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.
According to the reading passage, Brendan and his crew were the first Europeans to reach North America. However, the professor opposes to this idea and points out the defects of every point made in the article.
First of all, while the reading claims that in the stories about Brendan's voyage, there were places mentioned exactly matched the sea route from Europe to North America, the professor rebuts that the ship could be raised. Further, he contends that the burning hills in the stories might simply be mountains that were set up fires by humans, rather than volcanos discussed in the book.
Secondly, the reading states that the boat built resembling a curragh demonstrated the boat technology enabled long distance journey in Brendan's time. As opposed to this, the lecturer mentions that the boat was not the exact copy of the boat of that time, which can sail longer than the boat back in Brendan's time.
Thirdly, the author of the reading suggests that the old remarking on rocks resemble to an alphabet used in Brendan’s time. But the lecturer refutes that there are images and pictures on the rocks, which cannot be part of the ancient alphabet that contains only letters. Rather, it was more likely to be carves that native Americans made at that time.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, while, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 17.0 22.412803532 76% => OK
Preposition: 28.0 30.3222958057 92% => OK
Nominalization: 1.0 5.01324503311 20% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1065.0 1373.03311258 78% => OK
No of words: 216.0 270.72406181 80% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.93055555556 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.83365862548 4.04702891845 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.27359126706 2.5805825403 88% => OK
Unique words: 131.0 145.348785872 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.606481481481 0.540411800872 112% => OK
syllable_count: 316.8 419.366225166 76% => 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: 5.0 8.23620309051 61% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 9.0 13.0662251656 69% => 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: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.5224580632 49.2860985944 80% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.333333333 110.228320801 107% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.0 21.698381199 111% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.66666666667 7.06452816374 123% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 1.0 4.33554083885 23% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 1.0 4.45695364238 22% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.108633961284 0.272083759551 40% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0460631023794 0.0996497079465 46% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0390053888216 0.0662205650399 59% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0620684081699 0.162205337803 38% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0183667432671 0.0443174109184 41% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 13.3589403974 103% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 53.8541721854 103% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.61 12.2367328918 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.92 8.42419426049 106% => OK
difficult_words: 56.0 63.6247240618 88% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 10.7273730684 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 76.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 23.0 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.