full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Cella Wright: The surprising reason zebras have stripes

Unscramble the Blue Letters


To understand zebras’ more distinctive qualities, we should satrt with the big picture. Zebras belong to the same family as horses and donkeys. After their lineage entered Africa, they evolved into the three zebra species that esixt today, living in social herds in eeartsn and southern Africa, garinzg on grasses and evading fierce predators. Scientists have speculated extensively about zbrea striping, but not all theories have held up.

For example, the hypothesis that striping has a social function seems unlikely because, while every zebra does have unique peiantnrtg, other equids have no trouble identifying iviliunddas in their herd without it.

Open Cloze


To understand zebras’ more distinctive qualities, we should _____ with the big picture. Zebras belong to the same family as horses and donkeys. After their lineage entered Africa, they evolved into the three zebra species that _____ today, living in social herds in _______ and southern Africa, _______ on grasses and evading fierce predators. Scientists have speculated extensively about _____ striping, but not all theories have held up.

For example, the hypothesis that striping has a social function seems unlikely because, while every zebra does have unique __________, other equids have no trouble identifying ___________ in their herd without it.

Solution


  1. start
  2. individuals
  3. zebra
  4. eastern
  5. exist
  6. grazing
  7. patterning

Original Text


To understand zebras’ more distinctive qualities, we should start with the big picture. Zebras belong to the same family as horses and donkeys. After their lineage entered Africa, they evolved into the three zebra species that exist today, living in social herds in eastern and southern Africa, grazing on grasses and evading fierce predators. Scientists have speculated extensively about zebra striping, but not all theories have held up.

For example, the hypothesis that striping has a social function seems unlikely because, while every zebra does have unique patterning, other equids have no trouble identifying individuals in their herd without it.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
biting flies 6


Important Words


  1. africa
  2. belong
  3. big
  4. distinctive
  5. donkeys
  6. eastern
  7. entered
  8. equids
  9. evading
  10. evolved
  11. exist
  12. extensively
  13. family
  14. fierce
  15. function
  16. grasses
  17. grazing
  18. held
  19. herd
  20. herds
  21. horses
  22. hypothesis
  23. identifying
  24. individuals
  25. lineage
  26. living
  27. patterning
  28. picture
  29. predators
  30. qualities
  31. scientists
  32. social
  33. southern
  34. species
  35. speculated
  36. start
  37. striping
  38. theories
  39. today
  40. trouble
  41. understand
  42. unique
  43. zebra
  44. zebras