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 li

Essay topics:

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 point 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.

Essay topics in audio

In the reading passage, the author states three kinds of the reasons why critics thinks the lines around the dinosaur was feathered, while the lecturer claims that what the reading passage states is not convincing and disputes those ideas presented in the reading passage by several proofs.

First, the writer in the reading passage argue that this structure would have been formed after the animal death, while the lecturer opposes this claim by says that the place where the fossil was founded is a volcanic ash which can preserve animal remnants, but there are no animal remnants behind the dinosaur fossil. Therefore, the line could attribute to the Sinosauropteryx.

Second, the belief in the reading passage is that scientist cannot exactly say that the line attributed to the Sinosauropteryx or not. By contrast, the speaker views to this issue is from an opposite angle. According with the speaker, the chemical analysis shows that the line was feather.

Third, the reading passage states that the feather in the Sinosauropteryx was for the purpose of the flying or maybe helps animal to regulate their body temperature. However, the lecturer demonstrate that the structures was colorful like in the modern birds, so helped the Sinosauropteryx to fly.

In conclusion, the professor clearly identified the weaknesses in the reading passage and convincingly shows that the central idea in the reading passage the idea, line was the feathered dinosaur is accurately incorrect.

Votes
Average: 6 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, may, second, so, therefore, third, while, as for, in conclusion

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 15.1003584229 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 9.8082437276 41% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 13.8261648746 36% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 11.0 11.0286738351 100% => OK
Pronoun: 14.0 43.0788530466 32% => OK
Preposition: 26.0 52.1666666667 50% => More preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 0.0 8.0752688172 0% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1259.0 1977.66487455 64% => OK
No of words: 237.0 407.700716846 58% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.31223628692 4.8611393121 109% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.92362132708 4.48103885553 88% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.74881480597 2.67179642975 103% => OK
Unique words: 132.0 212.727598566 62% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.556962025316 0.524837075471 106% => OK
syllable_count: 386.1 618.680645161 62% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.51630824373 106% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 9.59856630824 0% => OK
Article: 9.0 3.08781362007 291% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 2.0 3.51792114695 57% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.86738351254 54% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.94265232975 61% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 9.0 20.6003584229 44% => 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: 26.0 20.1344086022 129% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 88.9304069706 48.9658058833 182% => OK
Chars per sentence: 139.888888889 100.406767564 139% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.3333333333 20.6045352989 128% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.77777777778 5.45110844103 179% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.53405017921 110% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.5376344086 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 11.8709677419 25% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 3.85842293907 52% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.88709677419 82% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.145319862318 0.236089414692 62% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0642647747787 0.076458572812 84% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0364859612536 0.0737576698707 49% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0831671306314 0.150856017488 55% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.044199998591 0.0645574589148 68% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.7 11.7677419355 142% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 58.1214874552 78% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 6.10430107527 144% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 10.1575268817 132% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.81 10.9000537634 127% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.99 8.01818996416 112% => OK
difficult_words: 61.0 86.8835125448 70% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 25.5 10.002688172 255% => Linsear_write_formula is high.
gunning_fog: 12.4 10.0537634409 123% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 10.247311828 88% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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We are expecting: No. of Words: 350 while No. of Different Words: 200
More content wanted.
Minimum 250 words wanted.

Rates: 60.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 18.0 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.