full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alex Gendler: Can you solve the multiplying rabbits riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But just as you pull the lever to start the experiment, your assistant runs in with terrible news. A rival lab has sabotaged your code so that all the zeros at the end of your rleusts got cut off. That menas you don’t actually know if the bottom cell will be able to hold all the rabbits – and the roepiodrtucn is already underway! To make matters wosre, your devices and calculators are all malfunctioning, so you only have a few muietns to work it out by hand. How many tanilirg zeros should there be at the end of the count of rabbits in the bottom habitat? And do you need to pull the emergency shut-down lever?

Open Cloze


But just as you pull the lever to start the experiment, your assistant runs in with terrible news. A rival lab has sabotaged your code so that all the zeros at the end of your _______ got cut off. That _____ you don’t actually know if the bottom cell will be able to hold all the rabbits – and the ____________ is already underway! To make matters _____, your devices and calculators are all malfunctioning, so you only have a few _______ to work it out by hand. How many ________ zeros should there be at the end of the count of rabbits in the bottom habitat? And do you need to pull the emergency shut-down lever?

Solution


  1. reproduction
  2. minutes
  3. results
  4. trailing
  5. worse
  6. means

Original Text


But just as you pull the lever to start the experiment, your assistant runs in with terrible news. A rival lab has sabotaged your code so that all the zeros at the end of your results got cut off. That means you don’t actually know if the bottom cell will be able to hold all the rabbits – and the reproduction is already underway! To make matters worse, your devices and calculators are all malfunctioning, so you only have a few minutes to work it out by hand. How many trailing zeros should there be at the end of the count of rabbits in the bottom habitat? And do you need to pull the emergency shut-down lever?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
trailing zeros 8
bottom cell 3
digit number 2


Important Words


  1. assistant
  2. bottom
  3. calculators
  4. cell
  5. code
  6. count
  7. cut
  8. devices
  9. emergency
  10. experiment
  11. habitat
  12. hand
  13. hold
  14. lab
  15. lever
  16. malfunctioning
  17. matters
  18. means
  19. minutes
  20. news
  21. pull
  22. rabbits
  23. reproduction
  24. results
  25. rival
  26. runs
  27. sabotaged
  28. start
  29. terrible
  30. trailing
  31. work
  32. worse
  33. zeros