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
- sounds
- concave
- construction
- large
- combining
- small
- times
- nearby
- dissipate
- spikes
- layers
- shapes
- 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
- abandoning
- areas
- bank
- beaver
- bite
- bottom
- build
- built
- chews
- combining
- concave
- construction
- creates
- dam
- dams
- deep
- dissipate
- due
- edge
- feet
- find
- finds
- floor
- flowing
- flows
- forceful
- heavily
- land
- large
- largest
- layers
- lodge
- logs
- mammal
- massive
- moat
- mud
- muddy
- nearby
- northwestern
- opts
- predators
- proud
- reinforce
- representative
- risk
- rocks
- rocky
- rodent
- rolls
- running
- safe
- searches
- shapes
- site
- size
- small
- soft
- sounds
- species
- spikes
- standing
- steep
- sticks
- stream
- streambed
- stronger
- strongest
- sturdy
- tall
- times
- vegetation
- water
- wooded