full transcript

From the Ted Talk by M Jackson: How to grow a glacier

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In the wild, glaciers rureqie three conditions to grow: Snowfall, cold temperatures, and time. First, a great deal of snow falls and accumulates. Cold temperatures then ensure that the stacked up snow persists throughout the wtneir, spring, summer, and fall. Over the following years, decades, and centuries, the pesusrre of the accumulated snow transforms layers into highly compacted gilaacl ice.

Artificially growing a glacier, however, is completely different. At the confluence of three great mauinton regnas, the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush, some local cultures have believed for cieutners that gaicerls are alive. And what’s more, that certain glaciers can have different genders including male and female. Local giealcr Growers ‘breed’ new glaciers by grafting together—or marrying— fragments of ice from male and female glaciers, then covering them with cohcaarl, wheat husks, cloths, or wilolw brcehnas so they can reproduce. Under their pcoeivttre coverings, these glacierets transform into fully avtcie glaciers that grow each year with additional snowfall. Those then serve as lasting reserves of water that farmers can use to irrigate their crops.

Open Cloze


In the wild, glaciers _______ three conditions to grow: Snowfall, cold temperatures, and time. First, a great deal of snow falls and accumulates. Cold temperatures then ensure that the stacked up snow persists throughout the ______, spring, summer, and fall. Over the following years, decades, and centuries, the ________ of the accumulated snow transforms layers into highly compacted _______ ice.

Artificially growing a glacier, however, is completely different. At the confluence of three great ________ ______, the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush, some local cultures have believed for _________ that ________ are alive. And what’s more, that certain glaciers can have different genders including male and female. Local _______ Growers ‘breed’ new glaciers by grafting together—or marrying— fragments of ice from male and female glaciers, then covering them with ________, wheat husks, cloths, or ______ ________ so they can reproduce. Under their __________ coverings, these glacierets transform into fully ______ glaciers that grow each year with additional snowfall. Those then serve as lasting reserves of water that farmers can use to irrigate their crops.

Solution


  1. glacier
  2. centuries
  3. charcoal
  4. pressure
  5. glacial
  6. ranges
  7. mountain
  8. protective
  9. willow
  10. active
  11. winter
  12. glaciers
  13. branches
  14. require

Original Text


In the wild, glaciers require three conditions to grow: Snowfall, cold temperatures, and time. First, a great deal of snow falls and accumulates. Cold temperatures then ensure that the stacked up snow persists throughout the winter, spring, summer, and fall. Over the following years, decades, and centuries, the pressure of the accumulated snow transforms layers into highly compacted glacial ice.

Artificially growing a glacier, however, is completely different. At the confluence of three great mountain ranges, the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush, some local cultures have believed for centuries that glaciers are alive. And what’s more, that certain glaciers can have different genders including male and female. Local Glacier Growers ‘breed’ new glaciers by grafting together—or marrying— fragments of ice from male and female glaciers, then covering them with charcoal, wheat husks, cloths, or willow branches so they can reproduce. Under their protective coverings, these glacierets transform into fully active glaciers that grow each year with additional snowfall. Those then serve as lasting reserves of water that farmers can use to irrigate their crops.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
local people 2


Important Words


  1. accumulated
  2. accumulates
  3. active
  4. additional
  5. alive
  6. artificially
  7. believed
  8. branches
  9. centuries
  10. charcoal
  11. cloths
  12. cold
  13. compacted
  14. completely
  15. conditions
  16. confluence
  17. covering
  18. coverings
  19. crops
  20. cultures
  21. deal
  22. decades
  23. ensure
  24. fall
  25. falls
  26. farmers
  27. female
  28. fragments
  29. fully
  30. genders
  31. glacial
  32. glacier
  33. glacierets
  34. glaciers
  35. grafting
  36. great
  37. grow
  38. growers
  39. growing
  40. highly
  41. himalayas
  42. hindu
  43. husks
  44. ice
  45. including
  46. irrigate
  47. karakoram
  48. kush
  49. lasting
  50. layers
  51. local
  52. male
  53. mountain
  54. persists
  55. pressure
  56. protective
  57. ranges
  58. reproduce
  59. require
  60. reserves
  61. serve
  62. snow
  63. snowfall
  64. spring
  65. stacked
  66. summer
  67. temperatures
  68. time
  69. transform
  70. transforms
  71. water
  72. wheat
  73. wild
  74. willow
  75. winter
  76. year
  77. years