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
- nearby
- called
- human
- festive
- trees
- custom
- water
- roots
- 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
- bark
- berries
- biology
- birds
- bit
- boughs
- called
- carry
- colonize
- creatures
- custom
- decoration
- depends
- dispersing
- draped
- eat
- excrete
- festive
- germinates
- gluey
- grow
- haustoria
- human
- imagination
- indigestible
- inspired
- intriguing
- luck
- minerals
- mistletoe
- modified
- nearby
- parasitic
- partly
- penetrate
- plant
- relies
- rid
- roots
- seed
- seeds
- siphon
- starts
- sticky
- tree
- trees
- trunks
- water
- white
- wild
- wiping