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 states that the story of the burning mirror, which were used by Greeks to defense themselves from the Roman navy, is a fairy tale and provides three reasons of support. On the other hand, the professor argues this notion and says that author's reasons are not convincing. He refutes each author's reasons.

Initially, the reading says that such a burning mirror required an advance technology, that Greeks could not afford. The author claims that the burning mirror might be several meters and had a very accurate parabolic curvature, which did not exist back then. On the contrary, the professor accounts this point by saying that Greeks did not need to manufacture one single tremendous mirror, in fact they could collect lots of small mirrors and put them beside each other.

Second, the reading possess that the burning mirror would set a wooden boat on a fire associated with several conditions, include 30 meters’ distance and 10 minutes’ time, which the scientists investigated in an experiment. In contrast, the professor says that if a boat was made of wood, it would take 10 minutes to be sat on a fire, but the Roman's boat was made of pitch, which would set on fire in a second without needed to be fix.

Last but not least, the reading states that the Greeks had weapon such as flaming arrows with same as function as the burning mirror, hence it was unnecessarily to use burning mirrors. However, the professor refutes this claim and says that Greek's enemies were familiar with flaming arrows and they probably were ready for that, but the burning mirror was an unforeseen defensed weapon.