full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Michael Archer: How we'll resurrect the gastric brooding frog, the Tasmanian tiger

Unscramble the Blue Letters


At any rate, it was a fascinating place, but unfortunately, Australia didn't stay this way. Climate change has aftefced the world for a long period of time, and gradually, the forests disappeared, the country began to dry out, and the number of kinds of thylacines began to decline, until by five million years ago, only one left. By 10,000 years ago, they had disappeared from New Guinea, and unfortunately, by 4,000 years ago, sdeeoomibs, we don't know who this was, introduced deingos — this is a very archaic kind of a dog — into atairsula.

And as you can see, dingoes are very similar in their body form to thylacines. That similarity meant they probably competed. They were entiag the same kndis of foods. It's even possible that aborigines were knepeig some of these dingoes as pets, and therefore they may have had an advantage in the battle for suirvval. All we know is, soon after the dingoes were brought in, thylacines were extinct in the Australian mainland, and after that they only survived in Tasmania.

Open Cloze


At any rate, it was a fascinating place, but unfortunately, Australia didn't stay this way. Climate change has ________ the world for a long period of time, and gradually, the forests disappeared, the country began to dry out, and the number of kinds of thylacines began to decline, until by five million years ago, only one left. By 10,000 years ago, they had disappeared from New Guinea, and unfortunately, by 4,000 years ago, __________, we don't know who this was, introduced _______ — this is a very archaic kind of a dog — into _________.

And as you can see, dingoes are very similar in their body form to thylacines. That similarity meant they probably competed. They were ______ the same _____ of foods. It's even possible that aborigines were _______ some of these dingoes as pets, and therefore they may have had an advantage in the battle for ________. All we know is, soon after the dingoes were brought in, thylacines were extinct in the Australian mainland, and after that they only survived in Tasmania.

Solution


  1. eating
  2. kinds
  3. affected
  4. survival
  5. somebodies
  6. keeping
  7. australia
  8. dingoes

Original Text


At any rate, it was a fascinating place, but unfortunately, Australia didn't stay this way. Climate change has affected the world for a long period of time, and gradually, the forests disappeared, the country began to dry out, and the number of kinds of thylacines began to decline, until by five million years ago, only one left. By 10,000 years ago, they had disappeared from New Guinea, and unfortunately, by 4,000 years ago, somebodies, we don't know who this was, introduced dingoes — this is a very archaic kind of a dog — into Australia.

And as you can see, dingoes are very similar in their body form to thylacines. That similarity meant they probably competed. They were eating the same kinds of foods. It's even possible that aborigines were keeping some of these dingoes as pets, and therefore they may have had an advantage in the battle for survival. All we know is, soon after the dingoes were brought in, thylacines were extinct in the Australian mainland, and after that they only survived in Tasmania.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
million years 3
thylacine dna 3
thylacine project 2
cell walls 2
dead nucleus 2
extinct frog 2
live sheep 2
extinct species 2
tasmanian devil 2
key question 2


Important Words


  1. aborigines
  2. advantage
  3. affected
  4. archaic
  5. australia
  6. australian
  7. battle
  8. began
  9. body
  10. brought
  11. change
  12. climate
  13. competed
  14. country
  15. decline
  16. dingoes
  17. disappeared
  18. dog
  19. dry
  20. eating
  21. extinct
  22. fascinating
  23. foods
  24. forests
  25. form
  26. gradually
  27. guinea
  28. introduced
  29. keeping
  30. kind
  31. kinds
  32. left
  33. long
  34. mainland
  35. meant
  36. million
  37. number
  38. period
  39. pets
  40. place
  41. rate
  42. similar
  43. similarity
  44. somebodies
  45. stay
  46. survival
  47. survived
  48. tasmania
  49. thylacines
  50. time
  51. world
  52. years