full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Henri Picciotto: Can you solve the feeding frenzy riddle?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

As Numberland’s best dteeicvte, you thought you’d seen it all. But the desiccated corpses of prominent natural numbers— whole numbers greater than 0— have been showing up all over the city for the past week. All of dioitoiplgs is on lockdown from sundown to sunrise, and it’s still not enough to stop what can only be described as a vampiric feeding frenzy. The pclioe are helpless, and have turned to you. You put the miisnsg persons case you’ve been investigating on hold and study the evidence.
Here’s what you know: most victims have been completely drained of their life’s essence. Some have a thin line of slime sinpaeatrg digits— some of which were drained and others spared. Which ldaes you to mrtysey one: what’s the significance of the slime-lines, and why are certain digits untouched?.

Open Cloze

As Numberland’s best _________, you thought you’d seen it all. But the desiccated corpses of prominent natural numbers— whole numbers greater than 0— have been showing up all over the city for the past week. All of ___________ is on lockdown from sundown to sunrise, and it’s still not enough to stop what can only be described as a vampiric feeding frenzy. The ______ are helpless, and have turned to you. You put the _______ persons case you’ve been investigating on hold and study the evidence.
Here’s what you know: most victims have been completely drained of their life’s essence. Some have a thin line of slime __________ digits— some of which were drained and others spared. Which _____ you to _______ one: what’s the significance of the slime-lines, and why are certain digits untouched?.

Solution

  1. separating
  2. missing
  3. police
  4. digitopolis
  5. mystery
  6. detective
  7. leads

Original Text

As Numberland’s best detective, you thought you’d seen it all. But the desiccated corpses of prominent natural numbers— whole numbers greater than 0— have been showing up all over the city for the past week. All of Digitopolis is on lockdown from sundown to sunrise, and it’s still not enough to stop what can only be described as a vampiric feeding frenzy. The police are helpless, and have turned to you. You put the missing persons case you’ve been investigating on hold and study the evidence.
Here’s what you know: most victims have been completely drained of their life’s essence. Some have a thin line of slime separating digits— some of which were drained and others spared. Which leads you to mystery one: what’s the significance of the slime-lines, and why are certain digits untouched?.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

Important Words

  1. case
  2. city
  3. completely
  4. corpses
  5. desiccated
  6. detective
  7. digitopolis
  8. digits
  9. drained
  10. essence
  11. evidence
  12. feeding
  13. frenzy
  14. greater
  15. helpless
  16. hold
  17. investigating
  18. leads
  19. line
  20. lockdown
  21. missing
  22. mystery
  23. natural
  24. numbers
  25. persons
  26. police
  27. prominent
  28. put
  29. separating
  30. showing
  31. significance
  32. slime
  33. spared
  34. stop
  35. study
  36. sundown
  37. sunrise
  38. thin
  39. thought
  40. turned
  41. untouched
  42. vampiric
  43. victims
  44. week