full transcript

From the Ted Talk by David Gruber and Shane Gero: How advanced is whale talk?


Unscramble the Blue Letters


In the mid-1800s, soon after American whaling spihs began operating in the North Pacific, an interesting trend emerged. Whalers saw a 58% drop in their successful strikes within just a few years. Sperm whales in the rogien had sludedny become much harder to kill. glrlaeney, when predators like orcas are nearby, sperm whales protect their most vlrnauelbe by forming defensive circles at the surface. But this behavior made them susceptible to whaling ships. It seems that serpm whales in the North Pacific were somehow able to quickly adapt to this reality. Groups that likely hadn’t yet experienced human attacks began ensapcig whaling boats on fast currents instead of forming dvfeesnie circles. And, baesd on what we’re sittarng to understand about sperm whales, it seems possible they were actually broadcasting survival strategies to one another.

Open Cloze


In the mid-1800s, soon after American whaling _____ began operating in the North Pacific, an interesting trend emerged. Whalers saw a 58% drop in their successful strikes within just a few years. Sperm whales in the ______ had ________ become much harder to kill. _________, when predators like orcas are nearby, sperm whales protect their most __________ by forming defensive circles at the surface. But this behavior made them susceptible to whaling ships. It seems that _____ whales in the North Pacific were somehow able to quickly adapt to this reality. Groups that likely hadn’t yet experienced human attacks began ________ whaling boats on fast currents instead of forming _________ circles. And, _____ on what we’re ________ to understand about sperm whales, it seems possible they were actually broadcasting survival strategies to one another.

Solution


  1. sperm
  2. escaping
  3. region
  4. based
  5. vulnerable
  6. starting
  7. defensive
  8. ships
  9. generally
  10. suddenly

Original Text


In the mid-1800s, soon after American whaling ships began operating in the North Pacific, an interesting trend emerged. Whalers saw a 58% drop in their successful strikes within just a few years. Sperm whales in the region had suddenly become much harder to kill. Generally, when predators like orcas are nearby, sperm whales protect their most vulnerable by forming defensive circles at the surface. But this behavior made them susceptible to whaling ships. It seems that sperm whales in the North Pacific were somehow able to quickly adapt to this reality. Groups that likely hadn’t yet experienced human attacks began escaping whaling boats on fast currents instead of forming defensive circles. And, based on what we’re starting to understand about sperm whales, it seems possible they were actually broadcasting survival strategies to one another.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
sperm whales 10
whaling ships 2
forming defensive 2
defensive circles 2
family groups 2
sperm whale 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
forming defensive circles 2


Important Words


  1. adapt
  2. american
  3. attacks
  4. based
  5. began
  6. behavior
  7. boats
  8. broadcasting
  9. circles
  10. currents
  11. defensive
  12. drop
  13. emerged
  14. escaping
  15. experienced
  16. fast
  17. forming
  18. generally
  19. groups
  20. harder
  21. human
  22. interesting
  23. kill
  24. nearby
  25. north
  26. operating
  27. orcas
  28. pacific
  29. predators
  30. protect
  31. quickly
  32. reality
  33. region
  34. ships
  35. sperm
  36. starting
  37. strategies
  38. strikes
  39. successful
  40. suddenly
  41. surface
  42. survival
  43. susceptible
  44. trend
  45. understand
  46. vulnerable
  47. whalers
  48. whales
  49. whaling
  50. years