full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Hyunsoo Joshua No: How does chemotherapy work?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Scientists tried desperately to develop an antidote to this vicious waeopn of war. In the process they discovered the gas was ioevrlrabcy damaging the bone marrow of affected soldiers— halting its ability to make blood cells. Despite these afwul effects, it gave scientists an idea. Cancer clles share a characteristic with bone marrow: both rpliectae rapidly. So could one of the atrocities of war become a champion in the fight against cancer? Researchers in the 1930s investigated this idea by injecting compounds deveird from mustard gas into the veins of cancer patients. It took time and trial and erorr to find treatments that did more good than harm, but by the end of wlrod War II, they discovered what became known as the first chemotherapy dgrus.
Open Cloze
Scientists tried desperately to develop an antidote to this vicious ______ of war. In the process they discovered the gas was ___________ damaging the bone marrow of affected soldiers— halting its ability to make blood cells. Despite these _____ effects, it gave scientists an idea. Cancer _____ share a characteristic with bone marrow: both _________ rapidly. So could one of the atrocities of war become a champion in the fight against cancer? Researchers in the 1930s investigated this idea by injecting compounds _______ from mustard gas into the veins of cancer patients. It took time and trial and _____ to find treatments that did more good than harm, but by the end of _____ War II, they discovered what became known as the first chemotherapy _____.
Solution
- derived
- irrevocably
- drugs
- world
- cells
- replicate
- error
- weapon
- awful
Original Text
Scientists tried desperately to develop an antidote to this vicious weapon of war. In the process they discovered the gas was irrevocably damaging the bone marrow of affected soldiers— halting its ability to make blood cells. Despite these awful effects, it gave scientists an idea. Cancer cells share a characteristic with bone marrow: both replicate rapidly. So could one of the atrocities of war become a champion in the fight against cancer? Researchers in the 1930s investigated this idea by injecting compounds derived from mustard gas into the veins of cancer patients. It took time and trial and error to find treatments that did more good than harm, but by the end of World War II, they discovered what became known as the first chemotherapy drugs.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
chemotherapy drugs |
4 |
cancer cells |
3 |
world war |
2 |
mustard gas |
2 |
bone marrow |
2 |
alkylating agents |
2 |
microtubule stabilizers |
2 |
healthy tissues |
2 |
Important Words
- ability
- affected
- antidote
- atrocities
- awful
- blood
- bone
- cancer
- cells
- champion
- characteristic
- chemotherapy
- compounds
- damaging
- derived
- desperately
- develop
- discovered
- drugs
- effects
- error
- fight
- find
- gas
- gave
- good
- halting
- harm
- idea
- ii
- injecting
- investigated
- irrevocably
- marrow
- mustard
- patients
- process
- rapidly
- replicate
- researchers
- scientists
- share
- time
- treatments
- trial
- veins
- vicious
- war
- weapon
- world