TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Deborah Gordon: Inside the ant colony

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Think about all the things that need to happen for a hmaun settlement to thrive: oninbtiag food, building shelter, raising cliherdn and more. There needs to be a way to divide resources, organize major efforts and distribute lobar efficiently. Now imagine having to do this without any sort of planning or higher level communication. Welcome to the ant colony. Ants have some of the most complex sicaol organization in the animal kingdom, linivg in structured colonies containing different tyeps of members who perform specific roles. But although this may sound similar to some human societies, this organization doesn't arise from any hgeihr level decisions, but is part of a biologically programmed cycle. In many species, all the winged males and winged virgin queens from all the nearby colonies in the population each leave from their different nests and meet at a central place to mate, using pheromones to guide each other to a breeding ground. After mating, the mleas die off, while females try to establish a new colony. The few that are successful settle down in a suitable spot, lose their wings, and begin lnayig eggs, slliceveety fzltiiinerg some using stored sperm they've saved up from mating. Fertilized eggs grow into female wroekrs who care for the qeeun and her eggs. They will then defend the coonly and forage for food, while unfertilized eggs grow into males whose only job is to wait until they are ready to lavee the nest and rducorepe, bignening the cycle again. So how do worker ants decide what to do and when? Well, they don't really. Although they have no methods of intentional communication, individual ants do interact with one another through tucoh, sound and chemical signals. These stimuli accomplish many things from serving as an arlam to other ants if one is killed, to signaling when a queen is nearing the end of her reproductive life. But one of the most impressive cleltcoive capabilities of an ant colony is to thoroughly and efficiently explore large areas without any predetermined plan. Most species of ants have little or no sense of sight and can only smell things in their viitcniy. cebmiond with their lack of high level coordination, this would seem to make them terrible explorers, but there is an amazingly simple way that ants maximize their searching efficiency; by changing their movement patterns based on individual interactions. When two ants meet, they ssene each other by touching antennae. If there are many ants in a salml area this will happen more often causing them to respond by moving in more convoluted, random paths in order to search more thoroughly. But in a larger area, with less ants, where such meetings happen less often, they can walk in shirtagt leins to cover more ground. While exploring their environment in this way, an ant may come across any nmeubr of things, from trtehas or eneeims, to alternate nesting siets. And some species have another capability known as recruitment. When one of these ants happens to find food, it will return with it, marking its path with a chemical snect. Other ants will then follow this pheromone trail, renewing it each time they manage to find food and return. Once the food in that spot is depleted, the ants stop mrkaing their return. The scent dissipates and ants are no lgeonr attracted to that path. These seemingly crude mhodtes of search and retrieval are, in fact, so useful that they are applied in computer models to obtain optimal solutions from decentralized elements, working randomly and exchanging simple information. This has many theoretical and pcatraicl applications, from solving the fmaous traveling salesman problem, to scheduling cupntmiog tasks and optimizing Internet searches, to einanlbg groups of robots to search a mieiflned or a burning building collectively, without any crntael control. But you can ovresbe these fascinatingly simple, yet eevffcite, processes directly through some simple exeinrmetps, by allowing ants to enter empty spaces of various sizes and paying attioentn to their behavior. Ants may not be able to vote, hold meetings or even make any plans, but we humans may still be able to learn something from the way that such simple creatures are able to function so eilefvfecty in such complex ways.

