TOEFL integrated writing Chevalier de Seingalt

The Article casts doubts on the accuracy of Chevalier’s memoir and provides three reasons for support. However, the professor explains that Chevalier’s autobiography can be considered a reliable historical source and refutes each of author’s reason.

First, the article states that Chevalier was not as rich as he claimed to be, because a new discovered evidence demonstrates that Chevalier borrowed money while he was living in Switzerland. The professor refutes this point by saying that in fact Chevalier converted his assets in money and it took few days to enter in the possession of his money.

Second, the reading passage claims that the critics are suspicious about the accuracy of the conversations between Chevalier and Voltaire. According to the passage, Chevalier couldn’t remember those conversations so long time after they happened. The professor counter this argument by saying that there are evidence that Chevalier wrote down all the conversation with Voltaire every night and he referred to his notes while he wrote his memoir. Moreover, witnesses confirmed that Chevalier consulted notes and journals to write an accurate autobiography.

Third, according to the reading passage, critics do not believe Cehvalier’s escape story from the venetian prison. They argue that he escaped by bribing his powerful friends rather than through a hole in the roof as it is described in the book. The lecturer opposes this point by bringing in attention the fact that the prison’s ceiling needed to be repaired after the Chevalier’s escape. This would be an evidence that Chevalier’s story is true and accurate because otherwise why the ceiling had to be fixed?