full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Camille Defrenne and Suzanne Simard: The secret language of trees

Unscramble the Blue Letters

From there, sugar flows down to the roots. Mycorrhizal fungi encounter the tips of the roots and either surround or pertatene the outer root cells, depending on the type of fungi. Fungi cannot produce saugrs, though they need them for fuel just like trees do. They can, however, collect nutrients from the soil much more efficiently than tree roots— and pass these nutrients into the tree roots. In general, substances flow from where they are more abundant to where they are less abundant, or from srcoue to sink. That mneas that the sugars flow from the tree roots into the fungal hyphae. Once the sugars etner the fungus, they travel along the hpyahe through pores between cells or through special hollow transporter hyphae. The fungus absorbs some of the sugars, but some travels on and enters the roots of a neniirghbog tree, a senldeig that grows in the shade and has less opportunity to photosynthesize sugars.

Open Cloze

From there, sugar flows down to the roots. Mycorrhizal fungi encounter the tips of the roots and either surround or _________ the outer root cells, depending on the type of fungi. Fungi cannot produce ______, though they need them for fuel just like trees do. They can, however, collect nutrients from the soil much more efficiently than tree roots— and pass these nutrients into the tree roots. In general, substances flow from where they are more abundant to where they are less abundant, or from ______ to sink. That _____ that the sugars flow from the tree roots into the fungal hyphae. Once the sugars _____ the fungus, they travel along the ______ through pores between cells or through special hollow transporter hyphae. The fungus absorbs some of the sugars, but some travels on and enters the roots of a ___________ tree, a ________ that grows in the shade and has less opportunity to photosynthesize sugars.

Solution

  1. seedling
  2. penetrate
  3. source
  4. sugars
  5. means
  6. neighboring
  7. enter
  8. hyphae

Original Text

From there, sugar flows down to the roots. Mycorrhizal fungi encounter the tips of the roots and either surround or penetrate the outer root cells, depending on the type of fungi. Fungi cannot produce sugars, though they need them for fuel just like trees do. They can, however, collect nutrients from the soil much more efficiently than tree roots— and pass these nutrients into the tree roots. In general, substances flow from where they are more abundant to where they are less abundant, or from source to sink. That means that the sugars flow from the tree roots into the fungal hyphae. Once the sugars enter the fungus, they travel along the hyphae through pores between cells or through special hollow transporter hyphae. The fungus absorbs some of the sugars, but some travels on and enters the roots of a neighboring tree, a seedling that grows in the shade and has less opportunity to photosynthesize sugars.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
mycorrhizal networks 3
signaling molecules 2
unique set 2
substances flow 2
tree roots 2

Important Words

  1. absorbs
  2. abundant
  3. cells
  4. collect
  5. depending
  6. efficiently
  7. encounter
  8. enter
  9. enters
  10. flow
  11. flows
  12. fuel
  13. fungal
  14. fungi
  15. fungus
  16. general
  17. grows
  18. hollow
  19. hyphae
  20. means
  21. mycorrhizal
  22. neighboring
  23. nutrients
  24. opportunity
  25. outer
  26. pass
  27. penetrate
  28. photosynthesize
  29. pores
  30. produce
  31. root
  32. roots
  33. seedling
  34. shade
  35. sink
  36. soil
  37. source
  38. special
  39. substances
  40. sugar
  41. sugars
  42. surround
  43. tips
  44. transporter
  45. travel
  46. travels
  47. tree
  48. trees
  49. type