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.
The article and lecture both deal with some surprising elephant behaviors. While the author of the reading thinks that three of these behaviors do exist, the lecturer opposes the author's claim. In his opinion, it could be misunderstandings.
First, the writer claim that elephants could perceive the arrival of death. It is stated in the article that feeble elephants will leave their herds and go to find places, often nearby the water bodies, which are called "elephant graveyard". In contrast, the lecturer opposes the writer's claims. In his opinion, instead of finding for places to die alone, elephants leave their herds for practical use. As the age increasing, elephants' teeth are worn down and they have difficulty in chewing. As a result, they go away for soft vegetation, which often shows up besides water, and eventually die in the site someday.
Second, the author mentions that elephants boost the talent of holding a paintbrush and creating artwork. He points out that some smart ones could draw recognizable representations for the real world. However, the lecturer calls this argument into question by saying that elephants are trained for painting. He remarks that elephants' ears are sensitive and the trainer stroke ears to let them remember specific strokes. Trainers touch elephants' ears to guide the moving of brush.
Finally, the writer asserts that these giant animals are afraid of small mammals like mice. It is observed in recent research that the elephants retreat from the area of mice. As opposed to the author, the lecturer holds that the reaction to mice arises from unfamiliarity. He notes that elephants in the zoo won't express panic with mice as they have get accustomed to these small animals, as it turns out mice pose no threat to their safety.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 352, Rule ID: HAVE_PART_AGREEMENT[1]
Message: Use past participle here: 'got', 'gotten'.
Suggestion: got; gotten
...nt express panic with mice as they have get accustomed to these small animals, as i...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
besides, finally, first, however, if, second, so, while, in contrast, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 8.0 10.4613686534 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 22.412803532 138% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 36.0 30.3222958057 119% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1508.0 1373.03311258 110% => OK
No of words: 294.0 270.72406181 109% => OK
Chars per words: 5.12925170068 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.14082457966 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68638585846 2.5805825403 104% => OK
Unique words: 171.0 145.348785872 118% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.581632653061 0.540411800872 108% => OK
syllable_count: 450.0 419.366225166 107% => 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: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 1.25165562914 399% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 13.0662251656 138% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 21.2450331126 75% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 33.2285389758 49.2860985944 67% => OK
Chars per sentence: 83.7777777778 110.228320801 76% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.3333333333 21.698381199 75% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.5 7.06452816374 64% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => 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: 0.210585053376 0.272083759551 77% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0651738760452 0.0996497079465 65% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0467727998374 0.0662205650399 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.117543271724 0.162205337803 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0433208503754 0.0443174109184 98% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.9 13.3589403974 82% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 63.7 53.8541721854 118% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.4 11.0289183223 76% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.18 12.2367328918 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.57 8.42419426049 102% => OK
difficult_words: 77.0 63.6247240618 121% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.5 10.7273730684 61% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 65.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 19.5 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.