Did bees (a type of insect) exist on Earth as early as 200 million years ago? Such a theory is supported by the discovery of very old fossil structures that resemble bee nests. The structures have been found inside 200- million-year-old fossilized trees in the state of Arizona in the southwestern United States. However, many skeptics doubt that the structures were created by bees. The skeptics support their view with several argumentos.
No Fossils of Actual Bees First, no fossil remains of actual bees have ever been found that date to 200 million years ago. The earliest preserved body of a bee is 100 million years old—only half as old as the fossilized structures discovered in Arizona.
Absence of Flowering Plants A second reason to doubt that bees existed 200 million years ago is the absence of flowering plants in that period. Today's bees feed almost exclusively on the flowers of flowering plants; in fact, bees and flowering plants have evolved a close, mutually dependent biological relationship. Flowering plants, however, first appeared on Earth 125 million years ago. Given the bees’ close association with flowering plants, it is unlikely bees could have existed before that time.
Structures Lack Some Details Third, while the fossilized structures found in Arizona are somewhat similar to nest chambers made by modern bees, they lack some of the finer details of bees’ nests. For example, chambers of modern bee nests are closed by caps that have a spiral pattern, but the fossilized chambers lack such caps. That suggests the fossilized structures were made by other insects, such as wood-boring beetles.
Both of the reading and listening passage are about the existence of bees 200 million years ago. The notion presented by the author is that the bees do not appear on Earth as early as 200 million years ago. However, the instructor challenges the claim made by the author. He is of the opinion that the reasons provided by the author is unconvincing. Further, the grounds for his rejection are well-informed.
First of all, the author argues that the fossil structures are not created by the bees since fossil remains of actual bees have never been found. The specific argument is challenged by the speaker. He claims that the fossil remains of bees are preserved by some certain sticky liquid secreted by trees. However, the trees were rare in 200 million years ago. It is later on that the trees started to become common.
Secondly, the writer suggests that the flowering plants, closely associated with the bees, first appeared on Earth until 125 million years ago. The lecturer, however, rebuts this by mentioning that the beed initially fed on the non-flowering plants such as fern. He elaborates this by bringing up the point that the bees adapted to feeding on flowering plants later on, and such relationship remains stable since then.
Finally, the author posits that the fossilized structure lack finer details of the bees’ nests. It bears watching that the fossilized chambers nests lack caps similar with the modern bees. In contrast, the lecturer refers the chemical evidence. He notes that the modern chamber are created near water, so there are some water-preventing chemicals around it. Similarly, the fossilized chamber also contains the same chemical substance.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, however, if, second, secondly, similarly, so, then, well, in contrast, such as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 10.4613686534 124% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 0.0 5.04856512141 0% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 7.30242825607 27% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 22.412803532 94% => OK
Preposition: 35.0 30.3222958057 115% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1422.0 1373.03311258 104% => OK
No of words: 277.0 270.72406181 102% => OK
Chars per words: 5.13357400722 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.07962216107 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.60497770586 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 150.0 145.348785872 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.541516245487 0.540411800872 100% => OK
syllable_count: 417.6 419.366225166 100% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 3.25607064018 184% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 13.0662251656 138% => OK
Sentence length: 15.0 21.2450331126 71% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 32.760306078 49.2860985944 66% => OK
Chars per sentence: 79.0 110.228320801 72% => OK
Words per sentence: 15.3888888889 21.698381199 71% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.61111111111 7.06452816374 94% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.27373068433 211% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.350643047583 0.272083759551 129% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0973017964602 0.0996497079465 98% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.11144075355 0.0662205650399 168% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.201092184705 0.162205337803 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0983565146265 0.0443174109184 222% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.4 13.3589403974 78% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 64.71 53.8541721854 120% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.0 11.0289183223 73% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.18 12.2367328918 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.66 8.42419426049 103% => OK
difficult_words: 75.0 63.6247240618 118% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.5 10.7273730684 61% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.0 10.498013245 76% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.