TPO-30 - Integrated Writing Task A little over 2,200 years ago, the Roman navy attacked the Greek port city of Syracuse. According to some ancient historians, the Greeks defended themselves with an ingenious weapon called a "burning mirror": a polished co

The reading and the lecture are about the possibility that the Greek used polished copper curved surface to focus the light of the sun on the invading Roman's ships. The reading rejects the theory that the Greek were able to produce such weapons for many reasons, but the lecturer supports this hypothesis by casting doubt on all the reasons mentioned in the reading. The lecturer provides three evidence to support his argument.

First of all, the reading states that the Greek were not advanced enough to produce such large mirror sheet. The lecturer, however, rebuts this claim by suggesting that the Greek may have used many small mirrors instead of big sheet mirrors.

Second, the author of the reading says that during an experiment of examining the effectiveness of using such mirrors to burn a wooden body, it needed at least ten minutes on fixed object to burn it which was impossible in the real battle since the ships kept moving during the whole time. The lecturer, on the other hand, argues that the bodies of the ships were not only made of wood, but also form sticky substance called pitch that is liable for burning in just seconds of exposing to the high intense heat coming form the mirrors.

Third, the reading draws our attention to the fact that the Greek already had effective weapons like the flaming arrows, so they didn't need any other weapon. The lectures rebuts this claim by explaining that the Roman also were familiar with the flaming arrows and they certainly took precautions against them. In contrast, the mirror weapon would be something that is completely new and surprising to them which would make it a very strong effective weapon.

Votes
Average: 8.5 (1 vote)
Essay Categories
Essays by the user:

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 211, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...eading rejects the theory that the Greek were able to produce such weapons for ma...
^^
Line 1, column 369, 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.
...l the reasons mentioned in the reading. The lecturer provides three evidence to sup...
^^^
Line 5, column 418, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... of wood, but also form sticky substance called pitch that is liable for burning ...
^^
Line 7, column 130, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...eapons like the flaming arrows, so they didnt need any other weapon. The lectures reb...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 172, Rule ID: AGREEMENT_SENT_START[1]
Message: You should probably use 'rebut'.
Suggestion: rebut
...dnt need any other weapon. The lectures rebuts this claim by explaining that the Roman...
^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, may, second, so, third, at least, in contrast, first of all, on the other hand

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 : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 22.0 22.412803532 98% => OK
Preposition: 37.0 30.3222958057 122% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1392.0 1373.03311258 101% => OK
No of words: 286.0 270.72406181 106% => OK
Chars per words: 4.86713286713 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.11236361783 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.25107491127 2.5805825403 87% => OK
Unique words: 169.0 145.348785872 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.590909090909 0.540411800872 109% => OK
syllable_count: 415.8 419.366225166 99% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Interrogative: 0.0 0.116997792494 0% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 10.0 13.0662251656 77% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 28.0 21.2450331126 132% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 62.4592667264 49.2860985944 127% => OK
Chars per sentence: 139.2 110.228320801 126% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.6 21.698381199 132% => OK
Discourse Markers: 10.5 7.06452816374 149% => 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 : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => 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: 0.372295339714 0.272083759551 137% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.128423456111 0.0996497079465 129% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0654538870202 0.0662205650399 99% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.198090129827 0.162205337803 122% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0461278325224 0.0443174109184 104% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.8 13.3589403974 118% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.52 53.8541721854 96% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 11.0289183223 118% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.56 12.2367328918 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.45 8.42419426049 100% => OK
difficult_words: 62.0 63.6247240618 97% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 10.498013245 126% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?

---------------------

Rates: 85.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25.5 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.