At the end of the Triassic period 200 million years ago, there was a mass-extinction event that caused the extinction of more than half of all living species. It was this extinction event that allowed dinosaurs to become the dominant species for the next 145 million years. We do not know exactly what happened that eliminated so many species in a relatively short period of time, but there are several possible explanations. One theory involves the decline of sea levels. Near the end of the Triassic period, sea levels were fluctuating . When sea levels fall, the habitats for ocean populations that live in the shallows and land species that live on the coast are destroyed. The destruction of coastal and shallow-ocean species would have had a profound effect on food chains worldwide, leading to mass destruction extinctions.Another theory involves massive climate cooling. The end of the Triassic period was marked by widespread volcanic activity. The volcanoes released large amounts of sulfur dioxide (S02). A rise in atmospheric S02 is known to cause a lowering in global temperatures. Such climate change could have devastated many species and led to the extinctions. The third theory involves an asteroid strike. Asteroids (objects from outer space) occasionally collide with Earth. When an asteroid hits Earth's surface, it often displaces large amounts of soil and crushed rock, leaving behind a depression, or crater. The displaced debris is thrown up into the atmosphere where it can block out sunlight for many months or even a few years.A sufficiently massive asteroid impact at the end of the Triassic period may have blocked sunlight long enough for most plants to die and many animal species to then starve.
The reading passage highlights three possible theories for the mass extinction of the Triassic period’s species. The lecture refutes these theories for the following reasons.
Firstly, the author suggests that the decline of the sea level could be a possible cause. When the sea level declined, many marine species that lived in shallow water and on the coasts were destroyed. Thus, affected the food chain globally which caused mass extinction. The professor opposes this and illustrates that sea level decline happened gradually over millions of years. This gradual change allowed the marine creatures to adapt to the sea-level fluctuation. She goes on and mentions that the sea level should fluctuate suddenly for marine mass extinction to take place.
Secondly, the writer mentions that massive climate cooling due to Sulphur oxide emissions after volcanic activity might be another possibility. Meanwhile, the lecturer opposes this and states that Sulphur oxide is cleared from the air after a short period of time. She goes on and emphasizes that Sulphur oxide reacts with water from the atmosphere to be released again into the earth in the form of rain. Thus, the emitted Sulphur oxide couldn’t have stayed long enough to cause enormous climate cooling.
Lastly, the author claims that asteroid strike could provide an explanation for mass extinction. Because when it happened, it released debris that blocked the sunlight for a very long time. So, plants died, and animals starved due to the lack of plants. Nevertheless, the professor opposes this theory and implies that the asteroid strike happened million years before the mass extinction of the Triassic period. Accordingly, the asteroid collision with the Earth hasn’t contributed to the mass extinction.
To sum up, the professor finds the three theories of mass extinction mentioned by the author are not well-founded and baseless.
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- Populations of the yellow cedar a species of tree that is common in northwestern North America have been steadily declining for more than a century now since about 1880 Scientists have advanced several hypotheses explain this decline One hypothesis is tha 78
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement In today s world it is more important to work quickly and risk making mistakes than to work slowly and make sure that everything is correct Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 70
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 250, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
...e is cleared from the air after a short period of time. She goes on and emphasizes that Sulphu...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 349, Rule ID: NODT_DOZEN[1]
Message: Use simply: 'a million'.
Suggestion: a million
...plies that the asteroid strike happened million years before the mass extinction of the...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
accordingly, but, first, firstly, lastly, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, thus, well, while, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 6.0 10.4613686534 57% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 22.412803532 85% => OK
Preposition: 33.0 30.3222958057 109% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 5.01324503311 180% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1614.0 1373.03311258 118% => OK
No of words: 299.0 270.72406181 110% => OK
Chars per words: 5.39799331104 5.08290768461 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.1583189471 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.5867614016 2.5805825403 100% => OK
Unique words: 162.0 145.348785872 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.541806020067 0.540411800872 100% => OK
syllable_count: 475.2 419.366225166 113% => 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: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
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: 26.1940173171 49.2860985944 53% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 89.6666666667 110.228320801 81% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.6111111111 21.698381199 77% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.88888888889 7.06452816374 83% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 1.0 4.33554083885 23% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.27373068433 234% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.181951985553 0.272083759551 67% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0566756234247 0.0996497079465 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0593976289736 0.0662205650399 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.103757571035 0.162205337803 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0443309723431 0.0443174109184 100% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 13.3589403974 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 55.24 53.8541721854 103% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 11.0289183223 86% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.74 12.2367328918 112% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.65 8.42419426049 103% => OK
difficult_words: 80.0 63.6247240618 126% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.0 10.7273730684 56% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.