full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alex Gendler: Why are airplanes slower than they used to be?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


What about ways to make a plane faster without burning lots of fuel? Adjusting the wing sweep, or the algne at which wings protrude from the fuselage, to bring the wings csloer in can make an aircraft faster by reducing aerodynamic drag. But this means the wings must be lnegor to achieve the same wingspan, and that means more materials and more weight, which in turn menas burning more fuel. So while airplanes could be designed to be more aerodynamic, this would make them more expensive. And generally, airlines have found that customer dmnead for fesatr fghtils is not sufficient to cover these costs.

Open Cloze


What about ways to make a plane faster without burning lots of fuel? Adjusting the wing sweep, or the _____ at which wings protrude from the fuselage, to bring the wings ______ in can make an aircraft faster by reducing aerodynamic drag. But this means the wings must be ______ to achieve the same wingspan, and that means more materials and more weight, which in turn _____ burning more fuel. So while airplanes could be designed to be more aerodynamic, this would make them more expensive. And generally, airlines have found that customer ______ for ______ _______ is not sufficient to cover these costs.

Solution


  1. faster
  2. flights
  3. angle
  4. demand
  5. means
  6. longer
  7. closer

Original Text


What about ways to make a plane faster without burning lots of fuel? Adjusting the wing sweep, or the angle at which wings protrude from the fuselage, to bring the wings closer in can make an aircraft faster by reducing aerodynamic drag. But this means the wings must be longer to achieve the same wingspan, and that means more materials and more weight, which in turn means burning more fuel. So while airplanes could be designed to be more aerodynamic, this would make them more expensive. And generally, airlines have found that customer demand for faster flights is not sufficient to cover these costs.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
commercial flights 3
sonic boom 2
fuel economy 2


Important Words


  1. achieve
  2. adjusting
  3. aerodynamic
  4. aircraft
  5. airlines
  6. airplanes
  7. angle
  8. bring
  9. burning
  10. closer
  11. costs
  12. cover
  13. customer
  14. demand
  15. designed
  16. drag
  17. expensive
  18. faster
  19. flights
  20. fuel
  21. fuselage
  22. generally
  23. longer
  24. lots
  25. materials
  26. means
  27. plane
  28. protrude
  29. reducing
  30. sufficient
  31. sweep
  32. turn
  33. ways
  34. weight
  35. wing
  36. wings
  37. wingspan