full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Simone Bianco and Tom Zimmerman: The wonderful world of life in a drop of water

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Oh, look at that. You see the big ice-cream-cone-shaped things? Those are called Stentor, those are amazing creatures. You know, they are big, but they are a single cell. You remember the rotifer we just met? That's about half a millimeter, it's about 1,000 cells — it's typically 15 for the biarn, 15 for the stomach and you know, about the same for reproduction, which is kind of the right mix, if you ask me.

(Laughter)

But ... right?

TZ: I agree.

SB: But a Stentor is only a single cell. And it's able to sense and react to its environment. You see, it will swim forward when it's happy; it will swim backward when it's trying to get away from something like, you know, a toxic chemical. With our friends in the Center for Cellular Construction and the help of the National siccene Foundation, we are using Stentor to ssnee the presence of contamination in food and water, which I think is really cool. Alright, last one. So the dots that you see there that are, let's say, behind everything, they're algae. They are the ctareerus that pivdore the majority of oxygen in the air. They convert slaor light and carbon dioxide into the oxeygn that is filling your lgnus right now. So you see, we all got algae breath.

Open Cloze


Oh, look at that. You see the big ice-cream-cone-shaped things? Those are called Stentor, those are amazing creatures. You know, they are big, but they are a single cell. You remember the rotifer we just met? That's about half a millimeter, it's about 1,000 cells — it's typically 15 for the _____, 15 for the stomach and you know, about the same for reproduction, which is kind of the right mix, if you ask me.

(Laughter)

But ... right?

TZ: I agree.

SB: But a Stentor is only a single cell. And it's able to sense and react to its environment. You see, it will swim forward when it's happy; it will swim backward when it's trying to get away from something like, you know, a toxic chemical. With our friends in the Center for Cellular Construction and the help of the National _______ Foundation, we are using Stentor to _____ the presence of contamination in food and water, which I think is really cool. Alright, last one. So the dots that you see there that are, let's say, behind everything, they're algae. They are the _________ that _______ the majority of oxygen in the air. They convert _____ light and carbon dioxide into the ______ that is filling your _____ right now. So you see, we all got algae breath.

Solution


  1. solar
  2. science
  3. oxygen
  4. lungs
  5. creatures
  6. brain
  7. provide
  8. sense

Original Text


Oh, look at that. You see the big ice-cream-cone-shaped things? Those are called Stentor, those are amazing creatures. You know, they are big, but they are a single cell. You remember the rotifer we just met? That's about half a millimeter, it's about 1,000 cells — it's typically 15 for the brain, 15 for the stomach and you know, about the same for reproduction, which is kind of the right mix, if you ask me.

(Laughter)

But ... right?

TZ: I agree.

SB: But a Stentor is only a single cell. And it's able to sense and react to its environment. You see, it will swim forward when it's happy; it will swim backward when it's trying to get away from something like, you know, a toxic chemical. With our friends in the Center for Cellular Construction and the help of the National Science Foundation, we are using Stentor to sense the presence of contamination in food and water, which I think is really cool. Alright, last one. So the dots that you see there that are, let's say, behind everything, they're algae. They are the creatures that provide the majority of oxygen in the air. They convert solar light and carbon dioxide into the oxygen that is filling your lungs right now. So you see, we all got algae breath.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
image sensor 4
single cell 3
billion years 2
amazing creatures 2
carbon dioxide 2
big deal 2
scuba diving 2
science fiction 2
microscopic world 2
garbage collectors 2
fossil fuels 2
abandon facts 2


Important Words


  1. agree
  2. air
  3. algae
  4. alright
  5. amazing
  6. big
  7. brain
  8. breath
  9. called
  10. carbon
  11. cell
  12. cells
  13. cellular
  14. center
  15. chemical
  16. construction
  17. contamination
  18. convert
  19. cool
  20. creatures
  21. dioxide
  22. dots
  23. environment
  24. filling
  25. food
  26. foundation
  27. friends
  28. kind
  29. laughter
  30. light
  31. lungs
  32. majority
  33. met
  34. millimeter
  35. mix
  36. national
  37. oxygen
  38. presence
  39. provide
  40. react
  41. remember
  42. reproduction
  43. rotifer
  44. science
  45. sense
  46. single
  47. solar
  48. stentor
  49. stomach
  50. swim
  51. toxic
  52. typically
  53. water