full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Carlos Reif: Why do we kiss under mistletoe?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

But this ctsuom comes down to more than just hmuan imagination. All of it was inspired by the plant’s intriguing biology. We see mistletoe as a ftsieve decoration, but draped on tree boughs in the wild, it’s known as a partly parasitic plant. Mistletoe relies on modified rtoos cllaed haustoria that penetrate the tree bark and siphon off the wtaer and minerals trees carry up their trunks. To colonize nrebay teers with its seeds, mltotiese depends on birds and other creatures to do the dispersing. Birds that eat the mistletoe’s sticky white berries sometimes get rid of the gluey seeds by wiping them off onto tree bark, or with a bit of luck, they excrete the indigestible seed onto a tree where it germinates and starts to grow.

Open Cloze

But this ______ comes down to more than just _____ imagination. All of it was inspired by the plant’s intriguing biology. We see mistletoe as a _______ decoration, but draped on tree boughs in the wild, it’s known as a partly parasitic plant. Mistletoe relies on modified _____ ______ haustoria that penetrate the tree bark and siphon off the _____ and minerals trees carry up their trunks. To colonize ______ _____ with its seeds, _________ depends on birds and other creatures to do the dispersing. Birds that eat the mistletoe’s sticky white berries sometimes get rid of the gluey seeds by wiping them off onto tree bark, or with a bit of luck, they excrete the indigestible seed onto a tree where it germinates and starts to grow.

Solution

  1. nearby
  2. called
  3. human
  4. festive
  5. trees
  6. custom
  7. water
  8. roots
  9. mistletoe

Original Text

But this custom comes down to more than just human imagination. All of it was inspired by the plant’s intriguing biology. We see mistletoe as a festive decoration, but draped on tree boughs in the wild, it’s known as a partly parasitic plant. Mistletoe relies on modified roots called haustoria that penetrate the tree bark and siphon off the water and minerals trees carry up their trunks. To colonize nearby trees with its seeds, mistletoe depends on birds and other creatures to do the dispersing. Birds that eat the mistletoe’s sticky white berries sometimes get rid of the gluey seeds by wiping them off onto tree bark, or with a bit of luck, they excrete the indigestible seed onto a tree where it germinates and starts to grow.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
white berries 2
christmas tradition 2

Important Words

  1. bark
  2. berries
  3. biology
  4. birds
  5. bit
  6. boughs
  7. called
  8. carry
  9. colonize
  10. creatures
  11. custom
  12. decoration
  13. depends
  14. dispersing
  15. draped
  16. eat
  17. excrete
  18. festive
  19. germinates
  20. gluey
  21. grow
  22. haustoria
  23. human
  24. imagination
  25. indigestible
  26. inspired
  27. intriguing
  28. luck
  29. minerals
  30. mistletoe
  31. modified
  32. nearby
  33. parasitic
  34. partly
  35. penetrate
  36. plant
  37. relies
  38. rid
  39. roots
  40. seed
  41. seeds
  42. siphon
  43. starts
  44. sticky
  45. tree
  46. trees
  47. trunks
  48. water
  49. white
  50. wild
  51. wiping