full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Marlene Zuk: What we learn from insects' sex lives

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So, people are more afaird of insects than they are of dying. (Laughter) At least, according to a 1973 "Book of Lists" survey which preceded all those onnlie best, worst, funniest lists that you see today. Only hthiegs and public speaking exceeded the six-legged as sources of fear. And I suspect if you had put spiders in there, the combinations of insects and siedprs would have just topped the chart. Now, I am not one of those people. I really love insects. I think they're interesting and beautiful, and sometimes even cute. (lhtgauer) And I'm not alone. For centuries, some of the grtaeest minds in science, from Charles Darwin to E.O. Wilson, have drawn iirntsiaopn from studying some of the slsmalet minds on Earth. Well, why is that? What is that keeps us coming back to isecnts? Some of it, of course, is just the sheer magnitude of almost everything about them. They're more numerous than any other kind of animal. We don't even know how many species of insects there are, because new ones are being discovered all the time. There are at least a million, maybe as many as 10 million. This means that you could have an insect-of-the-month calendar and not have to rseue a species for over 80,000 years. (Laughter) Take that, pandas and kittens! (Laughter)

Open Cloze


So, people are more ______ of insects than they are of dying. (Laughter) At least, according to a 1973 "Book of Lists" survey which preceded all those ______ best, worst, funniest lists that you see today. Only _______ and public speaking exceeded the six-legged as sources of fear. And I suspect if you had put spiders in there, the combinations of insects and _______ would have just topped the chart. Now, I am not one of those people. I really love insects. I think they're interesting and beautiful, and sometimes even cute. (________) And I'm not alone. For centuries, some of the ________ minds in science, from Charles Darwin to E.O. Wilson, have drawn ___________ from studying some of the ________ minds on Earth. Well, why is that? What is that keeps us coming back to _______? Some of it, of course, is just the sheer magnitude of almost everything about them. They're more numerous than any other kind of animal. We don't even know how many species of insects there are, because new ones are being discovered all the time. There are at least a million, maybe as many as 10 million. This means that you could have an insect-of-the-month calendar and not have to _____ a species for over 80,000 years. (Laughter) Take that, pandas and kittens! (Laughter)

Solution


  1. greatest
  2. online
  3. insects
  4. laughter
  5. inspiration
  6. smallest
  7. afraid
  8. reuse
  9. spiders
  10. heights

Original Text


So, people are more afraid of insects than they are of dying. (Laughter) At least, according to a 1973 "Book of Lists" survey which preceded all those online best, worst, funniest lists that you see today. Only heights and public speaking exceeded the six-legged as sources of fear. And I suspect if you had put spiders in there, the combinations of insects and spiders would have just topped the chart. Now, I am not one of those people. I really love insects. I think they're interesting and beautiful, and sometimes even cute. (Laughter) And I'm not alone. For centuries, some of the greatest minds in science, from Charles Darwin to E.O. Wilson, have drawn inspiration from studying some of the smallest minds on Earth. Well, why is that? What is that keeps us coming back to insects? Some of it, of course, is just the sheer magnitude of almost everything about them. They're more numerous than any other kind of animal. We don't even know how many species of insects there are, because new ones are being discovered all the time. There are at least a million, maybe as many as 10 million. This means that you could have an insect-of-the-month calendar and not have to reuse a species for over 80,000 years. (Laughter) Take that, pandas and kittens! (Laughter)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
fruit flies 2
nuptial gifts 2
social insects 2
model system 2


Important Words


  1. afraid
  2. animal
  3. beautiful
  4. calendar
  5. centuries
  6. charles
  7. chart
  8. combinations
  9. coming
  10. cute
  11. darwin
  12. discovered
  13. drawn
  14. dying
  15. earth
  16. exceeded
  17. fear
  18. funniest
  19. greatest
  20. heights
  21. insects
  22. inspiration
  23. interesting
  24. kind
  25. laughter
  26. lists
  27. love
  28. magnitude
  29. means
  30. million
  31. minds
  32. numerous
  33. online
  34. pandas
  35. people
  36. preceded
  37. public
  38. put
  39. reuse
  40. science
  41. sheer
  42. smallest
  43. sources
  44. speaking
  45. species
  46. spiders
  47. studying
  48. survey
  49. suspect
  50. time
  51. today
  52. topped
  53. wilson
  54. worst
  55. years