full transcript

From the Ted Talk by TED-Ed: What happens if an engineered virus escapes the lab?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In the snpirg of 1979, a lab worker in Sverdlovsk, USSR removed a ceglgod air filter in the ventilation system and didn’t replace it. His note to the supervisor was never transferred to the official lobgook, so when the next shift rolled in, workers simply started production as usual. Now, in most labs, this would have been a minor mistake. But this lab was a biological wpeanos fliaitcy producing huge quantities of anthrax— which, if inhaled, can kill up to 90% of those it ifetncs. This deadly anthrax powder fetload out into the sky for hours, causing the largest documented outbreak of inhalation anthrax on rceord and resulting in at least 64 deaths.

Open Cloze


In the ______ of 1979, a lab worker in Sverdlovsk, USSR removed a _______ air filter in the ventilation system and didn’t replace it. His note to the supervisor was never transferred to the official _______, so when the next shift rolled in, workers simply started production as usual. Now, in most labs, this would have been a minor mistake. But this lab was a biological _______ ________ producing huge quantities of anthrax— which, if inhaled, can kill up to 90% of those it _______. This deadly anthrax powder _______ out into the sky for hours, causing the largest documented outbreak of inhalation anthrax on ______ and resulting in at least 64 deaths.

Solution


  1. spring
  2. floated
  3. weapons
  4. clogged
  5. record
  6. facility
  7. infects
  8. logbook

Original Text


In the spring of 1979, a lab worker in Sverdlovsk, USSR removed a clogged air filter in the ventilation system and didn’t replace it. His note to the supervisor was never transferred to the official logbook, so when the next shift rolled in, workers simply started production as usual. Now, in most labs, this would have been a minor mistake. But this lab was a biological weapons facility producing huge quantities of anthrax— which, if inhaled, can kill up to 90% of those it infects. This deadly anthrax powder floated out into the sky for hours, causing the largest documented outbreak of inhalation anthrax on record and resulting in at least 64 deaths.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
lab leak 3
bird flu 3
dangerous virus 2
human error 2
human errors 2


Important Words


  1. air
  2. anthrax
  3. biological
  4. causing
  5. clogged
  6. deadly
  7. deaths
  8. documented
  9. facility
  10. filter
  11. floated
  12. hours
  13. huge
  14. infects
  15. inhalation
  16. inhaled
  17. kill
  18. lab
  19. labs
  20. largest
  21. logbook
  22. minor
  23. mistake
  24. note
  25. official
  26. outbreak
  27. powder
  28. producing
  29. production
  30. quantities
  31. record
  32. removed
  33. replace
  34. resulting
  35. rolled
  36. shift
  37. simply
  38. sky
  39. spring
  40. started
  41. supervisor
  42. sverdlovsk
  43. system
  44. transferred
  45. ussr
  46. usual
  47. ventilation
  48. weapons
  49. worker
  50. workers