At a sale at a private home in California several years ago a man purchased a box of photographic negatives stored in envelopes negatives are photographic images on film or glass from which actual photographs can be made The negatives dated from the 1920s | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

At a sale at a private home in California several years ago, a man purchased a box of photographic negatives stored in envelopes (negatives are photographic images on film or glass from which actual photographs can be made). The negatives dated from the 1920s and showed landscape scenes of the western United States. While the negatives carried no indication of the name of the photographer who created them, some people have concluded that the negatives were in fact made by the landscape photographer Ansel Adams, one of the greatest American photographers of the twentieth century. Several arguments have been offered in support of this idea.
First, the negatives include images of landscape features that Ansel Adams is known to have photographed. One of the negatives shows a large pine tree leaning downward on a cliff. The same distinctively shaped tree appears in another photograph that, without a doubt, was taken by Adams in the 1920s.
Second, the envelopes holding the negatives are numbered and marked with handwritten place names. The handwriting on the envelopes seems to resemble the handwriting of Virginia Adams, Ansel Adams’ wife. Virginia Adams is known to have assisted her husband in his work, so those who believe that Ansel Adams created these negatives have concluded that she helped her husband organize these negatives by numbering them and recording the names of the places where the images were created.
Third, a number of the negatives have been damaged by fire, it is well known that Ansel Adams’ photography studio had a fire that destroyed or damaged nearly a third of his negatives. The fact that some of the negatives bought at the sale have fire damage is consistent with the idea that they once belonged to Ansel Adams.

The reading passage mentions some photo negatives stored in envelopes found in a private house deen sold years ago. However, the writer puts forward several reasons that those photographic negatives belonged to famous landscape photographer Ansel Adams, the speaker casts doubt on all stated reasons.
Firstly, the article asserts that the strong resemblances between the found photos and Adam's style are compelling evidence, the photo of the pine tree, for example. Conversely, the Professor points out that the pine tree mentioned in the article is a famous landmark of Siiddity Park that was the most visited site in the park. Therefore, with a high possibility those pictures could be taken by other people.
Secondly, the reading claims that the numbers and marks left on the envelopes are handwritten similar to Adam's wife's handwriting who assisted him in his job. On the other hand, the lecturer clears out that there are some misspellings in that handwriting, which is unusual because Virginia Adam grew up there and knew it pretty well. As a result, they could not be Adam's photographs.
last but not least, the passage indicates that several negatives are burnt, and it is known that Adam almost lost a third of his photos due to a fire in his studio, back then. In contrast, the speaker reveals that at the time photographers used highly flammable materials with which were not easy to work. in this case, many other photographers had damaged photos by fire.

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Essay Categories

Integrated TOEFL Writing

Comments

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 320, Rule ID: IT_VBZ[1]
Message: Did you mean 'pretties'?
Suggestion: pretties
...Virginia Adam grew up there and knew it pretty well. As a result, they could not be Ad...
^^^^^^
Line 4, column 1, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Last
... they could not be Adams photographs. last but not least, the passage indicates th...
^^^^
Line 4, column 307, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: In
...rials with which were not easy to work. in this case, many other photographers had...
^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, conversely, first, firstly, however, if, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, well, for example, in contrast, as a result, on the other hand

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 10.4613686534 105% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 22.412803532 89% => 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: 1231.0 1373.03311258 90% => OK
No of words: 244.0 270.72406181 90% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.04508196721 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.95227774224 4.04702891845 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.61063643609 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 153.0 145.348785872 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.627049180328 0.540411800872 116% => OK
syllable_count: 378.9 419.366225166 90% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK

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: 22.0 21.2450331126 104% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.7349532679 49.2860985944 93% => OK
Chars per sentence: 111.909090909 110.228320801 102% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.1818181818 21.698381199 102% => OK
Discourse Markers: 14.0 7.06452816374 198% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.192498470358 0.272083759551 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0662535584846 0.0996497079465 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0657081983913 0.0662205650399 99% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.116085191546 0.162205337803 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.102031553163 0.0443174109184 230% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 13.3589403974 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 53.8541721854 91% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 11.0289183223 108% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.01 12.2367328918 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.8 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 63.0 63.6247240618 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 10.7273730684 135% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 10.498013245 103% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 76.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 23.0 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.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, conversely, first, firstly, however, if, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, well, for example, in contrast, as a result, on the other hand

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments