As early as the twelfth century A.D., the settlements of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico in the American Southwest were notable for their "great houses," massive stone buildings that contain hundreds of rooms and often stand three or four stories high. Archaeologists have been trying to determine how the buildings were used. While there is still no universally agreed upon explanation, there are three competing theories.
One theory holds that the Chaco structures were purely residential, with each housing hundreds of people. Supporters of this theory have interpreted Chaco great houses as earlier versions of the architecture seen in more recent Southwest societies. In particular, the Chaco houses appear strikingly similar to the large, well-known "apartment buildings" at Taos, New Mexico, in which many people have been living for centuries.
A second theory contends that the Chaco structures were usedto store food supplies. One of the main crops of the Chaco people was grain maize, which could be stored for long periods of time without spoiling and could serve as a long-lasting supply of food. The supplies of maize had to be stored somewhere, and the size of the great houses would make them very suitable for the purpose.
A third theory proposes that houses were used as ceremonial centers. Close to one house, called Pueblo Alto, archaeologists identified an enormous mound formed by a pile of old material. Excavations of the mound revealed deposits containing a surprisingly large number of broken pots. This finding has been interpreted as evidence that people gathered at Pueblo Alto for special ceremonies. At the ceremonies, they ate festive meals and then discarded the pots in which the meals had been prepared or served. Such ceremonies have been documented for other Native American cultures.
Both the passage and the lecture are discussing the competing theories for the use of the great houses in New Mexico. The passage describes three possible theories for the function of the great houses. However, the lecture rejects the three theories mentioned in the passage.
First of all, the passage mentions one theory that the Chaco structures were purely residential by arguing that the Chaco houses are similar to the renown apartment buildings at Taos, New Mexico. In contrast, the lecture denies the theory by citing the evidence that the amount of the fire place is not comparable to the amount of the room. Since the number of fire place can only serve for ten families, yet the number of room can server for a hundred families.
Secondly, the passage describes another theory that the Chaco structures were used to store food. Nevertheless, the lecture questions the theory by stating that there were no residual of grain maize and big containers.
Finally, the lecture rejects the last theory in the passage that proposes the Chaco houses were used as ceremonial centers. Since the material found in the houses were the building material not used out for building the houses. Which it is possible that the pots found in the houses could be one of the trash left in the house as well.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, however, nevertheless, second, secondly, well, in contrast, 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: 3.0 5.04856512141 59% => OK
Conjunction : 3.0 7.30242825607 41% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 8.0 12.0772626932 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 8.0 22.412803532 36% => OK
Preposition: 26.0 30.3222958057 86% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1084.0 1373.03311258 79% => OK
No of words: 222.0 270.72406181 82% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.88288288288 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.8600083453 4.04702891845 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.37621045066 2.5805825403 92% => OK
Unique words: 104.0 145.348785872 72% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.468468468468 0.540411800872 87% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 336.6 419.366225166 80% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 3.25607064018 0% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 11.0 13.0662251656 84% => 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: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 31.1310214395 49.2860985944 63% => OK
Chars per sentence: 98.5454545455 110.228320801 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.1818181818 21.698381199 93% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.0 7.06452816374 113% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => 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: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.20045686891 0.272083759551 74% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0846432083039 0.0996497079465 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0471527204677 0.0662205650399 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.126127463505 0.162205337803 78% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0395257952459 0.0443174109184 89% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.6 13.3589403974 87% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 53.8541721854 111% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.02 12.2367328918 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.69 8.42419426049 91% => OK
difficult_words: 43.0 63.6247240618 68% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => 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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Rates: 70.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 21.0 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.