A fossil skeleton of a dinosaur called Sinosauropteryx, preserved in volcanic ash, was discovered in Liaoning, China, in 1996. Interestingly, the fossil included a pattern of fine lines surrounding the skeletal bones. Some paleontologists interpret the lines as evidence that Sinosauropteryx had feathers. However, critics have opposed the idea that Sinosauropteryx was a feathered dinosaur, citing several reasons.
First, the critics points out that the fine lines may not even represent functional structures of a living dinosaur, but rather structures that were formed after the animal’s death. After the animal died and was buried in volcanic ash, its skin may have decomposed into fibers. The skin fibers then became preserved as lines in the fossil; the lines were misinterpreted as evidence of feathers.
Second, even if the fine lines are remains of real structures of a Sinosauropteryx, scientists cannot tell with certainty what part of the dinosaur’s anatomy the structures were. Many dinosaurs had frills, ornamental fan-shaped structures growing out of some parts of their bodies. Some of the critics argue that the lines surrounding the skeleton are much more likely to be fossilized remains of frills than remains of feathers.
A third objection is based on the fact that the usual functions of feathers are to help animals fly or regulate their internal temperature. However, the structures represented by the lines in the Sinosauropteryx fossil were mostly located along the backbone and the tail of the animal. This would have made the structures quite useless for flight and of very limited use in thermoregulation. This suggests that the lines do not represent feathers.
In the reading passage, the author concentrates on several reasons cited by some scientists to oppose the idea that the fossil skeleton found in China shows that Sinosauropteryx was a feathered dinosaur. However, the lecturer casts doubt on these reasons and respectively points out the problems with all author's assertions.
Firstly, the author argues that the fine lines on the fossil may be formed after the animal's death. By contrast, the lecturer challenges this idea and states that we have not already found any decomposition like this in the fossils remained from other animals of the same size. The evidence shows that the fossil skeleton has been preserved very well in ash and the lines had functional structures of feathers, not fibers pointed out by critics.
Secondly, the author argues that scientists cannot tell which part of the animal's body the structures were, and they may be frills ornamental fan-shaped structures. Nevertheless, the lecturer brings up the fact that, unlike the mentioned frills, the feathers contain a particular kind of protein that was found in the fossil remains, showing the lines were related to feathers.
Lastly, the author asserts that the structures represented by the lines were mainly located along the backbone and the tail of the Sinosauropteryx, which could not serve the primary function of feathers, which is helping the animal fly and maintain its body temperature. Conversely, the lecturer refutes this claim too and clarifies that as we can see in some birds, feathers have also other functions. For example, some birds use their feathers to display and attract their mates. Thus, their feathers may have decorative functions.
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| 2022-09-13 | Hello GRE | 76 | view |
| 2022-03-31 | Sommy2021 | 83 | view |
| 2022-02-10 | Alia Mahbob | 87 | view |
| 2021-12-08 | wally | 90 | view |
| 2021-09-29 | mohammad Gh | 3 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 86, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'animals'' or 'animal's'?
Suggestion: animals'; animal's
...s on the fossil may be formed after the animals death. By contrast, the lecturer challe...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 534, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...feathers may have decorative functions.
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, conversely, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, may, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, thus, well, for example, kind of
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 22.412803532 94% => OK
Preposition: 30.0 30.3222958057 99% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1421.0 1373.03311258 103% => OK
No of words: 270.0 270.72406181 100% => OK
Chars per words: 5.26296296296 5.08290768461 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.05360046442 4.04702891845 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73272350921 2.5805825403 106% => OK
Unique words: 154.0 145.348785872 106% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.57037037037 0.540411800872 106% => OK
syllable_count: 424.8 419.366225166 101% => 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: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 11.0 13.0662251656 84% => 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: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 61.1034889645 49.2860985944 124% => OK
Chars per sentence: 129.181818182 110.228320801 117% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.5454545455 21.698381199 113% => OK
Discourse Markers: 11.6363636364 7.06452816374 165% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.186577500574 0.272083759551 69% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0715383651408 0.0996497079465 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0722969192082 0.0662205650399 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.115942765135 0.162205337803 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0550977235239 0.0443174109184 124% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.6 13.3589403974 117% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 53.8541721854 87% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 11.0289183223 115% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.52 12.2367328918 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.1 8.42419426049 108% => OK
difficult_words: 73.0 63.6247240618 115% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 10.7273730684 126% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
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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.