full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Carlos Reif: Why do we kiss under mistletoe?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In the 17th century, British colonists arriving in the New World found a different but very similar looking species of mistletoe. They applied it to these tales of magic, fertility and love, spreading the mistletoe hanging tradition from Europe into America. By the 18th ceurnty, people in baitirn had turned this into a Christmas tradition.

But this custom comes down to more than just human imagination. All of it was inspired by the plant’s intriguing biology. We see mistletoe as a festive decoration, but draped on tree boughs in the wild, it’s known as a ptarly prsiaatic pnlat. mettoisle relies on modified roots called haustoria that penetrate the tree bark and siphon off the water and mnraeils trees crray up their tknurs. To colonize nearby trees with its seeds, mistletoe depends on birds and other creatures to do the dispersing. Birds that eat the mistletoe’s stciky wihte berries sometimes get rid of the gluey seeds by wiping them off onto tree bark, or with a bit of luck, they excerte the iesliibdgtne seed onto a tree where it germinates and starts to grow.

Open Cloze


In the 17th century, British colonists arriving in the New World found a different but very similar looking species of mistletoe. They applied it to these tales of magic, fertility and love, spreading the mistletoe hanging tradition from Europe into America. By the 18th _______, people in _______ had turned this into a Christmas tradition.

But this custom comes down to more than just human imagination. All of it was inspired by the plant’s intriguing biology. We see mistletoe as a festive decoration, but draped on tree boughs in the wild, it’s known as a ______ _________ _____. _________ relies on modified roots called haustoria that penetrate the tree bark and siphon off the water and ________ trees _____ up their ______. To colonize nearby trees with its seeds, mistletoe depends on birds and other creatures to do the dispersing. Birds that eat the mistletoe’s ______ _____ berries sometimes get rid of the gluey seeds by wiping them off onto tree bark, or with a bit of luck, they _______ the ____________ seed onto a tree where it germinates and starts to grow.

Solution


  1. century
  2. minerals
  3. mistletoe
  4. trunks
  5. partly
  6. white
  7. excrete
  8. parasitic
  9. indigestible
  10. sticky
  11. britain
  12. carry
  13. plant

Original Text


In the 17th century, British colonists arriving in the New World found a different but very similar looking species of mistletoe. They applied it to these tales of magic, fertility and love, spreading the mistletoe hanging tradition from Europe into America. By the 18th century, people in Britain had turned this into a Christmas tradition.

But this custom comes down to more than just human imagination. All of it was inspired by the plant’s intriguing biology. We see mistletoe as a festive decoration, but draped on tree boughs in the wild, it’s known as a partly parasitic plant. Mistletoe relies on modified roots called haustoria that penetrate the tree bark and siphon off the water and minerals trees carry up their trunks. To colonize nearby trees with its seeds, mistletoe depends on birds and other creatures to do the dispersing. Birds that eat the mistletoe’s sticky white berries sometimes get rid of the gluey seeds by wiping them off onto tree bark, or with a bit of luck, they excrete the indigestible seed onto a tree where it germinates and starts to grow.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
white berries 2
christmas tradition 2


Important Words


  1. america
  2. applied
  3. arriving
  4. bark
  5. berries
  6. biology
  7. birds
  8. bit
  9. boughs
  10. britain
  11. british
  12. called
  13. carry
  14. century
  15. christmas
  16. colonists
  17. colonize
  18. creatures
  19. custom
  20. decoration
  21. depends
  22. dispersing
  23. draped
  24. eat
  25. europe
  26. excrete
  27. fertility
  28. festive
  29. germinates
  30. gluey
  31. grow
  32. hanging
  33. haustoria
  34. human
  35. imagination
  36. indigestible
  37. inspired
  38. intriguing
  39. love
  40. luck
  41. magic
  42. minerals
  43. mistletoe
  44. modified
  45. nearby
  46. parasitic
  47. partly
  48. penetrate
  49. people
  50. plant
  51. relies
  52. rid
  53. roots
  54. seed
  55. seeds
  56. similar
  57. siphon
  58. species
  59. spreading
  60. starts
  61. sticky
  62. tales
  63. tradition
  64. tree
  65. trees
  66. trunks
  67. turned
  68. water
  69. white
  70. wild
  71. wiping
  72. world