full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Marc Abrahams: A science award that makes you laugh, then think

Unscramble the Blue Letters


There was a paper published in the medical journal The Lancet in England a few years ago claeld " A man who pricked his figner and smelled putrid for 5 years." Dr. Caroline Mills and her team received this patient and didn't really know what to do about it. The man had cut his finger, he worked processing chickens, and then he sttread to sleml really, really bad. So bad that when he got in a room with the doctors and the nurses, they couldn't stand being in the room with him. It was intolerable. They tried every drug, every other treatment they could think of. After a year, he still smelled pritud. After two years, still smlleed putrid. Three years, four years, still smelled putrid. After five yares, it went away on its own. It's a mystery.

Open Cloze


There was a paper published in the medical journal The Lancet in England a few years ago ______ " A man who pricked his ______ and smelled putrid for 5 years." Dr. Caroline Mills and her team received this patient and didn't really know what to do about it. The man had cut his finger, he worked processing chickens, and then he _______ to _____ really, really bad. So bad that when he got in a room with the doctors and the nurses, they couldn't stand being in the room with him. It was intolerable. They tried every drug, every other treatment they could think of. After a year, he still smelled ______. After two years, still _______ putrid. Three years, four years, still smelled putrid. After five _____, it went away on its own. It's a mystery.

Solution


  1. putrid
  2. called
  3. smell
  4. years
  5. started
  6. finger
  7. smelled

Original Text


There was a paper published in the medical journal The Lancet in England a few years ago called " A man who pricked his finger and smelled putrid for 5 years." Dr. Caroline Mills and her team received this patient and didn't really know what to do about it. The man had cut his finger, he worked processing chickens, and then he started to smell really, really bad. So bad that when he got in a room with the doctors and the nurses, they couldn't stand being in the room with him. It was intolerable. They tried every drug, every other treatment they could think of. After a year, he still smelled putrid. After two years, still smelled putrid. Three years, four years, still smelled putrid. After five years, it went away on its own. It's a mystery.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
ig nobel 11
nobel prize 7
smelled putrid 4
people laugh 2
prize winners 2
trillion dollars 2
coconut tree 2
elena bodnar 2
nobel laureate 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
ig nobel prize 6
nobel prize winners 2

Important Words


  1. bad
  2. called
  3. caroline
  4. chickens
  5. cut
  6. doctors
  7. dr
  8. drug
  9. england
  10. finger
  11. intolerable
  12. journal
  13. lancet
  14. man
  15. medical
  16. mills
  17. mystery
  18. nurses
  19. paper
  20. patient
  21. pricked
  22. processing
  23. published
  24. putrid
  25. received
  26. room
  27. smell
  28. smelled
  29. stand
  30. started
  31. team
  32. treatment
  33. worked
  34. year
  35. years