full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dan Finkel: Can you solve the giant cat army riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


The villainous Dr. Schrödinger has developed a growth ray and intends to cetare an army of giant cats to trrzoriee the city. Your team of secret agents has tracked him to his ugeuordnrnd lab. You burst in to find… that it’s a trap!

Dr. Schrödinger has slipped into the next room to activate his device and daeslibd the control panel on the way out.

funtaretoly, your teammates are masters of spy-craft. Agent Delta has hacked into the control panel and managed to raatvetice some of its functionality. Meanwhile, Agent esoilpn has searched through surveillance to find the code for the door: 2, 10, 14.

Open Cloze


The villainous Dr. Schrödinger has developed a growth ray and intends to ______ an army of giant cats to _________ the city. Your team of secret agents has tracked him to his ___________ lab. You burst in to find… that it’s a trap!

Dr. Schrödinger has slipped into the next room to activate his device and ________ the control panel on the way out.

___________, your teammates are masters of spy-craft. Agent Delta has hacked into the control panel and managed to __________ some of its functionality. Meanwhile, Agent _______ has searched through surveillance to find the code for the door: 2, 10, 14.

Solution


  1. create
  2. reactivate
  3. underground
  4. epsilon
  5. fortunately
  6. terrorize
  7. disabled

Original Text


The villainous Dr. Schrödinger has developed a growth ray and intends to create an army of giant cats to terrorize the city. Your team of secret agents has tracked him to his underground lab. You burst in to find… that it’s a trap!

Dr. Schrödinger has slipped into the next room to activate his device and disabled the control panel on the way out.

Fortunately, your teammates are masters of spy-craft. Agent Delta has hacked into the control panel and managed to reactivate some of its functionality. Meanwhile, Agent Epsilon has searched through surveillance to find the code for the door: 2, 10, 14.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
square root 9
control panel 3
root button 3
agent delta 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
square root button 3

Important Words


  1. activate
  2. agent
  3. agents
  4. army
  5. burst
  6. cats
  7. city
  8. code
  9. control
  10. create
  11. delta
  12. developed
  13. device
  14. disabled
  15. dr
  16. epsilon
  17. find
  18. fortunately
  19. functionality
  20. giant
  21. growth
  22. hacked
  23. intends
  24. lab
  25. managed
  26. masters
  27. panel
  28. ray
  29. reactivate
  30. room
  31. schrödinger
  32. searched
  33. secret
  34. slipped
  35. surveillance
  36. team
  37. teammates
  38. terrorize
  39. tracked
  40. underground
  41. villainous