In 1912 a bookseller named Wilfrid M. Voynich acquired a beautifully illustrated handwritten book (manuscript) written on vellum (vellum is a material that was used for writing before the introduction of paper). The “Voynich manuscript,” as it became known, resembles manuscripts written in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. However, it is written in a completely unknown script. To date, no one has been able to decode the script and understand the book’s content. Several theories have been proposed to explain the origin of the Voynich manuscript.
One theory is that the manuscript is a genuine work on some scientific or magical subject composed in a complex secret code. Anthony Ascham, a sixteenth-century physician and botanist, has been identified as a possible author, since many plant illustrations in the Voynich manuscript are quite similar to those in Ascham’s book on medicinal plants, A Little Herbal, published in 1550.
According to some other theories, the manuscript is really a fake and its text has no real meaning. For example, it has been proposed the manuscript was created by Edward Kelley, a sixteenth-century personality who extracted money from nobles across Europe by pretending to have magical powers. Kelley may have created the manuscript as a fake magical book to sell to a wealthy noble. He used a made-up alphabet in a completely random order. It looks like a book of magical secrets, but there is no meaningful underlying text.
Another theory is that the manuscript is actually a modern fake created by Wilfrid M. Voynich himself. As an antique book dealer, Voynich certainly had the knowledge of what old manuscripts should look like and could have created a fake one. Perhaps Voynich’s plan was to sell the fake as a mysterious old book if he received an attractive offer.
The reading passage and the listening talk about the origin of the Voynich manuscript. Despite that, the professor in the lecture challenges the arguments. He casts doubt on every single point the reading makes and provide details to support his idea.
To begin with, the reading suggests that Anthony Ascham is a possible author of the manuscript because many plant illustrations in the Voynich manuscript and medicinal plants in Ascham’s book have something in common. However, the lecturer argues that Ascham was an ordinary scientist. It is unlikely he could compose a complicated secret code in the manuscript. As a result, the professor can not give a nod to the author in terms of the first point.
Secondly, the writer mentions the manuscript was a fake book created by Edward Kelley to sell to a rich noble whereas the speaker believes that the creator of the manuscript must take efforts to compose a complex secret code. The wealthy noble at that time are easy to fool. It is not required to produce a book with a complex secret code for a wealthy noble. Kelley could use a simple book to do so. Apparently, the professor disproves its counterpart in the reading.
In addition, the article indicates that the manuscript is created by Wilfrid M. Voynich himself in order to sell it as a mysterious old book. The lecturer, on the other hand, points out that the material of the manuscript and the ink on the manuscript are dated to 400 years ago. Although Voynich can find the material dated 400 years ago, he could not obtain the ink from the same period. Thus, the professor disagrees this argument.
To sum up, it is obvious that the writer and the professor hold conflict views on this topic.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
apparently, first, however, second, secondly, so, thus, whereas, in addition, as a result, to begin with, to sum up, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 12.0772626932 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 20.0 22.412803532 89% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 30.3222958057 132% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1424.0 1373.03311258 104% => OK
No of words: 296.0 270.72406181 109% => OK
Chars per words: 4.81081081081 5.08290768461 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.14784890444 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.59579082784 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 156.0 145.348785872 107% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.527027027027 0.540411800872 98% => OK
syllable_count: 432.0 419.366225166 103% => 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: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 13.0662251656 138% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 21.2450331126 75% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 50.752120919 49.2860985944 103% => OK
Chars per sentence: 79.1111111111 110.228320801 72% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.4444444444 21.698381199 76% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.44444444444 7.06452816374 105% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => 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: 8.0 4.27373068433 187% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.215870288988 0.272083759551 79% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0597659919606 0.0996497079465 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0558633506303 0.0662205650399 84% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.101067499282 0.162205337803 62% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0613433743087 0.0443174109184 138% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 9.4 13.3589403974 70% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 63.7 53.8541721854 118% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.4 11.0289183223 76% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.32 12.2367328918 84% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.16 8.42419426049 97% => OK
difficult_words: 70.0 63.6247240618 110% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 81.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.5 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.