Open Cloze

Think about all the things that need to happen for a _____ settlement to thrive: _________ food, building shelter, raising ________ and more. There needs to be a way to divide resources, organize major efforts and distribute _____ efficiently. Now imagine having to do this without any sort of planning or higher level communication. Welcome to the ant colony. Ants have some of the most complex ______ organization in the animal kingdom, ______ in structured colonies containing different _____ of members who perform specific roles. But although this may sound similar to some human societies, this organization doesn't arise from any ______ level decisions, but is part of a biologically programmed cycle. In many species, all the winged males and winged virgin queens from all the nearby colonies in the population each leave from their different nests and meet at a central place to mate, using pheromones to guide each other to a breeding ground. After mating, the _____ die off, while females try to establish a new colony. The few that are successful settle down in a suitable spot, lose their wings, and begin ______ eggs, ___________ ___________ some using stored sperm they've saved up from mating. Fertilized eggs grow into female _______ who care for the _____ and her eggs. They will then defend the ______ and forage for food, while unfertilized eggs grow into males whose only job is to wait until they are ready to _____ the nest and _________, _________ the cycle again. So how do worker ants decide what to do and when? Well, they don't really. Although they have no methods of intentional communication, individual ants do interact with one another through _____, sound and chemical signals. These stimuli accomplish many things from serving as an _____ to other ants if one is killed, to signaling when a queen is nearing the end of her reproductive life. But one of the most impressive __________ capabilities of an ant colony is to thoroughly and efficiently explore large areas without any predetermined plan. Most species of ants have little or no sense of sight and can only smell things in their ________. ________ with their lack of high level coordination, this would seem to make them terrible explorers, but there is an amazingly simple way that ants maximize their searching efficiency; by changing their movement patterns based on individual interactions. When two ants meet, they _____ each other by touching antennae. If there are many ants in a _____ area this will happen more often causing them to respond by moving in more convoluted, random paths in order to search more thoroughly. But in a larger area, with less ants, where such meetings happen less often, they can walk in ________ _____ to cover more ground. While exploring their environment in this way, an ant may come across any ______ of things, from _______ or _______, to alternate nesting _____. And some species have another capability known as recruitment. When one of these ants happens to find food, it will return with it, marking its path with a chemical _____. Other ants will then follow this pheromone trail, renewing it each time they manage to find food and return. Once the food in that spot is depleted, the ants stop _______ their return. The scent dissipates and ants are no ______ attracted to that path. These seemingly crude _______ of search and retrieval are, in fact, so useful that they are applied in computer models to obtain optimal solutions from decentralized elements, working randomly and exchanging simple information. This has many theoretical and _________ applications, from solving the ______ traveling salesman problem, to scheduling _________ tasks and optimizing Internet searches, to ________ groups of robots to search a _________ or a burning building collectively, without any _______ control. But you can _______ these fascinatingly simple, yet _________, processes directly through some simple ___________, by allowing ants to enter empty spaces of various sizes and paying _________ to their behavior. Ants may not be able to vote, hold meetings or even make any plans, but we humans may still be able to learn something from the way that such simple creatures are able to function so ___________ in such complex ways.

Solution

children
vicinity
males
collective
minefield
effective
scent
straight
alarm
colony
number
reproduce
experiments
leave
threats
observe
sites
obtaining
higher
sense
famous
enemies
laying
effectively
small
combined
lines
queen
selectively
fertilizing
computing
enabling
marking
methods
human
central
beginning
workers
longer
living
attention
social
types
labor
touch
practical

