full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Daniel Streicker: What vaccinating vampire bats can teach us about pandemics

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So as a first-year graduate sutendt with a vague memory of my high socohl sapsnih class, I jumped onto a plane and flew off to Peru, looking for vampire bats. And the first couple of years of this project were really tough. I had no stgaohre of ambitious pnlas to rid Latin America of rabies, but at the same time, there seemed to be an equally endless supply of mudslides and flat tires, power outages, socmtah bugs all stopping me. But that was kind of par for the course, working in South America, and to me, it was part of the adventure. But what kept me going was the kdlgwonee that for the first time, the work that I was doing might actually have some real impact on people's lives in the short term. And that struck me the most when we actually went out to the aamzon and were trying to catch vampire bats. You see, all we had to do was show up at a village and ask around. "Who's been getting bitten by a bat lately?" And people raised their hands, because in these communities, getting bttein by a bat is an evadreyy occurrence, happens every day. And so all we had to do was go to the right house, open up a net and show up at nhigt, and wait until the bats tried to fly in and feed on human blood. So to me, seeing a child with a bite wound on his head or bolod stains on his sheets, that was more than enough motivation to get past whatever logistical or psyichal headache I happened to be feeling on that day.

Open Cloze


So as a first-year graduate _______ with a vague memory of my high ______ _______ class, I jumped onto a plane and flew off to Peru, looking for vampire bats. And the first couple of years of this project were really tough. I had no ________ of ambitious _____ to rid Latin America of rabies, but at the same time, there seemed to be an equally endless supply of mudslides and flat tires, power outages, _______ bugs all stopping me. But that was kind of par for the course, working in South America, and to me, it was part of the adventure. But what kept me going was the _________ that for the first time, the work that I was doing might actually have some real impact on people's lives in the short term. And that struck me the most when we actually went out to the ______ and were trying to catch vampire bats. You see, all we had to do was show up at a village and ask around. "Who's been getting bitten by a bat lately?" And people raised their hands, because in these communities, getting ______ by a bat is an ________ occurrence, happens every day. And so all we had to do was go to the right house, open up a net and show up at _____, and wait until the bats tried to fly in and feed on human blood. So to me, seeing a child with a bite wound on his head or _____ stains on his sheets, that was more than enough motivation to get past whatever logistical or ________ headache I happened to be feeling on that day.

Solution


  1. school
  2. knowledge
  3. amazon
  4. plans
  5. spanish
  6. shortage
  7. physical
  8. night
  9. stomach
  10. blood
  11. bitten
  12. everyday
  13. student

Original Text


So as a first-year graduate student with a vague memory of my high school Spanish class, I jumped onto a plane and flew off to Peru, looking for vampire bats. And the first couple of years of this project were really tough. I had no shortage of ambitious plans to rid Latin America of rabies, but at the same time, there seemed to be an equally endless supply of mudslides and flat tires, power outages, stomach bugs all stopping me. But that was kind of par for the course, working in South America, and to me, it was part of the adventure. But what kept me going was the knowledge that for the first time, the work that I was doing might actually have some real impact on people's lives in the short term. And that struck me the most when we actually went out to the Amazon and were trying to catch vampire bats. You see, all we had to do was show up at a village and ask around. "Who's been getting bitten by a bat lately?" And people raised their hands, because in these communities, getting bitten by a bat is an everyday occurrence, happens every day. And so all we had to do was go to the right house, open up a net and show up at night, and wait until the bats tried to fly in and feed on human blood. So to me, seeing a child with a bite wound on his head or blood stains on his sheets, that was more than enough motivation to get past whatever logistical or physical headache I happened to be feeling on that day.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
ebola outbreak 2
deadly viruses 2
single year 2
vampire bats 2
rabies outbreaks 2
damage control 2
key part 2
incredibly encouraging 2


Important Words


  1. adventure
  2. amazon
  3. ambitious
  4. america
  5. bat
  6. bats
  7. bite
  8. bitten
  9. blood
  10. bugs
  11. catch
  12. child
  13. class
  14. communities
  15. couple
  16. day
  17. endless
  18. equally
  19. everyday
  20. feed
  21. feeling
  22. flat
  23. flew
  24. fly
  25. graduate
  26. hands
  27. happened
  28. head
  29. headache
  30. high
  31. house
  32. human
  33. impact
  34. jumped
  35. kind
  36. knowledge
  37. latin
  38. lives
  39. logistical
  40. memory
  41. motivation
  42. mudslides
  43. net
  44. night
  45. occurrence
  46. open
  47. outages
  48. par
  49. part
  50. people
  51. peru
  52. physical
  53. plane
  54. plans
  55. power
  56. project
  57. rabies
  58. raised
  59. real
  60. rid
  61. school
  62. sheets
  63. short
  64. shortage
  65. show
  66. south
  67. spanish
  68. stains
  69. stomach
  70. stopping
  71. struck
  72. student
  73. supply
  74. term
  75. time
  76. tires
  77. tough
  78. vague
  79. vampire
  80. village
  81. wait
  82. work
  83. working
  84. wound
  85. years