full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sonaar Luthra: We need to track the world's water like we track the weather

Unscramble the Blue Letters


There are graeetr uiairetnencts ahead for water qaiulty. It's rare in most countries for most water bodies to be tested for more than a handful of contaminants in a year. Instead of tentsig, we use what's called the "dilution model" to manage pollution. Now, imgnaie I took an Olympic-sized swimming pool, I felild it with fresh water and I added one drop of mercury. That would dilute down to one part per billion muercry, which is well within what the World Health Organization considers safe. But if there was any unforeseen drop in how much water was available — less groundwater, less stream flow, less water in the pool — less dilution would take place, and things would get more tioxc. So this is how most countries are managing pollution. They use this model to tell them how much poluloitn is safe. And it has caler weaknesses, but it worked well enough when we had abundant water and consistent weather patterns. Now that we don't, we're going to need to invest and develop new data-collection strategies. But before we do that, we have to start acting on the data we already have.

Open Cloze


There are _______ _____________ ahead for water _______. It's rare in most countries for most water bodies to be tested for more than a handful of contaminants in a year. Instead of _______, we use what's called the "dilution model" to manage pollution. Now, _______ I took an Olympic-sized swimming pool, I ______ it with fresh water and I added one drop of mercury. That would dilute down to one part per billion _______, which is well within what the World Health Organization considers safe. But if there was any unforeseen drop in how much water was available — less groundwater, less stream flow, less water in the pool — less dilution would take place, and things would get more _____. So this is how most countries are managing pollution. They use this model to tell them how much _________ is safe. And it has _____ weaknesses, but it worked well enough when we had abundant water and consistent weather patterns. Now that we don't, we're going to need to invest and develop new data-collection strategies. But before we do that, we have to start acting on the data we already have.

Solution


  1. uncertainties
  2. toxic
  3. quality
  4. filled
  5. clear
  6. greater
  7. imagine
  8. mercury
  9. testing
  10. pollution

Original Text


There are greater uncertainties ahead for water quality. It's rare in most countries for most water bodies to be tested for more than a handful of contaminants in a year. Instead of testing, we use what's called the "dilution model" to manage pollution. Now, imagine I took an Olympic-sized swimming pool, I filled it with fresh water and I added one drop of mercury. That would dilute down to one part per billion mercury, which is well within what the World Health Organization considers safe. But if there was any unforeseen drop in how much water was available — less groundwater, less stream flow, less water in the pool — less dilution would take place, and things would get more toxic. So this is how most countries are managing pollution. They use this model to tell them how much pollution is safe. And it has clear weaknesses, but it worked well enough when we had abundant water and consistent weather patterns. Now that we don't, we're going to need to invest and develop new data-collection strategies. But before we do that, we have to start acting on the data we already have.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
water quality 4
weather service 3
jet fuel 3
early stage 3
data collection 3
water problems 2
biggest water 2
problems persist 2
water data 2
water pollution 2
encourage investment 2
global weather 2
corporate polluters 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
global weather service 2

Important Words


  1. abundant
  2. acting
  3. added
  4. billion
  5. bodies
  6. called
  7. clear
  8. considers
  9. consistent
  10. contaminants
  11. countries
  12. data
  13. develop
  14. dilute
  15. dilution
  16. drop
  17. filled
  18. flow
  19. fresh
  20. greater
  21. groundwater
  22. handful
  23. health
  24. imagine
  25. invest
  26. manage
  27. managing
  28. mercury
  29. model
  30. organization
  31. part
  32. patterns
  33. place
  34. pollution
  35. pool
  36. quality
  37. rare
  38. safe
  39. start
  40. strategies
  41. stream
  42. swimming
  43. tested
  44. testing
  45. toxic
  46. uncertainties
  47. unforeseen
  48. water
  49. weaknesses
  50. weather
  51. worked
  52. world
  53. year