Toward the end of his life, the Chevalier de Seingalt (1725−1798) wrote a long memoir recounting his
life and adventures. The Chevalier was a somewhat controversial figure, but since he met many famous
people, including kings and writers, his memoir has become a valuable historical source about European
society in the eighteenth century. However, some critics have raised doubts about the accuracy of the
memoir. They claim that the Chevalier distorted or invented many events in the memoir to make his life
seem more exciting and glamorous than it really was.
For example, in his memoir the Chevalier claims that while living in Switzerland, he was very wealthy, and
it is known that he spent a great deal of money there on parties and gambling. However, evidence has
recently surfaced that the Chevalier borrowed considerable sums of money from a Swiss merchant. Critics
thus argue that if the Chevalier had really been very rich, he would not have needed to borrow money.
Critics are also skeptical about the accuracy of the conversations that the Chevalier records in the memoir
between himself and the famous writer Voltaire. No one doubts that the Chevalier and Voltaire met and
conversed. However, critics complain that the memoir cannot possibly capture these conversations
accurately, because it was written many years after the conversations occurred. Critics point out that it is
impossible to remember exact phrases from extended conversations held many years earlier.
Critics have also questioned the memoir’s account of the Chevalier’s escape from a notorious prison in
Venice, Italy. He claims to have escaped the Venetian prison by using a piece of metal to make a hole in
the ceiling and climbing through the roof. Critics claim that while such a daring escape makes for enjoyable
reading, it is more likely that the Chevalier’s jailers were bribed to free him. They point out that the Chevalier
had a number of politically well-connected friends in Venice who could have offered a bribe
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they respond to the
specific points made in the reading passage.
The lecture says that Chevalier’s memoir is accurate by explaining the reasons that cast doubt on the claims made in the passage. The lecture uses three instances to convince that Chevalier’s memoir is reliable source to study 18 century European history.
First, the lecture states that Chavalier was affluent when he stayed in Switzerland. However, the passage says that during Chavalier’s stay in Switzerland, he was poor enough to borrow money from others. So, passage says that Chavalier exaggerated his life by mentioning that he was rich in his memoir. The lecture contradicts this claim made in passage by stating that Chavalier actually had many material assets like buildings, since such a wealth can’t be converted to money quickly, he had to make debts. So, Chavalier was actually honest and he was rich when he was in Swiz.
Second, the lecture states that Chavalier actually made a detailed notes of his conversations with Voltaire every night. As he used these notes while describing these conversations in his memoir, they are actually accurate. By, emphasising the reason for accuracy of these conversations the lecture opposes complains made in passage about the accuracy of these conversations.
Third, the lecture refutes the claim made in passage that Chevalier used his friends to bribe the guards and escaped from the prison in Vience. The lecture points out the evidence of a document to support the reliability of Chevalier’s memoir. The document says that roof of Chevalier’s prison room was repaired after his escape from prison. The lecture also says that many of other prisoners of Vience were actually more influential than Chevalier but couldn’t escape from the prison. So, Chavelier actually escaped from the prison by making hole on roof’s top and hence his memoir is reliable.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 68, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[2]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'note'?
Suggestion: note
...that Chavalier actually made a detailed notes of his conversations with Voltaire ever...
^^^^^
Line 4, column 354, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
... repaired after his escape from prison. The lecture also says that many of other pr...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, hence, however, if, second, so, third, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 10.4613686534 124% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 32.0 22.412803532 143% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 43.0 30.3222958057 142% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1563.0 1373.03311258 114% => OK
No of words: 293.0 270.72406181 108% => OK
Chars per words: 5.33447098976 5.08290768461 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.13729897018 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.0053166477 2.5805825403 116% => OK
Unique words: 147.0 145.348785872 101% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.501706484642 0.540411800872 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 486.0 419.366225166 116% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 21.2450331126 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 32.4822002539 49.2860985944 66% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.2 110.228320801 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.5333333333 21.698381199 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.8 7.06452816374 68% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.207233806366 0.272083759551 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0911672934187 0.0996497079465 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0543341079803 0.0662205650399 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.127511151605 0.162205337803 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0323332865136 0.0443174109184 73% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 13.3589403974 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 43.73 53.8541721854 81% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 11.0289183223 108% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.63 12.2367328918 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.97 8.42419426049 95% => OK
difficult_words: 63.0 63.6247240618 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 10.498013245 91% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.