The reading and the lecture are both about the "burning mirror" which is an ingenious weapon used by Greeks to defend themselves when the Roman navy attacked the port city of Syracuse. The author of the reading believes that most probably the use of this weapon is just a myth, whereas the lecturer explains the reasons why this weapon was used by the Greeks.
First of all the author claims that Greeks were not technologically advanced enough to think about such an elaborated weapon. He mentions the fact that in order to set ships on fire they would have built mirrors several meters wide. Furthermore, the Greeks would have had to have an advanced knowledge of geometry, which did not exist in that period. The lecturer contrasts this claim and explains that the mirrors could have been built using many small pieces put together as an experiment has shown.
Second, the author contends that the time necessary for the ships to catch on fire is too long to be possible, it mentions an experiment, which shows that 10 minutes are required to burn a still piece of wood at a distance of 30 meters. The lecturer rebuts this claim saying that the mirrors were used to set on fire other materials such as the “pitch” which catches on fire very quickly and then the fire spreads, therefore this weapon can be very effective.
Finally, the author says that the mirror can be compared to the already used burning arrows, so there were no reasons to use the mirrors. The lecturer, on the other hand, explains that there are some advantages in using mirrors, for example, the mirrors do not show fire as the burning arrows do, therefore mirrors are more surprising valid than a displayed burning arrow.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, furthermore, second, so, still, then, therefore, whereas, for example, such as, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 10.4613686534 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 3.0 7.30242825607 41% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 22.412803532 85% => OK
Preposition: 31.0 30.3222958057 102% => 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: 1430.0 1373.03311258 104% => OK
No of words: 297.0 270.72406181 110% => OK
Chars per words: 4.81481481481 5.08290768461 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.15134772569 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.5238829058 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 159.0 145.348785872 109% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.535353535354 0.540411800872 99% => OK
syllable_count: 435.6 419.366225166 104% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
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: 29.0 21.2450331126 137% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 48.2747345927 49.2860985944 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 143.0 110.228320801 130% => OK
Words per sentence: 29.7 21.698381199 137% => OK
Discourse Markers: 13.2 7.06452816374 187% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.27373068433 23% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.430132226503 0.272083759551 158% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.180871281955 0.0996497079465 182% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0626842762154 0.0662205650399 95% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.257216114753 0.162205337803 159% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0801680878116 0.0443174109184 181% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.1 13.3589403974 121% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.5 53.8541721854 94% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 11.0289183223 121% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.21 12.2367328918 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.21 8.42419426049 97% => OK
difficult_words: 59.0 63.6247240618 93% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 10.7273730684 126% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.6 10.498013245 130% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 81.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.5 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.