At the end of the Triassic period 200 million years ago, there was a mass-extinction event that caused the extinction of more than half of all living species. It was this extinction event that allowed dinosaurs to become the dominant species for the next 145 million years. We do not know exactly what happened that eliminated so many species in a relatively short period of time, but there are several possible explanations. One theory involves the decline of sea levels. Near the end of the Triassic period, sea levels were fluctuating. When sea levels fall, the habitats for ocean populations that live in the shallows and land species that live on the coast are destroyed. The destruction of coastal and shallow-ocean species would have had a profound effect on food chains worldwide, leading to mass extinctions. Another theory involves massive climate cooling. The end of the Triassic period was marked by widespread volcanic activity. The volcanoes released large amounts of sulfur dioxide (S02). A rise in atmospheric S02 is known to cause a lowering in global temperatures. Such climate change could have devastated many species and led to the extinctions. The third theory involves an asteroid strike. Asteroids (objects from outer space) occasionally collide with Earth. When an asteroid hits Earth’s surface, it often displaces large amounts of soil and crushed rock, leaving behind a depression, or crater. The displaced debris is thrown up into the atmosphere where it can block out sunlight for many months or even a few years. A sufficiently massive asteroid impact at the end of the Triassic period may have blocked sunlight long enough for most plants to die and many animal species to then starve.
The reading and the lecture both are about the event of mass extinctions confined to the end of the Triassic period. The author of the reading feels that mass extinction occurred due to three main reasons. The lecturer challenges all the claims made by the author and provides plausible details hereunder.
Firstly, the writer describes that fluctuating sea levels are the reason behind the mass extinction because declining in the sea level made the species to die. Moreover, by the demise of those species, the food chain was hampered leading to mass extinction. However, the professor argues and says that this is not a good explanation. The coastal and shallow after ecosystem are usually adaptive to environmental changes. Additionally, the change would have to be so sudden to create an imbalance in those species to give way for mass extinction.
Secondly, the passage indicates that the release of the sulfur dioxide made global temperatures to decline. Because of that there was a massive climate cool down lead to mass extinction. The tutor refutes the point made in the passage and explains that it is true that sulfur dioxide can enhance the temperatures to cool down, but the researchers discovered that even some amounts of sulfur dioxide are present in the current atmosphere. Furthermore, excess sulfur dioxide is cleared out of the atmosphere by combining with hydrogen in the atmosphere and shows up as rainfall.
Finally, the article posits that by striking an asteroid on earth made the soil to get displaced and also crushed rocks leaving an indentation as a crater. This, in turn, blocked all the sunlight on earth and hampered the photosynthesis of plants which eventually lead to the death of animal species depending on the plants. The academician challenges the claim and illustrates that the archeological department didn't find any crater so far. She also adds the point that the one crater they found was about twelve million years before the mass extinction took place.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 207, 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.
...ion occurred due to three main reasons. The lecturer challenges all the claims made...
^^^
Line 5, column 109, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Because” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...de made global temperatures to decline. Because of that there was a massive climate coo...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 413, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...rates that the archeological department didnt find any crater so far. She also adds t...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, furthermore, however, moreover, second, secondly, so, even so, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 10.4613686534 105% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 7.30242825607 137% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 17.0 22.412803532 76% => OK
Preposition: 45.0 30.3222958057 148% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 5.01324503311 219% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1682.0 1373.03311258 123% => OK
No of words: 328.0 270.72406181 121% => OK
Chars per words: 5.12804878049 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.25567506705 4.04702891845 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.75946804485 2.5805825403 107% => OK
Unique words: 184.0 145.348785872 127% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.560975609756 0.540411800872 104% => OK
syllable_count: 516.6 419.366225166 123% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.23620309051 146% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.7353776162 49.2860985944 87% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.125 110.228320801 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.5 21.698381199 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.8125 7.06452816374 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.27373068433 140% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.217685743936 0.272083759551 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0646489358943 0.0996497079465 65% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0733966769038 0.0662205650399 111% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.124747934965 0.162205337803 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0646974970086 0.0443174109184 146% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 13.3589403974 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 53.8541721854 95% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.47 12.2367328918 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.82 8.42419426049 105% => OK
difficult_words: 87.0 63.6247240618 137% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 10.7273730684 70% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => 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.