Humans have long been fascinated by elephants, the largest land animal in the modern world. Social animals that live in herds, elephants are native to both Africa and Asia. Their large ears, long trunk, and long life span have made elephants one of the most captivating creatures on Earth. Our long-standing interest in elephants has led to several beliefs about surprising elephant behaviors.
Elephants Are Aware of Approaching Death
One of the popular beliefs is that when elephants become old and weak, they know that they are nearing the end of their lives. They demonstrate this by breaking away from their herds and going off alone to certain locations often found near bodies of water - so-called "elephant graveyards" - to die alone. The idea that old elephants seem aware that they will die soon is supported by the discovery of many sites containing bones exclusively of elderly elephants.
Representing Objects through Art
Additionally, elephants seem to have artistic ability. Elephants can be taught to hold a paintbrush in their trunk and use it to paint on a canvas. Some elephants have been known to paint drawings that represent recognizable things: flowers, other elephants, even themselves. This talent makes elephants the only animal other than humans to produce art representing the world around them.
Fear of Mice
Finally, it has long been believed that elephants have a fear of mice. In 77 C.E., the Roman philosopher and scientist Pliny the Elder wrote that elephants are more afraid of mice, small mammals that can do elephants no harm, than of the much more dangerous animals with which elephants normally share an environment, such as lions or tigers. In a recent scientific experiment in which a herd of elephants was confronted with several mice, the elephants backed away from the mice and left the area to avoid them.
Elephants are fascinating but the beliefs you just read about are based on misunderstandings of elephant behavior. First, we should not assume that old elephants are aware that they will die soon just because they break away from their herds. There is a very practical reason why old elephants leave their herds. You see, when elephants get old enough, their teeth become more down and they have difficulty chewing. So elderly elephants wander away from their herds to look for soft vegetation that’s easier to eat. Soft vegetation is usually found near water. That’s why many old elephants graze near water and eventually die there, an area we’ve come to call “elephant graveyards”.Second, the issue of whether elephants have artistic ability. If you want elephants trained to paint, you’ll notice that human trainers stroking the elephants’ ears whenever the elephant moves the paintbrush. Elephant ears are very sensitive and touching them in certain ways can be used to train the elephants to do tricks. The trainer teaches the elephant to remember certain patterns of paintbrush strokes and then encourages the elephant to repeat the brushstrokes by touching its ears. So an elephant using a paintbrush is just painting lines it’s been trained to paint. It doesn’t necessarily know that the lines are supposed to represent flowers or animals. Third, Pliny the Elder and others are misinterpreting the reaction of elephants to mice. Elephants that react fearfully to mice aren’t reacting to the mice themselves but to the fact that mice are unfamiliar to them. Being cautious about unfamiliar animals is a natural instinct. But elephants that live in environments where mice are common, like elephants in zoos don’t react with fear to the mice. Clearly, once elephants become familiar with mice and realize that they don’t pose a threat, they don’t mind them.
The reading passage explains several charactristics of elephants which were believed for many years by providing several facts. However the professor argues that these facts are based on the misunderstanding of the elaphant behavior and raises serious counterarguments against the raeding passage by providing three aspects as listed below.
First, she states that elephants can not be aware of approaching death. When elephants get old, their theeth start to go down. As a result, they are forced to spretae from the herd to seek softer vegetables to eat. These soft vegetables can be found near water and lakes, which their life will end near them.
Second, the professor says that elephants are not able to paint by themselves. In contrsat, elephants have a sensetive ears, which can be stimulated when the trainer touches or pulls them. In this trend, trainer can theach elephants to create some sorts of shapes by useing the brush stroke when the trainer pulls their ears.
Finally, the lecturer points out that elephants are afraid of mouse because those creatures are unfamiliar ti them and do not live in elephant's habitat. Besides, we have to diffrentiate between frightening and cusious. This is their stinct, which make them to do not trust unknown animals. Elephants which are living in cities such as zoos, because mouse are always around them, they acooustom to them and do not afraid of mouse.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-01-12 | sandeshbhandari2 | 70 | view |
| 2020-01-12 | sandeshbhandari2 | 70 | view |
| 2020-01-12 | sandeshbhandari2 | 70 | view |
| 2019-12-23 | wacklol | 71 | view |
| 2019-12-23 | wacklol | 78 | view |
- TOEFL T P O 47 - Integrated Writing Task 3
- do you agree or disagree with the following statement? in order to be well-informed, a person must get information from many different news resources. 60
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Movies and television have more negative effects than positive effects on the way young people behave. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 80
- Some people say that the Internet provides people with a lot of valuable information. Others think access to much information creates problems. Which view do you agree with? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. 73
- It is important to know about events happening around the world, even if it is unlikely that they will affect your daily life. 80
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 129, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
... many years by providing several facts. However the professor argues that these facts a...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 63, Rule ID: AFRAID_OF_HEIGHT[1]
Message: The noun should be probably in the plural form: 'mice'.
Suggestion: mice
...points out that elephants are afraid of mouse because those creatures are unfamiliar ...
^^^^^
Line 4, column 424, Rule ID: AFRAID_OF_HEIGHT[1]
Message: The noun should be probably in the plural form: 'mice'.
Suggestion: mice
... acooustom to them and do not afraid of mouse.
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
besides, finally, first, however, if, second, so, such as, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 10.4613686534 115% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 22.412803532 107% => OK
Preposition: 33.0 30.3222958057 109% => OK
Nominalization: 0.0 5.01324503311 0% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1182.0 1373.03311258 86% => OK
No of words: 232.0 270.72406181 86% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.09482758621 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.90276135726 4.04702891845 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.6352674179 2.5805825403 102% => OK
Unique words: 140.0 145.348785872 96% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.603448275862 0.540411800872 112% => OK
syllable_count: 349.2 419.366225166 83% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 3.25607064018 215% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 3.0 8.23620309051 36% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 21.2450331126 80% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 42.961245781 49.2860985944 87% => OK
Chars per sentence: 90.9230769231 110.228320801 82% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.8461538462 21.698381199 82% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.38461538462 7.06452816374 76% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.27373068433 140% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.141077404132 0.272083759551 52% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0531597180311 0.0996497079465 53% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0323263244582 0.0662205650399 49% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0806843098111 0.162205337803 50% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0364728473261 0.0443174109184 82% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.5 13.3589403974 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 62.68 53.8541721854 116% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 11.0289183223 79% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.95 12.2367328918 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.88 8.42419426049 94% => OK
difficult_words: 50.0 63.6247240618 79% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 10.498013245 84% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 88.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 26.5 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.