"this departs from the reading" instead of "The lecture completely refutes the passage".
Good example!
These have slightly different meanings, though!! If you say it completely refutes the passage, it sounds like it completely disproves the passage. However, if you say the lecture departs from the reading, it sounds like the lecture only contradicts the reading.
The reading passage offers three evidences that life-forms have existed on Mars。The lecture completely refutes the passage.
Secondly,the lecturer believes that the ... --- I changed it to lecturer, because a lecturer is a person. A person can believe, but a lecture cannot believe.
special chemical compounds found on Mars, maybe formed by volcanic explosions on ...
Thirdly,while the reading points to grains and bacteria that have been found on Mars,the lecture ...
:-)