Toward the end of his life, the Chevalier de Seingalt (1725-1798) wrote a long memoir recounting his life and adventures. The Chevalier was a somewhat controversial figure, but since he met many famous people, including kings and writers, his memoir has become a valuable historical source about European society in the eighteenth century. However, some critics have raised doubts about the accuracy of the memoir. They claim that the Chevalier distorted or invented many events in the memoir to make his life seem more exciting and glamorous than it really was.
For example, in his memoir the Chevalier claims that while living in Switzerland, he was very wealthy, and it is known that he spent a great deal of money there on parties and gambling. However, evidence has recently surfaced that the Chevalier borrowed considerable sums of money from a Swiss merchant. Critics thus argue that if the Chevalier had really been very rich, he would not have needed to borrow money.
Critics are also skeptical about the accuracy of the conversations that the Chevalier records in the memoir between himself and the famous writer Voltaire. No one doubts that the Chevalier and Voltaire met and conversed. However, critics complain that the memoir cannot possibly capture these conversations accurately, because it was written many years after the conversations occurred. Critics point out that it is impossible to remember exact phrases from extended conversations held many years earlier.
Critics have also questioned the memoir's account of the Chevalier's escape from a notorious prison in Venice, Italy. He claims to have escaped the Venetian prison by using a piece of metal to make a hole in the ceiling and climbing through the roof. Critics claim that while such a daring escape makes for enjoyable reading, it is more likely that the Chevaliers jailers were bribed to free him. They point out that the Chevalier had a number of politically well-connected friends in Venice who could have offered a bribe.
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they respond to the specific points made in the reading passage.
The passage states the doubts expressed by the critics on the accuracy of the memoir of Chevalier de Seingalt. The lecturer disagrees with the doubts expressed by the critics and provides the following reasons as support.
Firstly, the passage mentions that there is evidence that Chevalier had borrowed considerable sums of money from Swiss merchant and questions his wealth as stated in his memoir. In response, the speaker states that large portion of Chevalier's wealth would be in the form of mansions, farms and other forms of assets which would take some time to convert into liquid money. As a result, Chevalier would have had to borrow sums of money for a temporary period. Thus, this evidence alone cannot be used to justify that Chevalier was poor.
Secondly, the lecturer explains that Chevalier took down notes each night after his discussions with the famous writer Voltaire and later used these as reference while writing his memoir. Lecturer also states that there were witnesses who saw Chevalier referencing notes and journals during the creation of his memoir. This contradicts the passage's viewpoint that Chevalier's interaction with Voltaire couldn't have been effectively captured in his memoir as he started working on his memoir years after the interactions occurred and couldn't have remembered the conversations accurately.
Finally, the author questions the validity of Chevalier's escape story from Venetian prison. It states that Chevalier escaping the prison by making a hole in the roof and escaping through it is unlikely and it is more plausible that Chevalier bribed his jailers to set him free with the help of well-connected friends in Venice. Again, the lecturer disagrees with this viewpoint and states that there were even more influential persons captive in the same prison who weren't able to escape in the same way. The lecturer also brings up the presence of Venetian documents noting the repairs in the roof of Chevalier's prison cell after his escape and thus provides credibility to his escape as stated in the memoir.
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Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 341, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'passages'' or 'passage's'?
Suggestion: passages'; passage's
...ion of his memoir. This contradicts the passages viewpoint that Chevaliers interaction w...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 402, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: couldn't
...at Chevaliers interaction with Voltaire couldnt have been effectively captured in his m...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 533, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: couldn't
...ars after the interactions occurred and couldnt have remembered the conversations accur...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 140, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...es that Chevalier escaping the prison by making a hole in the roof and escaping t...
^^^
Line 7, column 469, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: weren't
... persons captive in the same prison who werent able to escape in the same way. The lec...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, firstly, if, second, secondly, so, thus, well, while, as a result, in the same way
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 7.30242825607 137% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 22.412803532 129% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 48.0 30.3222958057 158% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 5.01324503311 140% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1734.0 1373.03311258 126% => OK
No of words: 333.0 270.72406181 123% => OK
Chars per words: 5.20720720721 5.08290768461 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.27180144563 4.04702891845 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.61736132585 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 167.0 145.348785872 115% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.501501501502 0.540411800872 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 531.9 419.366225166 127% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
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: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 21.2450331126 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 58.744759303 49.2860985944 119% => OK
Chars per sentence: 133.384615385 110.228320801 121% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.6153846154 21.698381199 118% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.0 7.06452816374 113% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 4.19205298013 119% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.270910521723 0.272083759551 100% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.108636017216 0.0996497079465 109% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0755060433668 0.0662205650399 114% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.16389907343 0.162205337803 101% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0688555682168 0.0443174109184 155% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.9 13.3589403974 119% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 53.8541721854 86% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 11.0289183223 118% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.23 12.2367328918 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.76 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 82.0 63.6247240618 129% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 10.7273730684 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 10.498013245 114% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 341, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'passages'' or 'passage's'?
Suggestion: passages'; passage's
...ion of his memoir. This contradicts the passages viewpoint that Chevaliers interaction w...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 402, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: couldn't
...at Chevaliers interaction with Voltaire couldnt have been effectively captured in his m...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 533, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: couldn't
...ars after the interactions occurred and couldnt have remembered the conversations accur...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 140, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...es that Chevalier escaping the prison by making a hole in the roof and escaping t...
^^^
Line 7, column 469, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: weren't
... persons captive in the same prison who werent able to escape in the same way. The lec...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, firstly, if, second, secondly, so, thus, well, while, as a result, in the same way
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 7.30242825607 137% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 22.412803532 129% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 48.0 30.3222958057 158% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 5.01324503311 140% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1734.0 1373.03311258 126% => OK
No of words: 333.0 270.72406181 123% => OK
Chars per words: 5.20720720721 5.08290768461 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.27180144563 4.04702891845 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.61736132585 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 167.0 145.348785872 115% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.501501501502 0.540411800872 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 531.9 419.366225166 127% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
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: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 21.2450331126 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 58.744759303 49.2860985944 119% => OK
Chars per sentence: 133.384615385 110.228320801 121% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.6153846154 21.698381199 118% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.0 7.06452816374 113% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 4.19205298013 119% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.270910521723 0.272083759551 100% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.108636017216 0.0996497079465 109% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0755060433668 0.0662205650399 114% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.16389907343 0.162205337803 101% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0688555682168 0.0443174109184 155% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.9 13.3589403974 119% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 53.8541721854 86% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 11.0289183223 118% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.23 12.2367328918 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.76 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 82.0 63.6247240618 129% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 10.7273730684 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 10.498013245 114% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.