Carved stone balls are a curious type of artifact found at a number of locations in Scotland. They date from the late Neolithic period, around 4,000 years ago. They are round in shape; they were carved from several types of stone; most are about 70 mm in diameter; and many are ornamented to some degree. Archaeologists do not agree about their purpose and meaning, but there are several theories.
One theory is that the carved stone balls were weapons used in hunting or fighting. Some of the stone balls have been found with holes in them, and many have grooves on the surface. It is possible that a cord was strung through the holes or laid in the grooves around the ball. Holding the stone balls at the end of the cord would have allowed a person to swing it around or throw it.
A second theory is that the carved stone balls were used as part of a primitive system of weights and measures. The fact that they are so nearly uniform in size – at 70 mm in diameter – suggests that the balls were interchangeable and represented some standard unit of measure. They could have been used as standard weights to measure quantities of grain or other food, or anything that needed to be measured by weight on a balance or scale for the purpose of trade.
A third theory is that the carved stone balls served a social purpose as opposed to a practical or utilitarian one. This view is supported by the fact that many stone balls have elaborate designs. The elaborate carving suggests that the stones may have marked the important social status of their owners.
The main idea of both the reading and the lecture is about the purpose of the old carved stone balls those are located in Scotland. The reading presents three theories for these strange stones. The lecturer casts doabt on the claims made in the article. She thinks none of the theories are not supported by evidence.
Firstly, the author of the reading mentions that some founded holes and grooves on the stone balls indicates that they were used as weapons in hunting or fighting. The Professor opposes this notion, explaining that if the stones had been used as weapon, they whould have had special remarks like cracks on them, because other types of weapons like arrows had crack signs.
Besides, the Reading passage states that the carved atone balls were standard weights which they were used for weighting and measuring. The lecturer couteracts this idea, pointing out that the stone balls have made from different kinds of stones so they have different density because weight of various stones in same size are different. Therefore they could not be used as the measurement tools.
Finally, the article insists that the carved stone balls may have shown the special social statue of their owners. While, the professor disagrees with this idea, asserting that the balls' patterns are more simple than they could be social statues for those days people, moreover there is not any grave or burried corpse that can support this theory.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-01-31 | reza_fattahi | 83 | view |
| 2023-01-20 | nikki07hung | 85 | view |
| 2022-12-25 | nikki07hung | 85 | view |
| 2022-12-02 | lilipo | 80 | view |
| 2022-10-26 | _sta | 80 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 195, 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.
...hree theories for these strange stones. The lecturer casts doabt on the claims made...
^^^
Line 3, column 338, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Therefore,
...ious stones in same size are different. Therefore they could not be used as the measureme...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
besides, finally, first, firstly, if, may, moreover, so, therefore, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 10.4613686534 115% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 12.0772626932 75% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 24.0 22.412803532 107% => OK
Preposition: 22.0 30.3222958057 73% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1200.0 1373.03311258 87% => OK
No of words: 241.0 270.72406181 89% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.97925311203 5.08290768461 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.94007293032 4.04702891845 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.14078932714 2.5805825403 83% => OK
Unique words: 138.0 145.348785872 95% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.572614107884 0.540411800872 106% => OK
syllable_count: 358.2 419.366225166 85% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 2.5761589404 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
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: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 62.1996253078 49.2860985944 126% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.090909091 110.228320801 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.9090909091 21.698381199 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.63636363636 7.06452816374 94% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.261249337354 0.272083759551 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0913796419239 0.0996497079465 92% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0675939809351 0.0662205650399 102% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.147358432075 0.162205337803 91% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0542895380003 0.0443174109184 123% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 13.3589403974 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 53.8541721854 109% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.6 12.2367328918 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.81 8.42419426049 105% => OK
difficult_words: 63.0 63.6247240618 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 10.7273730684 70% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 83 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25 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.