Pterosaurs were an ancient group of winged reptiles that lived alongside the dinosaurs. Many pterosaurs were very large, some as large as a giraffe and with a wingspan of over 12 meters. Paleontologists have long wondered whether large pterosaurs were capable of powered flight (flying by flapping their wings) or whether they were able only to glide. Several arguments have been made against powered flight.
Doubters point out that since modern reptiles are cold-blooded, ancient reptiles such as pterosaurs were probably cold-blooded as well. Cold-blooded animals typically have a slow metabolism and are unable to produce a lot of energy. Powered flight is an activity requiring a lot of energy, which is why all modern vertebrates that fly are warm-blooded, not cold-blooded. It seemed unlikely that pterosaurs would have been able to generate the energy needed to fly.
Second, there is a limit to the weight of animals that can be kept airborne by powered flight. Pterosaurs that were as large as a giraffe were probably so heavy that they would not have been able to flap their wings fast enough to stay aloft for any length of time.
Third, all animals with powered flight are able to take off from the ground. For example, birds take off by jumping from their legs or running to gain speed and then jumping. But these methods would not have worked for large pterosaurs. Large pterosaurs would have needed big, powerful muscles in their back legs to launch themselves into the air, and we know from fossilized bones that their back leg muscles were too small and weak to allow the pterosaurs to run fast enough or jump high enough to launch themselves into the air.
What are the reasons that pterosaur, an ancient winged reptile, could not flight, is the focus of both the writer and the professor. In the writing, three reasons, including cold-blooded body, heavy body weight, and small back legs, have been elaborated. The professor, however, claims that these reasons are not convincing.
As opposed to the writer's idea that pterosaurs were cold-blooded animals that could not generate enough energy to fly, the professor states that this animal was not cold-blooded. She advances the theory by saying that by checking the fossil evidence, scientists found that pterosaurs had bonds that warm-blooded animals could only own, so this kind of animal could be warm-blooded which could generate enough energy to fly.
The professor continues to discredit the writing's assertion that the pterosaurs' wings could not make them fly because of their heavy weight, by examining the fact that this reptile was lightweight. In detail, she points out that pterosaurs had special light body features, like hollow bones, so they could flap their wings fast to flight.
It is the professor's third argument that pterosaurs used all four legs, which contradicts the view of the writer that pterosaurs could not jump or run fast to launch themselves because of their small back legs. To explore deeper, the professor contends that pterosaurs were different from birds, birds only used back legs, but pterosaurs could use four legs to run fast to launch themselves to flight.
An apparent divide exists between the writer and the professor on whether pterosaurs could fly.
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement It is more important for students to understand ideas and concepts than it is for them to learn facts Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 70
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement It is important to know about events happening around the world even if it is unlikely that they will affect your daily life Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 73
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement Governments should spend more money in support of the arts than in support of athletics such as state sponsored Olympic teams Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 45
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement The rules that societies today expect young people to follow and obey are too strict Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 73
- Scientists are considering the possibility of sending humans to Mars in the coming decades Although there have been successful manned missions to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s Mars is 150 times further away from Earth than the Moon is Thus the project o 3
Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 19, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'writers'' or 'writer's'?
Suggestion: writers'; writer's
...re not convincing. As opposed to the writers idea that pterosaurs were cold-blooded ...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 42, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'writings'' or 'writing's'?
Suggestion: writings'; writing's
...he professor continues to discredit the writings assertion that the pterosaurs wings cou...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 128, Rule ID: HEAVY_WEIGHT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'heavyweight'?
Suggestion: heavyweight
...ould not make them fly because of their heavy weight, by examining the fact that this reptil...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, however, if, so, third, kind of
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 5.04856512141 198% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 12.0772626932 132% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 22.412803532 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 25.0 30.3222958057 82% => 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: 1347.0 1373.03311258 98% => OK
No of words: 255.0 270.72406181 94% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.28235294118 5.08290768461 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.99608801488 4.04702891845 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.5969076337 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 137.0 145.348785872 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.537254901961 0.540411800872 99% => OK
syllable_count: 375.3 419.366225166 89% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.23620309051 73% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 10.0 13.0662251656 77% => 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: 25.0 21.2450331126 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.251698537 49.2860985944 106% => OK
Chars per sentence: 134.7 110.228320801 122% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.5 21.698381199 118% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.6 7.06452816374 51% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => 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 : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.165566799695 0.272083759551 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0793919324207 0.0996497079465 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0466680100123 0.0662205650399 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.103651674593 0.162205337803 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0219120697399 0.0443174109184 49% => 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: 16.2 13.3589403974 121% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 54.56 53.8541721854 101% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 11.0289183223 108% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.64 12.2367328918 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.22 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 54.0 63.6247240618 85% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 10.498013245 114% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 19, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'writers'' or 'writer's'?
Suggestion: writers'; writer's
...re not convincing. As opposed to the writers idea that pterosaurs were cold-blooded ...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 42, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'writings'' or 'writing's'?
Suggestion: writings'; writing's
...he professor continues to discredit the writings assertion that the pterosaurs wings cou...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 128, Rule ID: HEAVY_WEIGHT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'heavyweight'?
Suggestion: heavyweight
...ould not make them fly because of their heavy weight, by examining the fact that this reptil...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, however, if, so, third, kind of
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 5.04856512141 198% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 12.0772626932 132% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 22.412803532 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 25.0 30.3222958057 82% => 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: 1347.0 1373.03311258 98% => OK
No of words: 255.0 270.72406181 94% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.28235294118 5.08290768461 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.99608801488 4.04702891845 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.5969076337 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 137.0 145.348785872 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.537254901961 0.540411800872 99% => OK
syllable_count: 375.3 419.366225166 89% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.23620309051 73% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 10.0 13.0662251656 77% => 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: 25.0 21.2450331126 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.251698537 49.2860985944 106% => OK
Chars per sentence: 134.7 110.228320801 122% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.5 21.698381199 118% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.6 7.06452816374 51% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => 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 : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.165566799695 0.272083759551 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0793919324207 0.0996497079465 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0466680100123 0.0662205650399 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.103651674593 0.162205337803 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0219120697399 0.0443174109184 49% => 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: 16.2 13.3589403974 121% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 54.56 53.8541721854 101% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 11.0289183223 108% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.64 12.2367328918 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.22 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 54.0 63.6247240618 85% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 10.498013245 114% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.