TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Dennis Wildfogel: What is the universe made of?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

All the mairatel objects around you are composed of submicroscopic utins we call molecules. And molecules in turn are composed of iivudaindl atoms. mueecllos frneteqluy break apart and then form new molecules. On the other hand, virtually all the atoms you come in to cocnatt with through the course of your life, the ones in the ground beneath you, the air you breath, the food you eat, those that make up every lnviig thing, including you, have existed for billions of years and were created in pceals very unlike our planet. How those atoms came about is what I want to share with you. It all started 14 billion years ago with an event we call The Big Bang, which resulted in a universe ctnisisnog of gas alone. There were no stars and no planets. The gas was made up only of amtos belonging to the simplest elements. It was about 75 pencert hydrogen and almost all the rest was helium. No elements like carbon, oxygen or nitrogen existed. No iron, sivelr or gold. In some places, the density of this gas was sgllithy higher than in others. Due to gravity, those places artettacd even more gas, which further strengthened the pull of gravity, which then drew more gas in, and so on. elulatveny, lgare dsene gas balls fromed, shrinking under their own gravity and consequently heating up on the inside. At some point, the core of such a ball gets hot enough that nuclear fsiuon occurs. Hydrogen atoms smash together to form hueilm, ancecipmoad by a great release of energy, storng enough to counteract the shrinking force of the gravity. When the energy pushing out from the fusion reactions matches the gravity pulling all the gas inwards, an equilibrium occurs. From this a star is born. Over its lifetime, the fusion reactions in the core of a mvasise star will produce not only helium, but also carbon, oxeygn, nitrogen and all the other elements in the periodic table up to iron. But eventually, the core's fuel runs out, lanevig it to clplosae completely. That causes an ulbvleanibey powerful explosion we call a supernova. Now there are two things to note about how supernovas create elements. First, this explosion releases so much energy that fusion goes wild forming elements with atoms even heavier than iron like silver, gold and uranium. Second, all the elements that had been accumulating in the core of the star, like carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, iron, as well as all of those formed in the supernova explosion, are ejected in to interstellar sapce where they mix with the gas that's already there. History then repeats itself. Gas cdouls, now containing many elements besides the ogriainl hydrogen and helium, have higher density areas that acatrtt more matter, and so on. As before, new stars result. Our sun was born this way about 5 billion yeras ago. That mneas that the gas it arose from had itself been enriched with many elements from supernova explosions since the uivsnere began. So that's how the sun wnuod up with all the entemles. It's still mostly hydrogen at 71 percent, with most of the rest being helium at 27 percent. But bear in mind that while the first stars were made up of hydrogen and helium alone, the remaining elements in the periodic table make up two percent of the sun. And what about Earth? petanls form as an icnniatedl process to star formation out of the same gas cloud as the star itself. Small planets like ours don't have enough gravity to hold on to much hydrogen or helium gas since both of those are very light. So, even though carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and so on made up only two percent of the gas cloud from which eatrh was formed, these heavier elements form the bulk of our planet and everything on it. Think about this: with the exception of hydrogen and some helium, the grnuod you walk on, the air you breath, you, everything is made of atoms that were created inside stars. When scientists first worked this out over the first half of the 20th Century, the famous astronomer Harlow Shapley commented, "We are brothers of the boulders, cousins of the clouds."

Open Cloze

All the ________ objects around you are composed of submicroscopic _____ we call molecules. And molecules in turn are composed of __________ atoms. _________ __________ break apart and then form new molecules. On the other hand, virtually all the atoms you come in to _______ with through the course of your life, the ones in the ground beneath you, the air you breath, the food you eat, those that make up every ______ thing, including you, have existed for billions of years and were created in ______ very unlike our planet. How those atoms came about is what I want to share with you. It all started 14 billion years ago with an event we call The Big Bang, which resulted in a universe __________ of gas alone. There were no stars and no planets. The gas was made up only of _____ belonging to the simplest elements. It was about 75 _______ hydrogen and almost all the rest was helium. No elements like carbon, oxygen or nitrogen existed. No iron, ______ or gold. In some places, the density of this gas was ________ higher than in others. Due to gravity, those places _________ even more gas, which further strengthened the pull of gravity, which then drew more gas in, and so on. __________, _____ _____ gas balls ______, shrinking under their own gravity and consequently heating up on the inside. At some point, the core of such a ball gets hot enough that nuclear ______ occurs. Hydrogen atoms smash together to form ______, ___________ by a great release of energy, ______ enough to counteract the shrinking force of the gravity. When the energy pushing out from the fusion reactions matches the gravity pulling all the gas inwards, an equilibrium occurs. From this a star is born. Over its lifetime, the fusion reactions in the core of a _______ star will produce not only helium, but also carbon, ______, nitrogen and all the other elements in the periodic table up to iron. But eventually, the core's fuel runs out, _______ it to ________ completely. That causes an ____________ powerful explosion we call a supernova. Now there are two things to note about how supernovas create elements. First, this explosion releases so much energy that fusion goes wild forming elements with atoms even heavier than iron like silver, gold and uranium. Second, all the elements that had been accumulating in the core of the star, like carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, iron, as well as all of those formed in the supernova explosion, are ejected in to interstellar _____ where they mix with the gas that's already there. History then repeats itself. Gas ______, now containing many elements besides the ________ hydrogen and helium, have higher density areas that _______ more matter, and so on. As before, new stars result. Our sun was born this way about 5 billion _____ ago. That _____ that the gas it arose from had itself been enriched with many elements from supernova explosions since the ________ began. So that's how the sun _____ up with all the ________. It's still mostly hydrogen at 71 percent, with most of the rest being helium at 27 percent. But bear in mind that while the first stars were made up of hydrogen and helium alone, the remaining elements in the periodic table make up two percent of the sun. And what about Earth? _______ form as an __________ process to star formation out of the same gas cloud as the star itself. Small planets like ours don't have enough gravity to hold on to much hydrogen or helium gas since both of those are very light. So, even though carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and so on made up only two percent of the gas cloud from which _____ was formed, these heavier elements form the bulk of our planet and everything on it. Think about this: with the exception of hydrogen and some helium, the ______ you walk on, the air you breath, you, everything is made of atoms that were created inside stars. When scientists first worked this out over the first half of the 20th Century, the famous astronomer Harlow Shapley commented, "We are brothers of the boulders, cousins of the clouds."

