full transcript

From the Ted Talk by William T. Taylor: How horses changed history

Unscramble the Blue Letters


People have been captivated by horses for a long time. They appear more than any other animal in cave paintings dating back 30,000 years. But how did horses make the journey from wild alniams to ones humans could hitch themselves to and even ride, determining the fate of civilizations and dramatically altering history?

Equids originally evolved in North America. Sometime after 4 million years ago, ancient euiqd species began trotting across the brieng land bridge. Eventually, they spread through Eurasia and into Africa, diversifying into the lineages that would lead to modern-day horses, dkyoens, and zreabs. Early humans, including gotienaenrs of the first ploepe to live in the Americas, hunted wild horses, sometimes fashioning their beons into tools. Then, between 15,000 and 5,000 years ago, likely because of a changing climate, hunting by hmauns, and competition with bison, hersos daieppraesd from the acmieran archaeological record. But they’d be back eventually. In the meantime, on the other side of the world around 2,000 BCE, something very consequential happened: people on the western Eurasian steppe domesticated horses. By then, people in western Asia had already dmaiesttceod many animals and begun using some of them to pull carts. But, because horses were generally faster and more difficult to control, steppe people developed a bridle-and-bit system and chariots with lighter, spoked wheles.

Open Cloze


People have been captivated by horses for a long time. They appear more than any other animal in cave paintings dating back 30,000 years. But how did horses make the journey from wild _______ to ones humans could hitch themselves to and even ride, determining the fate of civilizations and dramatically altering history?

Equids originally evolved in North America. Sometime after 4 million years ago, ancient _____ species began trotting across the ______ land bridge. Eventually, they spread through Eurasia and into Africa, diversifying into the lineages that would lead to modern-day horses, _______, and ______. Early humans, including ___________ of the first ______ to live in the Americas, hunted wild horses, sometimes fashioning their _____ into tools. Then, between 15,000 and 5,000 years ago, likely because of a changing climate, hunting by ______, and competition with bison, ______ ___________ from the ________ archaeological record. But they’d be back eventually. In the meantime, on the other side of the world around 2,000 BCE, something very consequential happened: people on the western Eurasian steppe domesticated horses. By then, people in western Asia had already ____________ many animals and begun using some of them to pull carts. But, because horses were generally faster and more difficult to control, steppe people developed a bridle-and-bit system and chariots with lighter, spoked ______.

Solution


  1. horses
  2. people
  3. bering
  4. animals
  5. generations
  6. bones
  7. zebras
  8. american
  9. equid
  10. disappeared
  11. wheels
  12. domesticated
  13. donkeys
  14. humans

Original Text


People have been captivated by horses for a long time. They appear more than any other animal in cave paintings dating back 30,000 years. But how did horses make the journey from wild animals to ones humans could hitch themselves to and even ride, determining the fate of civilizations and dramatically altering history?

Equids originally evolved in North America. Sometime after 4 million years ago, ancient equid species began trotting across the Bering land bridge. Eventually, they spread through Eurasia and into Africa, diversifying into the lineages that would lead to modern-day horses, donkeys, and zebras. Early humans, including generations of the first people to live in the Americas, hunted wild horses, sometimes fashioning their bones into tools. Then, between 15,000 and 5,000 years ago, likely because of a changing climate, hunting by humans, and competition with bison, horses disappeared from the American archaeological record. But they’d be back eventually. In the meantime, on the other side of the world around 2,000 BCE, something very consequential happened: people on the western Eurasian steppe domesticated horses. By then, people in western Asia had already domesticated many animals and begun using some of them to pull carts. But, because horses were generally faster and more difficult to control, steppe people developed a bridle-and-bit system and chariots with lighter, spoked wheels.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. africa
  2. altering
  3. america
  4. american
  5. americas
  6. ancient
  7. animal
  8. animals
  9. archaeological
  10. asia
  11. bce
  12. began
  13. begun
  14. bering
  15. bison
  16. bones
  17. bridge
  18. captivated
  19. carts
  20. cave
  21. changing
  22. chariots
  23. civilizations
  24. climate
  25. competition
  26. consequential
  27. control
  28. dating
  29. determining
  30. developed
  31. difficult
  32. disappeared
  33. diversifying
  34. domesticated
  35. donkeys
  36. dramatically
  37. early
  38. equid
  39. equids
  40. eurasia
  41. eurasian
  42. eventually
  43. evolved
  44. fashioning
  45. faster
  46. fate
  47. generally
  48. generations
  49. history
  50. hitch
  51. horses
  52. humans
  53. hunted
  54. hunting
  55. including
  56. journey
  57. land
  58. lead
  59. lighter
  60. lineages
  61. live
  62. long
  63. million
  64. north
  65. originally
  66. paintings
  67. people
  68. pull
  69. record
  70. ride
  71. side
  72. species
  73. spoked
  74. spread
  75. steppe
  76. system
  77. time
  78. tools
  79. trotting
  80. western
  81. wheels
  82. wild
  83. world
  84. years
  85. zebras