaliieps. It's not hard: it's just three oxygen atoms. If you brought the entire ozone layer down to the surface of the Earth, it would be the thickness of two pennies, at 14 pounds per square inch. You don't need that much up there. We need to learn how to repair and replenish the Earth's ozone layer. (Applause)

Open Cloze


(Voice: Steve, I have some __________ hats downstairs.)

SP: So, what can we do about this? Oh, by the way, we're overdue. It's been 780,000 years since this happened. So, it should have happened about 480,000 _____ ago. Oh, and here's one other thing. Scientists think now our magnetic field may be diminished by about five percent. So, maybe we're in the throes of it. One of the problems of trying to figure out how healthy the Earth is, is that we have — you know, we don't have good weather data from 60 years ago, much less data on things like the ozone layer.

So, there's a fairly simple ________ to this. There's going to be a lot of cheap rocketry that's going to come ______ in about six or seven years that gets us into the low atmosphere very _______. You know, we can make _____ from car _________. It's not hard: it's just three oxygen atoms. If you brought the entire ozone layer down to the surface of the Earth, it would be the thickness of two pennies, at 14 pounds per square inch. You don't need that much up there. We need to learn how to repair and replenish the Earth's ozone layer. (Applause)

Solution


  1. ozone
  2. additional
  3. online
  4. years
  5. tailpipes
  6. solution
  7. cheaply

Original Text


(Voice: Steve, I have some additional hats downstairs.)

SP: So, what can we do about this? Oh, by the way, we're overdue. It's been 780,000 years since this happened. So, it should have happened about 480,000 years ago. Oh, and here's one other thing. Scientists think now our magnetic field may be diminished by about five percent. So, maybe we're in the throes of it. One of the problems of trying to figure out how healthy the Earth is, is that we have — you know, we don't have good weather data from 60 years ago, much less data on things like the ozone layer.

So, there's a fairly simple solution to this. There's going to be a lot of cheap rocketry that's going to come online in about six or seven years that gets us into the low atmosphere very cheaply. You know, we can make ozone from car tailpipes. It's not hard: it's just three oxygen atoms. If you brought the entire ozone layer down to the surface of the Earth, it would be the thickness of two pennies, at 14 pounds per square inch. You don't need that much up there. We need to learn how to repair and replenish the Earth's ozone layer. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
black holes 5
bt corn 4
magnetic field 4
black hole 3
national science 3
advanced civilization 3
ozone layer 3
universe works 2
billion dollars 2
world health 2
health organization 2
clinically depressed 2
severe depression 2
drug companies 2
psychoactive drugs 2
remote idea 2
start logging 2
science foundation 2
united states 2
natural laboratory 2
human food 2
food supply 2
solar flares 2
studying stars 2
million people 2
public health 2
billion miles 2
miles wide 2
million dollars 2
dedicated observatory 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
world health organization 2
national science foundation 2

Important Words


  1. additional
  2. applause
  3. atmosphere
  4. atoms
  5. brought
  6. car
  7. cheap
  8. cheaply
  9. data
  10. diminished
  11. downstairs
  12. earth
  13. entire
  14. field
  15. figure
  16. good
  17. happened
  18. hats
  19. healthy
  20. inch
  21. layer
  22. learn
  23. lot
  24. magnetic
  25. online
  26. overdue
  27. oxygen
  28. ozone
  29. pennies
  30. percent
  31. pounds
  32. problems
  33. repair
  34. replenish
  35. rocketry
  36. scientists
  37. simple
  38. solution
  39. square
  40. steve
  41. surface
  42. tailpipes
  43. thickness
  44. throes
  45. weather
  46. years