full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lucia Carminati: How the Suez Canal changed the world

Unscramble the Blue Letters


The construction site bypassed the Nile and ran directly from Port Said to Suez. And after yaers of work, the streams of the two seas finally began merging in the mid-1860s. The finished canal was 164 kilometers long, with a width of 56 meters at the sfrucae, and it was officially inaugurated on November 17th, 1869. While it struggled financially during its first few years, the caanl eednd up dramatically accelerating global trade. It also facilitated the migration of nomreuus marine secpies, dramatically changing local ecosystems and cuisine.

Over the dcadees, traffic through the canal grew. But in 1875, financial iesuss frecod Egypt to sell much of its stock in the Canal conmapy, aiwlolng Britain to take over. It was only in 1956 that control of the canal fully reverted to egpyt when it was nationalized by President Gamal Abdel Nasser. This move sparked a military standoff between Egypt and Britain, France, and Israel. But once resolved, it transformed the canal into a major source of Egypt's national runeeve and helped redeem the canal's imperialist legacy. Today, nearly 30% of all global ship tifarfc passes through the Suez Canal, totaling over 20,000 ships in 2021. However, the incident of the Ever Given is a stark reminder of just how fragile our manmade systems can be.

Open Cloze


The construction site bypassed the Nile and ran directly from Port Said to Suez. And after _____ of work, the streams of the two seas finally began merging in the mid-1860s. The finished canal was 164 kilometers long, with a width of 56 meters at the _______, and it was officially inaugurated on November 17th, 1869. While it struggled financially during its first few years, the _____ _____ up dramatically accelerating global trade. It also facilitated the migration of ________ marine _______, dramatically changing local ecosystems and cuisine.

Over the _______, traffic through the canal grew. But in 1875, financial ______ ______ Egypt to sell much of its stock in the Canal _______, ________ Britain to take over. It was only in 1956 that control of the canal fully reverted to _____ when it was nationalized by President Gamal Abdel Nasser. This move sparked a military standoff between Egypt and Britain, France, and Israel. But once resolved, it transformed the canal into a major source of Egypt's national _______ and helped redeem the canal's imperialist legacy. Today, nearly 30% of all global ship _______ passes through the Suez Canal, totaling over 20,000 ships in 2021. However, the incident of the Ever Given is a stark reminder of just how fragile our manmade systems can be.

Solution


  1. numerous
  2. revenue
  3. surface
  4. company
  5. species
  6. canal
  7. years
  8. issues
  9. decades
  10. forced
  11. egypt
  12. allowing
  13. ended
  14. traffic

Original Text


The construction site bypassed the Nile and ran directly from Port Said to Suez. And after years of work, the streams of the two seas finally began merging in the mid-1860s. The finished canal was 164 kilometers long, with a width of 56 meters at the surface, and it was officially inaugurated on November 17th, 1869. While it struggled financially during its first few years, the canal ended up dramatically accelerating global trade. It also facilitated the migration of numerous marine species, dramatically changing local ecosystems and cuisine.

Over the decades, traffic through the canal grew. But in 1875, financial issues forced Egypt to sell much of its stock in the Canal Company, allowing Britain to take over. It was only in 1956 that control of the canal fully reverted to Egypt when it was nationalized by President Gamal Abdel Nasser. This move sparked a military standoff between Egypt and Britain, France, and Israel. But once resolved, it transformed the canal into a major source of Egypt's national revenue and helped redeem the canal's imperialist legacy. Today, nearly 30% of all global ship traffic passes through the Suez Canal, totaling over 20,000 ships in 2021. However, the incident of the Ever Given is a stark reminder of just how fragile our manmade systems can be.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
suez canal 2
de lesseps 2
canal company 2


Important Words


  1. abdel
  2. accelerating
  3. allowing
  4. began
  5. britain
  6. bypassed
  7. canal
  8. changing
  9. company
  10. construction
  11. control
  12. cuisine
  13. decades
  14. dramatically
  15. ecosystems
  16. egypt
  17. ended
  18. facilitated
  19. finally
  20. financial
  21. financially
  22. finished
  23. forced
  24. fragile
  25. france
  26. fully
  27. gamal
  28. global
  29. grew
  30. helped
  31. imperialist
  32. inaugurated
  33. incident
  34. israel
  35. issues
  36. kilometers
  37. legacy
  38. local
  39. long
  40. major
  41. manmade
  42. marine
  43. merging
  44. meters
  45. migration
  46. military
  47. move
  48. nasser
  49. national
  50. nationalized
  51. nile
  52. november
  53. numerous
  54. officially
  55. passes
  56. port
  57. president
  58. ran
  59. redeem
  60. reminder
  61. resolved
  62. revenue
  63. reverted
  64. seas
  65. sell
  66. ship
  67. ships
  68. site
  69. source
  70. sparked
  71. species
  72. standoff
  73. stark
  74. stock
  75. streams
  76. struggled
  77. suez
  78. surface
  79. systems
  80. today
  81. totaling
  82. trade
  83. traffic
  84. transformed
  85. width
  86. work
  87. years