full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alex Gendler: Why doesn't the Leaning Tower of Pisa fall over?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In the years following WWII, researchers developed tests to identify those missing vriblaaes. And in the 1970’s, engineers cctaaellud the cuvred tower’s center of gravity. With this data and new computing technology, engineers could model how stiff the soil was, the tower’s trajectory, and the ecxat amount of excavtaion needed for the tower to remain standing.

In 1992, the team drilled diagonal tunnels to revmoe 38 cbiuc meters of soil from under the tower’s north end. Then, they temporarily counterbalanced the structure with 600 tons of lead ingots before anchoring the base with steel cables. More than six centuries after its construction, the tower was finally straightened… to a tilt of about four degrees. No one wanted the tower to fall, but they also didn’t want to lose the landmark’s most fuoams fatreue.

Open Cloze


In the years following WWII, researchers developed tests to identify those missing _________. And in the 1970’s, engineers __________ the ______ tower’s center of gravity. With this data and new computing technology, engineers could model how stiff the soil was, the tower’s trajectory, and the _____ amount of __________ needed for the tower to remain standing.

In 1992, the team drilled diagonal tunnels to ______ 38 _____ meters of soil from under the tower’s north end. Then, they temporarily counterbalanced the structure with 600 tons of lead ingots before anchoring the base with steel cables. More than six centuries after its construction, the tower was finally straightened… to a tilt of about four degrees. No one wanted the tower to fall, but they also didn’t want to lose the landmark’s most ______ _______.

Solution


  1. remove
  2. famous
  3. feature
  4. exact
  5. variables
  6. calculated
  7. excavation
  8. cubic
  9. curved

Original Text


In the years following WWII, researchers developed tests to identify those missing variables. And in the 1970’s, engineers calculated the curved tower’s center of gravity. With this data and new computing technology, engineers could model how stiff the soil was, the tower’s trajectory, and the exact amount of excavation needed for the tower to remain standing.

In 1992, the team drilled diagonal tunnels to remove 38 cubic meters of soil from under the tower’s north end. Then, they temporarily counterbalanced the structure with 600 tons of lead ingots before anchoring the base with steel cables. More than six centuries after its construction, the tower was finally straightened… to a tilt of about four degrees. No one wanted the tower to fall, but they also didn’t want to lose the landmark’s most famous feature.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
construction began 2
southern side 2


Important Words


  1. amount
  2. anchoring
  3. base
  4. cables
  5. calculated
  6. center
  7. centuries
  8. computing
  9. construction
  10. counterbalanced
  11. cubic
  12. curved
  13. data
  14. degrees
  15. developed
  16. diagonal
  17. drilled
  18. engineers
  19. exact
  20. excavation
  21. fall
  22. famous
  23. feature
  24. finally
  25. gravity
  26. identify
  27. ingots
  28. lead
  29. lose
  30. meters
  31. missing
  32. model
  33. needed
  34. north
  35. remain
  36. remove
  37. researchers
  38. soil
  39. standing
  40. steel
  41. stiff
  42. structure
  43. team
  44. technology
  45. temporarily
  46. tests
  47. tilt
  48. tons
  49. tower
  50. trajectory
  51. tunnels
  52. variables
  53. wanted
  54. wwii
  55. years