full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ameenah Gurib-Fakim: Humble plants that hide surprising secrets

Unscramble the Blue Letters


You know, it's a big privilege for me to be working in one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world: the maranecse Islands in the Indian Ocean. These islands — Mauritius, Rodrigues, and Réunion — along with the ilnasd of Madagascar, they are blsesed with unique plants found nowhere else in the world. And today I will tell you about five of them and their particular features and why these plants are so unique.

Take a look at this plnat. I call it benjoin in the lcoal vernacular, and the botanical name is trlminaeia bentzoe, seecpusibs btezone. This subspecies is endemic to Mauritius, and its particular feature is its heterophylly. What do I mean by heterophylly? It's that the same plant has got leaves that are different shapes and sizes. Now, these plants have evolved very far away from the mainland, and within specific ecosystems. Often, these particular features have evolved as a response to the threat presented by the local fauna, in this case, grazing tortoises. Tortoises are known to have poor eyesight, and as such, they tend to avoid the pnalts they don't recognize. So this evolutionary foil safeguards the plant against these rather cute animals, and ptrcotes it and of course ensures its survival.

Open Cloze


You know, it's a big privilege for me to be working in one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world: the _________ Islands in the Indian Ocean. These islands — Mauritius, Rodrigues, and Réunion — along with the ______ of Madagascar, they are _______ with unique plants found nowhere else in the world. And today I will tell you about five of them and their particular features and why these plants are so unique.

Take a look at this _____. I call it benjoin in the _____ vernacular, and the botanical name is __________ bentzoe, __________ _______. This subspecies is endemic to Mauritius, and its particular feature is its heterophylly. What do I mean by heterophylly? It's that the same plant has got leaves that are different shapes and sizes. Now, these plants have evolved very far away from the mainland, and within specific ecosystems. Often, these particular features have evolved as a response to the threat presented by the local fauna, in this case, grazing tortoises. Tortoises are known to have poor eyesight, and as such, they tend to avoid the ______ they don't recognize. So this evolutionary foil safeguards the plant against these rather cute animals, and ________ it and of course ensures its survival.

Solution


  1. blessed
  2. protects
  3. local
  4. island
  5. plant
  6. plants
  7. terminalia
  8. mascarene
  9. bentzoe
  10. subspecies

Original Text


You know, it's a big privilege for me to be working in one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world: the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean. These islands — Mauritius, Rodrigues, and Réunion — along with the island of Madagascar, they are blessed with unique plants found nowhere else in the world. And today I will tell you about five of them and their particular features and why these plants are so unique.

Take a look at this plant. I call it benjoin in the local vernacular, and the botanical name is Terminalia bentzoe, subspecies bentzoe. This subspecies is endemic to Mauritius, and its particular feature is its heterophylly. What do I mean by heterophylly? It's that the same plant has got leaves that are different shapes and sizes. Now, these plants have evolved very far away from the mainland, and within specific ecosystems. Often, these particular features have evolved as a response to the threat presented by the local fauna, in this case, grazing tortoises. Tortoises are known to have poor eyesight, and as such, they tend to avoid the plants they don't recognize. So this evolutionary foil safeguards the plant against these rather cute animals, and protects it and of course ensures its survival.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
biodiversity hotspots 2
unique plants 2
entire land 2
land surface 2
leaf extract 2
traditional medicine 2
adansonia digitata 2
human milk 2
cosmetic industry 2
aging process 2
centella asiatica 2
cosmetic companies 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
entire land surface 2

Important Words


  1. animals
  2. avoid
  3. benjoin
  4. bentzoe
  5. big
  6. biodiversity
  7. blessed
  8. botanical
  9. call
  10. case
  11. cute
  12. ecosystems
  13. endemic
  14. ensures
  15. evolutionary
  16. evolved
  17. eyesight
  18. fauna
  19. feature
  20. features
  21. foil
  22. grazing
  23. heterophylly
  24. hotspots
  25. indian
  26. island
  27. islands
  28. leaves
  29. local
  30. madagascar
  31. mainland
  32. mascarene
  33. mauritius
  34. ocean
  35. plant
  36. plants
  37. poor
  38. presented
  39. privilege
  40. protects
  41. recognize
  42. response
  43. rodrigues
  44. réunion
  45. safeguards
  46. shapes
  47. sizes
  48. specific
  49. subspecies
  50. survival
  51. tend
  52. terminalia
  53. threat
  54. today
  55. tortoises
  56. unique
  57. vernacular
  58. working
  59. world