full transcript

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

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So I spend my summers sloshing about in wedlatns, wrangling mosquitoes. Despite the surnbun and the mosquito bites and the mud, I actually do quite like my job. And I've also got a confession to make to you all ... I actually quite like mosquitoes.

(Laughter)

I'm quite fascinated by them. I think they're actually quite beautiful, if you get a chance to look at them underneath the microscope. So before I started my research and first looked through a mpcirocsoe at a mosquito, I don't think I'd really given them much of a tghuoht. I knew that they were involved in outbreaks of disease oeesarvs, and I was quite familiar with that smell of a smoldering mosquito coil. It still reminds me of summer holidays. But the work I do now, together with that of scientists around the country, is trying to work out how we can stop ppeloe getting sick because of mosquito bites. It rirueeqs us to understand the role that mqeisouots have in our local environment, and how we can change our cities so that we're greening our cities, we're mitigating those impacts of climate chagne, but at the same time not creating outrtpoeipins for mosquitoes.

Open Cloze


So I spend my summers sloshing about in ________, wrangling mosquitoes. Despite the _______ and the mosquito bites and the mud, I actually do quite like my job. And I've also got a confession to make to you all ... I actually quite like mosquitoes.

(Laughter)

I'm quite fascinated by them. I think they're actually quite beautiful, if you get a chance to look at them underneath the microscope. So before I started my research and first looked through a __________ at a mosquito, I don't think I'd really given them much of a _______. I knew that they were involved in outbreaks of disease ________, and I was quite familiar with that smell of a smoldering mosquito coil. It still reminds me of summer holidays. But the work I do now, together with that of scientists around the country, is trying to work out how we can stop ______ getting sick because of mosquito bites. It ________ us to understand the role that __________ have in our local environment, and how we can change our cities so that we're greening our cities, we're mitigating those impacts of climate ______, but at the same time not creating _____________ for mosquitoes.

Solution


  1. overseas
  2. change
  3. people
  4. opportunities
  5. thought
  6. requires
  7. mosquitoes
  8. wetlands
  9. sunburn
  10. microscope

Original Text


So I spend my summers sloshing about in wetlands, wrangling mosquitoes. Despite the sunburn and the mosquito bites and the mud, I actually do quite like my job. And I've also got a confession to make to you all ... I actually quite like mosquitoes.

(Laughter)

I'm quite fascinated by them. I think they're actually quite beautiful, if you get a chance to look at them underneath the microscope. So before I started my research and first looked through a microscope at a mosquito, I don't think I'd really given them much of a thought. I knew that they were involved in outbreaks of disease overseas, and I was quite familiar with that smell of a smoldering mosquito coil. It still reminds me of summer holidays. But the work I do now, together with that of scientists around the country, is trying to work out how we can stop people getting sick because of mosquito bites. It requires us to understand the role that mosquitoes have in our local environment, and how we can change our cities so that we're greening our cities, we're mitigating those impacts of climate change, but at the same time not creating opportunities for mosquitoes.

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. beautiful
  2. bites
  3. chance
  4. change
  5. cities
  6. climate
  7. coil
  8. confession
  9. country
  10. creating
  11. disease
  12. environment
  13. familiar
  14. fascinated
  15. greening
  16. holidays
  17. impacts
  18. involved
  19. job
  20. knew
  21. laughter
  22. local
  23. looked
  24. microscope
  25. mitigating
  26. mosquito
  27. mosquitoes
  28. mud
  29. opportunities
  30. outbreaks
  31. overseas
  32. people
  33. reminds
  34. requires
  35. research
  36. role
  37. scientists
  38. sick
  39. sloshing
  40. smell
  41. smoldering
  42. spend
  43. started
  44. stop
  45. summer
  46. summers
  47. sunburn
  48. thought
  49. time
  50. understand
  51. wetlands
  52. work
  53. wrangling