Like many creatures, humpback whales migrate long distances for feeding and mating purposes. How animals manage to migrate long distances is often puzzling. In the case of humpback whales, we may have found the answer: they may be navigating by the stars, much as early human sailors did. What we know about humpback whales makes this a distinct possibility. First, humpback whales seem to be intelligent enough to use stars to navigate by. Whales' brains have a high degree of complexity--a common determiner of intelligence. This suggests that the whales' brain power far exceeds that of most other animals. The whales' well-developed cognitive ability seems to provide a sound basis for the ability to use a complex, abstract system of sensory stimuli such as the night sky for orientation. Second, humpback whales migrate in straight lines. Animals can maintain movement in a straight direction for long distances only if they orient themselves by some external objects or forces. Many birds and other terrestrial creatures, for example, use physical landmarks to help them stay on track as they migrate. Whales, which swim in the open ocean, cannot rely on land features; they could, however, rely on stars at night to provide them with external signs by which to maintain direction over long distances. Third, humpback whales exhibit an unusual behavior: they are sometimes observed floating straight up for minutes at a time, their heads above the water as though they were looking upward. The behavior is known as spy-hopping, and it is very rare among marine animals. One explanation for the function of spy-hopping is that the whales are looking at the stars, which are providing them with information to navigate by.
The reading states that humpback whales are using stars for navigation during their migration and provides three evidence of support. On the other hand, the lecturer cast doubt on the claims made in the article and suggests that the evidence provided are not convincing.
First, the author posits that whales' brain has ultimate complexity that senses the night sky and especially stars and uses them as guidance during migration. The lecturer contradicts this point by stating that there is no connection between whale’s intelligence and stars navigation skills. The professor further demonstrates that other animals like ducks, they still can use stars to know their direction. Despite, they possess' neither an ultimate brain complexity nor a cognitive capability. In fact, this evidence explains the lack of connection between brain complexity and navigation skills in humpback whales.
Second, the article posits that whales depend on sky stars to move in a straight line and maintain their orientation for long distances. On the other hand, the lecturer refutes this point by saying that whales travel in a straight line because their brain cells have the ability to detect the earth external force by sensing the biomagnetic field around them while navigating and not by using the sky stars.
Last but not least, the article states that whales have uncommon behavior among marine animals. This behavior is known as a spy- hopping. The author defines this phenomenon by stating that, while whales are flooding above the water they keep staring at the sky to detect the stars and use them for navigation around the ocean. The professor on the other hand challenges this point by stating that whales are not the only marine animals who possess spy-hopping behavior, also sharks have this attitude. As a result, the spy hopping is poor speculation.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-01-28 | Amin1990 | 85 | view |
| 2019-12-19 | jewel | 80 | view |
| 2019-11-26 | shrjhn1234 | 73 | view |
| 2019-11-03 | jinjingcarol | 81 | view |
| 2019-11-01 | Seema Modak | 73 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 6, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...gating and not by using the sky stars. Last but not least, the article states t...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, second, so, still, while, in fact, as a result, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 7.0 10.4613686534 67% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 7.30242825607 151% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 22.412803532 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 32.0 30.3222958057 106% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 5.01324503311 319% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1565.0 1373.03311258 114% => OK
No of words: 299.0 270.72406181 110% => OK
Chars per words: 5.23411371237 5.08290768461 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.1583189471 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.53322349663 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 151.0 145.348785872 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.505016722408 0.540411800872 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 470.7 419.366225166 112% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 55.860065689 49.2860985944 113% => OK
Chars per sentence: 111.785714286 110.228320801 101% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.3571428571 21.698381199 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.92857142857 7.06452816374 84% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => 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: 0.139795941552 0.272083759551 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.051307639951 0.0996497079465 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0428365810136 0.0662205650399 65% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0906078287221 0.162205337803 56% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.012788503981 0.0443174109184 29% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.9 13.3589403974 104% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 53.8541721854 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.05 12.2367328918 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.16 8.42419426049 97% => OK
difficult_words: 66.0 63.6247240618 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => 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.