full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Anne Gaskett: The sexual deception of orchids

Unscramble the Blue Letters


One of their most intriguing methods is sexual deception. Through a combination of sexy shapes and pheromones, ohdrcis convince insects to mate with them. Take the bee orchid, whose petals look almost exactly like the velvety body of a bee. This dsiiguse is so convincing that male bees land on the orchid and try to have sex with it, pcnikig up pleoln as they go. Other orchids have evolved contrasting colours and uoilretlavt spots– invisible to humans but irresistible to incstes. Still others have tactile ‘love-handles’ that ensure insects are positioned precisely for pollination. When a male wasp lands on the hammer orchid, for example, his enthusiastic mating motion flips a hinge in the fweolr, forcing his body into the pollen. At the next flower he visits, that same hinge pushes his pollen-covered body onto the sitgma, fertilizing it. Some orchids make such convincing mates that insects even ejltaucae on them, wntsaig valuable sperm.

Open Cloze


One of their most intriguing methods is sexual deception. Through a combination of sexy shapes and pheromones, _______ convince insects to mate with them. Take the bee orchid, whose petals look almost exactly like the velvety body of a bee. This ________ is so convincing that male bees land on the orchid and try to have sex with it, _______ up ______ as they go. Other orchids have evolved contrasting colours and ___________ spots– invisible to humans but irresistible to _______. Still others have tactile ‘love-handles’ that ensure insects are positioned precisely for pollination. When a male wasp lands on the hammer orchid, for example, his enthusiastic mating motion flips a hinge in the ______, forcing his body into the pollen. At the next flower he visits, that same hinge pushes his pollen-covered body onto the ______, fertilizing it. Some orchids make such convincing mates that insects even _________ on them, _______ valuable sperm.

Solution


  1. orchids
  2. wasting
  3. insects
  4. picking
  5. flower
  6. ultraviolet
  7. disguise
  8. stigma
  9. pollen
  10. ejaculate

Original Text


One of their most intriguing methods is sexual deception. Through a combination of sexy shapes and pheromones, orchids convince insects to mate with them. Take the bee orchid, whose petals look almost exactly like the velvety body of a bee. This disguise is so convincing that male bees land on the orchid and try to have sex with it, picking up pollen as they go. Other orchids have evolved contrasting colours and ultraviolet spots– invisible to humans but irresistible to insects. Still others have tactile ‘love-handles’ that ensure insects are positioned precisely for pollination. When a male wasp lands on the hammer orchid, for example, his enthusiastic mating motion flips a hinge in the flower, forcing his body into the pollen. At the next flower he visits, that same hinge pushes his pollen-covered body onto the stigma, fertilizing it. Some orchids make such convincing mates that insects even ejaculate on them, wasting valuable sperm.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
sexual deception 3
insect species 3
single insect 2
orchid species 2
insects lay 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
single insect species 2

Important Words


  1. bee
  2. bees
  3. body
  4. colours
  5. combination
  6. contrasting
  7. convince
  8. convincing
  9. deception
  10. disguise
  11. ejaculate
  12. ensure
  13. enthusiastic
  14. evolved
  15. fertilizing
  16. flips
  17. flower
  18. forcing
  19. hammer
  20. hinge
  21. humans
  22. insects
  23. intriguing
  24. invisible
  25. irresistible
  26. land
  27. lands
  28. male
  29. mate
  30. mates
  31. mating
  32. methods
  33. motion
  34. orchid
  35. orchids
  36. petals
  37. pheromones
  38. picking
  39. pollen
  40. pollination
  41. positioned
  42. precisely
  43. pushes
  44. sex
  45. sexual
  46. sexy
  47. shapes
  48. sperm
  49. stigma
  50. tactile
  51. ultraviolet
  52. valuable
  53. velvety
  54. visits
  55. wasp
  56. wasting