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 passage claims several beliefs are supported and can be explained by evidence. However, the lecturer does not favor the explanations in the article and refutes it with the following reasons.
First of all, she refutes the idea that elephants are aware of approaching death by providing another explanation to the so called "elephant graveyards". The teeth of older elephants make them difficult to chew as before so they have to seek for softer vegetations which usually locate near bodies of water. Therefore, it would be more easier to spot dead elephants near the water. That being said, it is not true that they are aware of approaching death because of this observation.
Secondly, The article claims that having the ability to hold a paintbrush and paint on canvas means it can represent objects through art. However, the lecturer contradicts this idea by proposing a theory that It is common to see people train elephant to do certain task with the help of stroking its ears which are sensitivity. With this approach, elephants could remember pattern of several tasks such as drawing flowers. Accordingly, it does not necessary mean that they are able to represent objects through art.
Finally, the lecturer also argues that the interpretation of fearing the mice is wrong. It is not because that elephants afraid of mice naturally as recorded previously but because that elephants are not familiar with animals which they haven't seen before. Take elephants in the zoo as example, even though they would be scared by mice at first glance, they get used to it and realize that mice do not pose threat to them.
| 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 |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 342, Rule ID: MOST_COMPARATIVE[2]
Message: Use only 'easier' (without 'more') when you use the comparative.
Suggestion: easier
...bodies of water. Therefore, it would be more easier to spot dead elephants near the water. ...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 238, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: haven't
...re not familiar with animals which they havent seen before. Take elephants in the zoo ...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
accordingly, also, but, finally, first, however, if, second, secondly, so, therefore, such as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 22.412803532 138% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 38.0 30.3222958057 125% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1374.0 1373.03311258 100% => OK
No of words: 272.0 270.72406181 100% => OK
Chars per words: 5.05147058824 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.06108636974 4.04702891845 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.74259777593 2.5805825403 106% => OK
Unique words: 150.0 145.348785872 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.551470588235 0.540411800872 102% => OK
syllable_count: 421.2 419.366225166 100% => 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: 6.0 8.23620309051 73% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
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: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 37.955751254 49.2860985944 77% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.692307692 110.228320801 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.9230769231 21.698381199 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.23076923077 7.06452816374 117% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => 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: 0.102081221136 0.272083759551 38% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0345485372891 0.0996497079465 35% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0334995303107 0.0662205650399 51% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.054746156707 0.162205337803 34% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0337560551454 0.0443174109184 76% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.8 13.3589403974 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 53.8541721854 111% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.01 12.2367328918 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.11 8.42419426049 96% => OK
difficult_words: 60.0 63.6247240618 94% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => 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.