full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lara Durgavich: An evolutionary perspective on human health and disease

Unscramble the Blue Letters

For many pregnant women, this news might produce a full-on panic. But I knew something that helped keep me calm when I heard this bombshell about my own booilgy. I knew that my husband, whose ancestry isn't Eastern European jisewh like mine, had a very low llhikioeod of also being a criaerr for the Tay-Sachs mutation. While the frequency of hreegoeozytts, individuals who have one normal copy of the gene and one mutated copy, is about one out of 27 people among Jews of Ashkenazi descent, like me, in most populations, only one in about 300 people carry the Tay-Sachs miuoattn. tlanlhufky, it turned out I was right not to worry too much. My husband isn't a carrier, and we now have two beautiful and healthy children.

Open Cloze

For many pregnant women, this news might produce a full-on panic. But I knew something that helped keep me calm when I heard this bombshell about my own _______. I knew that my husband, whose ancestry isn't Eastern European ______ like mine, had a very low __________ of also being a _______ for the Tay-Sachs mutation. While the frequency of _____________, individuals who have one normal copy of the gene and one mutated copy, is about one out of 27 people among Jews of Ashkenazi descent, like me, in most populations, only one in about 300 people carry the Tay-Sachs ________. __________, it turned out I was right not to worry too much. My husband isn't a carrier, and we now have two beautiful and healthy children.

Solution

  1. thankfully
  2. biology
  3. mutation
  4. carrier
  5. jewish
  6. likelihood
  7. heterozygotes

Original Text

For many pregnant women, this news might produce a full-on panic. But I knew something that helped keep me calm when I heard this bombshell about my own biology. I knew that my husband, whose ancestry isn't Eastern European Jewish like mine, had a very low likelihood of also being a carrier for the Tay-Sachs mutation. While the frequency of heterozygotes, individuals who have one normal copy of the gene and one mutated copy, is about one out of 27 people among Jews of Ashkenazi descent, like me, in most populations, only one in about 300 people carry the Tay-Sachs mutation. Thankfully, it turned out I was right not to worry too much. My husband isn't a carrier, and we now have two beautiful and healthy children.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
natural selection 6
evolutionary medicine 5
sickle cell 5
heterozygote advantage 4
cell anemia 4
red blood 4
eastern european 3
normal copy 2
unusually high 2
high rate 2
ashkenazi population 2
defective gene 2
problems today 2
ashkenazi jews 2
blood cells 2
human health 2
proximate explanations 2
ultimate perspective 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
sickle cell anemia 4
unusually high rate 2
red blood cells 2

Important Words

  1. ancestry
  2. ashkenazi
  3. beautiful
  4. biology
  5. bombshell
  6. calm
  7. carrier
  8. carry
  9. children
  10. copy
  11. descent
  12. eastern
  13. european
  14. frequency
  15. gene
  16. healthy
  17. heard
  18. helped
  19. heterozygotes
  20. husband
  21. individuals
  22. jewish
  23. jews
  24. knew
  25. likelihood
  26. mutated
  27. mutation
  28. news
  29. normal
  30. panic
  31. people
  32. populations
  33. pregnant
  34. produce
  35. thankfully
  36. turned
  37. women
  38. worry