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

  1. derived
  2. irrevocably
  3. drugs
  4. world
  5. cells
  6. replicate
  7. error
  8. weapon
  9. 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

  1. ability
  2. affected
  3. antidote
  4. atrocities
  5. awful
  6. blood
  7. bone
  8. cancer
  9. cells
  10. champion
  11. characteristic
  12. chemotherapy
  13. compounds
  14. damaging
  15. derived
  16. desperately
  17. develop
  18. discovered
  19. drugs
  20. effects
  21. error
  22. fight
  23. find
  24. gas
  25. gave
  26. good
  27. halting
  28. harm
  29. idea
  30. ii
  31. injecting
  32. investigated
  33. irrevocably
  34. marrow
  35. mustard
  36. patients
  37. process
  38. rapidly
  39. replicate
  40. researchers
  41. scientists
  42. share
  43. time
  44. treatments
  45. trial
  46. veins
  47. vicious
  48. war
  49. weapon
  50. world