In 1957 a European silver coin dating to the eleventh century was discovered at a Native American archaeological site in the state of Maine in the United States. Many people believed the coin had been originally brought to North America by European explorers known as the Norse, who traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and came into contact with Native Americans almost a thousand years ago.
However, some archaeologists believe that the coin is not a genuine piece of historical evidence but a historical fake; they think that the coin was placed at the site recently by someone who wanted to mislead the public. There are three main reasons why some archaeologists believe that the coin is not genuine historical evidence.
Great Distance from Norse Settlements
First, the Native American site in Maine where the coin was discovered is located very far from other sites documenting a Norse presence in North America. Remains of Norse settlements have been discovered in far eastern Canada. The distance between the Maine site and the Norse settlements in Canada is more than a thousand kilometers, suggesting the coin has no real connection with the settlements.
No Other Coins Found
A second problem is that no other coins have been found at the Canadian sites that were inhabited by the Norse. This suggests that the Norse did not bring any silver coins with them to their North American settlements.
No Use for European Coins
Third, the Norse who traveled to North America would have understood that silver coins would most likely be useless to them. Silver coins may have been in wide use in Europe at the time, but the Norse, as experienced explorers, would have known that native North Americans did not recognize silver coins as money.
The writer claims in the reading passage that the old silver coin which had been found in Europe is not a real evidence to prove the statement that ancient European was using silver coins. But the professor argues in the lecture that these ideas are not convincing. Clearly, they hold different views on the same topic.
First, the author presents a viewpoint that due to the distance that European must travel from North America and Europe is too long, which means they can’t bring such things from one place to another. However, the listening puts forward a different opinion that ancient Americans are interested in traveling and get things from another country. Therefore, what the reading states is refuted by the professor.
Second, the reading states that there are no other coins around, which means it will be many other silver coins that looks like this one around the place where this coin had been found if this evidence is true. While the lecturer argues that North America didn’t create silver coins themselves. On the contrary, they just bought silver material to Europe and reproduce it into silver coins. After that, they will pack up all the silver coins as well and return to North America.
Third, the reading claims that though silver coins are useful in North America, but not in Europe. While the professor contends that silver is a beautiful material which could be used for making jewelries, which could make a specific trade between American and European. In sum, the professor clearly points out the weaknesses in the reading.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, look, second, so, therefore, third, well, while, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 12.0772626932 149% => OK
Pronoun: 23.0 22.412803532 103% => OK
Preposition: 27.0 30.3222958057 89% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1320.0 1373.03311258 96% => OK
No of words: 262.0 270.72406181 97% => OK
Chars per words: 5.03816793893 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.02323427807 4.04702891845 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.26198096652 2.5805825403 88% => OK
Unique words: 144.0 145.348785872 99% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.549618320611 0.540411800872 102% => OK
syllable_count: 389.7 419.366225166 93% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.23620309051 73% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 54.3244689711 49.2860985944 110% => OK
Chars per sentence: 101.538461538 110.228320801 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.1538461538 21.698381199 93% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.84615384615 7.06452816374 97% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.244884188885 0.272083759551 90% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0818851367642 0.0996497079465 82% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0682546381982 0.0662205650399 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.144775352945 0.162205337803 89% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0547669577911 0.0443174109184 124% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 13.3589403974 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 53.8541721854 111% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.95 12.2367328918 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.7 8.42419426049 91% => OK
difficult_words: 51.0 63.6247240618 80% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
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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.