Humans have long been fascinated by elephants, the largest land animal in the modern world. Social animals that live in herds, elephants are native to both Africa and Asia. Their large ears, long trunk, and long life span have made elephants one of the most captivating creatures on Earth. Our long-standing interest in elephants has led to several beliefs about surprising elephant behaviors.
Elephants Are Aware of Approaching Death
One of the popular beliefs is that when elephants become old and weak, they know that they are nearing the end of their lives. They demonstrate this by breaking away from their herds and going off alone to certain locations often found near bodies of water - so called "elephant graveyards" - to die alone. The idea that old elephants seem aware that they will die soon is supported by the discovery of many sites containing bones exclusively of elderly elephants.
Representing Objects through Art
Additionally, elephants seem to have artistic ability. Elephants can be taught to hold a paintbrush in their trunk and use it to paint on a canvas. Some elephants have been known to paint drawings that represent recognizable things: flowers, other elephants, even themselves. This talent makes elephants the only animal other than humans to produce art representing the world around them.
Fear of Mice
Finally, it has long been believed that elephants have a fear of mice. In 77 C.E., the Roman philosopher and scientist Pliny the Elder wrote that elephants are more afraid of mice, small mammals that can do elephants no harm, than of the much more dangerous animals with which elephants normally share an environment, such as lions or tigers. In a recent scientific experiment in which a herd of elephants was confronted with several mice, the elephants backed away from the mice and left the area to avoid them.
The reading passage mentions that there are three beliefs about surprising elephant behaviors. And the lecture talks about the same issue. However, the speaker of the lecture thinks these points mentioned in the reading passage are totally unconvincing. She lists three reasons as follows so as to support her opinion.
Firstly, in the reading passage, the author says that elephants can sense if they are going to die, they will break away the herds. But the lecturer does not think so. She contends that breaking away the herds is not a sign of the death of elephants, but when they become old and weak, their tooth is not very good to chew food, especially hard foods. So they have to look for some soft vegetation that is easier for them to eat. In addition, the place where the soft vegetation can be found is always near the water. Thus, those elephants come to this place nearby water and die here in the end.
Secondly, the author of the reading passage believes that elephants have the ability to draw. Nevertheless, the lecturer thinks it is not trustworthy. Considering those shows in which elephants can hold a paintbrush in their trunk and use it to paint on a canvas is a trick. As the trainer touches the sensitive part, which is elephants' ears, those elephants can be trained to paint. To be more specific, the trainer can let the elephants draw some lines and patterns by touching certain parts of their ears. Thus, we have no idea those graphs are flowers or animals. They are the work of the repetition of human being's drawings.
Finally, in the reading passage, elephants are afraid of mice. On the other hand, the lecturer opposes this idea. She asserts that the elephants have a fear of mice is not the mice themselves but they are an unknown species. So elephants show a sense of fear, which is the natural instinct. However, compared to the wild elephants, elephants in zoos do not have this feeling, because mice are familiar for them. Therefore, they are not afraid of mice.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 290, Rule ID: SO_AS_TO[1]
Message: Use simply 'to'
Suggestion: to
...ing. She lists three reasons as follows so as to support her opinion. Firstly, in the...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, firstly, however, if, look, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, therefore, thus, as to, in addition, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 10.4613686534 201% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 22.412803532 152% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 37.0 30.3222958057 122% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1656.0 1373.03311258 121% => OK
No of words: 351.0 270.72406181 130% => OK
Chars per words: 4.71794871795 5.08290768461 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.32839392791 4.04702891845 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.41833525112 2.5805825403 94% => OK
Unique words: 181.0 145.348785872 125% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.51566951567 0.540411800872 95% => OK
syllable_count: 501.3 419.366225166 120% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.55342163355 90% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 3.25607064018 307% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.51434878587 198% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 2.5761589404 233% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 13.0662251656 176% => OK
Sentence length: 15.0 21.2450331126 71% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 35.6740123995 49.2860985944 72% => OK
Chars per sentence: 72.0 110.228320801 65% => OK
Words per sentence: 15.2608695652 21.698381199 70% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.04347826087 7.06452816374 86% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 4.45695364238 179% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.27373068433 187% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.154367244088 0.272083759551 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.044649623746 0.0996497079465 45% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0390018670148 0.0662205650399 59% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0907363007751 0.162205337803 56% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0495279352951 0.0443174109184 112% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 8.4 13.3589403974 63% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 73.17 53.8541721854 136% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 6.8 11.0289183223 62% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 9.5 12.2367328918 78% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.03 8.42419426049 83% => OK
difficult_words: 59.0 63.6247240618 93% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.0 10.7273730684 56% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
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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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 71.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 21.5 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.