TOEFL integrated Question the extinction of Steller s sea cow

The reading and the lecture are both about the extinction of a huge marine mammal known as Steller sea cow that once lived in the waters around Bering Island off the coast of Siberia. The author and the lecturer hold different opinions on the reason why the species has gone extinct.
To begin with, the author argues that sea cows may have been over hunted by groups of native Siberian people. If this theory is correct, then the sea cow population would have originally been quite large, but hundreds of years off too much hunting by the native people diminished the number of sea cows. This specific argument is challenged by the lecturer. He claims that sea cows are massive. They can weigh up to 10 tons and one sea cow could have fed a whole town. Therefore, it is unlikely that they have been over hunted to feed the native Siberian people.
Secondly, the writer claims that the sea cow population may have become extinct because of ecosystems disturbances that caused a decline in their main source of food, kelp. It is possible that ecological changes near Bering Island some time before 1768 caused a decrease of the kelp that the sea cows depend on. The lecturer, however, rebuts this by mentioning that if something did happen to the ecosystem, there would have been other disturbances. The interruption of the food chain would have caused other food shortages as well.
Finally, the author posits that the main cause of extinction of the sea cows could have been European fur traders who came to the island after 1741. It is recorded that the fur traders caught the last sea cow in 1768. It thus seems reasonable to believe that hunting by European fur traders. In contrast, the lecturer mentions the sea cow population has been decreasing even before the European fur traders have arrived.

Votes
Average: 8.7 (3 votes)
Essay Categories
Essays by the user:

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 61, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...lecture are both about the extinction of a huge marine mammal known as Steller s...
^^
Line 1, column 100, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...f a huge marine mammal known as Steller sea cow that once lived in the waters ar...
^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, thus, well, in contrast, to begin with

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 10.4613686534 124% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 5.04856512141 158% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 23.0 22.412803532 103% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 30.3222958057 132% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 5.01324503311 140% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1495.0 1373.03311258 109% => OK
No of words: 314.0 270.72406181 116% => OK
Chars per words: 4.76114649682 5.08290768461 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.20951839842 4.04702891845 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.36013906367 2.5805825403 91% => OK
Unique words: 165.0 145.348785872 114% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.525477707006 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 459.9 419.366225166 110% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 3.25607064018 215% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 21.2450331126 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.1081862986 49.2860985944 94% => OK
Chars per sentence: 93.4375 110.228320801 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.625 21.698381199 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.8125 7.06452816374 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.27373068433 211% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.25094565804 0.272083759551 92% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0938471457246 0.0996497079465 94% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0720575397065 0.0662205650399 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.162477543597 0.162205337803 100% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0304241712673 0.0443174109184 69% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.8 13.3589403974 81% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 60.65 53.8541721854 113% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 11.0289183223 86% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.33 12.2367328918 84% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.7 8.42419426049 91% => OK
difficult_words: 62.0 63.6247240618 97% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 10.7273730684 126% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 10.498013245 91% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => 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.

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 61, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...lecture are both about the extinction of a huge marine mammal known as Steller s...
^^
Line 1, column 100, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...f a huge marine mammal known as Steller sea cow that once lived in the waters ar...
^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, thus, well, in contrast, to begin with

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 10.4613686534 124% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 5.04856512141 158% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 23.0 22.412803532 103% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 30.3222958057 132% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 5.01324503311 140% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1495.0 1373.03311258 109% => OK
No of words: 314.0 270.72406181 116% => OK
Chars per words: 4.76114649682 5.08290768461 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.20951839842 4.04702891845 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.36013906367 2.5805825403 91% => OK
Unique words: 165.0 145.348785872 114% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.525477707006 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 459.9 419.366225166 110% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 3.25607064018 215% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 21.2450331126 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.1081862986 49.2860985944 94% => OK
Chars per sentence: 93.4375 110.228320801 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.625 21.698381199 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.8125 7.06452816374 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.27373068433 211% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.25094565804 0.272083759551 92% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0938471457246 0.0996497079465 94% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0720575397065 0.0662205650399 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.162477543597 0.162205337803 100% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0304241712673 0.0443174109184 69% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.8 13.3589403974 81% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 60.65 53.8541721854 113% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 11.0289183223 86% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.33 12.2367328918 84% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.7 8.42419426049 91% => OK
difficult_words: 62.0 63.6247240618 97% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 10.7273730684 126% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 10.498013245 91% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => 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.