full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Deborah Gordon: The emergent genius of ant colonies
Unscramble the Blue Letters
(Laughter)
And then the newly mated qenues fly off somewhere, drop their wings, dig a hole and go into that hole and start laying eggs. And they will live for 15 or 20 years, continuing to lay eggs using the sperm from that original mitnag. So the qeuen goes down in there. She lays eggs, she fdees the larvae — so an ant starts as an egg, then it's a larva. She feeds the larvae by rniigtutgareg from her fat reserves. Then, as soon as the ants — the first gurop of ants — emerge, they're larvae. Then they're paupe. Then they come out as adult ants. They go out, they get the food, they dig the nest, and the queen never comes out again.
Open Cloze
(Laughter)
And then the newly mated ______ fly off somewhere, drop their wings, dig a hole and go into that hole and start laying eggs. And they will live for 15 or 20 years, continuing to lay eggs using the sperm from that original ______. So the _____ goes down in there. She lays eggs, she _____ the larvae — so an ant starts as an egg, then it's a larva. She feeds the larvae by _____________ from her fat reserves. Then, as soon as the ants — the first _____ of ants — emerge, they're larvae. Then they're _____. Then they come out as adult ants. They go out, they get the food, they dig the nest, and the queen never comes out again.
Solution
- queens
- pupae
- mating
- feeds
- queen
- regurgitating
- group
Original Text
(Laughter)
And then the newly mated queens fly off somewhere, drop their wings, dig a hole and go into that hole and start laying eggs. And they will live for 15 or 20 years, continuing to lay eggs using the sperm from that original mating. So the queen goes down in there. She lays eggs, she feeds the larvae — so an ant starts as an egg, then it's a larva. She feeds the larvae by regurgitating from her fat reserves. Then, as soon as the ants — the first group of ants — emerge, they're larvae. Then they're pupae. Then they come out as adult ants. They go out, they get the food, they dig the nest, and the queen never comes out again.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| nest maintenance |
19 |
| maintenance workers |
15 |
| nest entrance |
7 |
| ant colonies |
5 |
| midden workers |
5 |
| colony size |
3 |
| task allocation |
3 |
| workers performing |
3 |
| study site |
2 |
| mating flight |
2 |
| ant starts |
2 |
| worker ants |
2 |
| call task |
2 |
| colony manages |
2 |
| extra ants |
2 |
| ants working |
2 |
| extra nest |
2 |
| numbers performing |
2 |
| maintenance work |
2 |
| fiber optics |
2 |
| optics microscope |
2 |
| interaction patterns |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
| collocation |
frequency |
| nest maintenance workers |
15 |
| call task allocation |
2 |
| extra nest maintenance |
2 |
| nest maintenance work |
2 |
| fiber optics microscope |
2 |
Important Words
- adult
- ant
- ants
- continuing
- dig
- drop
- egg
- eggs
- emerge
- fat
- feeds
- fly
- food
- group
- hole
- larva
- larvae
- laughter
- lay
- laying
- lays
- live
- mated
- mating
- nest
- newly
- original
- pupae
- queen
- queens
- regurgitating
- reserves
- sperm
- start
- starts
- wings
- years