Robert E. Peary was a well-known adventurer and arctic explorer who in 1909 set out to reach the North Pole. When he returned from the expedition, he claimed to have reached the pole on April 7, 1909. This report made him into an international celebrity. Though some historians have expressed doubts that Peary did, in fact, reach the North Pole, three arguments provide strong support for the truth of Peary’s claim.
First, the National Geographic Society put together a committee that was instructed to conduct a thorough investigation of Peary’s records and equipment. At the end of the investigation, the committee concluded that Peary’s accounts were consistent and persuasive and declared that he had indeed reached the North Pole.
Second, a recent expedition provides support for Peary’s claim that he reached the North Pole in only 37 days after setting out from Ellesmere Island off the coast of Greenland. Skeptics used to argue that Peary could not have traveled that fast. Since even modern snowmobiles take longer to cover the same distance. However, a British explorer named Tom Avery recently made the same trek in less than 37 days. In fact, Avery used the same kind of dogsled and the same number and breed of dogs as Peary had. Thus, Peary’s claims are not impossible, and he very well might have been telling the truth.
Third, there are photographs taken by Peary that support his claim to have reached the North Pole. Measuring the shadows in Peary's photographs makes it possible to calculate the Sun's position in the north pole. The Sun's position established from the photographs corresponds exactly to the Sun's position as it should have been at the North Pole on that day. This provides strong evidence that Peary reached the North Pole and took the photographs there.
The reading passage claims that Peary, a well-known adventurer and explorer, reached the north pole in 1909 and presents three arguments for that. However, the speaker in the lecture refutes the claims made in the article and introduces counterarguments.
First and foremost, the author holds that the national geographic society created a committee to investigate and finally concluded that Peary was actually able to reach the north pole. Nevertheless, the lecturer brings up the fact that the committee decision was not objective because it included Peary's close friends who contributed large sums of money to his journey. In addition, the speaker mentions that the investigation only took two days, which is not enough to examine th adventurer's record. As a result, the final conclusion might have been biased.
Secondly, the writer assumes that the evidence from Tom Avery's expedition confirmed that Peary was able to make it since Avery used the same dogsled and the same number and breed of dogs and was able to arrive at the north pole in less than 37 days. In contrast, the lecturer indicates that Avery did not have to carry food on the sleds. Instead, food was dropped for him through airplanes. Furthermore, Avery travelled under favorable weather conditions, whereas Peary made his trip under harsh weather circumstances. Consequently, Avery's trek was too different to provide any support for Peary's claims.
Lastly, the excerpt contends that a strong evidence could be driven from the photographs that Peary supposedly had taken from the north pole. According to the article, the sun's position that could be predicted using the shadows in the pictures is relatively the same position that the sun was in on that day in the north pole. Conversely, the lecturer points out that the camera at that time was so primitive which made the images fuzzy and blurred. Besides, the shots were faded and worn, which made them unreliable to determine accurately the sun's position through the shadows in them.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, besides, but, consequently, conversely, finally, first, furthermore, however, if, lastly, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, well, whereas, as to, in addition, in contrast, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 5.04856512141 59% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 7.30242825607 137% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 12.0772626932 166% => OK
Pronoun: 23.0 22.412803532 103% => OK
Preposition: 36.0 30.3222958057 119% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 5.01324503311 160% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1700.0 1373.03311258 124% => OK
No of words: 328.0 270.72406181 121% => OK
Chars per words: 5.18292682927 5.08290768461 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.25567506705 4.04702891845 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.67689003487 2.5805825403 104% => OK
Unique words: 188.0 145.348785872 129% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.573170731707 0.540411800872 106% => OK
syllable_count: 518.4 419.366225166 124% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 3.25607064018 0% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.23620309051 158% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 51.0597036158 49.2860985944 104% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.333333333 110.228320801 103% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.8666666667 21.698381199 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 13.0 7.06452816374 184% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => 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: 0.246418505759 0.272083759551 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0735420162629 0.0996497079465 74% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0611491173274 0.0662205650399 92% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.149656202303 0.162205337803 92% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0524451082188 0.0443174109184 118% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.9 13.3589403974 104% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 53.8541721854 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.76 12.2367328918 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.96 8.42419426049 106% => OK
difficult_words: 89.0 63.6247240618 140% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 85.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25.5 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.