full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Prosanta Chakrabarty: Four billion years of evolution in six minutes

Unscramble the Blue Letters


One fish lineage came onto land and gave rise to, among other things, the mammals and releipts. Some reptiles become birds, some mammals become primates, some petairms become monkeys with tails, and others become the great apes, including a variety of human species. So you see, we didn't evolve from monkeys, but we do share a cmomon ancestor with them.

All the while, life around us kept evolving: more bacteria, more fungi, lots of fish, fish, fish. If you couldn't tell — yes, they're my favorite group.

(Laughter)

As life evolves, it also goes extinct. Most spicees just last for a few million years. So you see, most life on earth that we see around us today are about the same age as our species. So it's huibrs, it's self-centered to think, "Oh, plants and bacteria are primitive, and we've been here for an evooatuinrly mtunie, so we're somehow special."

Open Cloze


One fish lineage came onto land and gave rise to, among other things, the mammals and ________. Some reptiles become birds, some mammals become primates, some ________ become monkeys with tails, and others become the great apes, including a variety of human species. So you see, we didn't evolve from monkeys, but we do share a ______ ancestor with them.

All the while, life around us kept evolving: more bacteria, more fungi, lots of fish, fish, fish. If you couldn't tell — yes, they're my favorite group.

(Laughter)

As life evolves, it also goes extinct. Most _______ just last for a few million years. So you see, most life on earth that we see around us today are about the same age as our species. So it's ______, it's self-centered to think, "Oh, plants and bacteria are primitive, and we've been here for an ____________ ______, so we're somehow special."

Solution


  1. common
  2. evolutionary
  3. species
  4. primates
  5. hubris
  6. reptiles
  7. minute

Original Text


One fish lineage came onto land and gave rise to, among other things, the mammals and reptiles. Some reptiles become birds, some mammals become primates, some primates become monkeys with tails, and others become the great apes, including a variety of human species. So you see, we didn't evolve from monkeys, but we do share a common ancestor with them.

All the while, life around us kept evolving: more bacteria, more fungi, lots of fish, fish, fish. If you couldn't tell — yes, they're my favorite group.

(Laughter)

As life evolves, it also goes extinct. Most species just last for a few million years. So you see, most life on earth that we see around us today are about the same age as our species. So it's hubris, it's self-centered to think, "Oh, plants and bacteria are primitive, and we've been here for an evolutionary minute, so we're somehow special."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
billion years 3
gave rise 2


Important Words


  1. age
  2. ancestor
  3. apes
  4. bacteria
  5. birds
  6. common
  7. earth
  8. evolutionary
  9. evolve
  10. evolves
  11. extinct
  12. favorite
  13. fish
  14. fungi
  15. gave
  16. great
  17. group
  18. hubris
  19. human
  20. including
  21. land
  22. laughter
  23. life
  24. lineage
  25. lots
  26. mammals
  27. million
  28. minute
  29. monkeys
  30. plants
  31. primates
  32. primitive
  33. reptiles
  34. rise
  35. share
  36. special
  37. species
  38. tails
  39. today
  40. variety
  41. years