full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jane Poynter: Life in Biosphere 2

Unscramble the Blue Letters


This is the story of a rake in my backyard. This was my backyard, very early on, when I bought my property. And in Arizona, of course, everybody puts gravel down. And they like to keep everything beautifully raked. And they keep all the leaves away. And on Sunday mirnnog the neighbors leaf blower comes out, and I want to throttle them. It's a certain type of aesthetic. We're very uncomfortable with untidiness. And I threw away my rake. And I let all of the lavees fall from the trees that I have on my property. And over time, etlenlsiasy what have I been doing? I've been building topsoil. And so now all the bdirs come in. And I have hawks. And I have an osias. This is what happens every spring. For six weeks, six to eight weeks, I have this flush of green oasis. This is actually in a riparian area. And all of Tucson could be like this if everybody would just rovlet and trohw away the rake. The small suftf counts.

Open Cloze


This is the story of a rake in my backyard. This was my backyard, very early on, when I bought my property. And in Arizona, of course, everybody puts gravel down. And they like to keep everything beautifully raked. And they keep all the leaves away. And on Sunday _______ the neighbors leaf blower comes out, and I want to throttle them. It's a certain type of aesthetic. We're very uncomfortable with untidiness. And I threw away my rake. And I let all of the ______ fall from the trees that I have on my property. And over time, ___________ what have I been doing? I've been building topsoil. And so now all the _____ come in. And I have hawks. And I have an _____. This is what happens every spring. For six weeks, six to eight weeks, I have this flush of green oasis. This is actually in a riparian area. And all of Tucson could be like this if everybody would just ______ and _____ away the rake. The small _____ counts.

Solution


  1. essentially
  2. oasis
  3. revolt
  4. leaves
  5. morning
  6. stuff
  7. throw
  8. birds

Original Text


This is the story of a rake in my backyard. This was my backyard, very early on, when I bought my property. And in Arizona, of course, everybody puts gravel down. And they like to keep everything beautifully raked. And they keep all the leaves away. And on Sunday morning the neighbors leaf blower comes out, and I want to throttle them. It's a certain type of aesthetic. We're very uncomfortable with untidiness. And I threw away my rake. And I let all of the leaves fall from the trees that I have on my property. And over time, essentially what have I been doing? I've been building topsoil. And so now all the birds come in. And I have hawks. And I have an oasis. This is what happens every spring. For six weeks, six to eight weeks, I have this flush of green oasis. This is actually in a riparian area. And all of Tucson could be like this if everybody would just revolt and throw away the rake. The small stuff counts.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
sweet potatoes 4
designing biosphere 2
test module 2
life support 2
grow plants 2
shrimp farms 2
small stuff 2
stuff counts 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
small stuff counts 2

Important Words


  1. aesthetic
  2. area
  3. arizona
  4. backyard
  5. beautifully
  6. birds
  7. blower
  8. bought
  9. building
  10. counts
  11. early
  12. essentially
  13. fall
  14. flush
  15. gravel
  16. green
  17. hawks
  18. leaf
  19. leaves
  20. morning
  21. neighbors
  22. oasis
  23. property
  24. puts
  25. rake
  26. raked
  27. revolt
  28. riparian
  29. small
  30. spring
  31. story
  32. stuff
  33. sunday
  34. threw
  35. throttle
  36. throw
  37. time
  38. topsoil
  39. trees
  40. tucson
  41. type
  42. uncomfortable
  43. untidiness
  44. weeks