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 (SO2). A rise in atmospheric SO2 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 passage and the listening discuss about a mass-extinction at the end of the Triassic period. Despite that, the professor in the lecture disagrees with the explanations provided in the reading. She casts doubt on every single point the reading makes and provides details to support her idea in the lecture.
To begin with, the writer points out the decline of sea levels may impact coastal and shallow-ocean species. However, the lecturer argues that the coastal species have the ability to adapt to environmental changes. The change of sea level had took several million years and happened gradually thus it would not lead significant impact on coastal species. As a result, she can not give a nod to the author in terms of the first point.
Secondly, the reading passage suggests that the volcanic activity released large amount of SO2 and reduced the global temperature. The professor, on the other hand, believes that the effect from the volcanic activity only existed in a short period. It is because when the SO2 combing with water in the atmosphere, it would fall back to the earth with rain. Therefore, SO2 in the atmosphere would be cleared in the end. Apparently, she disproves its counterpart in the reading.
In addition, the author states that an asteroid hit Earth's surface whereas the professor claims that very few scientists believe this theory. She explains that there is no evidence of a crater that could be dated to the end of the Triassic period. The crater they have found is 12 million years before the extinction. Therefore, she can not support this arguments.
It is obvious that the writer and the professor have conflicting views on this topic.
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 244, Rule ID: HAVE_PART_AGREEMENT[1]
Message: Use past participle here: 'taken'.
Suggestion: taken
...al changes. The change of sea level had took several million years and happened grad...
^^^^
Line 7, column 351, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'these'?
Suggestion: these
...nction. Therefore, she can not support this arguments. It is obvious that the w...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
apparently, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, therefore, thus, whereas, in addition, as a result, to begin with, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 6.0 10.4613686534 57% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 22.412803532 107% => OK
Preposition: 38.0 30.3222958057 125% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1413.0 1373.03311258 103% => OK
No of words: 283.0 270.72406181 105% => OK
Chars per words: 4.99293286219 5.08290768461 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.10153676581 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.64298198895 2.5805825403 102% => OK
Unique words: 157.0 145.348785872 108% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.554770318021 0.540411800872 103% => OK
syllable_count: 423.9 419.366225166 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 3.25607064018 246% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 13.0662251656 130% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 21.2450331126 75% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 27.2142594416 49.2860985944 55% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 83.1176470588 110.228320801 75% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.6470588235 21.698381199 77% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.41176470588 7.06452816374 119% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.27373068433 187% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.109649456219 0.272083759551 40% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0344805560287 0.0996497079465 35% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0548632906506 0.0662205650399 83% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0563771398584 0.162205337803 35% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0355083637959 0.0443174109184 80% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.4 13.3589403974 78% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 63.7 53.8541721854 118% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.4 11.0289183223 76% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.37 12.2367328918 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.45 8.42419426049 100% => OK
difficult_words: 72.0 63.6247240618 113% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 85.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25.5 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.