full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Christian Moro: Why do you get a fever when you're sick?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

In 1917, dootrcs proposed an oatudsilnh treatment for syphilis, the incurable bacterial itocnifen that had ravaged euopre for centuries. Step 1: Infect patients suffering from the later stages of syphilis with the parasite that causes malaria, the deadly but cralbue mosquito-borne disease. Step 2: Hope that malarial fevers caler the syphilis. And step 3: Administer quinine to curb the malaria. If all went according to plan, their patient would be left alive and free of both diseases. This killed some 15% of patients, but for those who survived, it seemed to work. It actually became the standard treatment for syphilis until penicillin was widely used dedaces later. And its driving froce was fever.

Open Cloze

In 1917, _______ proposed an __________ treatment for syphilis, the incurable bacterial _________ that had ravaged ______ for centuries. Step 1: Infect patients suffering from the later stages of syphilis with the parasite that causes malaria, the deadly but _______ mosquito-borne disease. Step 2: Hope that malarial fevers _____ the syphilis. And step 3: Administer quinine to curb the malaria. If all went according to plan, their patient would be left alive and free of both diseases. This killed some 15% of patients, but for those who survived, it seemed to work. It actually became the standard treatment for syphilis until penicillin was widely used _______ later. And its driving _____ was fever.

Solution

  1. decades
  2. force
  3. europe
  4. clear
  5. doctors
  6. infection
  7. curable
  8. outlandish

Original Text

In 1917, doctors proposed an outlandish treatment for syphilis, the incurable bacterial infection that had ravaged Europe for centuries. Step 1: Infect patients suffering from the later stages of syphilis with the parasite that causes malaria, the deadly but curable mosquito-borne disease. Step 2: Hope that malarial fevers clear the syphilis. And step 3: Administer quinine to curb the malaria. If all went according to plan, their patient would be left alive and free of both diseases. This killed some 15% of patients, but for those who survived, it seemed to work. It actually became the standard treatment for syphilis until penicillin was widely used decades later. And its driving force was fever.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
degrees celsius 2
blood vessels 2
organ damage 2

Important Words

  1. administer
  2. alive
  3. bacterial
  4. centuries
  5. clear
  6. curable
  7. curb
  8. deadly
  9. decades
  10. disease
  11. diseases
  12. doctors
  13. driving
  14. europe
  15. fever
  16. fevers
  17. force
  18. free
  19. hope
  20. incurable
  21. infect
  22. infection
  23. killed
  24. left
  25. malaria
  26. malarial
  27. outlandish
  28. parasite
  29. patient
  30. patients
  31. penicillin
  32. plan
  33. proposed
  34. quinine
  35. ravaged
  36. stages
  37. standard
  38. step
  39. suffering
  40. survived
  41. syphilis
  42. treatment
  43. widely
  44. work