TPO 30 Integrated Writing Task The passage introduces three reasons why the burning mirror of the Greeks is just a myth rather than a truth. However, the lecturer believes the burning mirror did exist and refutes those three reasons one by one. First of all, contrary to the belief in the passage that the mirror was made of a single sheet of copper, the experiment mentioned in the lecture shows that several small flat pieces of copper can form a larger mirror in a parabola shape. Therefore it is convincing that the Greeks at that time were technologically advanced enough to devise this mirror. Secondly, although the reading says it takes at least ten minutes for a still Roman ship to get on fire by using a burning mirror, the speaker points out that the ship was not solely made of wood. There was pitch, which catches on fire very quickly, to seal wood so as to make the ship waterproof. The experiment shows that a burning mirror can set a moving ship on fire in seconds because the fire lit by pitch can spread to wood. Finally, the lecturer contradicts the point made in the text that the burning mirror is not more effective than a flaming arrow. Roman soldiers were familiar with flaming arrows and ready to prevent the ship from catching fire, but they cannot predict where the fire would be if the Greeks use the burning mirror. The fire set by the burning mirror would be in an unobserved place and more surprising. Thus the mirror is indeed more practical and efficient than the arrow.