TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Mel Rosenberg: What causes bad breath?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

There is a curse that has plagued humanity since ancient times. The Greeks fguoht it by chewing aromatic risens, while the cnesihe resorted to egg shells. In the ancient Jewish Talmud, it's even considered legal grounds for divorce. This horrible scourge is hioisatls, otherwise known as bad betrah. But what causes it, and why is it so unilealrvsy terrifying? Well, think of some of the worst odros you can imagine, like garbage, feces or rotting meat. All of these smells come from the activity of microorganisms, particularly btcraiea, and, as disgusting as it may sound, samilir bacteria live in the moisture-rich ennrivnemot of your mouth. Don't panic. The presence of bacteria in your body is not only normal, it's actually vital for all sorts of things, like digestion and desisae prevention. But like all living things, bacteria need to eat. The bacteria in your mouth feed off of muucs, food remnants, and dead tissue clels. In order to aorsbb nutrients through their cell membranes, they must break down the ogairnc matter into much sllmaer molecules. For example, they'll break proteins into their component amino acids and then break those down even further into various compounds. Some of the foul-smelling byproducts of these reoctinas, such as hydrogen sulfide and cadaverine, escape into the air and waft their way towards unsuspecting noses. Our sensitivity to these odors and interpretation of them as bad smells may be an evolutionary mechanism warning us of rotten food and the presence of disease. Smell is one of our most intimate and primal senses, playing a huge role in our attraction to potential mates. In one poll, 59% of men and 70% of women said they wouldn't go on a date with someone who has bad breath, which may be why Americans alone spned $1 boiilln a year on various breath products. Fortunately, most bad breath is easily treated. The worst smelling byproducts come from gram-negative bacteria that live in the spaces between gums and teeth and on the back of the tongue. By brushing and flossing our teeth, using antibacterial mhostwuah at bedtime, gently cleaning the back of the tongue with a plastic sarcepr and even just eating a healthy breakfast, we can remove many of these bacteria and their food sources. In some cseas, these mueeasrs may not be enough due to dental preombls, nasal cintonidos, or rraer ailments, such as liver disease and uncontrolled deteiabs. Behaviors like smoking and excessive alcohol consumption also have a very recognizable odor. Regardless of cause, the bad smell almost always originates in the mouth and not the stomach or elsewhere in the body. But one of the biggest challenges lies in actually determining how our breath smells in the first place, and it's unclear why. It may be that we're too acclimatized to the smell inside our own mouths to judge it. And methods like cupping your hands over your mouth, or licking and smelling your wrist don't work perfectly either. One study showed that even when people do this, they tend to rate the smell subjectively according to how bad they tguohht it was going to be. But there's one simple, if socially dffciulit, way of fniding out how your breath smells: just take a deep breath and ask a friend.

Open Cloze

There is a curse that has plagued humanity since ancient times. The Greeks ______ it by chewing aromatic ______, while the _______ resorted to egg shells. In the ancient Jewish Talmud, it's even considered legal grounds for divorce. This horrible scourge is _________, otherwise known as bad ______. But what causes it, and why is it so ___________ terrifying? Well, think of some of the worst _____ you can imagine, like garbage, feces or rotting meat. All of these smells come from the activity of microorganisms, particularly ________, and, as disgusting as it may sound, _______ bacteria live in the moisture-rich ___________ of your mouth. Don't panic. The presence of bacteria in your body is not only normal, it's actually vital for all sorts of things, like digestion and _______ prevention. But like all living things, bacteria need to eat. The bacteria in your mouth feed off of _____, food remnants, and dead tissue _____. In order to ______ nutrients through their cell membranes, they must break down the _______ matter into much _______ molecules. For example, they'll break proteins into their component amino acids and then break those down even further into various compounds. Some of the foul-smelling byproducts of these _________, such as hydrogen sulfide and cadaverine, escape into the air and waft their way towards unsuspecting noses. Our sensitivity to these odors and interpretation of them as bad smells may be an evolutionary mechanism warning us of rotten food and the presence of disease. Smell is one of our most intimate and primal senses, playing a huge role in our attraction to potential mates. In one poll, 59% of men and 70% of women said they wouldn't go on a date with someone who has bad breath, which may be why Americans alone _____ $1 _______ a year on various breath products. Fortunately, most bad breath is easily treated. The worst smelling byproducts come from gram-negative bacteria that live in the spaces between gums and teeth and on the back of the tongue. By brushing and flossing our teeth, using antibacterial _________ at bedtime, gently cleaning the back of the tongue with a plastic _______ and even just eating a healthy breakfast, we can remove many of these bacteria and their food sources. In some _____, these ________ may not be enough due to dental ________, nasal __________, or _____ ailments, such as liver disease and uncontrolled ________. Behaviors like smoking and excessive alcohol consumption also have a very recognizable odor. Regardless of cause, the bad smell almost always originates in the mouth and not the stomach or elsewhere in the body. But one of the biggest challenges lies in actually determining how our breath smells in the first place, and it's unclear why. It may be that we're too acclimatized to the smell inside our own mouths to judge it. And methods like cupping your hands over your mouth, or licking and smelling your wrist don't work perfectly either. One study showed that even when people do this, they tend to rate the smell subjectively according to how bad they _______ it was going to be. But there's one simple, if socially _________, way of _______ out how your breath smells: just take a deep breath and ask a friend.

