full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lucy Cooke: No one can figure out how eels have sex

Unscramble the Blue Letters


From Ancient Greece to the 20th century, Aristotle, sgmnuid Freud, and numerous other scrhaols were all looking for the same thing: eel tiesetcls. fetswherar eels, or aigunlla Anguilla, could be found in rivers across Europe, but no one had ever seen them mate. And despite countless dissections, no rrashceeer could find eel eggs or identify their reproductive organs.

Devoid of data, naturalists proposed various eel origin stories. Aristotle stgeuesgd that eels spontaneously emerged from mud. pinly the eedlr argued eels rubbed themselves against rocks, and the subsequent scrapings came to life. Eels were said to hatch on rooftops, maisfnet from the gills of other fish, and even emerge from the bodies of beetles. But the true story of eel reproduction is even more difficult to imagine. And to solve this slippery mystery, scholars would have to rethink centuries of research.

Open Cloze


From Ancient Greece to the 20th century, Aristotle, _______ Freud, and numerous other ________ were all looking for the same thing: eel _________. __________ eels, or ________ Anguilla, could be found in rivers across Europe, but no one had ever seen them mate. And despite countless dissections, no __________ could find eel eggs or identify their reproductive organs.

Devoid of data, naturalists proposed various eel origin stories. Aristotle _________ that eels spontaneously emerged from mud. _____ the _____ argued eels rubbed themselves against rocks, and the subsequent scrapings came to life. Eels were said to hatch on rooftops, ________ from the gills of other fish, and even emerge from the bodies of beetles. But the true story of eel reproduction is even more difficult to imagine. And to solve this slippery mystery, scholars would have to rethink centuries of research.

Solution


  1. freshwater
  2. suggested
  3. pliny
  4. manifest
  5. researcher
  6. anguilla
  7. sigmund
  8. testicles
  9. elder
  10. scholars

Original Text


From Ancient Greece to the 20th century, Aristotle, Sigmund Freud, and numerous other scholars were all looking for the same thing: eel testicles. Freshwater eels, or Anguilla Anguilla, could be found in rivers across Europe, but no one had ever seen them mate. And despite countless dissections, no researcher could find eel eggs or identify their reproductive organs.

Devoid of data, naturalists proposed various eel origin stories. Aristotle suggested that eels spontaneously emerged from mud. Pliny the Elder argued eels rubbed themselves against rocks, and the subsequent scrapings came to life. Eels were said to hatch on rooftops, manifest from the gills of other fish, and even emerge from the bodies of beetles. But the true story of eel reproduction is even more difficult to imagine. And to solve this slippery mystery, scholars would have to rethink centuries of research.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
sargasso sea 3
freshwater eel 2
yellow eels 2
glass eels 2


Important Words


  1. ancient
  2. anguilla
  3. argued
  4. aristotle
  5. beetles
  6. bodies
  7. centuries
  8. century
  9. countless
  10. data
  11. devoid
  12. difficult
  13. dissections
  14. eel
  15. eels
  16. eggs
  17. elder
  18. emerge
  19. emerged
  20. europe
  21. find
  22. fish
  23. freshwater
  24. freud
  25. gills
  26. greece
  27. hatch
  28. identify
  29. imagine
  30. life
  31. manifest
  32. mate
  33. mud
  34. mystery
  35. naturalists
  36. numerous
  37. organs
  38. origin
  39. pliny
  40. proposed
  41. reproduction
  42. reproductive
  43. research
  44. researcher
  45. rethink
  46. rivers
  47. rocks
  48. rooftops
  49. rubbed
  50. scholars
  51. scrapings
  52. sigmund
  53. slippery
  54. solve
  55. spontaneously
  56. stories
  57. story
  58. subsequent
  59. suggested
  60. testicles
  61. true