The passage elaborates on three main reasons why Greeks have never built burning mirror, and the story of fighting Greeks with Roman navy using the burning mirror is a myth. However, the lecturer finds these reasons unconvincing and refutes each of the points made in the passage.
First, the author explains that Greeks needed an advanced technology to be able to produce the mirror by mentioning that they had to make a large sheet of mirror which is several meters high; however, they did not have this technology at that time. Nevertheless, the lecturer contradicts this point by declaring that Greeks were able to make the mirror by arranging dozens of small flat pieces of copper together.
Second, the author states that generally it takes 10 minutes to set the wooden object on fire. Thus, it is impossible that the boat stays motionless during this relatively long time. However, the lecturer states that the boat is made up of other materials, one of which is pitch, a sticky substance which catches fire very quickly. Therefore, fire would spread to the boat, even a moving boat, in about few seconds.
Third, according to the passage, the mirror resembles the flaming arrow, a common device used to set enemies’ ships on fire. Thus, it raises the question of why Greeks should make such a device when they already have another similar device. On the other hand, the lecturer believes that the mirror is more effective and more surprising than flaming arrows since Romans, who were familiar with flaming arrows, were ready to put off the fire quickly. On the contrary, when the mirror was used, Romans were only able to see the mirror, not the fire, and the fire suddenly spread to the ship.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, however, nevertheless, second, so, therefore, third, thus, on the contrary, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 10.4613686534 115% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 18.0 22.412803532 80% => OK
Preposition: 38.0 30.3222958057 125% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1427.0 1373.03311258 104% => OK
No of words: 292.0 270.72406181 108% => OK
Chars per words: 4.88698630137 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.13376432452 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.36225667842 2.5805825403 92% => OK
Unique words: 160.0 145.348785872 110% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.547945205479 0.540411800872 101% => OK
syllable_count: 440.1 419.366225166 105% => 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: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 48.2570518739 49.2860985944 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.916666667 110.228320801 108% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.3333333333 21.698381199 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.33333333333 7.06452816374 118% => 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: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.453725964262 0.272083759551 167% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.14568740319 0.0996497079465 146% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0997118864325 0.0662205650399 151% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.247730392451 0.162205337803 153% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0800125905097 0.0443174109184 181% => OK
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: 11.38 12.2367328918 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.29 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 64.0 63.6247240618 101% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 10.7273730684 131% => 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: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.