full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Glynnis Hood: Why do beavers build dams?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Consider this beaver in the northwestern US. Standing just under 2 feet tall, he’s a proud representative of the world’s second largest rodent species. While he’s at risk to predators on land, once he’s built a lodge, he’ll have a massive moat to keep him safe. But he can’t just build a dam anywhere. Following the snodus of running water, our beaver searches heavily wooded areas to find a medium-sized stream that’s not too steep or too deep. After abandoning one ccistutrnoon site due to its rocky floor, he finds a stream with a soft, muddy bottom. cbininmog vegetation, mud, and sticks, he creates a slaml bank along the stream’s edge. Then, using a bite almost 3 teims stronger than any other mammal of this size, our beaver chews nrbaey logs into sturdy sticks. He then rolls them into the water and sikpes them down into the soft streambed. Beaver dams come in several sphaes, but our beaver opts for a canovce dam to dsistpiae the forceful flowing water, and leyars in lrgae rkocs to reinforce areas where water flows the strongest.

Open Cloze

Consider this beaver in the northwestern US. Standing just under 2 feet tall, he’s a proud representative of the world’s second largest rodent species. While he’s at risk to predators on land, once he’s built a lodge, he’ll have a massive moat to keep him safe. But he can’t just build a dam anywhere. Following the ______ of running water, our beaver searches heavily wooded areas to find a medium-sized stream that’s not too steep or too deep. After abandoning one ____________ site due to its rocky floor, he finds a stream with a soft, muddy bottom. _________ vegetation, mud, and sticks, he creates a _____ bank along the stream’s edge. Then, using a bite almost 3 _____ stronger than any other mammal of this size, our beaver chews ______ logs into sturdy sticks. He then rolls them into the water and ______ them down into the soft streambed. Beaver dams come in several ______, but our beaver opts for a _______ dam to _________ the forceful flowing water, and ______ in _____ _____ to reinforce areas where water flows the strongest.

Solution

  1. sounds
  2. concave
  3. construction
  4. large
  5. combining
  6. small
  7. times
  8. nearby
  9. dissipate
  10. spikes
  11. layers
  12. shapes
  13. rocks

Original Text

Consider this beaver in the northwestern US. Standing just under 2 feet tall, he’s a proud representative of the world’s second largest rodent species. While he’s at risk to predators on land, once he’s built a lodge, he’ll have a massive moat to keep him safe. But he can’t just build a dam anywhere. Following the sounds of running water, our beaver searches heavily wooded areas to find a medium-sized stream that’s not too steep or too deep. After abandoning one construction site due to its rocky floor, he finds a stream with a soft, muddy bottom. Combining vegetation, mud, and sticks, he creates a small bank along the stream’s edge. Then, using a bite almost 3 times stronger than any other mammal of this size, our beaver chews nearby logs into sturdy sticks. He then rolls them into the water and spikes them down into the soft streambed. Beaver dams come in several shapes, but our beaver opts for a concave dam to dissipate the forceful flowing water, and layers in large rocks to reinforce areas where water flows the strongest.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
beaver dams 3
huge impacts 2

Important Words

  1. abandoning
  2. areas
  3. bank
  4. beaver
  5. bite
  6. bottom
  7. build
  8. built
  9. chews
  10. combining
  11. concave
  12. construction
  13. creates
  14. dam
  15. dams
  16. deep
  17. dissipate
  18. due
  19. edge
  20. feet
  21. find
  22. finds
  23. floor
  24. flowing
  25. flows
  26. forceful
  27. heavily
  28. land
  29. large
  30. largest
  31. layers
  32. lodge
  33. logs
  34. mammal
  35. massive
  36. moat
  37. mud
  38. muddy
  39. nearby
  40. northwestern
  41. opts
  42. predators
  43. proud
  44. reinforce
  45. representative
  46. risk
  47. rocks
  48. rocky
  49. rodent
  50. rolls
  51. running
  52. safe
  53. searches
  54. shapes
  55. site
  56. size
  57. small
  58. soft
  59. sounds
  60. species
  61. spikes
  62. standing
  63. steep
  64. sticks
  65. stream
  66. streambed
  67. stronger
  68. strongest
  69. sturdy
  70. tall
  71. times
  72. vegetation
  73. water
  74. wooded