full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ed Yong: Zombie roaches and other parasite tales

Unscramble the Blue Letters

And I think that this capacity to constantly subvert our way of thninkig about the world makes parasites amazing. They're constantly inviting us to look at the nauatrl world saidywes, and to ask if the behaviors we're seeing, whether they're smiple and obvious or baffling and pzznluig, are not the results of individuals acting through their own accord but because they are being bent to the control of something else. And while that idea may be disquieting, and while parasites' habits may be very grisly, I think that ability to surprise us makes them as wonderful and as charismatic as any panda or butterfly or dolphin.

Open Cloze

And I think that this capacity to constantly subvert our way of ________ about the world makes parasites amazing. They're constantly inviting us to look at the _______ world ________, and to ask if the behaviors we're seeing, whether they're ______ and obvious or baffling and ________, are not the results of individuals acting through their own accord but because they are being bent to the control of something else. And while that idea may be disquieting, and while parasites' habits may be very grisly, I think that ability to surprise us makes them as wonderful and as charismatic as any panda or butterfly or dolphin.

Solution

  1. sideways
  2. puzzling
  3. natural
  4. simple
  5. thinking

Original Text

And I think that this capacity to constantly subvert our way of thinking about the world makes parasites amazing. They're constantly inviting us to look at the natural world sideways, and to ask if the behaviors we're seeing, whether they're simple and obvious or baffling and puzzling, are not the results of individuals acting through their own accord but because they are being bent to the control of something else. And while that idea may be disquieting, and while parasites' habits may be very grisly, I think that ability to surprise us makes them as wonderful and as charismatic as any panda or butterfly or dolphin.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
gordian worm 3
emerald cockroach 3
natural world 2
cockroach wasp 2
sense organ 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
emerald cockroach wasp 2

Important Words

  1. ability
  2. accord
  3. acting
  4. amazing
  5. baffling
  6. behaviors
  7. bent
  8. butterfly
  9. capacity
  10. charismatic
  11. constantly
  12. control
  13. disquieting
  14. dolphin
  15. grisly
  16. habits
  17. idea
  18. individuals
  19. inviting
  20. natural
  21. obvious
  22. panda
  23. parasites
  24. puzzling
  25. results
  26. sideways
  27. simple
  28. subvert
  29. surprise
  30. thinking
  31. wonderful
  32. world