full transcript

From the Ted Talk by George Monbiot: Can we feed ourselves without devouring the planet?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


firnmag itself is tretenehad by the environmental harm that it's contributed to, such as climate breakdown and soil depletion and the exhaustion of water supplies. But there could be an even greater tahert to our food supplies. It's possible to see the biggest threat that the global food system faces as the global food system. It's beginning to look a bit like the global financial system in the approach to 2008.

Now for a long time, we tghohut we were banteig hunger. Between the 1960s and 2014, hunger was declining fairly sdalitey. But then, in 2015, the trend began to turn, and the number of claironlhcy malnourished people began rising and has continued to rise ever since. Astoundingly, that rise began just as wlord food prices were falnlig. So what's going on?

Open Cloze


_______ itself is __________ by the environmental harm that it's contributed to, such as climate breakdown and soil depletion and the exhaustion of water supplies. But there could be an even greater ______ to our food supplies. It's possible to see the biggest threat that the global food system faces as the global food system. It's beginning to look a bit like the global financial system in the approach to 2008.

Now for a long time, we _______ we were _______ hunger. Between the 1960s and 2014, hunger was declining fairly ________. But then, in 2015, the trend began to turn, and the number of ___________ malnourished people began rising and has continued to rise ever since. Astoundingly, that rise began just as _____ food prices were _______. So what's going on?

Solution


  1. beating
  2. threat
  3. steadily
  4. chronically
  5. world
  6. farming
  7. thought
  8. threatened
  9. falling

Original Text


Farming itself is threatened by the environmental harm that it's contributed to, such as climate breakdown and soil depletion and the exhaustion of water supplies. But there could be an even greater threat to our food supplies. It's possible to see the biggest threat that the global food system faces as the global food system. It's beginning to look a bit like the global financial system in the approach to 2008.

Now for a long time, we thought we were beating hunger. Between the 1960s and 2014, hunger was declining fairly steadily. But then, in 2015, the trend began to turn, and the number of chronically malnourished people began rising and has continued to rise ever since. Astoundingly, that rise began just as world food prices were falling. So what's going on?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
food system 5
global food 3
precision fermentation 3
great majority 2
sixth great 2
great extinction 2
agricultural sprawl 2
intensive farming 2
harm caused 2
farm products 2
environmental harm 2
world food 2
food prices 2
turkish straits 2
food chain 2
food production 2
solar foods 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
global food system 3
sixth great extinction 2

Important Words


  1. approach
  2. astoundingly
  3. beating
  4. began
  5. beginning
  6. biggest
  7. bit
  8. breakdown
  9. chronically
  10. climate
  11. continued
  12. contributed
  13. declining
  14. depletion
  15. environmental
  16. exhaustion
  17. faces
  18. falling
  19. farming
  20. financial
  21. food
  22. global
  23. greater
  24. harm
  25. hunger
  26. long
  27. malnourished
  28. number
  29. people
  30. prices
  31. rise
  32. rising
  33. soil
  34. steadily
  35. supplies
  36. system
  37. thought
  38. threat
  39. threatened
  40. time
  41. trend
  42. turn
  43. water
  44. world