full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Luka Seamus Wright: The sharks that hunt in forests

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In the coastal waters of the Bahamas, a ynuog lemon shark is on the run from a surprising predator: an adult shark of her own seepcis. Half of her 17 siblings have already been eaten by the older gtneaorien, and it looks as though she’s about to join them. But just as the predator closes in, she disappears into a thicket of underwater rtoos, safe in the rufgee of the mangrove forest.

Forests don’t usually come to mind as a habitat for sharks. But various marine forests cover roughly 4.2 million square kilometers of the planet, providing food and shtleer for 35% of the world’s sharks. dladey tiger shrkas blend into seagrass meadows before pouncing on sea cows and sea turtles. White sharks hunt down seals in forests of kelp towering 65 meters tall. And lemon sharks stlak forests of mangroves— the only trees on Earth that live in the ocean. All these ecosystems have their quirks, but mnevgaors may be the most unique of all. Harboring life between their roots and among their cornws, mangroves function as an essential bridge between land and sea. And to survive between these wdlros, different mangrove species have evolved various adaptations that protect them and their rediesnt sharks.

Open Cloze


In the coastal waters of the Bahamas, a _____ lemon shark is on the run from a surprising predator: an adult shark of her own _______. Half of her 17 siblings have already been eaten by the older __________, and it looks as though she’s about to join them. But just as the predator closes in, she disappears into a thicket of underwater _____, safe in the ______ of the mangrove forest.

Forests don’t usually come to mind as a habitat for sharks. But various marine forests cover roughly 4.2 million square kilometers of the planet, providing food and _______ for 35% of the world’s sharks. ______ tiger ______ blend into seagrass meadows before pouncing on sea cows and sea turtles. White sharks hunt down seals in forests of kelp towering 65 meters tall. And lemon sharks _____ forests of mangroves— the only trees on Earth that live in the ocean. All these ecosystems have their quirks, but _________ may be the most unique of all. Harboring life between their roots and among their ______, mangroves function as an essential bridge between land and sea. And to survive between these ______, different mangrove species have evolved various adaptations that protect them and their ________ sharks.

Solution


  1. shelter
  2. generation
  3. species
  4. resident
  5. mangroves
  6. roots
  7. stalk
  8. young
  9. crowns
  10. worlds
  11. refuge
  12. deadly
  13. sharks

Original Text


In the coastal waters of the Bahamas, a young lemon shark is on the run from a surprising predator: an adult shark of her own species. Half of her 17 siblings have already been eaten by the older generation, and it looks as though she’s about to join them. But just as the predator closes in, she disappears into a thicket of underwater roots, safe in the refuge of the mangrove forest.

Forests don’t usually come to mind as a habitat for sharks. But various marine forests cover roughly 4.2 million square kilometers of the planet, providing food and shelter for 35% of the world’s sharks. Deadly tiger sharks blend into seagrass meadows before pouncing on sea cows and sea turtles. White sharks hunt down seals in forests of kelp towering 65 meters tall. And lemon sharks stalk forests of mangroves— the only trees on Earth that live in the ocean. All these ecosystems have their quirks, but mangroves may be the most unique of all. Harboring life between their roots and among their crowns, mangroves function as an essential bridge between land and sea. And to survive between these worlds, different mangrove species have evolved various adaptations that protect them and their resident sharks.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
marine forests 5
mangrove species 2


Important Words


  1. adaptations
  2. adult
  3. bahamas
  4. blend
  5. bridge
  6. closes
  7. coastal
  8. cover
  9. cows
  10. crowns
  11. deadly
  12. disappears
  13. earth
  14. eaten
  15. ecosystems
  16. essential
  17. evolved
  18. food
  19. forest
  20. forests
  21. function
  22. generation
  23. habitat
  24. harboring
  25. hunt
  26. join
  27. kelp
  28. kilometers
  29. land
  30. lemon
  31. life
  32. live
  33. mangrove
  34. mangroves
  35. marine
  36. meadows
  37. meters
  38. million
  39. mind
  40. ocean
  41. older
  42. planet
  43. pouncing
  44. predator
  45. protect
  46. providing
  47. quirks
  48. refuge
  49. resident
  50. roots
  51. roughly
  52. run
  53. safe
  54. sea
  55. seagrass
  56. seals
  57. shark
  58. sharks
  59. shelter
  60. siblings
  61. species
  62. square
  63. stalk
  64. surprising
  65. survive
  66. tall
  67. thicket
  68. tiger
  69. towering
  70. trees
  71. turtles
  72. underwater
  73. unique
  74. waters
  75. white
  76. worlds
  77. young