full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Adam Savage: My obsession with objects and the stories they tell

Unscramble the Blue Letters


About four years ago, the New Yorker peulsbihd an article about a cahce of dodo bones that was found in a pit on the inalsd of mutriuais. Now, the island of Mauritius is a small island off the east coast of Madagascar in the Indian oacen, and it is the place where the dodo bird was discovered and extinguished, all within about 150 years. Everyone was very eicxetd about this archaeological find, because it manet that they might finally be able to assemble a siglne dodo skeleton.

See, while museums all over the world have dodo skeletons in their collection, nobody — not even the actual nturaal htrisoy Museum on the island of Mauritius — has a skeleton that's made from the bones of a single dodo. Well, this isn't exactly true. The fact is, is that the British Museum had a complete sieemcpn of a dodo in their collection up until the 18th century — it was actually mummified, skin and all — but in a fit of space-saving zeal, they actually cut off the head and they cut off the feet and they burned the rest in a bonfire. If you go look at their website today, they'll actually list these specimens, saying, the rest was lost in a fire.

Open Cloze


About four years ago, the New Yorker _________ an article about a _____ of dodo bones that was found in a pit on the ______ of _________. Now, the island of Mauritius is a small island off the east coast of Madagascar in the Indian _____, and it is the place where the dodo bird was discovered and extinguished, all within about 150 years. Everyone was very _______ about this archaeological find, because it _____ that they might finally be able to assemble a ______ dodo skeleton.

See, while museums all over the world have dodo skeletons in their collection, nobody — not even the actual _______ _______ Museum on the island of Mauritius — has a skeleton that's made from the bones of a single dodo. Well, this isn't exactly true. The fact is, is that the British Museum had a complete ________ of a dodo in their collection up until the 18th century — it was actually mummified, skin and all — but in a fit of space-saving zeal, they actually cut off the head and they cut off the feet and they burned the rest in a bonfire. If you go look at their website today, they'll actually list these specimens, saying, the rest was lost in a fire.

Solution


  1. published
  2. island
  3. natural
  4. meant
  5. ocean
  6. specimen
  7. mauritius
  8. excited
  9. cache
  10. history
  11. single

Original Text


About four years ago, the New Yorker published an article about a cache of dodo bones that was found in a pit on the island of Mauritius. Now, the island of Mauritius is a small island off the east coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, and it is the place where the dodo bird was discovered and extinguished, all within about 150 years. Everyone was very excited about this archaeological find, because it meant that they might finally be able to assemble a single dodo skeleton.

See, while museums all over the world have dodo skeletons in their collection, nobody — not even the actual Natural History Museum on the island of Mauritius — has a skeleton that's made from the bones of a single dodo. Well, this isn't exactly true. The fact is, is that the British Museum had a complete specimen of a dodo in their collection up until the 18th century — it was actually mummified, skin and all — but in a fit of space-saving zeal, they actually cut off the head and they cut off the feet and they burned the rest in a bonfire. If you go look at their website today, they'll actually list these specimens, saying, the rest was lost in a fire.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
maltese falcon 10
dodo skeleton 4
single dodo 2
dodo skeletons 2
dodo skull 2
friend mike 2
size reference 2
hammett created 2
movie props 2
fred sexton 2


Important Words


  1. actual
  2. archaeological
  3. article
  4. assemble
  5. bird
  6. bones
  7. bonfire
  8. british
  9. burned
  10. cache
  11. century
  12. coast
  13. collection
  14. complete
  15. cut
  16. discovered
  17. dodo
  18. east
  19. excited
  20. extinguished
  21. fact
  22. feet
  23. finally
  24. find
  25. fire
  26. fit
  27. head
  28. history
  29. indian
  30. island
  31. list
  32. lost
  33. madagascar
  34. mauritius
  35. meant
  36. mummified
  37. museum
  38. museums
  39. natural
  40. ocean
  41. pit
  42. place
  43. published
  44. rest
  45. single
  46. skeleton
  47. skeletons
  48. skin
  49. small
  50. specimen
  51. specimens
  52. today
  53. true
  54. website
  55. world
  56. years
  57. yorker
  58. zeal