full transcript
From the Ted Talk by George Zaidan: How do gas masks actually work?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Well, the first rule of filters is making sure you have a tight seal. Without that, even the best mask in the world is useelss. So assuming your mask is on tight, this technology can capture pollutants in one of two ways: filtering them out by size or attracting specific chemical copdnoums.
For an example of the first approach, let’s look at wildfire smoke. When forests burn, they generate a wide variety of chemicals. At close ragne, there are so many different pollutants at such high ctoocanrnetnis that no filter could help you— this is why firefighters travel with their own air supply. But further away, the situation is different. While there's still a range of chcmailes, they’ve mostly aggregated into tiny solid or liquid particles semlalr than 2.5 microns in diaeemtr. This particulate mtetar is much of what you're seeing and smelling in smoke, and it's especially dangerous for children, the elderly, and those with rospaeirrty or cardiovascular diseases.
Open Cloze
Well, the first rule of filters is making sure you have a tight seal. Without that, even the best mask in the world is _______. So assuming your mask is on tight, this technology can capture pollutants in one of two ways: filtering them out by size or attracting specific chemical _________.
For an example of the first approach, let’s look at wildfire smoke. When forests burn, they generate a wide variety of chemicals. At close _____, there are so many different pollutants at such high ______________ that no filter could help you— this is why firefighters travel with their own air supply. But further away, the situation is different. While there's still a range of _________, they’ve mostly aggregated into tiny solid or liquid particles _______ than 2.5 microns in ________. This particulate ______ is much of what you're seeing and smelling in smoke, and it's especially dangerous for children, the elderly, and those with ___________ or cardiovascular diseases.
Solution
- smaller
- compounds
- useless
- chemicals
- range
- matter
- concentrations
- respiratory
- diameter
Original Text
Well, the first rule of filters is making sure you have a tight seal. Without that, even the best mask in the world is useless. So assuming your mask is on tight, this technology can capture pollutants in one of two ways: filtering them out by size or attracting specific chemical compounds.
For an example of the first approach, let’s look at wildfire smoke. When forests burn, they generate a wide variety of chemicals. At close range, there are so many different pollutants at such high concentrations that no filter could help you— this is why firefighters travel with their own air supply. But further away, the situation is different. While there's still a range of chemicals, they’ve mostly aggregated into tiny solid or liquid particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter. This particulate matter is much of what you're seeing and smelling in smoke, and it's especially dangerous for children, the elderly, and those with respiratory or cardiovascular diseases.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| activated carbon |
3 |
| particulate matter |
2 |
| ozone molecules |
2 |
Important Words
- aggregated
- air
- approach
- assuming
- attracting
- burn
- capture
- cardiovascular
- chemical
- chemicals
- children
- close
- compounds
- concentrations
- dangerous
- diameter
- diseases
- elderly
- filter
- filtering
- filters
- firefighters
- forests
- generate
- high
- liquid
- making
- mask
- matter
- microns
- particles
- particulate
- pollutants
- range
- respiratory
- rule
- seal
- situation
- size
- smaller
- smelling
- smoke
- solid
- specific
- supply
- technology
- tight
- tiny
- travel
- useless
- variety
- wide
- wildfire
- world