full transcript
From the Ted Talk by E.O. Wilson: My wish Build the Encyclopedia of Life
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Out of that broader study has emerged a concern and an ambition, crystallized in the wish that I'm about to make to you. My choice is the ctliminuaon of a lifetime commitment that began with growing up on the Gulf Coast of aalbama, on the filroda peninsula. As far back as I can reembemr, I was enchanted by the natural batuey of that region and the almost tropical exuberance of the plants and animals that grow there. One day when I was only seven years old and fishing, I pulled a "pinfish," they're called, with srhap dorsal spenis, up too hard and fast, and I blinded myself in one eye. I later dsevocired I was also hard of hearing, possibly cgeontlailny, in the upper rsreetgis. So in planning to be a professional naturalist — I never considered anything else in my entire life — I found that I was lousy at bird watching and couldn't trcak frog calls either. So I turned to the teeming small creatures that can be held between the thumb and forefinger: the little things that compose the foundation of our ecosystems, the little things, as I like to say, who run the world. In so doing, I reached a fnteiror of biology so strange, so rich, that it seemed as though it exists on another planet. In fact, we live on a mostly unexplored planet. The great majority of omnrasgis on Earth remain unknown to science.
Open Cloze
Out of that broader study has emerged a concern and an ambition, crystallized in the wish that I'm about to make to you. My choice is the ___________ of a lifetime commitment that began with growing up on the Gulf Coast of _______, on the _______ peninsula. As far back as I can ________, I was enchanted by the natural ______ of that region and the almost tropical exuberance of the plants and animals that grow there. One day when I was only seven years old and fishing, I pulled a "pinfish," they're called, with _____ dorsal ______, up too hard and fast, and I blinded myself in one eye. I later __________ I was also hard of hearing, possibly ____________, in the upper _________. So in planning to be a professional naturalist — I never considered anything else in my entire life — I found that I was lousy at bird watching and couldn't _____ frog calls either. So I turned to the teeming small creatures that can be held between the thumb and forefinger: the little things that compose the foundation of our ecosystems, the little things, as I like to say, who run the world. In so doing, I reached a ________ of biology so strange, so rich, that it seemed as though it exists on another planet. In fact, we live on a mostly unexplored planet. The great majority of _________ on Earth remain unknown to science.
Solution
- frontier
- registers
- beauty
- sharp
- culmination
- florida
- organisms
- spines
- discovered
- track
- alabama
- remember
- congenitally
Original Text
Out of that broader study has emerged a concern and an ambition, crystallized in the wish that I'm about to make to you. My choice is the culmination of a lifetime commitment that began with growing up on the Gulf Coast of Alabama, on the Florida peninsula. As far back as I can remember, I was enchanted by the natural beauty of that region and the almost tropical exuberance of the plants and animals that grow there. One day when I was only seven years old and fishing, I pulled a "pinfish," they're called, with sharp dorsal spines, up too hard and fast, and I blinded myself in one eye. I later discovered I was also hard of hearing, possibly congenitally, in the upper registers. So in planning to be a professional naturalist — I never considered anything else in my entire life — I found that I was lousy at bird watching and couldn't track frog calls either. So I turned to the teeming small creatures that can be held between the thumb and forefinger: the little things that compose the foundation of our ecosystems, the little things, as I like to say, who run the world. In so doing, I reached a frontier of biology so strange, so rich, that it seemed as though it exists on another planet. In fact, we live on a mostly unexplored planet. The great majority of organisms on Earth remain unknown to science.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
nematode worms |
4 |
large part |
2 |
lives depend |
2 |
pathogenic bacteria |
2 |
climate change |
2 |
Important Words
- alabama
- ambition
- animals
- beauty
- began
- biology
- bird
- blinded
- broader
- called
- calls
- choice
- coast
- commitment
- compose
- concern
- congenitally
- considered
- creatures
- crystallized
- culmination
- day
- discovered
- dorsal
- earth
- ecosystems
- emerged
- enchanted
- entire
- exists
- exuberance
- eye
- fact
- fast
- fishing
- florida
- foundation
- frog
- frontier
- great
- grow
- growing
- gulf
- hard
- hearing
- held
- life
- lifetime
- live
- lousy
- majority
- natural
- naturalist
- organisms
- peninsula
- planet
- planning
- plants
- possibly
- professional
- pulled
- reached
- region
- registers
- remain
- remember
- rich
- run
- science
- sharp
- small
- spines
- strange
- study
- teeming
- thumb
- track
- tropical
- turned
- unexplored
- unknown
- upper
- watching
- world
- years