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.
Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.
Elephants are fascinating, but the beliefs you just read about are based on misunderstandings of elephant behavior.
First, we should not assume that old elephants are aware they will die soon just because they break away from their herds. There’s a very practical reason why old elephants leave their herds. Ya see, when elephants get old enough, their teeth become worn down and they have difficulty chewing. So elderly elephants wander away from their herd to look for softer vegetation that’s easier to eat. Softer vegetation is usually found near water. That’s why many old elephants graze near water and eventually die there, in areas we’ve come to call elephant graveyards.
Second, the issue of whether elephants have artistic ability. If you watch elephants trained to paint, you’ll notice that a human trainer is stroking the elephant’s ears whenever the elephant moves the paintbrush. Elephant ears are very sensitive, and touching them in certain ways can be used to train the elephants to do tricks. The trainer teaches the elephant to remember certain patterns of paintbrush strokes, and then encourages the elephant to repeat the brushstrokes by touching its ears. So an elephant using a paintbrush is just painting lines it’s been trained to paint. It doesn’t necessarily know that the lines are supposed to represent flowers or animals.
Third, Pliny [plinny] the Elder and others are misinterpreting the reaction of elephants to mice. Elephants that react fearfully to mice aren’t reacting to the mice themselves, but to the fact that the mice are unfamiliar to them. Being cautious about unfamiliar animals is a natural instinct. But elephants that live in environments where mice are common, like elephants in zoos, don’t react with fear to the mice. Clearly, once elephants become familiar with mice and realize that they don’t pose a threat, they don’t mind them.
The reading and lecture are both about beliefs in elephants The author of reading feels that our interests in elephants led to beliefs about elephant behaviors, but the lecturer challenges the claims made by the author. He is of opinion that these beliefs are misunderstanding.
To begin with, To begin with, the reading says that elephants are aware of death. Since when elephants are old enough, they will break away from their herds and go off alone to certain location found their bone. The specific argument is challenged by the lecturer. He claims that when elephants are old enough, their teeth are wore and down, and they will go away to find soft food that are near water. As a result, elephants are die in there.
Secondly, the writer suggests that representing objects through art since they can be taught to hold paintbrush and have been known to paint drawings such as flowers. lecturer, however, rebuts this by mentioning that as you see elephants drawing objects, you can find trainer stroke elephants' ear. The elephants' ear is sensitive, so it can be used to train to do trick. In this way, trainer make elephants remember certain stroke line by touch their ear and repeat line. Therefore, we do not know elephants draw flowers or line.
Finally, the author posits that elephants have a fear of mice, since roman philosopher and scientist wrote that elephants are more afraid of mice than the much more dangerous animals. In contrast, the lecturer's position is that roman philosopher and scientist are misunderstanding elephants, because elephants’ behaviors are common because mice are unfamiliar. Second, recent scientific experiment shows elephants backed away from the mice when the was confronted with several mice. However, the lecturer argues that when elephants live in environment with mice, they are not back away. If mice are familiar, elephants will not have such behaviors.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-07-23 | nusybah | 78 | view |
| 2023-03-01 | rodrian | 65 | view |
| 2023-02-25 | reza_fattahi | 83 | view |
| 2022-12-15 | HSNDEK | 78 | view |
| 2022-11-25 | nikki07hung | 80 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 328, Rule ID: BEEN_PART_AGREEMENT[1]
Message: Consider using a past participle here: 'worn'.
Suggestion: worn
...ephants are old enough, their teeth are wore and down, and they will go away to find...
^^^^
Line 5, column 168, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Lecturer
...nown to paint drawings such as flowers. lecturer, however, rebuts this by mentioning tha...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 303, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'elephants'' or 'elephant's'?
Suggestion: elephants'; elephant's
... find trainer stroke elephants ear. The elephants ear is sensitive, so it can be used to ...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 358, Rule ID: ALLOW_TO[1]
Message: Did you mean 'doing'? Or maybe you should add a pronoun? In active voice, 'train' + 'to' takes an object, usually a pronoun.
Suggestion: doing
...s sensitive, so it can be used to train to do trick. In this way, trainer make elepha...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, however, if, second, secondly, so, therefore, in contrast, such as, as a result, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 10.4613686534 210% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 7.30242825607 137% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 22.412803532 129% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 39.0 30.3222958057 129% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1603.0 1373.03311258 117% => OK
No of words: 313.0 270.72406181 116% => OK
Chars per words: 5.1214057508 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.20616286096 4.04702891845 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.66449843293 2.5805825403 103% => OK
Unique words: 169.0 145.348785872 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.539936102236 0.540411800872 100% => OK
syllable_count: 486.0 419.366225166 116% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 3.25607064018 215% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 1.25165562914 399% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 2.5761589404 233% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 13.0662251656 130% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 51.6559686807 49.2860985944 105% => OK
Chars per sentence: 94.2941176471 110.228320801 86% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.4117647059 21.698381199 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.35294117647 7.06452816374 90% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 4.19205298013 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 4.45695364238 202% => Less negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.238772709803 0.272083759551 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.084682311021 0.0996497079465 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0434483778857 0.0662205650399 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.144385628008 0.162205337803 89% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.013549338666 0.0443174109184 31% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.9 13.3589403974 89% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 53.8541721854 99% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.2367328918 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.71 8.42419426049 92% => OK
difficult_words: 63.0 63.6247240618 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 10.7273730684 70% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.