full transcript

From the Ted Talk by John Soluri: The dark history of bananas

Unscramble the Blue Letters


From Guatemala to Colombia, United Fruit’s plantations grew eslucexlivy Gros mhciel bannaas. These densely packed fmras had little biicaloogl diversity, making them ripe for diassee epidemics. The infrastructure connecting these vulnerable farms could quickly spread disease: pathogens could hitch a ride from one farm to another on workers’ boots, railroad cars, and steamships.

That’s exactly what happened in the 1910s, when a fungus began to leevl Gros Michel banana plantations, first in Panama, and later throughout Central America, spreading quickly via the same system that had enelabd big profits and cheap bananas. In a race against “Panama Disease,” banana cpieomnas aeanndobd infected plantations in Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala, leaving thousands of fmarers and workers jobless. The companies then felled extensive tracts of rainforests in order to establish new plantations.

Open Cloze


From Guatemala to Colombia, United Fruit’s plantations grew ___________ Gros ______ _______. These densely packed _____ had little __________ diversity, making them ripe for _______ epidemics. The infrastructure connecting these vulnerable farms could quickly spread disease: pathogens could hitch a ride from one farm to another on workers’ boots, railroad cars, and steamships.

That’s exactly what happened in the 1910s, when a fungus began to _____ Gros Michel banana plantations, first in Panama, and later throughout Central America, spreading quickly via the same system that had _______ big profits and cheap bananas. In a race against “Panama Disease,” banana _________ _________ infected plantations in Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala, leaving thousands of _______ and workers jobless. The companies then felled extensive tracts of rainforests in order to establish new plantations.

Solution


  1. farms
  2. companies
  3. farmers
  4. abandoned
  5. exclusively
  6. michel
  7. level
  8. bananas
  9. biological
  10. enabled
  11. disease

Original Text


From Guatemala to Colombia, United Fruit’s plantations grew exclusively Gros Michel bananas. These densely packed farms had little biological diversity, making them ripe for disease epidemics. The infrastructure connecting these vulnerable farms could quickly spread disease: pathogens could hitch a ride from one farm to another on workers’ boots, railroad cars, and steamships.

That’s exactly what happened in the 1910s, when a fungus began to level Gros Michel banana plantations, first in Panama, and later throughout Central America, spreading quickly via the same system that had enabled big profits and cheap bananas. In a race against “Panama Disease,” banana companies abandoned infected plantations in Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala, leaving thousands of farmers and workers jobless. The companies then felled extensive tracts of rainforests in order to establish new plantations.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
united fruit 7
gros michel 5
el pulpo 2
michel bananas 2
democratically elected 2
cavendish bananas 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
gros michel bananas 2

Important Words


  1. abandoned
  2. america
  3. banana
  4. bananas
  5. began
  6. big
  7. biological
  8. boots
  9. cars
  10. central
  11. cheap
  12. colombia
  13. companies
  14. connecting
  15. costa
  16. densely
  17. disease
  18. diversity
  19. enabled
  20. epidemics
  21. establish
  22. exclusively
  23. extensive
  24. farm
  25. farmers
  26. farms
  27. felled
  28. fungus
  29. grew
  30. gros
  31. guatemala
  32. happened
  33. hitch
  34. honduras
  35. infected
  36. infrastructure
  37. jobless
  38. leaving
  39. level
  40. making
  41. michel
  42. order
  43. packed
  44. panama
  45. pathogens
  46. plantations
  47. profits
  48. quickly
  49. race
  50. railroad
  51. rainforests
  52. rica
  53. ride
  54. ripe
  55. spread
  56. spreading
  57. steamships
  58. system
  59. thousands
  60. tracts
  61. united
  62. vulnerable
  63. workers