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.
Recently there has been a debate about the European silver coin found at an archaeological site in the state of Maine in North America. More specifically, the writer puts forth an idea that the coin was placed purposely at the location recently to deceive people. In the listening passage, the speaker is quick to point out that there are some serious flaws with the writer's claims. In fact, the lecturer believes that the coin was brought to the site by European explorers known as the Norse, and addresses, in detail, the trouble made with each point in the reading text.
First and foremost, the author of the reading states that some archaeologists doubted the existence of a coin at the discovered site because the state in Maine is far from the Norse's settlements. Some professionals in the same field, however, stand in firm opposition to this claim. In the listening section, the professor states that no other coins but many other objects were discovered from the same location. Moreover, native Americans were fond of gathering valuable things from long distances. Hence, the coin might have been brought by explorers when they came in contact with native Americans.
Furthermore, the essayist posits that no coins were found at Norse's inhabited sites in Canada, which proves that Norse had not brought coins with them. Of course, though, not all experts in the field believe this is accurate. Again, the speaker specifically addresses this point when he states that explorers moved back to their country and packed up everything with them. As a result, no silver coins were found at the Canadian sites.
Finally, the writer brings his arguments to a close by contending that the Norse had enough knowledge that silver coins would be useless for them in North America. Not surprisingly, the lecturer takes issue with this claim and states that they might have used silver coins for trading with Americans. Additionally, as people of America were attracted by beauty, they might have used silver to make jewelry.
To sum up, both the writer and the speaker hold conflicting views regarding the discovered silver coin in Maine. It's clear that they will have trouble finding common ground on this topic.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, furthermore, hence, however, if, moreover, regarding, so, in fact, of course, as a result, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 22.412803532 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 54.0 30.3222958057 178% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1854.0 1373.03311258 135% => OK
No of words: 369.0 270.72406181 136% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.0243902439 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.38284983912 4.04702891845 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.52406692555 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 191.0 145.348785872 131% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.517615176152 0.540411800872 96% => OK
syllable_count: 558.0 419.366225166 133% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 2.5761589404 233% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 13.0662251656 138% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 37.4390451102 49.2860985944 76% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.0 110.228320801 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.5 21.698381199 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.72222222222 7.06452816374 95% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 4.45695364238 224% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.39000956515 0.272083759551 143% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.116211801507 0.0996497079465 117% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0990990743293 0.0662205650399 150% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.201793876655 0.162205337803 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0866353043758 0.0443174109184 195% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.5 13.3589403974 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 53.8541721854 111% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.84 12.2367328918 97% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.97 8.42419426049 95% => OK
difficult_words: 78.0 63.6247240618 123% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 10.7273730684 126% => 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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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 60.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 18.0 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.