full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Cameron Webb: How to design mosquitoes out of cities

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So how do you create a wetland that's not home to mosquitoes? One of the really interesting pieces of research we've found in recent yreas is that problematic mosquito populations often seem to be associated with wetlands of poor health: wetlands that have more stagnant wetar, wetlands that don't have enough porradets to eat the mosquitoes. So it’s a tantalizing idea that if you can create a wetland that's healthier, it has more water flow, it has a geretar leevl of biodiversity, you can actually keep mosquito pnuoptiolas down. If you proivde habitats for the animals that eat mosquitoes -- the birds, the bats, the fish, the frogs, the spiders, any number of auqiatc insects that love munching on mosquitoes -- rather than being a problem, mosquitoes are not going to disappear, we're not going to get rid of mosquitoes completely, but if they're at a more balanced place in the ecosystem, maybe we'll have fewer pest impacts, and more importantly, maybe we will see less mosquito-borne disease.

Open Cloze


So how do you create a wetland that's not home to mosquitoes? One of the really interesting pieces of research we've found in recent _____ is that problematic mosquito populations often seem to be associated with wetlands of poor health: wetlands that have more stagnant _____, wetlands that don't have enough _________ to eat the mosquitoes. So it’s a tantalizing idea that if you can create a wetland that's healthier, it has more water flow, it has a _______ _____ of biodiversity, you can actually keep mosquito ___________ down. If you _______ habitats for the animals that eat mosquitoes -- the birds, the bats, the fish, the frogs, the spiders, any number of _______ insects that love munching on mosquitoes -- rather than being a problem, mosquitoes are not going to disappear, we're not going to get rid of mosquitoes completely, but if they're at a more balanced place in the ecosystem, maybe we'll have fewer pest impacts, and more importantly, maybe we will see less mosquito-borne disease.

Solution


  1. populations
  2. years
  3. greater
  4. level
  5. predators
  6. water
  7. aquatic
  8. provide

Original Text


So how do you create a wetland that's not home to mosquitoes? One of the really interesting pieces of research we've found in recent years is that problematic mosquito populations often seem to be associated with wetlands of poor health: wetlands that have more stagnant water, wetlands that don't have enough predators to eat the mosquitoes. So it’s a tantalizing idea that if you can create a wetland that's healthier, it has more water flow, it has a greater level of biodiversity, you can actually keep mosquito populations down. If you provide habitats for the animals that eat mosquitoes -- the birds, the bats, the fish, the frogs, the spiders, any number of aquatic insects that love munching on mosquitoes -- rather than being a problem, mosquitoes are not going to disappear, we're not going to get rid of mosquitoes completely, but if they're at a more balanced place in the ecosystem, maybe we'll have fewer pest impacts, and more importantly, maybe we will see less mosquito-borne disease.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
rainwater tanks 6
create opportunities 3
mosquito bites 3
ross river 2
creating opportunities 2
pot plant 2
green city 2
mosquitoes love 2
mosquito populations 2
yellow fever 2


Important Words


  1. animals
  2. aquatic
  3. balanced
  4. bats
  5. biodiversity
  6. birds
  7. completely
  8. create
  9. disappear
  10. disease
  11. eat
  12. ecosystem
  13. fish
  14. flow
  15. frogs
  16. greater
  17. habitats
  18. healthier
  19. home
  20. idea
  21. impacts
  22. importantly
  23. insects
  24. interesting
  25. level
  26. love
  27. mosquito
  28. mosquitoes
  29. munching
  30. number
  31. pest
  32. pieces
  33. place
  34. poor
  35. populations
  36. predators
  37. problem
  38. problematic
  39. provide
  40. research
  41. rid
  42. spiders
  43. stagnant
  44. tantalizing
  45. water
  46. wetland
  47. wetlands
  48. years