full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Susan Shaw: The oil spill's toxic trade-off

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So I then was invited to go to the Gulf in May. I went down there on a preliminary investigation to look into dispersants and how they're going into the water column and so forth. And I was told that I was the only togoxiiocslt to date who was dumb enough to get into the water, but I did. And we dove in the slick without even haazmt gear. And I did get sick. I got a ferocious sore tahort two days later. I felt like my throat was on fire. But it did pass. And what I did see in the water as we went down, what really scehkod me — and it's haunted me ever since — because I could see the detoprls of oil dispersing. And as you go down, they're catching all kinds of plankton, bumping into, you know, little wisps of life that are the food for the planktivores, the hrrineg kind of fish. And you could just see the web of death as you go down in the waetr column.

Open Cloze

So I then was invited to go to the Gulf in May. I went down there on a preliminary investigation to look into dispersants and how they're going into the water column and so forth. And I was told that I was the only ____________ to date who was dumb enough to get into the water, but I did. And we dove in the slick without even ______ gear. And I did get sick. I got a ferocious sore ______ two days later. I felt like my throat was on fire. But it did pass. And what I did see in the water as we went down, what really _______ me — and it's haunted me ever since — because I could see the ________ of oil dispersing. And as you go down, they're catching all kinds of plankton, bumping into, you know, little wisps of life that are the food for the planktivores, the _______ kind of fish. And you could just see the web of death as you go down in the _____ column.

Solution

  1. hazmat
  2. toxicologist
  3. throat
  4. shocked
  5. droplets
  6. water
  7. herring

Original Text

So I then was invited to go to the Gulf in May. I went down there on a preliminary investigation to look into dispersants and how they're going into the water column and so forth. And I was told that I was the only toxicologist to date who was dumb enough to get into the water, but I did. And we dove in the slick without even HazMat gear. And I did get sick. I got a ferocious sore throat two days later. I felt like my throat was on fire. But it did pass. And what I did see in the water as we went down, what really shocked me — and it's haunted me ever since — because I could see the droplets of oil dispersing. And as you go down, they're catching all kinds of plankton, bumping into, you know, little wisps of life that are the food for the planktivores, the herring kind of fish. And you could just see the web of death as you go down in the water column.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
water column 4
marine mammals 3
exxon valdez 3
toxic chemicals 2
flame retardants 2
final sink 2
flame retardant 2
heat stress 2
internal bleeding 2
petroleum solvents 2
bad dreams 2
percent fertilization 2
sea ducks 2

Important Words

  1. bumping
  2. catching
  3. column
  4. date
  5. days
  6. death
  7. dispersants
  8. dispersing
  9. dove
  10. droplets
  11. dumb
  12. felt
  13. ferocious
  14. fire
  15. fish
  16. food
  17. gear
  18. gulf
  19. haunted
  20. hazmat
  21. herring
  22. investigation
  23. invited
  24. kind
  25. kinds
  26. life
  27. oil
  28. pass
  29. planktivores
  30. plankton
  31. preliminary
  32. shocked
  33. sick
  34. slick
  35. sore
  36. throat
  37. told
  38. toxicologist
  39. water
  40. web
  41. wisps