full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi: To detect diseases earlier, let's speak bacteria's secret language

Unscramble the Blue Letters

But what is it like when bacteria cnomimtcaue? Before I developed the translation tool, my first assumption was that bacteria would have a primitive language, like ifnatns that haven't developed words and sentences yet. When they luagh, they're happy; when they cry, they're sad. Simple as that. But bacteria turned out to be nowhere as primitive as I thought they would be. A molecule is not just a molecule. It can mean different things depending on the context, just like the cyrnig of babies can mean different things: sometimes the baby is hungry, sometimes it's wet, sometimes it's hurt or afraid. Parents know how to decode those cries. And to be a real toslaanitrn tool, it had to be able to decode the signaling molecules and tarasltne them depending on the cotnext. And who knows? Maybe Google Translate will adopt this soon.

Open Cloze

But what is it like when bacteria ___________? Before I developed the translation tool, my first assumption was that bacteria would have a primitive language, like _______ that haven't developed words and sentences yet. When they _____, they're happy; when they cry, they're sad. Simple as that. But bacteria turned out to be nowhere as primitive as I thought they would be. A molecule is not just a molecule. It can mean different things depending on the context, just like the ______ of babies can mean different things: sometimes the baby is hungry, sometimes it's wet, sometimes it's hurt or afraid. Parents know how to decode those cries. And to be a real ___________ tool, it had to be able to decode the signaling molecules and _________ them depending on the _______. And who knows? Maybe Google Translate will adopt this soon.

Solution

  1. crying
  2. translate
  3. communicate
  4. infants
  5. laugh
  6. context
  7. translation

Original Text

But what is it like when bacteria communicate? Before I developed the translation tool, my first assumption was that bacteria would have a primitive language, like infants that haven't developed words and sentences yet. When they laugh, they're happy; when they cry, they're sad. Simple as that. But bacteria turned out to be nowhere as primitive as I thought they would be. A molecule is not just a molecule. It can mean different things depending on the context, just like the crying of babies can mean different things: sometimes the baby is hungry, sometimes it's wet, sometimes it's hurt or afraid. Parents know how to decode those cries. And to be a real translation tool, it had to be able to decode the signaling molecules and translate them depending on the context. And who knows? Maybe Google Translate will adopt this soon.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
bacterial conversations 5
signaling molecules 5
bacterial communities 3
traditional diagnostic 3
bacteria live 2
confidential information 2
translation tool 2
human body 2
bacterial family 2
patient samples 2
diagnostic test 2
young girl 2
traditional diagnostics 2
diagnostics showed 2
traditional methods 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
traditional diagnostic test 2
traditional diagnostics showed 2

Important Words

  1. adopt
  2. afraid
  3. assumption
  4. babies
  5. baby
  6. bacteria
  7. communicate
  8. context
  9. cries
  10. cry
  11. crying
  12. decode
  13. depending
  14. developed
  15. google
  16. hungry
  17. hurt
  18. infants
  19. language
  20. laugh
  21. molecule
  22. molecules
  23. parents
  24. primitive
  25. real
  26. sad
  27. sentences
  28. signaling
  29. simple
  30. thought
  31. tool
  32. translate
  33. translation
  34. turned
  35. wet
  36. words