full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Kaeli Swift: What crows teach us about death


Unscramble the Blue Letters


Without the adnvet of a time machine, we may never know for sure what those early people were thinking, but one thing we do know is that humans are far from alone in our attention towards the dead. Like people, some animals, including the corvids, the family of birds that hoeuss the crows, rnaves, miageps and jays, also seem to pay special aonetttin to their dead. In fact, the riuatls of corvids may have acted as the inspiration for our own. After all, it was the raven that God sent down to teach Cain how to bury his slain brother Abel. But despite this clear rctgiioonen by early people that other animals attend to their dead, it's only fairly recently that sniccee has really turned its attention towards this phenomenon. In fact, a formal name for this flied — comparative thanatology — wasn't first introduced until 2016. In this growing field, we are beginning to appreciate what a rich place the natural world is with rpceest to how other animals inaretct with their dead, and it's in this growing body of knowledge that that time machine to our early ancestors might be possible.

Open Cloze


Without the ______ of a time machine, we may never know for sure what those early people were thinking, but one thing we do know is that humans are far from alone in our attention towards the dead. Like people, some animals, including the corvids, the family of birds that ______ the crows, ______, _______ and jays, also seem to pay special _________ to their dead. In fact, the _______ of corvids may have acted as the inspiration for our own. After all, it was the raven that God sent down to teach Cain how to bury his slain brother Abel. But despite this clear ___________ by early people that other animals attend to their dead, it's only fairly recently that _______ has really turned its attention towards this phenomenon. In fact, a formal name for this _____ — comparative thanatology — wasn't first introduced until 2016. In this growing field, we are beginning to appreciate what a rich place the natural world is with _______ to how other animals ________ with their dead, and it's in this growing body of knowledge that that time machine to our early ancestors might be possible.

Solution


  1. houses
  2. science
  3. field
  4. advent
  5. recognition
  6. attention
  7. interact
  8. rituals
  9. ravens
  10. magpies
  11. respect

Original Text


Without the advent of a time machine, we may never know for sure what those early people were thinking, but one thing we do know is that humans are far from alone in our attention towards the dead. Like people, some animals, including the corvids, the family of birds that houses the crows, ravens, magpies and jays, also seem to pay special attention to their dead. In fact, the rituals of corvids may have acted as the inspiration for our own. After all, it was the raven that God sent down to teach Cain how to bury his slain brother Abel. But despite this clear recognition by early people that other animals attend to their dead, it's only fairly recently that science has really turned its attention towards this phenomenon. In fact, a formal name for this field — comparative thanatology — wasn't first introduced until 2016. In this growing field, we are beginning to appreciate what a rich place the natural world is with respect to how other animals interact with their dead, and it's in this growing body of knowledge that that time machine to our early ancestors might be possible.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
dead crows 7
early people 3
pay special 2
special attention 2
animals interact 2
time machine 2
experimental studies 2
death behaviors 2
wide variety 2
dead crow 2
sexual arousal 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
pay special attention 2


Important Words


  1. abel
  2. acted
  3. advent
  4. ancestors
  5. animals
  6. attend
  7. attention
  8. beginning
  9. birds
  10. body
  11. brother
  12. bury
  13. cain
  14. clear
  15. comparative
  16. corvids
  17. crows
  18. dead
  19. early
  20. fact
  21. family
  22. field
  23. formal
  24. god
  25. growing
  26. houses
  27. humans
  28. including
  29. inspiration
  30. interact
  31. introduced
  32. jays
  33. knowledge
  34. machine
  35. magpies
  36. natural
  37. pay
  38. people
  39. phenomenon
  40. place
  41. raven
  42. ravens
  43. recognition
  44. respect
  45. rich
  46. rituals
  47. science
  48. slain
  49. special
  50. teach
  51. thanatology
  52. thinking
  53. time
  54. turned
  55. world