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.
The reading and the lecture are both about the possibility of powered flights performed by pterosaurs which are a species of dinosaurs with a very large body. The author of the reading mentions that some researchers have shown that these animals were not able to powered flight. The lecturer, however, states that these animals were probably capable of powered flight and elaborates on this by giving some reasons that debunk the ones mentioned in the reading passage.
First of all, the writer contends that reptiles are mostly cold-blooded and for this reason, researchers state that pterosaurs are cold-blooded as well. Due to this fact, these species might not have been capable of producing enough energy for powered flight. Conversely, the lecturer brings up the idea that since these animals' bodies were covered by dense hair or fur, they can be considered as warm-blooded animals. Hence, they were potentially capable of producing extra energy needed for the powered flight.
Secondly, the reading passage holds the view that pterosaurs were too heavy and they had gigantic bodies which made it impossible for them to perform a powered flight. The lecturer rebuts this argument. She accentuates that fossils found by researchers have shown that although they were really big in size, they were probably not that massive, and hence, they could be able to stay up in the air using their wings. Actually, she mentions that the fossils have shown that pterosaurs' bones were almost hollow instead of being solid and this resulted in a low body mass that can be carried by the airborne.
Finally, the passage alleges that pterosaurs had small and weak leg bones that made it impossible for them to perform great jumps needed for the powered flight. Contrary to this, the professor states that this might be a considerable problem only if pterosaurs had two legs like birds. Nevertheless, since these animals had four limbs, they could easily push themselves off the ground and jump to launch a powered flight.
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 280, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...nimals were not able to powered flight. The lecturer, however, states that these an...
^^^
Line 3, column 296, Rule ID: ADJECTIVE_IN_ATTRIBUTE[1]
Message: A more concise phrase may lose no meaning and sound more powerful.
Suggestion: big
...ve shown that although they were really big in size, they were probably not that massive, a...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, conversely, finally, first, hence, however, if, nevertheless, really, second, secondly, so, well, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 10.4613686534 172% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 19.0 12.0772626932 157% => OK
Pronoun: 44.0 22.412803532 196% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 33.0 30.3222958057 109% => 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: 1683.0 1373.03311258 123% => OK
No of words: 332.0 270.72406181 123% => OK
Chars per words: 5.06927710843 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.2685907696 4.04702891845 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.48254722354 2.5805825403 96% => OK
Unique words: 164.0 145.348785872 113% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.493975903614 0.540411800872 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 512.1 419.366225166 122% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 3.25607064018 246% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => 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: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 21.2450331126 108% => OK
Sentence length SD: 43.9524905844 49.2860985944 89% => OK
Chars per sentence: 120.214285714 110.228320801 109% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.7142857143 21.698381199 109% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.92857142857 7.06452816374 126% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => 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: 0.195118401511 0.272083759551 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0755172593512 0.0996497079465 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0491369125508 0.0662205650399 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.128408470968 0.162205337803 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0537800265812 0.0443174109184 121% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.3 13.3589403974 107% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 53.8541721854 105% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.2367328918 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.77 8.42419426049 92% => OK
difficult_words: 63.0 63.6247240618 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 10.7273730684 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 10.498013245 107% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.