full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lee Hotz: Inside an Antarctic time machine

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(lehatgur)

But under the surface is a hive of industrial activity centered around an eight-million-dollar drill assembly. Periodically, this dirll, like a biopsy needle, plunges thousands of feet deep into the ice to extract a marrow of gases and isotopes for analysis. Ten tmeis a day, they extract the 10-foot long cylinder of compressed ice crystals that contain the unsullied air and trace cimlhcaes laid down by snow, season after season for tshdounas of years. It's really a time mhnicae. At the peak of activity earlier this year, the researchers leeowrd the drill an extra hundred feet deeper into the ice every day and another 365 years deeper into the past. Periodically, they remove a cylinder of ice, like gamekeepers popping a spent sghuotn shell from the barrel of a drill. They isnpect it, they check it for cracks, for drill daagme, for spalls, for chips.

Open Cloze


(________)

But under the surface is a hive of industrial activity centered around an eight-million-dollar drill assembly. Periodically, this _____, like a biopsy needle, plunges thousands of feet deep into the ice to extract a marrow of gases and isotopes for analysis. Ten _____ a day, they extract the 10-foot long cylinder of compressed ice crystals that contain the unsullied air and trace _________ laid down by snow, season after season for _________ of years. It's really a time _______. At the peak of activity earlier this year, the researchers _______ the drill an extra hundred feet deeper into the ice every day and another 365 years deeper into the past. Periodically, they remove a cylinder of ice, like gamekeepers popping a spent _______ shell from the barrel of a drill. They _______ it, they check it for cracks, for drill ______, for spalls, for chips.

Solution


  1. thousands
  2. damage
  3. chemicals
  4. lowered
  5. times
  6. laughter
  7. drill
  8. shotgun
  9. inspect
  10. machine

Original Text


(Laughter)

But under the surface is a hive of industrial activity centered around an eight-million-dollar drill assembly. Periodically, this drill, like a biopsy needle, plunges thousands of feet deep into the ice to extract a marrow of gases and isotopes for analysis. Ten times a day, they extract the 10-foot long cylinder of compressed ice crystals that contain the unsullied air and trace chemicals laid down by snow, season after season for thousands of years. It's really a time machine. At the peak of activity earlier this year, the researchers lowered the drill an extra hundred feet deeper into the ice every day and another 365 years deeper into the past. Periodically, they remove a cylinder of ice, like gamekeepers popping a spent shotgun shell from the barrel of a drill. They inspect it, they check it for cracks, for drill damage, for spalls, for chips.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
greenhouse gases 5
climate change 3
early explorers 2
trace chemicals 2
united states 2


Important Words


  1. activity
  2. air
  3. analysis
  4. assembly
  5. barrel
  6. biopsy
  7. centered
  8. check
  9. chemicals
  10. chips
  11. compressed
  12. cracks
  13. crystals
  14. cylinder
  15. damage
  16. day
  17. deep
  18. deeper
  19. drill
  20. earlier
  21. extra
  22. extract
  23. feet
  24. gamekeepers
  25. gases
  26. hive
  27. ice
  28. industrial
  29. inspect
  30. isotopes
  31. laid
  32. laughter
  33. long
  34. lowered
  35. machine
  36. marrow
  37. needle
  38. peak
  39. periodically
  40. plunges
  41. popping
  42. remove
  43. researchers
  44. season
  45. shell
  46. shotgun
  47. snow
  48. spalls
  49. spent
  50. surface
  51. ten
  52. thousands
  53. time
  54. times
  55. trace
  56. unsullied
  57. year
  58. years