The Komodo dragon is a very large species of lizard that lives on a few small islands in Indonesia. When the reptiles were first intensively studied, their hunting technique left many biologists puzzled because they simply bit their prey and then waited for it to slowly die. Experts started investigating the animal's mouths and they eventually suggested two possible explanations: massive bacterial load in their saliva or a specialized kind of venom. The first hypothesis was popular for many decades.
The first reason why massive bacterial load in their saliva seemed the more likely cause of death was that animals that had been bitten by Komodo dragons often had serious infections around the bites. Such infections would rapidly spread toxins throughout an animals' blood and kill it within a few days. Since the dragons are reptiles, and they can go for weeks between feedings, this strategy would work.
Second, the mouths of Komodo dragons are full of harmful bacteria. Researchers took samples of dragon saliva and analyzed it to see what bacteria were present. They found over 50 disease-causing pathogens (microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, and fungi that cause diseases), and when they injected the saliva directly into mice, many of the mice soon died. Samples of the mice's blood were full of the same kinds of bacteria.
Third, scientists believed that the bacteria allowed the dragons to catch much larger prey than their usual diet. Komodo dragons normally eat pigs and deer, which quickly die from blood loss when bitten. However, humans introduced water buffalo to the dragons' habitat. Water buffalo are so much larger than the dragons that they are difficult to kill. A massive bacterial load would turn otherwise survivable wounds for the buffalo into a slow death from bacterial infection.
The reading passage contends that Komodo dragons use bacterial load in their saliva to hunt for food and presents several evidences that seem to uphold the claim. However, the lecture disapproves this claim and suggests that they actually used a specialized kind of venom. 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 massive bacterial load in their saliva cause the animals to die based on observation of serious infections around the bites, by mentioning that this assertion is made entirely on visual evidence and not on factual physical evidence. When the researchers brought in the Komodo dragons to the laboratory to investigate their physical features, they realized that they had multiple venom glands in their teeth.
Secondly, while the reading passage maintains that the mouths of Komodo dragons are full of harmful bacteria, the lecture comments that such bacteria is due to a diet of wild specimen. The researchers compared the mouths of captive and wild Komodo dragons and noticed that captive Komodo dragons did not consist of any harmful bacteria while the wild dragons did. This clearly indicates that the harmful bacteria comes from the environment, due to consuming rotten meat.
Last but not least, the reading passage claims that the bacteria allows the dragon to catch much larger prey than their usual diet. However, the lecture refutes this assertion by explaining that the water buffalo actually die due to multiple harmful bacteria contained in the water. The dragons bite down and tear the wound open, which reduces the blood pressure and prevents it from closing. As the buffalo runs away to the water, the bacteria in the water causes the infection in the wound, leading them to death.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, first, however, second, secondly, while, kind of, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 4.0 10.4613686534 38% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 22.412803532 116% => OK
Preposition: 38.0 30.3222958057 125% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 5.01324503311 140% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1529.0 1373.03311258 111% => OK
No of words: 297.0 270.72406181 110% => OK
Chars per words: 5.14814814815 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.15134772569 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.43925393403 2.5805825403 95% => OK
Unique words: 156.0 145.348785872 107% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.525252525253 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 465.3 419.366225166 111% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 58.866138163 49.2860985944 119% => OK
Chars per sentence: 127.416666667 110.228320801 116% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.75 21.698381199 114% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.41666666667 7.06452816374 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 0.0 4.33554083885 0% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.141045683889 0.272083759551 52% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.053383849007 0.0996497079465 54% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0594204160437 0.0662205650399 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0902203749057 0.162205337803 56% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.037893128491 0.0443174109184 86% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.2 13.3589403974 114% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 53.8541721854 87% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 11.0289183223 115% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.89 12.2367328918 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.92 8.42419426049 106% => OK
difficult_words: 77.0 63.6247240618 121% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 10.7273730684 131% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.