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 reading passage contends that the long-standing interest in elephants has led to several beliefs about surprising elephant behaviors, and presents several evidences that seem to uphold the claim. However, the lecture disapproves the reading passage by explainig that the beliefs are based on misunderstanding. The points made in the lecture will be elaborated in more detail below.
First of all, the lecture counterpoints the reading passage, which asserts that elephants are aware of approaching death, by mentioning that it is unreasonable to assume such way. The practical cause to old elephants breaking away from their herds is because as they get old, their teeth gets worn down and face difficulties in chewing. Due to this, they look for softer vegetation which usually resides near water. This is why old elephants graze here and eventually die, which led to the so called "elephant graveyard".
Secondly, while the reading passage maintains that elephants have the ability to represent objects through art, the lecture refutes this point by commenting that this is the result of training. Humans usually stroke the elephants' ears while they are painting, and because ears are a very sensitive part, elephants remember the sensation when performing particular brust strokes. As such, elephants drawing recognizable objects does not necessarily mean that they know the meaning of the objects, but is merely a result of training.
Last but not least, the reading passage contends that elephants possess fear of mice. However, the lecture easily disputes this claim by asserting that they are not reacting to mice itself, but are actually being cautious due to facing an unfamiliar creature, which is a natural instinct. To advocate the assertion, the lecture comments that elephants living in the zoo are not afraid of mice. After acknowledging that mice are not a threat to them, they would not fear them anymore.
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Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, first, however, if, look, second, secondly, so, while, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 10.4613686534 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 12.0772626932 141% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 22.412803532 129% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 35.0 30.3222958057 115% => 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: 1633.0 1373.03311258 119% => OK
No of words: 307.0 270.72406181 113% => OK
Chars per words: 5.31921824104 5.08290768461 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.18585898806 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.83787205653 2.5805825403 110% => OK
Unique words: 173.0 145.348785872 119% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.563517915309 0.540411800872 104% => OK
syllable_count: 495.9 419.366225166 118% => 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: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
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: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.8719488803 49.2860985944 95% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.642857143 110.228320801 106% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.9285714286 21.698381199 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.85714285714 7.06452816374 83% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => 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: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.192719795543 0.272083759551 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0646618628803 0.0996497079465 65% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0524200560205 0.0662205650399 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.113366272341 0.162205337803 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0324986361439 0.0443174109184 73% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.6 13.3589403974 109% => 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: 13.58 12.2367328918 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.79 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 80.0 63.6247240618 126% => 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?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, first, however, if, look, second, secondly, so, while, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 10.4613686534 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 12.0772626932 141% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 22.412803532 129% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 35.0 30.3222958057 115% => 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: 1633.0 1373.03311258 119% => OK
No of words: 307.0 270.72406181 113% => OK
Chars per words: 5.31921824104 5.08290768461 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.18585898806 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.83787205653 2.5805825403 110% => OK
Unique words: 173.0 145.348785872 119% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.563517915309 0.540411800872 104% => OK
syllable_count: 495.9 419.366225166 118% => 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: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
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: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.8719488803 49.2860985944 95% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.642857143 110.228320801 106% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.9285714286 21.698381199 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.85714285714 7.06452816374 83% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => 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: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.192719795543 0.272083759551 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0646618628803 0.0996497079465 65% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0524200560205 0.0662205650399 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.113366272341 0.162205337803 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0324986361439 0.0443174109184 73% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.6 13.3589403974 109% => 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: 13.58 12.2367328918 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.79 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 80.0 63.6247240618 126% => 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?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.