Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenge the specific points made in the reading passage.Humans have long been fascinated by elephants, the largest land animal in the modern world. Social animals that live in herd

Essay topics:

Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenge the specific points made in the reading passage.

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 points in the lecture indicate that the understandings of elephants presented in the reading are erroneous. The lecturer demonstrated reasoning not presented in the passage concerning the surprising elephant behaviors to give the audience a broader understanding of elephants.

First, the lecturer refutes the notion in the passage that elderly elephants break off from the herd so that they could die alone. She contend that the reason why these old elephants break off from the herd is for the sake of food. Older elephants have weaker teeth, thus making them unable to chew normal vegetation. Therefore, in search of softer source of nutrient, these old elephants go to places near water, where there will be an abundant source of soft vegetation. It can be seen from this explanation that elderly elephants do not go near the water because they know they are going to enter their grave soon, but they do it for their continual survival.

Concerning the artistic ability of elephants, it is presented in the lecture that elephants were actually trained to draw, possibly without knowledge of what they are drawing. The lecturer pointed out that elephant trainers stroke the elephant's ear to guide them to paint lines that they have been trained to paint beforehand. Therefore, elephants may actually be just repeating what they were taught to do, but they do not have any artistic capabilities as the reading suggests in reality.

Finally, the myth about elephants' fear of mice is debunked. The lecture suggests that elephants are only afraid of mice because they are unfamiliar to them. Elephants in the zoo, for example, are not afraid of mice because they are used to seeing them. So, after all, elephant may actually not be specifically afraid to mice as suggested in the reading.

Points made in the lecture explain each of the three elephant behaviors mentioned in the passage in another perspective. With these explanations, the amazing behaviors of elephants seem to be more reasonable.

Votes
Average: 7.3 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 136, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[1]
Message: The pronoun 'She' must be used with a third-person verb: 'contends'.
Suggestion: contends
... herd so that they could die alone. She contend that the reason why these old elephants...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 236, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'elephants'' or 'elephant's'?
Suggestion: elephants'; elephant's
...d out that elephant trainers stroke the elephants ear to guide them to paint lines that t...
^^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, finally, first, if, may, so, therefore, thus, after all, for example

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 10.4613686534 172% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 7.30242825607 27% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 22.412803532 147% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 52.0 30.3222958057 171% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1685.0 1373.03311258 123% => OK
No of words: 329.0 270.72406181 122% => OK
Chars per words: 5.12158054711 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.25891501996 4.04702891845 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.72233207292 2.5805825403 105% => OK
Unique words: 161.0 145.348785872 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.489361702128 0.540411800872 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 524.7 419.366225166 125% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 37.0571771051 49.2860985944 75% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.3125 110.228320801 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.5625 21.698381199 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.1875 7.06452816374 73% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.124431757959 0.272083759551 46% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0499166223755 0.0996497079465 50% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0370222639514 0.0662205650399 56% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0797568315569 0.162205337803 49% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0298898213396 0.0443174109184 67% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 13.3589403974 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 53.8541721854 95% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.2367328918 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.8 8.42419426049 93% => OK
difficult_words: 66.0 63.6247240618 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.