Essay topics: TPO-04 - Integrated Writing Task
Endotherms are animals such as modern birds and mammals that keep their body temperatures constant. For instance, humans are endotherms and maintain an internal temperature of 37°C, no matter whether the environment is warm or cold. Because dinosaurs were reptiles, and modern reptiles are not endotherms, it was long assumed that dinosaurs were not endotherms. However, dinosaurs differ in many ways from modem reptiles, and there is now considerable evidence that dinosaurs were, in fact, endotherms.
Polar dinosaurs
One reason for believing that dinosaurs were endotherms is that dinosaur fossils have been discovered in Polar Regions. Only animals that can maintain a temperature well above that of the surrounding environment could be active in such cold climates.
Leg position and movement
There is a connection between endothermy and the position and movement of the legs. The physiology of endothermy allows sustained physical activity, such as running. But running is efficient only if an animal's legs are positioned underneath its body, not at the body's side, as they are for crocodiles and many lizards. The legs of all modern endotherms are underneath the body, and so were the legs of dinosaurs. This strongly suggests that dinosaurs were endotherms.
Haversian canals
There is also a connection between endothermy and bone structure. The bones of endotherms usually include structures called Haversian canals. These canals house nerves and blood vessels that allow the living animal to grow quickly, and rapid body growth is in fact a characteristic of endothermy. The presence of Haversian canals in bone is a strong indicator that the animal is an endotherm, and fossilized bones of dinosaurs are usually dense with Haversian canals.
The lecturer provides evidence to support the opinion that dinosaurs might not be endotherms. Three reasons are provided below.
First, the polar area at the time the polar dinosaurs were living might be warmer than it is now. Although fossils of dinosaurs have been found at the polar regions, the lecturer suggests that the polar regions might be warmer than it is now, and even at the time when the polar regions were colder, those polar dinosaurs could migrate to warmer areas or got themselves sleeping during the whole cold times.
Second, the legs underneath the body were to support more weight. Rather than to sustain physical activities, the legs of dinosaurs were said to provide support to the dinosaur's weight, given how large the size they have. The large size gives dinosaurs huge advantages at that time.
Third, there are growth rings in the bone of the dinosaurs. The growth rings indicate that dinosaurs were growing slower in the cold weather than it was in the warmer weather. Although Haversian canals were found in the dinosaurs' body, the growth rings would only be found in the non-endotherms because it suggests that those non-endotherms could not regulate their body temperature in the colder weather (thus the inconsistent growing patterns in the cold and warm weathers).
To conclude, the dinosaurs were suggested to be non-endotherms in the lecture because of the reasons provided in the previous paragraphs.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, second, so, third, thus
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 10.4613686534 172% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 3.0 7.30242825607 41% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 6.0 12.0772626932 50% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 14.0 22.412803532 62% => OK
Preposition: 28.0 30.3222958057 92% => OK
Nominalization: 1.0 5.01324503311 20% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1212.0 1373.03311258 88% => OK
No of words: 236.0 270.72406181 87% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.13559322034 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.91947592106 4.04702891845 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.57836110592 2.5805825403 100% => OK
Unique words: 113.0 145.348785872 78% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.478813559322 0.540411800872 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 363.6 419.366225166 87% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
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: 11.0 13.0662251656 84% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 89.0299420336 49.2860985944 181% => OK
Chars per sentence: 110.181818182 110.228320801 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.4545454545 21.698381199 99% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.72727272727 7.06452816374 39% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 4.33554083885 208% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 0.0 4.45695364238 0% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.368769464294 0.272083759551 136% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.148015974676 0.0996497079465 149% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.065352128594 0.0662205650399 99% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.200869594572 0.162205337803 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0535338048668 0.0443174109184 121% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.5 13.3589403974 101% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 53.8541721854 109% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.53 12.2367328918 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.22 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 53.0 63.6247240618 83% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.