full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Augusto Carballido: There may be extraterrestrial life in our solar system
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Although it’s the best known substance for nurturing life, water isn’t ncrieaeslsy the only mueidm that can support living things. Take tiatn, Saturn’s largest moon, which has a thick nitrogen atsrhmpoee containing methane and many other organic molecules. Its coldus condense and rain onto Titan’s surface, sustaining lakes and seas full of liquid methane. This compound’s particular chemistry means it’s not as supportive a medium as water. But, paired with the high quantities of organic material that also rain down from the sky, these bodies of liquid methane could pslsioby support unmlfiaair life forms.
Open Cloze
Although it’s the best known substance for nurturing life, water isn’t ___________ the only ______ that can support living things. Take _____, Saturn’s largest moon, which has a thick nitrogen __________ containing methane and many other organic molecules. Its ______ condense and rain onto Titan’s surface, sustaining lakes and seas full of liquid methane. This compound’s particular chemistry means it’s not as supportive a medium as water. But, paired with the high quantities of organic material that also rain down from the sky, these bodies of liquid methane could ________ support __________ life forms.
Solution
- possibly
- medium
- necessarily
- clouds
- atmosphere
- unfamiliar
- titan
Original Text
Although it’s the best known substance for nurturing life, water isn’t necessarily the only medium that can support living things. Take Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, which has a thick nitrogen atmosphere containing methane and many other organic molecules. Its clouds condense and rain onto Titan’s surface, sustaining lakes and seas full of liquid methane. This compound’s particular chemistry means it’s not as supportive a medium as water. But, paired with the high quantities of organic material that also rain down from the sky, these bodies of liquid methane could possibly support unfamiliar life forms.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
liquid methane |
2 |
ocean worlds |
2 |
Important Words
- atmosphere
- bodies
- chemistry
- clouds
- condense
- forms
- full
- high
- lakes
- largest
- life
- liquid
- living
- material
- means
- medium
- methane
- molecules
- moon
- necessarily
- nitrogen
- nurturing
- organic
- paired
- possibly
- quantities
- rain
- seas
- sky
- substance
- support
- supportive
- surface
- sustaining
- thick
- titan
- unfamiliar
- water