TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Claudia Aguirre: Does stress cause pimples?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

She's only a few feet away. The closer he gets, the more nervous he becomes, the budding zit on his nose growing bigger and beggir until it practically eclipses his face. She looks at him hovering nearby, sees the massive zit, and giggles. He slumps away, feeling sick. Stress can sure make a mess, and it happens to both teens and adults. But how does it happen? Let's rewind to before the zit, to before Justin even sees his crush. Already late for school, Justin got to class just in time to hear the teacher say "pop quiz." He hadn't done his homework the night before, and felt more unprepared than the ambushed World War II srdolies he was supposed to write about. A sudden rush of panic spwet over his body, leaving him with sweaty palms, a foggy mind and a racing heart. He slutmbed out of class in a daze, and ran straight into his all-time crush, spiking up his stress. Stress is a geanerl biological rpsonsee to a potential danger. In primitive caveman terms, stress can make you fight for your life, or run for your life, if, for example, you're confronted by a hungry saber-tooth tiger. Special chemicals cellad sterss hormones run through your body, giving you more oxygen and poewr to run away from deangr or to face it and fight for your life, hence the term "fight or flight." But when you don't fight, or take flight, you face the plight. When we're taking final exams, sitting in tfairfc or pirdnnoeg pollution, we internalize stress. It all begins in the brain. The hypothalamus, the master coleorltnr of your hmnoroes, rlaesees something called corticotropin-releasing hormone. This tigregrs the pituitary gnlad, a pea-sized gland found at the base of the biarn, to release adrenocorticotropic hnmoore which then stimulates the adrenal gland snttiig on top of the kidneys to release cortisol, the major stress hormone. These nraautl chemicals are a great help when you need to run away quickly, or do superhuman feats of courage, but when you're simply sitting, these stress hormones collect in the body and affect your overall health. Stress hormones isarnece inflammation in the body, sprupess the imnmue system, which makes you more susceptible to infection by acne-causing bacteria, and can even increase oil production in the skin. And this is the perfect storm for forming a pimple. Cortisol is a moajr stress hormone involved in making skin cells churn out oily lipids from special glands called sebaceous glands. But when there's too much of these oily ldipis, called sebum, they can plug up the swollen, imlefand pores and trap the pesky, acne-causing bacteria inside, where they set up house and tvrihe. Add a dash of inflammatory nrteeioppdeus released by the nurevos system when you're — well, nervous — and angry zits follow. To make matters wsore, Justin is a boy, meaning he's got more testosterone than girls. Testosterone is another hormone that increases oil production in the skin. So, his already oily skin, together with a boost in oil and iiolaamtfnmn from stress, is the perfect eneomrinnvt for becarita to swell, swell, selwl up into a major zit. So what could've Justin done to avoid the big pimple? Stressful situations are unavoidable. But we can try to change our responses so that we're not so stressed in the end. And had he been confident in aanirpophcg her, she might not have noticed the pimple, or he might not have had one.

Open Cloze

She's only a few feet away. The closer he gets, the more nervous he becomes, the budding zit on his nose growing bigger and ______ until it practically eclipses his face. She looks at him hovering nearby, sees the massive zit, and giggles. He slumps away, feeling sick. Stress can sure make a mess, and it happens to both teens and adults. But how does it happen? Let's rewind to before the zit, to before Justin even sees his crush. Already late for school, Justin got to class just in time to hear the teacher say "pop quiz." He hadn't done his homework the night before, and felt more unprepared than the ambushed World War II ________ he was supposed to write about. A sudden rush of panic _____ over his body, leaving him with sweaty palms, a foggy mind and a racing heart. He ________ out of class in a daze, and ran straight into his all-time crush, spiking up his stress. Stress is a _______ biological ________ to a potential danger. In primitive caveman terms, stress can make you fight for your life, or run for your life, if, for example, you're confronted by a hungry saber-tooth tiger. Special chemicals ______ ______ hormones run through your body, giving you more oxygen and _____ to run away from ______ or to face it and fight for your life, hence the term "fight or flight." But when you don't fight, or take flight, you face the plight. When we're taking final exams, sitting in _______ or _________ pollution, we internalize stress. It all begins in the brain. The hypothalamus, the master __________ of your ________, ________ something called corticotropin-releasing hormone. This ________ the pituitary _____, a pea-sized gland found at the base of the _____, to release adrenocorticotropic _______ which then stimulates the adrenal gland _______ on top of the kidneys to release cortisol, the major stress hormone. These _______ chemicals are a great help when you need to run away quickly, or do superhuman feats of courage, but when you're simply sitting, these stress hormones collect in the body and affect your overall health. Stress hormones ________ inflammation in the body, ________ the ______ system, which makes you more susceptible to infection by acne-causing bacteria, and can even increase oil production in the skin. And this is the perfect storm for forming a pimple. Cortisol is a _____ stress hormone involved in making skin cells churn out oily lipids from special glands called sebaceous glands. But when there's too much of these oily ______, called sebum, they can plug up the swollen, ________ pores and trap the pesky, acne-causing bacteria inside, where they set up house and ______. Add a dash of inflammatory _____________ released by the _______ system when you're — well, nervous — and angry zits follow. To make matters _____, Justin is a boy, meaning he's got more testosterone than girls. Testosterone is another hormone that increases oil production in the skin. So, his already oily skin, together with a boost in oil and ____________ from stress, is the perfect ___________ for ________ to swell, swell, _____ up into a major zit. So what could've Justin done to avoid the big pimple? Stressful situations are unavoidable. But we can try to change our responses so that we're not so stressed in the end. And had he been confident in ___________ her, she might not have noticed the pimple, or he might not have had one.

