full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Elizabeth Cox: What is a coronavirus?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


For almost a deadce, sscntieits chased the source of a deadly new virus through China’s tallest mountains and most iatelosd caverns.

They finally found it here: in the bats of Shitou Cave. The virus in question was a coronavirus that cuesad an epidemic of sereve acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003.

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses covered in little protein spikes that look like a crown— or "corona" in Latin. There are hundreds of known coronaviruses. Seven of them infect humans, and can cause disease. The coronavirus SARS-CoV causes SARS, MERS-CoV causes MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 causes the dasiese COVID-19.

Open Cloze


For almost a ______, __________ chased the source of a deadly new virus through China’s tallest mountains and most ________ caverns.

They finally found it here: in the bats of Shitou Cave. The virus in question was a coronavirus that ______ an epidemic of ______ acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003.

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses covered in little protein spikes that look like a crown— or "corona" in Latin. There are hundreds of known coronaviruses. Seven of them infect humans, and can cause disease. The coronavirus SARS-CoV causes SARS, MERS-CoV causes MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 causes the _______ COVID-19.

Solution


  1. scientists
  2. severe
  3. isolated
  4. decade
  5. caused
  6. disease

Original Text


For almost a decade, scientists chased the source of a deadly new virus through China’s tallest mountains and most isolated caverns.

They finally found it here: in the bats of Shitou Cave. The virus in question was a coronavirus that caused an epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003.

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses covered in little protein spikes that look like a crown— or "corona" in Latin. There are hundreds of known coronaviruses. Seven of them infect humans, and can cause disease. The coronavirus SARS-CoV causes SARS, MERS-CoV causes MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 causes the disease COVID-19.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
rna viruses 6
protein spikes 2
dna viruses 2
slower mutation 2
mutation rate 2


Important Words


  1. acute
  2. bats
  3. caused
  4. cave
  5. caverns
  6. chased
  7. coronavirus
  8. coronaviruses
  9. covered
  10. deadly
  11. decade
  12. disease
  13. epidemic
  14. finally
  15. group
  16. humans
  17. hundreds
  18. infect
  19. isolated
  20. latin
  21. mers
  22. mountains
  23. protein
  24. question
  25. respiratory
  26. sars
  27. scientists
  28. severe
  29. shitou
  30. source
  31. spikes
  32. syndrome
  33. tallest
  34. virus
  35. viruses