full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Stephanie Sardelis: Why do whales sing?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So how do they do it? Land mlaamms like us generate snoud by moving air over our vcaol cords when we exhale, causing them to vibrate. Baleen whales have a U-shaped fold of tissue between their lungs and their large ialntafble organs called laryngeal sacs. We don't know this for sure because it's eielnlatssy impossible to observe the internal organs of a living, siginng whale, but we think that when a whale sings, muscular contractions in the throat and chest move air from the lungs across the U-fold and into the laryngeal sacs, causing the U-fold to vbirate. The resulting sound resonates in the sacs like a choir singing in a cathedral mnkaig songs loud enough to propagate up to thousands of kilometers away. weahls don't have to exhale to sing. Instead, the air is recycled back into the lungs, creating sound once more.

Open Cloze


So how do they do it? Land _______ like us generate _____ by moving air over our _____ cords when we exhale, causing them to vibrate. Baleen whales have a U-shaped fold of tissue between their lungs and their large __________ organs called laryngeal sacs. We don't know this for sure because it's ___________ impossible to observe the internal organs of a living, _______ whale, but we think that when a whale sings, muscular contractions in the throat and chest move air from the lungs across the U-fold and into the laryngeal sacs, causing the U-fold to _______. The resulting sound resonates in the sacs like a choir singing in a cathedral ______ songs loud enough to propagate up to thousands of kilometers away. ______ don't have to exhale to sing. Instead, the air is recycled back into the lungs, creating sound once more.

Solution


  1. essentially
  2. vocal
  3. mammals
  4. sound
  5. vibrate
  6. inflatable
  7. whales
  8. making
  9. singing

Original Text


So how do they do it? Land mammals like us generate sound by moving air over our vocal cords when we exhale, causing them to vibrate. Baleen whales have a U-shaped fold of tissue between their lungs and their large inflatable organs called laryngeal sacs. We don't know this for sure because it's essentially impossible to observe the internal organs of a living, singing whale, but we think that when a whale sings, muscular contractions in the throat and chest move air from the lungs across the U-fold and into the laryngeal sacs, causing the U-fold to vibrate. The resulting sound resonates in the sacs like a choir singing in a cathedral making songs loud enough to propagate up to thousands of kilometers away. Whales don't have to exhale to sing. Instead, the air is recycled back into the lungs, creating sound once more.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
whale songs 3
baleen whales 3
humpback whales 2
breeding grounds 2
human activity 2


Important Words


  1. air
  2. baleen
  3. called
  4. cathedral
  5. causing
  6. chest
  7. choir
  8. contractions
  9. cords
  10. creating
  11. essentially
  12. exhale
  13. fold
  14. generate
  15. impossible
  16. inflatable
  17. internal
  18. kilometers
  19. land
  20. large
  21. laryngeal
  22. living
  23. loud
  24. lungs
  25. making
  26. mammals
  27. move
  28. moving
  29. muscular
  30. observe
  31. organs
  32. propagate
  33. recycled
  34. resonates
  35. resulting
  36. sacs
  37. sing
  38. singing
  39. sings
  40. songs
  41. sound
  42. thousands
  43. throat
  44. tissue
  45. vibrate
  46. vocal
  47. whale
  48. whales