In 1912 a bookseller named Wilfrid M. Voynich acquired a beautifully illustrated handwritten book (manuscript) written on vellum (vellum is a material that was used for writing before the introduction of paper). The “Voynich manuscript,” as it became known, resembles manuscripts written in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. However, it is written in a completely unknown script. To date, no one has been able to decode the script and understand the book’s content. Several theories have been proposed to explain the origin of the Voynich manuscript.
One theory is that the manuscript is a genuine work on some scientific or magical subject composed in a complex secret code. Anthony Ascham, a sixteenth-century physician and botanist, has been identified as a possible author, since many plant illustrations in the Voynich manuscript are quite similar to those in Ascham’s book on medicinal plants, A Little Herbal, published in 1550.
According to some other theories, the manuscript is really a fake and its text has no real meaning. For example, it has been proposed the manuscript was created by Edward Kelley, a sixteenth-century personality who extracted money from nobles across Europe by pretending to have magical powers. Kelley may have created the manuscript as a fake magical book to sell to a wealthy noble. He used a made-up alphabet in a completely random order. It looks like a book of magical secrets, but there is no meaningful underlying text.
Another theory is that the manuscript is actually a modern fake created by Wilfrid M. Voynich himself. As an antique book dealer, Voynich certainly had the knowledge of what old manuscripts should look like and could have created a fake one. Perhaps Voynich’s plan was to sell the fake as a mysterious old book if he received an attractive offer.
The author of the reading passage proposes three theories to explain the origin of the Voynich manuscript. However, the speaker in the lecture disagrees with those ideas and provides evidence to support his point of view.
To begin with, the author claims that the manuscript is a real work written by Anthony Ascham due to the similarities of plant illustrations appeared in the manuscript and his work. On the contrary, the speakers refutes that Ascham is an ordinary physician and scientist who did not contain any original idea in his work. For instance, his work, A Little Herbal, only described a common plant based on other's idea. Therefore, Ascham were not able to create such elaborated secret code.
Secondly, the passage mentions another theory that the manuscript is a fake made by Edward Kelly with the aim to sell. The lecturer counters with this argument by emphasizing that creator took a lot of care to make the manuscript looked like real. However, rich people at that time was easy to fool, so it was unnecessary to create the complicated code. The creator could make a simple magical book to pursuit the purpose of making money.
Finally, opposing to the author's third view that the manuscript is a modern fake made by Voynich himself in order to receive an attractive offer, the speaker contends that the volumes and ink of the manuscript are four hundreds years ago. Voynich were not able to use the 400- hundred-year old ink even though he could use the old manuscripts if he wanted to produced the fake. This means that the manuscript had existed before Voynich obtained it.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
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| 2023-07-20 | Zmx_109 | 80 | view |
| 2023-02-13 | zaid | 73 | view |
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| 2022-11-11 | lucy_Taiwan | 81 | view |
| 2022-10-25 | _sta | 78 | view |
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement Nowadays people are more willing to help people they don t know for example by giving clothing and food to people who need them than they were in the past Use specific reasons and examples to support y 90
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement When teachers assign projects on which students must work together the students learn much more effectively than when they are asked to work alone on projects Use specific reasons and examples to suppo 88
- In 1912 a bookseller named Wilfrid M Voynich acquired a beautifully illustrated handwritten book manuscript written on vellum vellum is a material that was used for writing before the introduction of paper The Voynich manuscript as it became known resembl 80
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 403, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'others'' or 'other's'?
Suggestion: others'; other's
... only described a common plant based on others idea. Therefore, Ascham were not able t...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, however, if, look, second, secondly, so, therefore, third, for instance, on the contrary, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 9.0 12.0772626932 75% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 20.0 22.412803532 89% => OK
Preposition: 38.0 30.3222958057 125% => 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: 1335.0 1373.03311258 97% => OK
No of words: 273.0 270.72406181 101% => OK
Chars per words: 4.89010989011 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.06481385082 4.04702891845 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.55742720816 2.5805825403 99% => OK
Unique words: 160.0 145.348785872 110% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.586080586081 0.540411800872 108% => OK
syllable_count: 418.5 419.366225166 100% => 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: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 44.6303688365 49.2860985944 91% => OK
Chars per sentence: 102.692307692 110.228320801 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.0 21.698381199 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.61538461538 7.06452816374 122% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => 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: 0.191444281095 0.272083759551 70% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0657657013922 0.0996497079465 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0560672799456 0.0662205650399 85% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.106700144631 0.162205337803 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0497236187547 0.0443174109184 112% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.1 13.3589403974 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 53.8541721854 109% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.08 12.2367328918 91% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.73 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 70.0 63.6247240618 110% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.