Toward the end of his life, the Chevalier de Seingalt (1725-1798) wrote a long memoir recounting his life and adventures. The Chevalier was a somewhat controversial figure, but since he met many famous people, including kings and writers, his memoir has become a valuable historical source about European society in the eighteenth century. However, some critics have raised doubts about the accuracy of the memoir. They claim that the Chevalier distorted or invented many events in the memoir to make his life seem more exciting and glamorous than it really was.
For example, in his memoir the Chevalier claims that while living in Switzerland, he was very wealthy, and it is known that he spent a great deal of money there on parties and gambling. However, evidence has recently surfaced that the Chevalier borrowed considerable sums of money from a Swiss merchant. Critics thus argue that if the Chevalier had really been very rich, he would not have needed to borrow money.
Critics are also skeptical about the accuracy of the conversations that the Chevalier records in the memoir between himself and the famous writer Voltaire. No one doubts that the Chevalier and Voltaire met and conversed. However, critics complain that the memoir cannot possibly capture these conversations accurately, because it was written many years after the conversations occurred. Critics point out that it is impossible to remember exact phrases from extended conversations held many years earlier.
Critics have also questioned the memoir's account of the Chevalier's escape from a notorious prison in Venice, Italy. He claims to have escaped the Venetian prison by using a piece of metal to make a hole in the ceiling and climbing through the roof. Critics claim that while such a daring escape makes for enjoyable reading, it is more likely that the Chevaliers jailers were bribed to free him. They point out that the Chevalier had a number of politically well-connected friends in Venice who could have offered a bribe.
The reading passage and the lecture offer opposing views regarding the accuracy of Chevalier's memoir about his life and adventures. While the passage presents some facts to refute the accuracy of the accounts, the professor in the lecture provide evidence in support of the overall accuracy of the memoir.
To begin with, the author of the article argues that if Chevalier was affluent, he would not have to borrow money from other Swiss merchant. However, the professor in the lecture refutes the idea of the passage that Chevalier was poor. He mentions that it would take certain amount of time to sell the property and earn cash to invest in parties and gambling, and hence Chevalier loaned from merchant to cope with the situation, which does not mean that he was indigent.
Secondly, the writer of the passage suggests that the conversations between Chevalier and Voltaire are not accurate enough. It is stated in the article that as he wrote the conversations many years after they had occurred, it was not possible for him to remember the conversations exactly, and hence they are not precise enough. But the lecture claims that he kept note of each conversation and used those notes while writing, and so it is not surprising that the conversations are accurate.
Finally, the professor argues against the idea of the passage that the account of the memoir that Chevalier ran out from jail. According to the passage, his politically powerful friends in Venice bribed jailers to set him free. In contrast, the professor states that other prisoners had even more influential friends. Moreover, the record in jail suggests that the jail authority had to repair the ceiling of Chevalier's jail after he escaped, which is a glaring proof that he escaped from the jail.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, hence, however, if, moreover, regarding, second, secondly, so, while, in contrast, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 7.30242825607 137% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 22.412803532 138% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 43.0 30.3222958057 142% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1479.0 1373.03311258 108% => OK
No of words: 297.0 270.72406181 110% => OK
Chars per words: 4.9797979798 5.08290768461 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.15134772569 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.58937226207 2.5805825403 100% => OK
Unique words: 150.0 145.348785872 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.505050505051 0.540411800872 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 459.0 419.366225166 109% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 3.25607064018 154% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.51434878587 264% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 43.3076847171 49.2860985944 88% => OK
Chars per sentence: 123.25 110.228320801 112% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.75 21.698381199 114% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.16666666667 7.06452816374 130% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.194042057331 0.272083759551 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0725387556544 0.0996497079465 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0526466672204 0.0662205650399 80% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.11131885291 0.162205337803 69% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0277383654085 0.0443174109184 63% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.4 13.3589403974 108% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 53.8541721854 103% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.9 12.2367328918 97% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.34 8.42419426049 99% => OK
difficult_words: 66.0 63.6247240618 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 83 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25 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.