Solution

original
attract
consisting
percent
clouds
places
space
years
slightly
oxygen
collapse
universe
atoms
contact
fusion
helium
living
planets
leaving
dense
wound
attracted
units
large
molecules
accompanied
incidental
formed
strong
massive
ground
earth
eventually
frequently
material
elements
silver
means
individual
unbelievably

Original Text

All the material objects around you are composed of submicroscopic units we call molecules. And molecules in turn are composed of individual atoms. Molecules frequently break apart and then form new molecules. On the other hand, virtually all the atoms you come in to contact with through the course of your life, the ones in the ground beneath you, the air you breath, the food you eat, those that make up every living thing, including you, have existed for billions of years and were created in places very unlike our planet. How those atoms came about is what I want to share with you. It all started 14 billion years ago with an event we call The Big Bang, which resulted in a universe consisting of gas alone. There were no stars and no planets. The gas was made up only of atoms belonging to the simplest elements. It was about 75 percent hydrogen and almost all the rest was helium. No elements like carbon, oxygen or nitrogen existed. No iron, silver or gold. In some places, the density of this gas was slightly higher than in others. Due to gravity, those places attracted even more gas, which further strengthened the pull of gravity, which then drew more gas in, and so on. Eventually, large dense gas balls formed, shrinking under their own gravity and consequently heating up on the inside. At some point, the core of such a ball gets hot enough that nuclear fusion occurs. Hydrogen atoms smash together to form helium, accompanied by a great release of energy, strong enough to counteract the shrinking force of the gravity. When the energy pushing out from the fusion reactions matches the gravity pulling all the gas inwards, an equilibrium occurs. From this a star is born. Over its lifetime, the fusion reactions in the core of a massive star will produce not only helium, but also carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and all the other elements in the periodic table up to iron. But eventually, the core's fuel runs out, leaving it to collapse completely. That causes an unbelievably powerful explosion we call a supernova. Now there are two things to note about how supernovas create elements. First, this explosion releases so much energy that fusion goes wild forming elements with atoms even heavier than iron like silver, gold and uranium. Second, all the elements that had been accumulating in the core of the star, like carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, iron, as well as all of those formed in the supernova explosion, are ejected in to interstellar space where they mix with the gas that's already there. History then repeats itself. Gas clouds, now containing many elements besides the original hydrogen and helium, have higher density areas that attract more matter, and so on. As before, new stars result. Our sun was born this way about 5 billion years ago. That means that the gas it arose from had itself been enriched with many elements from supernova explosions since the universe began. So that's how the sun wound up with all the elements. It's still mostly hydrogen at 71 percent, with most of the rest being helium at 27 percent. But bear in mind that while the first stars were made up of hydrogen and helium alone, the remaining elements in the periodic table make up two percent of the sun. And what about Earth? Planets form as an incidental process to star formation out of the same gas cloud as the star itself. Small planets like ours don't have enough gravity to hold on to much hydrogen or helium gas since both of those are very light. So, even though carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and so on made up only two percent of the gas cloud from which Earth was formed, these heavier elements form the bulk of our planet and everything on it. Think about this: with the exception of hydrogen and some helium, the ground you walk on, the air you breath, you, everything is made of atoms that were created inside stars. When scientists first worked this out over the first half of the 20th Century, the famous astronomer Harlow Shapley commented, "We are brothers of the boulders, cousins of the clouds."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
billion years	2
fusion reactions	2
periodic table	2
gas cloud	2

Important Words

accompanied
accumulating
air
areas
arose
astronomer
atoms
attract
attracted
ball
balls
bang
bear
began
belonging
beneath
big
billion
billions
born
boulders
break
breath
brothers
bulk
call
carbon
century
cloud
clouds
collapse
commented
completely
composed
consisting
contact
core
counteract
cousins
create
created
dense
density
drew
due
earth
eat
ejected
elements
energy
enriched
equilibrium
event
eventually
exception
existed
explosion
explosions
famous
food
force
form
formation
formed
forming
frequently
fuel
fusion
gas
gold
gravity
great
ground
hand
harlow
heating
heavier
helium
higher
history
hold
hot
hydrogen
incidental
including
individual
interstellar
inwards
iron
large
leaving
life
lifetime
light
living
massive
matches
material
matter
means
mind
mix
molecules
nitrogen
note
nuclear
objects
occurs
original
oxygen
percent
periodic
places
planet
planets
point
powerful
process
produce
pull
pulling
pushing
reactions
release
releases
remaining
repeats
rest
result
resulted
runs
scientists
shapley
share
shrinking
silver
simplest
slightly
small
smash
space
star
stars
started
strengthened
strong
submicroscopic
sun
supernova
supernovas
table
turn
unbelievably
units
universe
uranium
virtually
walk
wild
worked
wound
years