Original Text

Think about all the things that need to happen for a human settlement to thrive: obtaining food, building shelter, raising children and more. There needs to be a way to divide resources, organize major efforts and distribute labor efficiently. Now imagine having to do this without any sort of planning or higher level communication. Welcome to the ant colony. Ants have some of the most complex social organization in the animal kingdom, living in structured colonies containing different types of members who perform specific roles. But although this may sound similar to some human societies, this organization doesn't arise from any higher level decisions, but is part of a biologically programmed cycle. In many species, all the winged males and winged virgin queens from all the nearby colonies in the population each leave from their different nests and meet at a central place to mate, using pheromones to guide each other to a breeding ground. After mating, the males die off, while females try to establish a new colony. The few that are successful settle down in a suitable spot, lose their wings, and begin laying eggs, selectively fertilizing some using stored sperm they've saved up from mating. Fertilized eggs grow into female workers who care for the queen and her eggs. They will then defend the colony and forage for food, while unfertilized eggs grow into males whose only job is to wait until they are ready to leave the nest and reproduce, beginning the cycle again. So how do worker ants decide what to do and when? Well, they don't really. Although they have no methods of intentional communication, individual ants do interact with one another through touch, sound and chemical signals. These stimuli accomplish many things from serving as an alarm to other ants if one is killed, to signaling when a queen is nearing the end of her reproductive life. But one of the most impressive collective capabilities of an ant colony is to thoroughly and efficiently explore large areas without any predetermined plan. Most species of ants have little or no sense of sight and can only smell things in their vicinity. Combined with their lack of high level coordination, this would seem to make them terrible explorers, but there is an amazingly simple way that ants maximize their searching efficiency; by changing their movement patterns based on individual interactions. When two ants meet, they sense each other by touching antennae. If there are many ants in a small area this will happen more often causing them to respond by moving in more convoluted, random paths in order to search more thoroughly. But in a larger area, with less ants, where such meetings happen less often, they can walk in straight lines to cover more ground. While exploring their environment in this way, an ant may come across any number of things, from threats or enemies, to alternate nesting sites. And some species have another capability known as recruitment. When one of these ants happens to find food, it will return with it, marking its path with a chemical scent. Other ants will then follow this pheromone trail, renewing it each time they manage to find food and return. Once the food in that spot is depleted, the ants stop marking their return. The scent dissipates and ants are no longer attracted to that path. These seemingly crude methods of search and retrieval are, in fact, so useful that they are applied in computer models to obtain optimal solutions from decentralized elements, working randomly and exchanging simple information. This has many theoretical and practical applications, from solving the famous traveling salesman problem, to scheduling computing tasks and optimizing Internet searches, to enabling groups of robots to search a minefield or a burning building collectively, without any central control. But you can observe these fascinatingly simple, yet effective, processes directly through some simple experiments, by allowing ants to enter empty spaces of various sizes and paying attention to their behavior. Ants may not be able to vote, hold meetings or even make any plans, but we humans may still be able to learn something from the way that such simple creatures are able to function so effectively in such complex ways.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
higher level	2
ant colony	2
eggs grow	2

Important Words

accomplish
alarm
allowing
alternate
amazingly
animal
ant
antennae
ants
applications
applied
area
areas
arise
attention
attracted
based
beginning
behavior
biologically
breeding
building
burning
capabilities
capability
care
causing
central
changing
chemical
children
collective
collectively
colonies
colony
combined
communication
complex
computer
computing
control
convoluted
coordination
cover
creatures
crude
cycle
decentralized
decide
decisions
defend
depleted
die
dissipates
distribute
divide
effective
effectively
efficiently
efforts
eggs
elements
empty
enabling
enemies
enter
environment
establish
exchanging
experiments
explore
explorers
exploring
fact
famous
fascinatingly
female
females
fertilized
fertilizing
find
follow
food
forage
function
ground
groups
grow
guide
happen
high
higher
hold
human
humans
imagine
impressive
individual
information
intentional
interact
interactions
internet
job
killed
kingdom
labor
lack
large
larger
laying
learn
leave
level
life
lines
living
longer
lose
major
males
manage
marking
mate
mating
maximize
meet
meetings
members
methods
minefield
models
movement
moving
nearby
nearing
nest
nesting
nests
number
observe
obtain
obtaining
optimal
optimizing
order
organization
organize
part
path
paths
patterns
paying
perform
pheromone
pheromones
place
plan
planning
plans
population
practical
predetermined
problem
processes
programmed
queen
queens
raising
random
randomly
ready
recruitment
renewing
reproduce
reproductive
resources
respond
retrieval
return
robots
roles
salesman
saved
scent
scheduling
search
searches
searching
seemingly
selectively
sense
serving
settle
settlement
shelter
sight
signaling
signals
similar
simple
sites
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small
smell
social
societies
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solving
sort
sound
spaces
species
specific
sperm
spot
stimuli
stop
stored
straight
structured
successful
suitable
tasks
terrible
theoretical
threats
time
touch
touching
trail
traveling
types
unfertilized
vicinity
virgin
vote
wait
walk
ways
winged
wings
worker
workers
working