Passage:
Altruism is a type of behavior in which an animal sacrifices its own interest for that of another animal or group of animals. Altruism is the opposite of selfishness; individuals performing altruistic acts gain nothing for themselves.
Examples of altruism abound, both among humans and among other mammals. Unselfish acts among humans range from the sharing of food with strangers to the donation of body organs to family members, and even to strangers. Such acts are altruistic in that they benefit another, yet provide little reward to the one performing the act.In fact, many species of animals appear willing to sacrifice food, or even their life, to assist other members of their group.
The meerkat, which is a mammal that dwells in burrows in grassland areas of Africa, is often cited as an example. In groups of meerkats, an individual acts as a sentinel, standing guard and looking out for predators while the others hunt for food or eat food they have obtained. If the sentinel meerkat sees a predator such as a hawk approaching the group, it gives an alarm cry alerting the other meerkats to run and seek shelter. By standing guard,the sentinel meerkat gains nothing—it goes without food while the others eat, and it places itself in grave danger. After it issues an alarm, it has to flee alone, which might make it more at risk to a predator, since animals in groups are often able to work together to fend off a predator. So the altruistic sentinel behavior helps ensure the survival of other members of the meerkat’s group.
Listening Script:
You know, often in science, new findings force us to re-examine earlier beliefs and assumptions.
And a recent study of meerkats is having exactly this effect. The study examined the meerkat’s behavior quite closely, much more closely than had ever been done before. And some interesting things were found . . . like about eating habits . . . it showed that typically meerkats eat before they stand guard—so the ones standing guard had a full stomach! And the study also found that since the sentinel is the first to see a predator coming, it’s the most likely to escape . . . because it often stands guard near a burrow, so it can run immediately into the burrow after giving the alarm.
The other meerkats, the ones scattered about looking for food, are actually in greater danger. And in fact, other studies have suggested that when an animal creates an alarm,the alarm call might cause the other group members either to gather together or else to move about very quickly, behaviors that might actually draw the predator’s attention away from the caller, increasing that animal’s own chances of survival.
And what about people—what about some human acts that might be considered altruistic? Let’s take an extreme case, uh, suppose a person donates a kidney to a relative, or even to a complete stranger. A selfless act, right? But . . . doesn’t the donor receive appreciation and approval from the stranger and from society? Doesn’t the donor gain an increased sense of self-worth? Couldn’t such non-material rewards be considered very valuable to some people?
Que: Summarize the points made in the lecture you just heard, being sure to specifically explain how they cast doubt on points made in the reading.
The reading passage discusses several causes that might have led to the little ice age. However, the speaker in the lecture casts doubt on the claims made in the article. he mentions that the arguments in the article are outdated and new information simply disproves all of them.
First and foremost, the author believes that the disruption of the gulf stream by the melting glaciers could be the reason behind the drop in earth's temperature. The lecturer, on the other hand, points out that if this was the case, the decrease in temperature should have been observed only in Europe and North America. On the contrary, the cooling effect affected the southern hemisphere too, such as new Zealand and South Africa. Thus, this hypothesis could not be true.
Secondly, the writer argues that volcanic activity could have sent dust into the atmosphere, which, in turn, would have blocked sunlight and decreased global temperatures. In contrast, the lecturer brings the fact that people at this time did not report any visual effects, which are expected under these circumstances, such as a colored sun or brown snow. Hence, this argument lacks coherence.
Lastly, the author contends that the decline in human population during this era allowed more trees to grow in forests and as a result, these trees absorbed most of the carbon dioxide, which is the greenhouse gas responsible for keeping the earth warm. The lecturer challenges this proposal. he holds that there was not enough time for this to happen as the human population started to regrow fairly quickly cutting down trees and clearing up forests for agriculture. Consequently, the trees were not there long enough to cause a cooling effect on earth.
- Endotherms are animals such as modern birds and mammals that keep their body temperaturesconstant. For instance, humans are endotherms and maintain an internal temperature of 37°C, nomatter whether the environment is warm or cold. Because dinosaurs were 88
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship.Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. 66
- Endotherms are animals such as modern birds and mammals that keep their body temperatures constant. For instance, humans are endotherms and maintain an internal temperature of 37°C, no matter whether the environment is warm or cold. Because dinosaurs wer 3
- Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on specific points made in the reading passage.The cane toad is a large (1.8 kg) amphibian species native to Central and South America. It was deliberately introduced to A 81
- TPO-27 Integrated WritingThe little ice age was a period of unusually cold temperature in many parts of the world that lasted from about the year 1350 until 1900CE. There were southern harsh winters, and glaciers grew also in many areas. Scientist have lo 66
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 172, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: He
...oubt on the claims made in the article. he mentions that the arguments in the arti...
^^
Line 13, column 293, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: He
... The lecturer challenges this proposal. he holds that there was not enough time fo...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
consequently, first, hence, however, if, lastly, second, secondly, so, thus, in contrast, such as, as a result, on the contrary, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 22.412803532 89% => OK
Preposition: 31.0 30.3222958057 102% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 5.01324503311 120% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1439.0 1373.03311258 105% => OK
No of words: 283.0 270.72406181 105% => OK
Chars per words: 5.08480565371 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.10153676581 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.52329975749 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 178.0 145.348785872 122% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.628975265018 0.540411800872 116% => OK
syllable_count: 430.2 419.366225166 103% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 3.25607064018 154% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 62.2155568182 49.2860985944 126% => OK
Chars per sentence: 102.785714286 110.228320801 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.2142857143 21.698381199 93% => OK
Discourse Markers: 10.4285714286 7.06452816374 148% => 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 : 8.0 4.45695364238 179% => 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: 0.0472311955097 0.272083759551 17% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0120155731798 0.0996497079465 12% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0231787528117 0.0662205650399 35% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0231514456128 0.162205337803 14% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0276173403784 0.0443174109184 62% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 13.3589403974 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
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: 12.18 12.2367328918 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.76 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 74.0 63.6247240618 116% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.
Rates: 3.33333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 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.