Brendan the Navigator was an Irish priest who lived in the 6th century. He is most famous for embarking on a voyage in search of the mythical “Island of the Blessed.” The details of Brendan's voyage, recorded as stories in old manuscripts, suggest to some that Brendan and his crew reached North America during their voyage, becoming the first Europeans to do so. Those who advance this theory support it with several arguments.
First, the written stories about Brendan’s voyage seem to make references to places his crew would have visited on the way to North America. Sailors in Brendan's time typically traveled from island to island to avoid the dangers of long periods on the open seas. A journey from Ireland to North America would have taken Brendan to the Faroe Islands. Iceland, and Greenland before reaching the North American continent (see illustration). Places described in the stories about Brendan’s voyage share characteristics with some of those island locations.
Second, a team of researchers recently constructed a boat resembling a curragh, an old Irish boat of the type used by Brendan curraghs had a wooden frame with cowhides stretched over it. In building the boat, the researchers used only materials and techniques available in Brendan’s time. The researchers were able to sail this boat from Ireland to North America, demonstrating that boat technology in Brendan’s time was sufficient for a journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
Third, old markings that may have a connection to Brendan’s voyage have been discovered at several locations in North America Cut into rocks, these markings consist of narrow vertical lines resembling letters of ogham, an old Irish alphabet in frequent use in Brendan’s time. The resemblance of those marks to ogham has convinced some that the markings were made by members of Brendan’s crew.
Both the reading and speaking passage talk about the possibilities of Brendan and his crew reached North America during their voyage in the 16th century. The writer purposes three explanations of the theory. However, the lecturer holds these arguments questionable.
First of all, the author claims that the written stories which described Brendan and his crew had visited several places on the way to North America. Nevertheless, the speaker disputes that people cannot make sure about the locations in the stories were referred to as the true islands. For instance, the description about the sheep island may not be the Faroe Islands because sheep could also raise in other places. Also, a burning hill where people implied as to the active volcanoes in Iceland can also be another place where locals set many fires in the hill. Therefore, researchers could not conclude that the reference mentioned in the stories was really on the way to go North America.
Secondly, the reading passage describes a reconstruction of the boat which resembling the curragh was able to sail from Ireland to North America. Nonetheless, the speaker argues that this boat is not an exact copy of the curraghs used by the Irish in Brendan’s time. To be specific, the reconstructing project was twelve meters longer than the original one which Brendan and his crew would use. In addition, the bigger boat had more sails can take eight thousand kilometers in the voyage. However, the small curragh used by Brendan and his crew could not make the same task.
Third, the article contends that the markings discovered in North America had a relationship with the ogham letters used by the Irish, the members of Brendan’s crew. On the other hand, the speaker points out that the markings included many pictures like the sun, a tree, and a hand, which were not related to the ogham which consists of alphabets and letters rather than pictures or graphics. That is to say, the markings were made by the Native Americans, not Brendan’s crew.
To sum up, all the points mentioned in the reading passage are not convincing according to the lecture.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, may, nevertheless, nonetheless, really, second, secondly, so, therefore, third, as to, for instance, in addition, first of all, to sum up, on the other hand, that is to say
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 10.4613686534 115% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 5.04856512141 158% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 14.0 22.412803532 62% => OK
Preposition: 45.0 30.3222958057 148% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1783.0 1373.03311258 130% => OK
No of words: 356.0 270.72406181 131% => OK
Chars per words: 5.00842696629 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.34372677135 4.04702891845 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.57601729525 2.5805825403 100% => OK
Unique words: 187.0 145.348785872 129% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.525280898876 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 536.4 419.366225166 128% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 16.0 8.23620309051 194% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 13.0662251656 130% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 41.1704197235 49.2860985944 84% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.882352941 110.228320801 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.9411764706 21.698381199 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 11.6470588235 7.06452816374 165% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.27373068433 211% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.125183282623 0.272083759551 46% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0404170608984 0.0996497079465 41% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0355198125678 0.0662205650399 54% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0600087371316 0.162205337803 37% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0326038762397 0.0443174109184 74% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 13.3589403974 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 53.8541721854 111% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.78 12.2367328918 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.13 8.42419426049 97% => OK
difficult_words: 79.0 63.6247240618 124% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 10.7273730684 79% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 83.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25.0 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.