Solution

scraper
organic
billion
universally
odors
breath
measures
resins
difficult
thought
diabetes
fought
disease
cells
problems
similar
mucus
rarer
absorb
finding
cases
smaller
conditions
environment
reactions
halitosis
chinese
spend
bacteria
mouthwash

Original Text

There is a curse that has plagued humanity since ancient times. The Greeks fought it by chewing aromatic resins, while the Chinese resorted to egg shells. In the ancient Jewish Talmud, it's even considered legal grounds for divorce. This horrible scourge is halitosis, otherwise known as bad breath. But what causes it, and why is it so universally terrifying? Well, think of some of the worst odors you can imagine, like garbage, feces or rotting meat. All of these smells come from the activity of microorganisms, particularly bacteria, and, as disgusting as it may sound, similar bacteria live in the moisture-rich environment of your mouth. Don't panic. The presence of bacteria in your body is not only normal, it's actually vital for all sorts of things, like digestion and disease prevention. But like all living things, bacteria need to eat. The bacteria in your mouth feed off of mucus, food remnants, and dead tissue cells. In order to absorb nutrients through their cell membranes, they must break down the organic matter into much smaller molecules. For example, they'll break proteins into their component amino acids and then break those down even further into various compounds. Some of the foul-smelling byproducts of these reactions, such as hydrogen sulfide and cadaverine, escape into the air and waft their way towards unsuspecting noses. Our sensitivity to these odors and interpretation of them as bad smells may be an evolutionary mechanism warning us of rotten food and the presence of disease. Smell is one of our most intimate and primal senses, playing a huge role in our attraction to potential mates. In one poll, 59% of men and 70% of women said they wouldn't go on a date with someone who has bad breath, which may be why Americans alone spend $1 billion a year on various breath products. Fortunately, most bad breath is easily treated. The worst smelling byproducts come from gram-negative bacteria that live in the spaces between gums and teeth and on the back of the tongue. By brushing and flossing our teeth, using antibacterial mouthwash at bedtime, gently cleaning the back of the tongue with a plastic scraper and even just eating a healthy breakfast, we can remove many of these bacteria and their food sources. In some cases, these measures may not be enough due to dental problems, nasal conditions, or rarer ailments, such as liver disease and uncontrolled diabetes. Behaviors like smoking and excessive alcohol consumption also have a very recognizable odor. Regardless of cause, the bad smell almost always originates in the mouth and not the stomach or elsewhere in the body. But one of the biggest challenges lies in actually determining how our breath smells in the first place, and it's unclear why. It may be that we're too acclimatized to the smell inside our own mouths to judge it. And methods like cupping your hands over your mouth, or licking and smelling your wrist don't work perfectly either. One study showed that even when people do this, they tend to rate the smell subjectively according to how bad they thought it was going to be. But there's one simple, if socially difficult, way of finding out how your breath smells: just take a deep breath and ask a friend.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
bad breath	2

Important Words

absorb
acclimatized
acids
activity
ailments
air
alcohol
americans
amino
ancient
antibacterial
aromatic
attraction
bacteria
bad
bedtime
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break
breakfast
breath
brushing
byproducts
cadaverine
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cell
cells
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chewing
chinese
cleaning
component
compounds
conditions
considered
consumption
cupping
curse
date
dead
deep
dental
determining
diabetes
difficult
digestion
disease
disgusting
divorce
due
easily
eat
eating
egg
environment
escape
evolutionary
excessive
feces
feed
finding
flossing
food
fortunately
fought
friend
garbage
gently
greeks
grounds
gums
halitosis
hands
healthy
horrible
huge
humanity
hydrogen
imagine
interpretation
intimate
jewish
judge
legal
licking
lies
live
liver
living
mates
matter
measures
meat
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membranes
men
methods
microorganisms
molecules
mouth
mouths
mouthwash
mucus
nasal
normal
noses
nutrients
odor
odors
order
organic
originates
panic
people
perfectly
place
plagued
plastic
playing
poll
potential
presence
prevention
primal
problems
products
proteins
rarer
rate
reactions
recognizable
remnants
remove
resins
resorted
role
rotten
rotting
scourge
scraper
senses
sensitivity
shells
showed
similar
simple
smaller
smell
smelling
smells
smoking
socially
sorts
sound
sources
spaces
spend
stomach
study
subjectively
sulfide
talmud
teeth
tend
terrifying
thought
times
tissue
tongue
treated
unclear
uncontrolled
universally
unsuspecting
vital
waft
warning
women
work
worst
wrist
year