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

  1. possibly
  2. medium
  3. necessarily
  4. clouds
  5. atmosphere
  6. unfamiliar
  7. 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

  1. atmosphere
  2. bodies
  3. chemistry
  4. clouds
  5. condense
  6. forms
  7. full
  8. high
  9. lakes
  10. largest
  11. life
  12. liquid
  13. living
  14. material
  15. means
  16. medium
  17. methane
  18. molecules
  19. moon
  20. necessarily
  21. nitrogen
  22. nurturing
  23. organic
  24. paired
  25. possibly
  26. quantities
  27. rain
  28. seas
  29. sky
  30. substance
  31. support
  32. supportive
  33. surface
  34. sustaining
  35. thick
  36. titan
  37. unfamiliar
  38. water