full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Mei Lin Neo: The fascinating secret lives of giant clams

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

(Applause)

With the spotlight on more charismatic marine animals such as the whales and coral reefs, it is easy to forget that other marine life needs our help, too. My fascination with gniat clams got me started on conservation research to fill in the knowledge gaps on their ecology and behavior. One of the discoveries that we made was that giant clams could walk across the seafloor. Yes, you herad me right: they can walk.

To find out, we placed numerous baby clams on a grid. Now watch what happens over 24 hours. We think that walking is iprmnaott for getting away from predators and finding mates for breeding. While it can hard to imagine any mneemovt in these enormous ainmlas, giant clams up to 400 pounds can still walk, they just move sewolr.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

(Applause)

With the spotlight on more charismatic marine animals such as the whales and coral reefs, it is easy to forget that other marine life needs our help, too. My fascination with _____ clams got me started on conservation research to fill in the knowledge gaps on their ecology and behavior. One of the discoveries that we made was that giant clams could walk across the seafloor. Yes, you _____ me right: they can walk.

To find out, we placed numerous baby clams on a grid. Now watch what happens over 24 hours. We think that walking is _________ for getting away from predators and finding mates for breeding. While it can hard to imagine any ________ in these enormous _______, giant clams up to 400 pounds can still walk, they just move ______.

Solution


  1. animals
  2. important
  3. slower
  4. movement
  5. heard
  6. giant

Original Text


(Laughter)

(Applause)

With the spotlight on more charismatic marine animals such as the whales and coral reefs, it is easy to forget that other marine life needs our help, too. My fascination with giant clams got me started on conservation research to fill in the knowledge gaps on their ecology and behavior. One of the discoveries that we made was that giant clams could walk across the seafloor. Yes, you heard me right: they can walk.

To find out, we placed numerous baby clams on a grid. Now watch what happens over 24 hours. We think that walking is important for getting away from predators and finding mates for breeding. While it can hard to imagine any movement in these enormous animals, giant clams up to 400 pounds can still walk, they just move slower.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
giant clams 16
coral reefs 3
giant clam 2


Important Words


  1. animals
  2. applause
  3. baby
  4. behavior
  5. breeding
  6. charismatic
  7. clams
  8. conservation
  9. coral
  10. discoveries
  11. easy
  12. ecology
  13. enormous
  14. fascination
  15. fill
  16. find
  17. finding
  18. forget
  19. gaps
  20. giant
  21. grid
  22. hard
  23. heard
  24. hours
  25. imagine
  26. important
  27. knowledge
  28. laughter
  29. life
  30. marine
  31. mates
  32. move
  33. movement
  34. numerous
  35. pounds
  36. predators
  37. reefs
  38. research
  39. seafloor
  40. slower
  41. spotlight
  42. started
  43. walk
  44. walking
  45. watch
  46. whales