full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Barbara Thorne: Coneheads, egg stacks and anteater attacks The reign of a termite queen

Unscramble the Blue Letters

When the rntseulig offspring hatch, they bear little rbsmeecanle to their parents; they’re smaller, wingless, eyeless, and sterile. Some of them, the soldiers, have the species’ trademark conspicuously shaped heads— the function of which will soon be revealed. They set out to scout for dead wood, laying the pheromone tairls the rest of the offspring, the colony’s wrkeors, follow and riefnorce as they retrveie food. As the termites collect and decompose plant debris, they return essential nutrients to the soil, allowing more vegetation to thrive.

Open Cloze

When the _________ offspring hatch, they bear little ___________ to their parents; they’re smaller, wingless, eyeless, and sterile. Some of them, the soldiers, have the species’ trademark conspicuously shaped heads— the function of which will soon be revealed. They set out to scout for dead wood, laying the pheromone ______ the rest of the offspring, the colony’s _______, follow and _________ as they ________ food. As the termites collect and decompose plant debris, they return essential nutrients to the soil, allowing more vegetation to thrive.

Solution

  1. workers
  2. retrieve
  3. resulting
  4. resemblance
  5. reinforce
  6. trails

Original Text

When the resulting offspring hatch, they bear little resemblance to their parents; they’re smaller, wingless, eyeless, and sterile. Some of them, the soldiers, have the species’ trademark conspicuously shaped heads— the function of which will soon be revealed. They set out to scout for dead wood, laying the pheromone trails the rest of the offspring, the colony’s workers, follow and reinforce as they retrieve food. As the termites collect and decompose plant debris, they return essential nutrients to the soil, allowing more vegetation to thrive.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
satellite nests 2

Important Words

  1. allowing
  2. bear
  3. collect
  4. conspicuously
  5. dead
  6. debris
  7. decompose
  8. essential
  9. eyeless
  10. follow
  11. food
  12. function
  13. hatch
  14. laying
  15. nutrients
  16. offspring
  17. pheromone
  18. plant
  19. reinforce
  20. resemblance
  21. rest
  22. resulting
  23. retrieve
  24. return
  25. revealed
  26. scout
  27. set
  28. shaped
  29. smaller
  30. soil
  31. soldiers
  32. sterile
  33. termites
  34. thrive
  35. trademark
  36. trails
  37. vegetation
  38. wingless
  39. wood
  40. workers