Solution

thrive
power
traffic
inflammation
sitting
environment
stumbled
brain
pondering
inflamed
natural
soldiers
worse
major
neuropeptides
lipids
response
called
triggers
controller
swept
bigger
hormone
nervous
gland
stress
immune
swell
bacteria
increase
general
hormones
danger
suppress
approaching
releases

Original Text

She's only a few feet away. The closer he gets, the more nervous he becomes, the budding zit on his nose growing bigger and bigger until it practically eclipses his face. She looks at him hovering nearby, sees the massive zit, and giggles. He slumps away, feeling sick. Stress can sure make a mess, and it happens to both teens and adults. But how does it happen? Let's rewind to before the zit, to before Justin even sees his crush. Already late for school, Justin got to class just in time to hear the teacher say "pop quiz." He hadn't done his homework the night before, and felt more unprepared than the ambushed World War II soldiers he was supposed to write about. A sudden rush of panic swept over his body, leaving him with sweaty palms, a foggy mind and a racing heart. He stumbled out of class in a daze, and ran straight into his all-time crush, spiking up his stress. Stress is a general biological response to a potential danger. In primitive caveman terms, stress can make you fight for your life, or run for your life, if, for example, you're confronted by a hungry saber-tooth tiger. Special chemicals called stress hormones run through your body, giving you more oxygen and power to run away from danger or to face it and fight for your life, hence the term "fight or flight." But when you don't fight, or take flight, you face the plight. When we're taking final exams, sitting in traffic or pondering pollution, we internalize stress. It all begins in the brain. The hypothalamus, the master controller of your hormones, releases something called corticotropin-releasing hormone. This triggers the pituitary gland, a pea-sized gland found at the base of the brain, to release adrenocorticotropic hormone which then stimulates the adrenal gland sitting on top of the kidneys to release cortisol, the major stress hormone. These natural chemicals are a great help when you need to run away quickly, or do superhuman feats of courage, but when you're simply sitting, these stress hormones collect in the body and affect your overall health. Stress hormones increase inflammation in the body, suppress the immune system, which makes you more susceptible to infection by acne-causing bacteria, and can even increase oil production in the skin. And this is the perfect storm for forming a pimple. Cortisol is a major stress hormone involved in making skin cells churn out oily lipids from special glands called sebaceous glands. But when there's too much of these oily lipids, called sebum, they can plug up the swollen, inflamed pores and trap the pesky, acne-causing bacteria inside, where they set up house and thrive. Add a dash of inflammatory neuropeptides released by the nervous system when you're — well, nervous — and angry zits follow. To make matters worse, Justin is a boy, meaning he's got more testosterone than girls. Testosterone is another hormone that increases oil production in the skin. So, his already oily skin, together with a boost in oil and inflammation from stress, is the perfect environment for bacteria to swell, swell, swell up into a major zit. So what could've Justin done to avoid the big pimple? Stressful situations are unavoidable. But we can try to change our responses so that we're not so stressed in the end. And had he been confident in approaching her, she might not have noticed the pimple, or he might not have had one.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
stress hormones	3
major stress	2
stress hormone	2
oil production	2

ngrams of length 3

collocation	frequency
major stress hormone	2

Important Words

add
adrenal
adrenocorticotropic
adults
affect
ambushed
angry
approaching
avoid
bacteria
base
begins
big
bigger
biological
body
boost
boy
brain
budding
called
caveman
cells
change
chemicals
churn
class
closer
collect
confident
confronted
controller
cortisol
courage
crush
danger
dash
daze
eclipses
environment
exams
face
feats
feeling
feet
felt
fight
final
flight
foggy
follow
forming
general
giggles
girls
giving
gland
glands
great
growing
happen
health
hear
heart
homework
hormone
hormones
house
hovering
hungry
hypothalamus
ii
immune
increase
increases
infection
inflamed
inflammation
inflammatory
internalize
involved
justin
kidneys
late
leaving
life
lipids
major
making
massive
master
matters
meaning
mess
mind
natural
nearby
nervous
neuropeptides
night
nose
noticed
oil
oily
oxygen
palms
panic
perfect
pesky
pimple
pituitary
plight
plug
pollution
pondering
pores
potential
power
practically
primitive
production
quickly
quiz
racing
ran
release
released
releases
response
responses
rewind
run
rush
school
sebaceous
sebum
sees
set
sick
simply
sitting
situations
skin
slumps
soldiers
special
spiking
stimulates
storm
straight
stress
stressed
stressful
stumbled
sudden
superhuman
supposed
suppress
susceptible
sweaty
swell
swept
swollen
system
teacher
teens
term
terms
testosterone
thrive
tiger
time
top
traffic
trap
triggers
unavoidable
unprepared
war
world
worse
write
zit
zits