full transcript

From the Ted Talk by G. Richard Scott: Why do we have crooked teeth when our ancestors didn't?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Examining fossils spanning millions of years of evolution, researchers have observed a gradual decrease in tooth and jaw size in hamnus and our ancestors. Many think that, for most of human hritosy, dietary shifts— like the introduction of meat and the advent of cooking— were gradual, and that changes in tooth and jaw size basically kept pace with one another. But with the more recent revolutions in agricultural and culinary habits, that relationship changed. As the theory goes, over a relatively sorht period, some human populations saw a daseecre in jwnboae size, while teeth stayed roughly the same size, meaning they're left vying for limited spcae. When they do grow in, they may displace others and get jtsloed into some eccentric pisontios. And then wisdom teeth, which are usually the last to make their debut, seem to only cplocamite things further. In many ceass, they have little or no space to emerge. This can lead to impacted wisdom teeth, which may cause doscomifrt and infections if not surgically removed.

Open Cloze


Examining fossils spanning millions of years of evolution, researchers have observed a gradual decrease in tooth and jaw size in ______ and our ancestors. Many think that, for most of human _______, dietary shifts— like the introduction of meat and the advent of cooking— were gradual, and that changes in tooth and jaw size basically kept pace with one another. But with the more recent revolutions in agricultural and culinary habits, that relationship changed. As the theory goes, over a relatively _____ period, some human populations saw a ________ in _______ size, while teeth stayed roughly the same size, meaning they're left vying for limited _____. When they do grow in, they may displace others and get _______ into some eccentric _________. And then wisdom teeth, which are usually the last to make their debut, seem to only __________ things further. In many _____, they have little or no space to emerge. This can lead to impacted wisdom teeth, which may cause __________ and infections if not surgically removed.

Solution


  1. decrease
  2. cases
  3. discomfort
  4. space
  5. humans
  6. short
  7. history
  8. jawbone
  9. positions
  10. complicate
  11. jostled

Original Text


Examining fossils spanning millions of years of evolution, researchers have observed a gradual decrease in tooth and jaw size in humans and our ancestors. Many think that, for most of human history, dietary shifts— like the introduction of meat and the advent of cooking— were gradual, and that changes in tooth and jaw size basically kept pace with one another. But with the more recent revolutions in agricultural and culinary habits, that relationship changed. As the theory goes, over a relatively short period, some human populations saw a decrease in jawbone size, while teeth stayed roughly the same size, meaning they're left vying for limited space. When they do grow in, they may displace others and get jostled into some eccentric positions. And then wisdom teeth, which are usually the last to make their debut, seem to only complicate things further. In many cases, they have little or no space to emerge. This can lead to impacted wisdom teeth, which may cause discomfort and infections if not surgically removed.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
wisdom teeth 5
tooth crowding 3
larger jaws 2
jaw size 2
impacted wisdom 2


Important Words


  1. advent
  2. agricultural
  3. ancestors
  4. basically
  5. cases
  6. changed
  7. complicate
  8. culinary
  9. debut
  10. decrease
  11. dietary
  12. discomfort
  13. displace
  14. eccentric
  15. emerge
  16. evolution
  17. examining
  18. fossils
  19. gradual
  20. grow
  21. habits
  22. history
  23. human
  24. humans
  25. impacted
  26. infections
  27. introduction
  28. jaw
  29. jawbone
  30. jostled
  31. lead
  32. left
  33. limited
  34. meaning
  35. meat
  36. millions
  37. observed
  38. pace
  39. period
  40. populations
  41. positions
  42. relationship
  43. removed
  44. researchers
  45. revolutions
  46. roughly
  47. short
  48. size
  49. space
  50. spanning
  51. stayed
  52. surgically
  53. teeth
  54. theory
  55. tooth
  56. vying
  57. wisdom
  58. years