The best way to understand the character of a society is to examine the character of the men and women that the society chooses as its heroes or its heroines | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

"The best way to understand the character of a society is to examine the character of the men
and women that the society chooses as its heroes or its heroines."

The speaker claims that the character of a society's heroes and heroines ('heroes' hereafter)
reflects the character of that society. I tend to disagree. In my observation a society chooses
as its heroes not people who mirror the society but rather people whose character society's
members wish they could emulate but cannot--for want of character. Nevertheless, I concede
that one particular type of hero----the sociopolitical hero--by definition mirrors the character of
the society whose causes the hero champions.
First consider the sports hero, whom in my observation society chooses not merely by virtue
of athletic prowess. Some accomplished athletes we consider heroes because they have
overcome significant obstacles to achieve their goals. For example, Lance Arm-strong was not
the first Tour de France cycling champion from the U.S.; yet he was the first to overcome a
life-threatening illness to win the race. Other accomplished athletes we consider heroes
because they give back to the society which lionize them. As Mohammed Ali fought not just for
boxing rifles but also for racial equality, so baseball hero Mark McGuire fights now for
disadvantaged children, while basketball hero Magic Johnson fights for AIDS research and
awareness. Yet, do the character traits and resulting charitable efforts of sports heroes reflect
similar traits and efforts among our society at large? No; they simply reveal that we admire
these traits and efforts in other people, and wish we could emulate them but for our own
personal failings.
Next consider the military hero, who gains heroic stature by way of courage in battle, or by
otherwise facing certain defeat and emerging victorious. Former presidential hopeful John
McCain, whom even his political opponents laud as a war hero for having not only endured
years of torture as a prisoner of war but also for continuing to serve his country afterwards. Do
his patriotism and mettle reveal our society's true character? Certainly not. They reveal only
that we admire his courage, fortitude, and strength.
114
On the other hand, consider a third type of hero: the champion of social causes who inspires
and incites society to meaningful political and social change. Such luminaries as India's
Mahatma Gandhi, America's Martin Luther King, South Africa's Nelson Mandela, and Poland's
Lech Lawesa come immediately to mind. This unique brand of hero does reflect, and indeed
must reflect, the character of the hero's society. After all, it is the function of the social
champion to call attention to the character of society, which having viewed its reflection in the
hero is incited to act bravely--in accordance with its collective character.
In sum, I agree with the speaker's claim only with respect to champions of society's social
causes. Otherwise, what society deems heroic reflects instead a basic, and universal, human
need for paragons--to whom we can refer as metaphors for the sorts of virtues that for lack of
character we cannot ourselves reflect.

Votes

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GMAT/GRE Issue Task

Comments

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 20, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'sports'' or 'sport's'?
Suggestion: sports'; sport's
...the hero champions. First consider the sports hero, whom in my observation society ch...
^^^^^^
Line 30, column 36, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'heros'' or 'hero's'?
Suggestion: heros'; hero's
...eed must reflect, the character of the heros society. After all, it is the function ...
^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, if, nevertheless, so, third, while, after all, for example, with respect to, on the other hand

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 4.0 19.5258426966 20% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.4196629213 56% => OK
Conjunction : 21.0 14.8657303371 141% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 11.3162921348 141% => OK
Pronoun: 41.0 33.0505617978 124% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 51.0 58.6224719101 87% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 12.9106741573 54% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2589.0 2235.4752809 116% => OK
No of words: 479.0 442.535393258 108% => OK
Chars per words: 5.40501043841 5.05705443957 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.67825486995 4.55969084622 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.71156950261 2.79657885939 97% => OK
Unique words: 268.0 215.323595506 124% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.559498956159 0.4932671777 113% => OK
syllable_count: 783.0 704.065955056 111% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59117977528 101% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 6.24550561798 176% => OK
Article: 4.0 4.99550561798 80% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 3.10617977528 161% => OK
Conjunction: 8.0 1.77640449438 450% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.38483146067 114% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 20.2370786517 104% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 23.0359550562 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 59.7900769843 60.3974514979 99% => OK
Chars per sentence: 123.285714286 118.986275619 104% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.8095238095 23.4991977007 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.33333333333 5.21951772744 102% => OK
Paragraphs: 34.0 4.97078651685 684% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 7.80617977528 26% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 18.0 10.2758426966 175% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 5.13820224719 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.83258426966 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.303819810178 0.243740707755 125% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0962661201836 0.0831039109588 116% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.100966355959 0.0758088955206 133% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0830918089311 0.150359130593 55% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0901506377781 0.0667264976115 135% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.5 14.1392134831 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.8420337079 101% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.1743820225 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.39 12.1639044944 118% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.05 8.38706741573 108% => OK
difficult_words: 131.0 100.480337079 130% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 11.8971910112 71% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.2143820225 96% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.7820224719 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?

---------------------
Maximum six paragraphs wanted.

Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, if, nevertheless, so, third, while, after all, for example, with respect to, on the other hand

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments