The Little Ice Age was a period of unusually cold temperatures in many parts of the world that lasted from about the year 1350 until 1900 C.E. There were unusually harsh winters, and glaciers grew larger in many areas. Scientists have long wondered what caused the Little Ice Age. Several possible causes have been proposed.
First, the cooling may have been caused by disruption of ocean currents. Before the Little Ice Age, there was a period of unusually warm weather during which glaciers melted. These melted glaciers sent a large amount of cold freshwater into the Gulf Stream, a large ocean current that strongly affects Earth's climate. Some scientists believe that this freshwater was enough to temporarily disrupt the Gulf Stream current. Such a disruption could have caused the Little Ice Age.
Second, volcanic eruptions could have caused the Little Ice Age. When volcanoes erupt, they send dark clouds of dust and sulfur gas into the atmosphere. These clouds, which can spread over great areas, block some sunlight from reaching Earth's surface. This can decrease the global temperatures. Scientists know of several volcanic eruptions that took place during the Little Ice Age.
Third, substantial decreases in human populations may have contributed indirectly to the cooling of the climate. For a variety of reasons (disease, warfare, social disruption), the human population just before the Little Ice Age and during the early part of it was lower than it had been in a long time. Forest trees started growing on fields that were no longer used for agriculture. Since trees absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, they decrease the greenhouse effect that keeps Earth warm. With more forest trees and less carbon dioxide, Earth became cooler.
Both the reading and lecture are about what caused the Little Ice Age. The author states that there are three possible explanations. The lecturer, however, challenges the claims made by the author. He is of opinion that all three explanations are false.
To begin with, the author writes that the cooling may have been caused by disruption of ocean currents. This is because melted glaciers sent large amount of water into the Gulf Stream, which in turn altered the Earth's climate. Conversely, the speaker asserts that the effect was not as huge as the author states. He points out that the Gulf Stream will affect only in North hemisphere, but the climate in New Zealand and South Africa changed at that time. Therefore, the disruption of ocean can't account for the global cooling in the Little Ice Age.
Secondly, the author posits that volcanic eruption may have caused the Iced Age. In this article, it is mentioned that dark clouds from volcanoes blocked some sunlight from arriving Earth's surface. This specific argument is challenged by the speaker. He asserts that if the volcanic eruption are strong enough, then there should be visual effect which can be recorded in history. In fact, there's no report on snow being gray or grown.
Finally, the passage claims that substantial decreases in population may contributed directly to the cooling of the climate. To be more specific, decreasing population will cause increasing forest trees, which in turn decrease the greenhouse effect that keeps Earth warm. In contrast, the speaker questions on the duration of the decreased population. According to the record, the population grew back quickly so that there's no enough time for forest to cool down Earth.
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Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 492, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...ime. Therefore, the disruption of ocean cant account for the global cooling in the L...
^^^^
Line 5, column 390, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: there's
...ch can be recorded in history. In fact, theres no report on snow being gray or grown. ...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 419, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: there's
...he population grew back quickly so that theres no enough time for forest to cool down ...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, conversely, finally, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, in contrast, in fact, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 22.412803532 85% => OK
Preposition: 34.0 30.3222958057 112% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 5.01324503311 199% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1439.0 1373.03311258 105% => OK
No of words: 283.0 270.72406181 105% => OK
Chars per words: 5.08480565371 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.10153676581 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.47638398045 2.5805825403 96% => OK
Unique words: 168.0 145.348785872 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.593639575972 0.540411800872 110% => OK
syllable_count: 428.4 419.366225166 102% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 3.25607064018 184% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 2.5761589404 233% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 13.0662251656 138% => OK
Sentence length: 15.0 21.2450331126 71% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 30.6793452052 49.2860985944 62% => OK
Chars per sentence: 79.9444444444 110.228320801 73% => OK
Words per sentence: 15.7222222222 21.698381199 72% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.55555555556 7.06452816374 93% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => 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: 0.101164833356 0.272083759551 37% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0334980047699 0.0996497079465 34% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0542099292704 0.0662205650399 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0640457563037 0.162205337803 39% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0288559130604 0.0443174109184 65% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.4 13.3589403974 78% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 64.71 53.8541721854 120% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.0 11.0289183223 73% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.89 12.2367328918 97% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.29 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 70.0 63.6247240618 110% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 5.5 10.7273730684 51% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.0 10.498013245 76% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 78.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 23.5 Out of 30
---------------------
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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 492, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...ime. Therefore, the disruption of ocean cant account for the global cooling in the L...
^^^^
Line 5, column 390, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: there's
...ch can be recorded in history. In fact, theres no report on snow being gray or grown. ...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 419, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: there's
...he population grew back quickly so that theres no enough time for forest to cool down ...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, conversely, finally, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, in contrast, in fact, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 22.412803532 85% => OK
Preposition: 34.0 30.3222958057 112% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 5.01324503311 199% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1439.0 1373.03311258 105% => OK
No of words: 283.0 270.72406181 105% => OK
Chars per words: 5.08480565371 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.10153676581 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.47638398045 2.5805825403 96% => OK
Unique words: 168.0 145.348785872 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.593639575972 0.540411800872 110% => OK
syllable_count: 428.4 419.366225166 102% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 3.25607064018 184% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 2.5761589404 233% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 13.0662251656 138% => OK
Sentence length: 15.0 21.2450331126 71% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 30.6793452052 49.2860985944 62% => OK
Chars per sentence: 79.9444444444 110.228320801 73% => OK
Words per sentence: 15.7222222222 21.698381199 72% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.55555555556 7.06452816374 93% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => 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: 0.101164833356 0.272083759551 37% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0334980047699 0.0996497079465 34% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0542099292704 0.0662205650399 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0640457563037 0.162205337803 39% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0288559130604 0.0443174109184 65% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.4 13.3589403974 78% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 64.71 53.8541721854 120% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.0 11.0289183223 73% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.89 12.2367328918 97% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.29 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 70.0 63.6247240618 110% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 5.5 10.7273730684 51% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.0 10.498013245 76% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 78.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 23.5 Out of 30
---------------------
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.