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
- workers
- retrieve
- resulting
- resemblance
- reinforce
- 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
- allowing
- bear
- collect
- conspicuously
- dead
- debris
- decompose
- essential
- eyeless
- follow
- food
- function
- hatch
- laying
- nutrients
- offspring
- pheromone
- plant
- reinforce
- resemblance
- rest
- resulting
- retrieve
- return
- revealed
- scout
- set
- shaped
- smaller
- soil
- soldiers
- sterile
- termites
- thrive
- trademark
- trails
- vegetation
- wingless
- wood
- workers