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 explores the topic of surprising elephant behaviors, and several beliefs are offered in support of this argument. Although the statement in the article seems plausible in the beginning, the lecturer casts doubts on it for several reasons.
First of all, even though the reading passage suggests that elderly elephants are aware of their death and tend to break away from their herds to die besides water. Such location besides water is called "elephant graveyards". In contrast, the lecturer argues that the practical explanation of this behavior is because vegetation near water is softer for old elephants to eat since their teeth made it difficult to chew things.
Secondly, the statement held by the writer claims that elephants can represent objects through art. They can paint recognizable things such as flowers, other elephants, and even themselves. Conversely, the lecturer rejects the idea by bringing up a logical reason that their capability of drawing is actually trained by humans. Humans will teach them to draw by stroking their sensitive ears. Hence, elephants do not know the representation of their drawing.
Last but not least, the lecturer acutely identifies the weakness in the reading passage that elephants have a fear of mice. The lecturer convincingly points out that this is due to the unfamiliarity of mice. Moreover, he offers an example that the elephants in zoos do not react fear to mice because they are already familiar with mice and also know that they will cause no threat.
In conclusion, based on the evidence presented above, it can be clearly seen that the stances on both sides are paradoxical. Though the contents in the reading passage seem reasonable, the lecturer disproves them by solid points.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, besides, but, conversely, first, hence, if, moreover, second, secondly, so, in conclusion, in contrast, such as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 12.0772626932 75% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 28.0 22.412803532 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 42.0 30.3222958057 139% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 5.01324503311 160% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1498.0 1373.03311258 109% => OK
No of words: 285.0 270.72406181 105% => OK
Chars per words: 5.25614035088 5.08290768461 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.10876417139 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.78819566884 2.5805825403 108% => OK
Unique words: 168.0 145.348785872 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.589473684211 0.540411800872 109% => OK
syllable_count: 451.8 419.366225166 108% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 21.2450331126 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.3093712321 49.2860985944 80% => OK
Chars per sentence: 99.8666666667 110.228320801 91% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.0 21.698381199 88% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.4 7.06452816374 133% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
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: 0.150610792994 0.272083759551 55% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0505551246276 0.0996497079465 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0417083788287 0.0662205650399 63% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0738808674006 0.162205337803 46% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0412983005135 0.0443174109184 93% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.8 13.3589403974 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 53.8541721854 97% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 11.0289183223 97% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.23 12.2367328918 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.73 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 75.0 63.6247240618 118% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 10.498013245 91% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 86.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 26.0 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.