full transcript

From the Ted Talk by George Zaidan: The bug that poops candy

Unscramble the Blue Letters


This is Mabel. Mabel is an aihpd, a small icnset in the same order as cicadas, stnik bugs, and bed bugs.

All these bugs pierce their prey and suck out vtial fluids. Aphids’ prey are plants. And what aphids are after is buried within the plant, flowing in tubes made from single cells strung end-to-end. These are caleld sieve tubes and together they form the plumbing system for a plant’s most valuable resource: sap.

Sap is mostly water and sugar. Some species’ sap has as much sugar per lteir as a can of soda. Photosynthesis is costanntly producing sugar. You can think of it as a chemical “pump” which generates idlcbireny high pressure— up to 9 times that of a car tire— in the sieve tubes.

Open Cloze


This is Mabel. Mabel is an _____, a small ______ in the same order as cicadas, _____ bugs, and bed bugs.

All these bugs pierce their prey and suck out _____ fluids. Aphids’ prey are plants. And what aphids are after is buried within the plant, flowing in tubes made from single cells strung end-to-end. These are ______ sieve tubes and together they form the plumbing system for a plant’s most valuable resource: sap.

Sap is mostly water and sugar. Some species’ sap has as much sugar per _____ as a can of soda. Photosynthesis is __________ producing sugar. You can think of it as a chemical “pump” which generates __________ high pressure— up to 9 times that of a car tire— in the sieve tubes.

Solution


  1. aphid
  2. called
  3. incredibly
  4. constantly
  5. vital
  6. stink
  7. liter
  8. insect

Original Text


This is Mabel. Mabel is an aphid, a small insect in the same order as cicadas, stink bugs, and bed bugs.

All these bugs pierce their prey and suck out vital fluids. Aphids’ prey are plants. And what aphids are after is buried within the plant, flowing in tubes made from single cells strung end-to-end. These are called sieve tubes and together they form the plumbing system for a plant’s most valuable resource: sap.

Sap is mostly water and sugar. Some species’ sap has as much sugar per liter as a can of soda. Photosynthesis is constantly producing sugar. You can think of it as a chemical “pump” which generates incredibly high pressure— up to 9 times that of a car tire— in the sieve tubes.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
sieve tubes 3
lay eggs 2
aphid poop 2


Important Words


  1. aphid
  2. aphids
  3. bed
  4. bugs
  5. buried
  6. called
  7. car
  8. cells
  9. chemical
  10. cicadas
  11. constantly
  12. flowing
  13. fluids
  14. form
  15. generates
  16. high
  17. incredibly
  18. insect
  19. liter
  20. mabel
  21. order
  22. photosynthesis
  23. pierce
  24. plant
  25. plants
  26. plumbing
  27. prey
  28. producing
  29. sap
  30. sieve
  31. single
  32. small
  33. soda
  34. stink
  35. strung
  36. suck
  37. sugar
  38. system
  39. times
  40. tubes
  41. valuable
  42. vital
  43. water