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 author of the reading passage and the lecturer both discuss the elephants' behaviors. The author indicates that people's long-standing interest in elephants has led to several beliefs about surprising elephants behaviors. However, the lecturer casts doubt on these beliefs and refutes each of the author's beliefs by providing several counter-arguments.
To begin with, the author states that elephants are aware of their death because the old elephants, which is going to die soon, will leave their heirs and go alone to certain locations often found near bodies of water, called ''elephant graveyards'', to die alone. Nonetheless, the lecturer points out that the reason why old elephants will go to the locations near bodies of water is actually because the old elephant's teeth are too old for them to chew the hard plants or vegetables on the land. As a result, old elephants might leave their heirs to go to eat the plants and vegetables near the bodies of water. This is because the plants and vegetables there are soft enough for them to consume.
In addition, the author expresses that it seems that elephants have the artistic ability because elephants might have the ability to paint drawings, such as flowers, other elephants and even themselves, on canvas.
Nevertheless, the lecturer asserts that the elephants are actually trained to paint. This is because the trainers will strike the elephants' ear, which is very sensitive, to control elephants' behaviors. By doing this, the elephants are able to paint those drawings even though the elephants do not really know the meaning of the drawing.
Finally, the author claims that elephants are more afraid of mice, small mammals that can do no harm to elephants, than of the much more dangerous animals with which elephants normally share an environment, such as lions or tigers. By contrast, the lecturer reveals that this is because elephants live in an area where there are no mice. As a consequence, when first seeing mice, elephants will be cautious because this is the instinctive behavior that animals have. Besides, the elephants living in zoos where there are mice do not are familiar with mice and they do not mind mice.
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| 2018-07-25 | Springlovers | 78 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 6, column 131, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'elephants'' or 'elephant's'?
Suggestion: elephants'; elephant's
...is because the trainers will strike the elephants ear, which is very sensitive, to contro...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, besides, finally, first, however, nevertheless, nonetheless, really, so, in addition, such as, as a result, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 10.4613686534 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 12.0772626932 132% => OK
Pronoun: 25.0 22.412803532 112% => OK
Preposition: 42.0 30.3222958057 139% => 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: 1838.0 1373.03311258 134% => OK
No of words: 362.0 270.72406181 134% => OK
Chars per words: 5.0773480663 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.36191444098 4.04702891845 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.63822423219 2.5805825403 102% => OK
Unique words: 174.0 145.348785872 120% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.480662983425 0.540411800872 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 558.0 419.366225166 133% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 1.25165562914 320% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 2.5761589404 272% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 56.8621725461 49.2860985944 115% => OK
Chars per sentence: 122.533333333 110.228320801 111% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.1333333333 21.698381199 111% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.73333333333 7.06452816374 124% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 4.45695364238 179% => 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: 0.208754952827 0.272083759551 77% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0797856716404 0.0996497079465 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0442694848451 0.0662205650399 67% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.121124419949 0.162205337803 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0234908217598 0.0443174109184 53% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.6 13.3589403974 109% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 53.8541721854 103% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.48 12.2367328918 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.53 8.42419426049 89% => OK
difficult_words: 62.0 63.6247240618 97% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 20 minutes.
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.