full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Cameron Webb: How to design mosquitoes out of cities

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So what about our backyards? We all want to keep our backyards healthy, we want to have a gerat opportunity for our plants and our pets and the local wildlife. One effective way to do that is installing a rainwater tank. Problem is, rainwater tanks can be a great source for very serious mosquitoes. You all in this room have probably been bitetn by the Australian backyard mosquito. Its seicifntic name is Aedes nriutsctoops. It is the most widespread mosquito in Australia; almost everybody has opportunities for this mosquito in their backyard. Whether it's a birdbath, a pot plant saucer, even the smaellst volumes of water trapped in a water-holding container will be a pacle this mosquito can lay its eggs. It's a ninacsue biting pest, but it's not a serious threat to our hatleh. But there's a problem here, because these same hitbatas where this mosquito is found could also be the home of a mosquito that's associated with the transmission of much more serious pathogens, pgnhoteas that can cause outbreaks of disease such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika. These mosquitoes are the Asian tiger mosquito or the yeollw fever mosquito. These two mosquitoes are not found in Sydney at the moment, but worldwide, they contribute to moajr outbreaks of mosquito-borne disease. They don't beerd in wetlands, they love these water-holding cainnoters in our backyards. And as we do a better job of creating these opportunities like rainwater tanks in our backyards, maybe we're creating an opportunity for these mosquitoes to move in.

Open Cloze

So what about our backyards? We all want to keep our backyards healthy, we want to have a _____ opportunity for our plants and our pets and the local wildlife. One effective way to do that is installing a rainwater tank. Problem is, rainwater tanks can be a great source for very serious mosquitoes. You all in this room have probably been ______ by the Australian backyard mosquito. Its __________ name is Aedes ____________. It is the most widespread mosquito in Australia; almost everybody has opportunities for this mosquito in their backyard. Whether it's a birdbath, a pot plant saucer, even the ________ volumes of water trapped in a water-holding container will be a _____ this mosquito can lay its eggs. It's a ________ biting pest, but it's not a serious threat to our ______. But there's a problem here, because these same ________ where this mosquito is found could also be the home of a mosquito that's associated with the transmission of much more serious pathogens, _________ that can cause outbreaks of disease such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika. These mosquitoes are the Asian tiger mosquito or the ______ fever mosquito. These two mosquitoes are not found in Sydney at the moment, but worldwide, they contribute to _____ outbreaks of mosquito-borne disease. They don't _____ in wetlands, they love these water-holding __________ in our backyards. And as we do a better job of creating these opportunities like rainwater tanks in our backyards, maybe we're creating an opportunity for these mosquitoes to move in.

Solution

  1. nuisance
  2. health
  3. yellow
  4. scientific
  5. breed
  6. habitats
  7. bitten
  8. major
  9. place
  10. great
  11. containers
  12. notoscriptus
  13. smallest
  14. pathogens

Original Text

So what about our backyards? We all want to keep our backyards healthy, we want to have a great opportunity for our plants and our pets and the local wildlife. One effective way to do that is installing a rainwater tank. Problem is, rainwater tanks can be a great source for very serious mosquitoes. You all in this room have probably been bitten by the Australian backyard mosquito. Its scientific name is Aedes notoscriptus. It is the most widespread mosquito in Australia; almost everybody has opportunities for this mosquito in their backyard. Whether it's a birdbath, a pot plant saucer, even the smallest volumes of water trapped in a water-holding container will be a place this mosquito can lay its eggs. It's a nuisance biting pest, but it's not a serious threat to our health. But there's a problem here, because these same habitats where this mosquito is found could also be the home of a mosquito that's associated with the transmission of much more serious pathogens, pathogens that can cause outbreaks of disease such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika. These mosquitoes are the Asian tiger mosquito or the yellow fever mosquito. These two mosquitoes are not found in Sydney at the moment, but worldwide, they contribute to major outbreaks of mosquito-borne disease. They don't breed in wetlands, they love these water-holding containers in our backyards. And as we do a better job of creating these opportunities like rainwater tanks in our backyards, maybe we're creating an opportunity for these mosquitoes to move in.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
rainwater tanks 6
create opportunities 3
mosquito bites 3
ross river 2
creating opportunities 2
pot plant 2
green city 2
mosquitoes love 2
mosquito populations 2
yellow fever 2

Important Words

  1. aedes
  2. asian
  3. australian
  4. backyard
  5. backyards
  6. birdbath
  7. biting
  8. bitten
  9. breed
  10. chikungunya
  11. container
  12. containers
  13. contribute
  14. creating
  15. dengue
  16. disease
  17. effective
  18. eggs
  19. fever
  20. great
  21. habitats
  22. health
  23. healthy
  24. home
  25. installing
  26. job
  27. lay
  28. local
  29. love
  30. major
  31. moment
  32. mosquito
  33. mosquitoes
  34. move
  35. notoscriptus
  36. nuisance
  37. opportunities
  38. opportunity
  39. outbreaks
  40. pathogens
  41. pest
  42. pets
  43. place
  44. plant
  45. plants
  46. pot
  47. problem
  48. rainwater
  49. room
  50. saucer
  51. scientific
  52. smallest
  53. source
  54. sydney
  55. tank
  56. tanks
  57. threat
  58. tiger
  59. transmission
  60. trapped
  61. volumes
  62. water
  63. wetlands
  64. widespread
  65. wildlife
  66. worldwide
  67. yellow
  68. zika