full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Carolyn Beans: Why is rice so popular?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


If you were to place all the rice consumed each year on one side of a scale, and every person in the world on the other, the salce would tip heavily towards rice's favor. This beloved crop croebtuints over 20% of the calories consumed by humans each year. Korean bibimbap, Nigerian joollf, Indian biryani, Spanish paella, and countless other culinary masterpieces all begin with rice. So how did this humble grain end up in so many cuisines?

The roots of rice go back thousands of years to when erlay farmers in Asia, Africa, and South America each independently domesticated the crop. First came Asian rice, which many plant geneticists believe originated in what's now cihna. Over 10,000 yreas ago, nodmaic hntuers in the rgieon began gathering and eating seeds from a weedy grass. Then, around 9,000 years ago, they started planting these sedes, prompting nomadic hunters to stelte into farming communities. With each harvest, growers selected and rnlaetepd seeds from the rice plants that pleased them most— like those with bigger and more petflunil grains or aromatic forlavs. Over millennia, thousands of varieties of Asian rice emerged.

Open Cloze


If you were to place all the rice consumed each year on one side of a scale, and every person in the world on the other, the _____ would tip heavily towards rice's favor. This beloved crop ___________ over 20% of the calories consumed by humans each year. Korean bibimbap, Nigerian ______, Indian biryani, Spanish paella, and countless other culinary masterpieces all begin with rice. So how did this humble grain end up in so many cuisines?

The roots of rice go back thousands of years to when _____ farmers in Asia, Africa, and South America each independently domesticated the crop. First came Asian rice, which many plant geneticists believe originated in what's now _____. Over 10,000 _____ ago, _______ _______ in the ______ began gathering and eating seeds from a weedy grass. Then, around 9,000 years ago, they started planting these _____, prompting nomadic hunters to ______ into farming communities. With each harvest, growers selected and _________ seeds from the rice plants that pleased them most— like those with bigger and more _________ grains or aromatic _______. Over millennia, thousands of varieties of Asian rice emerged.

Solution


  1. early
  2. jollof
  3. flavors
  4. china
  5. plentiful
  6. scale
  7. years
  8. hunters
  9. nomadic
  10. settle
  11. region
  12. seeds
  13. replanted
  14. contributes

Original Text


If you were to place all the rice consumed each year on one side of a scale, and every person in the world on the other, the scale would tip heavily towards rice's favor. This beloved crop contributes over 20% of the calories consumed by humans each year. Korean bibimbap, Nigerian jollof, Indian biryani, Spanish paella, and countless other culinary masterpieces all begin with rice. So how did this humble grain end up in so many cuisines?

The roots of rice go back thousands of years to when early farmers in Asia, Africa, and South America each independently domesticated the crop. First came Asian rice, which many plant geneticists believe originated in what's now China. Over 10,000 years ago, nomadic hunters in the region began gathering and eating seeds from a weedy grass. Then, around 9,000 years ago, they started planting these seeds, prompting nomadic hunters to settle into farming communities. With each harvest, growers selected and replanted seeds from the rice plants that pleased them most— like those with bigger and more plentiful grains or aromatic flavors. Over millennia, thousands of varieties of Asian rice emerged.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
nomadic hunters 2
weedy grass 2
rice plants 2
rice cultivation 2
greenhouse gas 2
methane emissions 2
alternate wetting 2


Important Words


  1. africa
  2. america
  3. aromatic
  4. asia
  5. asian
  6. began
  7. beloved
  8. bibimbap
  9. bigger
  10. biryani
  11. calories
  12. china
  13. communities
  14. consumed
  15. contributes
  16. countless
  17. crop
  18. cuisines
  19. culinary
  20. domesticated
  21. early
  22. eating
  23. emerged
  24. farmers
  25. farming
  26. favor
  27. flavors
  28. gathering
  29. geneticists
  30. grain
  31. grains
  32. grass
  33. growers
  34. harvest
  35. heavily
  36. humans
  37. humble
  38. hunters
  39. independently
  40. indian
  41. jollof
  42. korean
  43. masterpieces
  44. millennia
  45. nigerian
  46. nomadic
  47. originated
  48. paella
  49. person
  50. place
  51. plant
  52. planting
  53. plants
  54. pleased
  55. plentiful
  56. prompting
  57. region
  58. replanted
  59. rice
  60. roots
  61. scale
  62. seeds
  63. selected
  64. settle
  65. side
  66. south
  67. spanish
  68. started
  69. thousands
  70. tip
  71. varieties
  72. weedy
  73. world
  74. year
  75. years