Pterosaurs were an ancient group of winged reptiles that lived alongside the dinosaurs. Many pterosaurs were very large, some as large as a giraffe and with a wingspan of over 12 meters. Paleontologists have long wondered whether large pterosaurs were capable of powered flight (flying by flapping their wings) or whether they were able only to glide. Several arguments have been made against powered flight.
Doubters point out that since modern reptiles are cold-blooded, ancient reptiles such as pterosaurs were probably cold-blooded as well. Cold-blooded animals typically have a slow metabolism and are unable to produce a lot of energy. Powered flight is an activity requiring a lot of energy, which is why all modern vertebrates that fly are warm-blooded, not cold-blooded. It seemed unlikely that pterosaurs would have been able to generate the energy needed to fly.
Second, there is a limit to the weight of animals that can be kept airborne by powered flight. Pterosaurs that were as large as a giraffe were probably so heavy that they would not have been able to flap their wings fast enough to stay aloft for any length of time.
Third, all animals with powered flight are able to take off from the ground. For example, birds take off by jumping from their legs or running to gain speed and then jumping. But these methods would not have worked for large pterosaurs. Large pterosaurs would have needed big, powerful muscles in their back legs to launch themselves into the air, and we know from fossilized bones that their back leg muscles were too small and weak to allow the pterosaurs to run fast enough or jump high enough to launch themselves into the air
Based on the given materials, the aricle as well as the reading discusses flying abilities of an ancient group of winged reptiles called, Pterosoaurs. The author states that they were imcapable of powered flight. The lecturer provides several ideas to repudiate this claim.
Initially, it is alleged in the reading that most of modern Cold-blooded animals have slow metabolism and since they were Cold-blooded, they could not produce enough energy to fly. However, the lecturer asserts that new discoveries of fossils indicate that the animal were wraped with a dense fur suggesting they were more like of a warm-blooded bird. She alludes to the fact that if they were like birds so they could have a faster metabolism to supply them the energy as a result their metabolism was not an issue.
Second, the writer proclaims that their weight was a limit for them to fly since they were as large as a giraffe. Yet again, the speaker underscores that while they were big, pterosaurs had an anatomical feature to help them keep their weight down. She mentions their bones were hollow so despite their large size they were not bulky and consequently their wieght was not hindering them to fly.
The last point of contention between the listening and the reading passages is taking of from the ground. The writer states that they were not able to jump or run fast to jump high enough since they had a weak back leg muscels. On the other hand the lecturer says while bird only use their legs to jump, pterosaurs had four legs with their front lims which were strong. Using all four lims they were able to run fast enough or jump high to take off from the ground so taking of was not an obstacle for them.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-12-06 | marii.r67 | 80 | view |
| 2019-11-13 | shirley5001 | 80 | view |
| 2019-11-13 | shirley5001 | 80 | view |
| 2019-11-03 | Seema Modak | 78 | view |
| 2019-11-03 | Seema Modak | 78 | view |
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
consequently, however, if, second, so, well, while, as to, as a result, as well as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 10.4613686534 172% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 12.0772626932 75% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 37.0 22.412803532 165% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 37.0 30.3222958057 122% => OK
Nominalization: 1.0 5.01324503311 20% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1413.0 1373.03311258 103% => OK
No of words: 299.0 270.72406181 110% => OK
Chars per words: 4.72575250836 5.08290768461 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.1583189471 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.34952153668 2.5805825403 91% => OK
Unique words: 157.0 145.348785872 108% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.52508361204 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 425.7 419.366225166 102% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.55342163355 90% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
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: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 21.2450331126 108% => OK
Sentence length SD: 35.8595221028 49.2860985944 73% => OK
Chars per sentence: 108.692307692 110.228320801 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.0 21.698381199 106% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.76923076923 7.06452816374 110% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More 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: 0.20881057499 0.272083759551 77% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0821593579992 0.0996497079465 82% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0433749871407 0.0662205650399 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.132380878347 0.162205337803 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0270962697374 0.0443174109184 61% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 13.3589403974 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 65.05 53.8541721854 121% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.45 12.2367328918 85% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.95 8.42419426049 94% => OK
difficult_words: 60.0 63.6247240618 94% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 10.498013245 107% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => 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.