The main benefit of the study of history is to dispel the illusion that people living now are significantly different from people who lived in earlier times Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement

I don't agree to this statement about how we can benefit from studying history because people nowadays are indeed different from those in earlier times in terms of physiology and belief system. In addition, the educational value of studying history should not be ignored.

Due to the fundamental changes in lifestyle, modern people are significantly different from our ancestors in terms of the shape of our bodies and other aspects of our physiology. For one thing, in our industrialized society, with the access to abundant food, we do not need to spend most of our time hunting and gathering for food to survive. With more calories intake and other nutritious food, we are in general healthier and taller than our ancestors and enjoy longer lifespan as well. On the other hand, the sedentary lifestyle has also led to more health concerns such as high blood pressure and obesity that were unknown in earlier times.

Our belief systems have also been modernized since Industrial Revolution. In the pre-modern world, the social positions of our ancestors were often defined and fixed at the time they were born. Noblemen were born as noblemen and peasants' s children were also peasant. Our ancestors considered such social order as natural and acceptable. Nowadays, with the introduction of public education, modern society has become increasingly meritocratic. As monarchies were often replaced by democracies, people from humble socioeconomic classes may move upwards socially if they demonstrate their talents that the society need.

As I illustrate clearly above, the difference between us and our ancestors is not an illusion. Therefore, one of the benefits of studying history is to recognize and understand that difference and feel lucky and grateful for the more desirable human conditions. Nevertheless, the statement is also wrong in assuming that the study of history is only a matter of learning facts.

As far as I am concerned, a more important benefit of studying history is to better understand the modern world. As we know, histroy is not reconstruction of what happened in the past. In fact, it is nearly impossible to do that given the incomplete records of the past and our limited understanding of the world. Instead, histroy is a story we invented about the past that can help us better understand who we are and what we can do in modern society. The study of Industrial Revolution, for example, would not give us a complete picture of how people in 18th and 19th century developed new technologies. But a better understanding of how steam engines changed the manufacturing industries will help us predict the impact of the Internet on modern industries. Likewise, the study of World War II would warn political leaders nowadays about the dire consequences of industrialized warfares.

To reiterate my position, the statement is misleading in that we are indeed physiologically and ideologically different from our ancestors; in addition, the statement unnecessarily narrows the potential benefits of studying history.

Votes
Average: 8.3 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 3, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
I dont agree to this statement about how we ca...
^^^^
Line 3, column 354, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'calories'' or 'calorie's', 'calory's'?
Suggestion: calories'; calorie's; calory's
...athering for food to survive. With more calories intake and other nutritious food, we ar...
^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, if, likewise, may, nevertheless, so, therefore, well, for example, in addition, in fact, in general, such as, for one thing, on the other hand

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.5258426966 113% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.4196629213 81% => OK
Conjunction : 19.0 14.8657303371 128% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 11.3162921348 71% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 41.0 33.0505617978 124% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 70.0 58.6224719101 119% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 12.9106741573 108% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2566.0 2235.4752809 115% => OK
No of words: 490.0 442.535393258 111% => OK
Chars per words: 5.23673469388 5.05705443957 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.70488508055 4.55969084622 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.02141737139 2.79657885939 108% => OK
Unique words: 251.0 215.323595506 117% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.512244897959 0.4932671777 104% => OK
syllable_count: 816.3 704.065955056 116% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59117977528 107% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 6.24550561798 96% => OK
Article: 10.0 4.99550561798 200% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 4.0 3.10617977528 129% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.77640449438 56% => OK
Preposition: 10.0 4.38483146067 228% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 20.2370786517 114% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 23.0359550562 91% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.6522847138 60.3974514979 71% => OK
Chars per sentence: 111.565217391 118.986275619 94% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.3043478261 23.4991977007 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.65217391304 5.21951772744 127% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 7.80617977528 26% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 10.2758426966 107% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 5.13820224719 78% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.83258426966 166% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.15796836215 0.243740707755 65% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0467260728182 0.0831039109588 56% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0543959052885 0.0758088955206 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.105523619747 0.150359130593 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0650722664418 0.0667264976115 98% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.9 14.1392134831 98% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 41.7 48.8420337079 85% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.1743820225 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.11 12.1639044944 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.67 8.38706741573 103% => OK
difficult_words: 124.0 100.480337079 123% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 11.8971910112 122% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.2143820225 93% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.7820224719 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6
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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.