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
- hazmat
- toxicologist
- throat
- shocked
- droplets
- water
- 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
- bumping
- catching
- column
- date
- days
- death
- dispersants
- dispersing
- dove
- droplets
- dumb
- felt
- ferocious
- fire
- fish
- food
- gear
- gulf
- haunted
- hazmat
- herring
- investigation
- invited
- kind
- kinds
- life
- oil
- pass
- planktivores
- plankton
- preliminary
- shocked
- sick
- slick
- sore
- throat
- told
- toxicologist
- water
- web
- wisps