Populations of the yellow cedar, a species of tree that is common in northwestern North America, have been steadily declining for more than a century now, since about 1880. Scientists have advanced several hypotheses explain this decline.
One hypothesis is that the yellow cedar decline may be caused by insect parasites, specifically the cedar bark beetle. This beetle is known to attack cedar trees; the beetle larvae eat the wood. There have been recorded instances of sustained beetle attacks overwhelming and killing yellow cedars, so this insect is a good candidate for the cause of the tree's decline.
A second hypothesis attributes the decline to brown bears. Bears sometimes claw at the cedars in order to eat the tree bark, which has high sugar content. In fact, the cedar bark can contain as much sugar as the wild berries that are a staple of the bears' diet. Although the bears' clawing is unlikely to destroy trees by itself, their aggressive feeding habits may critically weaken enough trees to be responsible for the decline.
The third hypothesis states that gradual changes in climate may be to blame. Over the last hundred years, the patterns of seasonal, as well as day-to-day temperatures, have changed in northwestern North America. These changes have affected the root systems of the yellow cedar trees: the fine surface roots now start growing in the late winter rather than in the early spring. The change in the timing of root growth may have significant consequences. Growing roots are sensitive and are therefore likely to suffer damage from partial freezing on cold winter nights. This frozen root damage may be capable of undermining the health of the whole tree, eventually killing i
The reading and lecture are both about the decline of yellow cedar species in northwestern North America. The author feels that there are three possible explanations for the decline. However, the professor challenges all the claims made by the author. He is of the opinion that these explanations are faulty.
First of all, the writer mentions the decline is due to a parasite infestation. The cedar bark beetle larvae eat the wood and consequently the tree dies off. On the contrary, the lecturer said that healthy yellow cedars are more resistant to insects. In addition, the bark and the leaves are saturated with powerful chemicals that are deadly to the insects. On top of that, the professor adds a dead yellow cedar can be more likely to get infected by the beetles despite those trees that are already at the rim of decay.
Secondly, in the reading, it's stated that, the brown bears that feed on the sugary bark of the cedar wood lead to the destruction of yellow cedars. The professor refuted this by, the yellow cedars are seen on the coasts mainlands and off coast such as islands in North America. Although the bears are not seen in the islands of North America, the brown bear hypothesis is false. Moreover, the decline of cedarwood has been seen in areas with or without bears.
Finally, the author hypothesized the root suffered from frost damage due to the dramatic changes in climate paves the path of the decline of yellow cedars. The lecturer contradicts this by arguing that, the number of trees in higher elevation should die more since the climate is freezing there. But the number of trees that died is more in low elevation than the other counterpart. This clearly disproves the author's third hypothesis.
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Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 91, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... of yellow cedar species in northwestern North America. The author feels that the...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, consequently, finally, first, however, moreover, second, secondly, so, third, in addition, such as, first of all, on the contrary, on top of that
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 10.4613686534 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 17.0 22.412803532 76% => OK
Preposition: 45.0 30.3222958057 148% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1441.0 1373.03311258 105% => OK
No of words: 297.0 270.72406181 110% => OK
Chars per words: 4.85185185185 5.08290768461 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.15134772569 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.47508873251 2.5805825403 96% => OK
Unique words: 158.0 145.348785872 109% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.531986531987 0.540411800872 98% => OK
syllable_count: 441.0 419.366225166 105% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 16.0 8.23620309051 194% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 13.0662251656 130% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 21.2450331126 80% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 33.4102112315 49.2860985944 68% => OK
Chars per sentence: 84.7647058824 110.228320801 77% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.4705882353 21.698381199 81% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.82352941176 7.06452816374 125% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.259617210432 0.272083759551 95% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0753931638141 0.0996497079465 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0686488633967 0.0662205650399 104% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.146119543873 0.162205337803 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0172889395596 0.0443174109184 39% => 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: 10.1 13.3589403974 76% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 62.68 53.8541721854 116% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 11.0289183223 79% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.55 12.2367328918 86% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.99 8.42419426049 95% => OK
difficult_words: 66.0 63.6247240618 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.0 10.7273730684 56% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.8 10.498013245 84% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 91, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... of yellow cedar species in northwestern North America. The author feels that the...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, consequently, finally, first, however, moreover, second, secondly, so, third, in addition, such as, first of all, on the contrary, on top of that
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 10.4613686534 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 17.0 22.412803532 76% => OK
Preposition: 45.0 30.3222958057 148% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1441.0 1373.03311258 105% => OK
No of words: 297.0 270.72406181 110% => OK
Chars per words: 4.85185185185 5.08290768461 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.15134772569 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.47508873251 2.5805825403 96% => OK
Unique words: 158.0 145.348785872 109% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.531986531987 0.540411800872 98% => OK
syllable_count: 441.0 419.366225166 105% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 16.0 8.23620309051 194% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 13.0662251656 130% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 21.2450331126 80% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 33.4102112315 49.2860985944 68% => OK
Chars per sentence: 84.7647058824 110.228320801 77% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.4705882353 21.698381199 81% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.82352941176 7.06452816374 125% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.259617210432 0.272083759551 95% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0753931638141 0.0996497079465 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0686488633967 0.0662205650399 104% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.146119543873 0.162205337803 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0172889395596 0.0443174109184 39% => 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: 10.1 13.3589403974 76% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 62.68 53.8541721854 116% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 11.0289183223 79% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.55 12.2367328918 86% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.99 8.42419426049 95% => OK
difficult_words: 66.0 63.6247240618 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.0 10.7273730684 56% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.8 10.498013245 84% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.