full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Noah R. Bressman and Douglas Fudge: The world's slimiest animal

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now, the hagfish is free from the jaws of death. But it’s in a dilemma of its own doing, trapped in a cloud of its own suffocating slime. So what does it do? Well, it ties itself in a knot, of course. Starting at its tail and pansisg its body through, the hsgaifh effectively wipes away its own slime. Apparently uzfenad by the whole encounter, it returns to its meal. When it gets to a tougher part of the carcass... Voila! The hagfish ties itself in yet another knot to gain leverage and yank off the meat.

The hagfish’s slime is so remarkable that people are trying to etmuale it. Currently, a lot of athletic and setfay gear is made from non-renewable petroleum-based fibers. But hagfish slime trheads rival the properties of materials like nylon. And fibers modeled after those in hagfish slime may present a much more sustainable alternative. Meanwhile, hagfish silme is also being exrloped in military cnoettxs as a non-lethal wapeon that could be used to stop boats by sliming up their propellers.

Open Cloze


Now, the hagfish is free from the jaws of death. But it’s in a dilemma of its own doing, trapped in a cloud of its own suffocating slime. So what does it do? Well, it ties itself in a knot, of course. Starting at its tail and _______ its body through, the _______ effectively wipes away its own slime. Apparently _______ by the whole encounter, it returns to its meal. When it gets to a tougher part of the carcass... Voila! The hagfish ties itself in yet another knot to gain leverage and yank off the meat.

The hagfish’s slime is so remarkable that people are trying to _______ it. Currently, a lot of athletic and ______ gear is made from non-renewable petroleum-based fibers. But hagfish slime _______ rival the properties of materials like nylon. And fibers modeled after those in hagfish slime may present a much more sustainable alternative. Meanwhile, hagfish _____ is also being ________ in military ________ as a non-lethal ______ that could be used to stop boats by sliming up their propellers.

Solution


  1. weapon
  2. safety
  3. unfazed
  4. passing
  5. hagfish
  6. threads
  7. slime
  8. explored
  9. contexts
  10. emulate

Original Text


Now, the hagfish is free from the jaws of death. But it’s in a dilemma of its own doing, trapped in a cloud of its own suffocating slime. So what does it do? Well, it ties itself in a knot, of course. Starting at its tail and passing its body through, the hagfish effectively wipes away its own slime. Apparently unfazed by the whole encounter, it returns to its meal. When it gets to a tougher part of the carcass... Voila! The hagfish ties itself in yet another knot to gain leverage and yank off the meat.

The hagfish’s slime is so remarkable that people are trying to emulate it. Currently, a lot of athletic and safety gear is made from non-renewable petroleum-based fibers. But hagfish slime threads rival the properties of materials like nylon. And fibers modeled after those in hagfish slime may present a much more sustainable alternative. Meanwhile, hagfish slime is also being explored in military contexts as a non-lethal weapon that could be used to stop boats by sliming up their propellers.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
hagfish slime 3


Important Words


  1. alternative
  2. apparently
  3. athletic
  4. boats
  5. body
  6. carcass
  7. cloud
  8. contexts
  9. death
  10. dilemma
  11. effectively
  12. emulate
  13. encounter
  14. explored
  15. fibers
  16. free
  17. gain
  18. gear
  19. hagfish
  20. jaws
  21. knot
  22. leverage
  23. lot
  24. materials
  25. meal
  26. meat
  27. military
  28. modeled
  29. nylon
  30. part
  31. passing
  32. people
  33. present
  34. propellers
  35. properties
  36. remarkable
  37. returns
  38. rival
  39. safety
  40. slime
  41. sliming
  42. starting
  43. stop
  44. suffocating
  45. sustainable
  46. tail
  47. threads
  48. ties
  49. tougher
  50. trapped
  51. unfazed
  52. weapon
  53. wipes
  54. yank