Question : Summarise the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they case doubt on specific points made in the reading passage.
The sea otter is a small mammal that lives in waters along the western coast of North America from California to Alaska.
When some sea otter populations off the Alaskan coast started rapidly declining a few years ago, it caused much concern because sea otters play an important ecological role in the coastal ecosystem. Experts started investigating the cause of the decline and quickly realized that there were two possible explanations: environmental pollution or attacks by predators.
Initially, the pollution hypothesis seemed the more likely of the two.
The first reason why pollution seemed the more likely cause was that there were known sources of it along the Alaskan coast, such as oil rigs and other sources of industrial chemical pollution. Water samples from the area revealed increased levels of chemicals that could decrease the otters' resistance to life-threatening infections and thus could indirectly cause their deaths.
Second, other sea mammals such as seals and sea lions along the Alaskan coast were also declining, indicating that whatever had endangered the otters was affecting other sea mammals as well. This fact again pointed to environmental pollution, since it usually affects the entire ecosystem rather than a single species. Only widely occurring predators, such as the orca (a large predatory whale), could have the same effect, but orcas prefer to hunt much larger prey, such as other whales.
Third, scientists believed that the pollution hypothesis could also explain the uneven pattern of otter decline: at some Alaskan locations the otter populations declined greatly, while at others they remained stable. Some experts explained these observations by suggesting that ocean currents or other environmental factors may have created uneven concentrations of pollutants along the coast.
Word Count: 422
Recently, there has been a ton of debate so as to find the reason behind the decline of see otter. More specifically, in regrdas to the reading text, the writer puts forth his idea that see otter population has been better explained by pollution hypotheisis. In the listening, the lecturer is quick to point out that there are some significant flaws in the writer's claims. In fact, the lecturer believes that ongoing research revelead that predation is the most likely cause of the see otter decline, and addreses, in detail, the trouble with each point made in the reading text.
To begin with, the writer states that increased chemicals levels in the sea water sue to industrial chemical pollution generated from different sources near Alaskan coast caused the decline of the see otter. In the listening, the lecturer stands in firm opposition to this claim. The lecturer challenges this argument by mentionng that if this decline is due to infection, many sea otter would have washed up on the shore. He further argues that as this is due to predators affect, so there is hard to find any sea otter on the coast,
Secondly, the writer posits that as there was a decline in the pollution of other, sea mammals like seals, see lions it is quite likely that environmental pollutions would affect the entire ecosystem not individual species. In the listening, the lecturer rebuts this by asserting that as the wales disapperaed due to human activities like hunting, the sea ocas would have changed their diet and started hunting the small sea animals like sea lions and sea otters. As a result, there would have been the decline in the population of sea animals along with the sea otters. So, the decline is better explained with predation theory rather than the pollution theory.
Finally, the author claims that the uneven patter of the otter decline at some Alaska locations is also better explained by pollution theory as the environmental factors like ocean currents could have caused the uneven concentration of pollutants along the coast. Not surprisingly, the lecturer finds issue with this claimbu contending that sea otters and whales population in some area like shallow water would not have been affected by the sea orcas as due their large size they can not stay in the shallow, rocky water. Therefore, the predation theory can also explain the cause of the uneven population of sea otters in some area.
To sum up, the lecturer and the author hold conflicting views on this.
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 42, Rule ID: SO_AS_TO[1]
Message: Use simply 'to'
Suggestion: to
...ecently, there has been a ton of debate so as to find the reason behind the decline of s...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 380, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...hunting, the sea ocas would have changed their diet and started hunting the small...
^^
Line 12, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...uthor hold conflicting views on this.
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, if, second, secondly, so, therefore, as to, in fact, as a result, to begin with, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 5.04856512141 158% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 25.0 22.412803532 112% => OK
Preposition: 62.0 30.3222958057 204% => Less preposition wanted.
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: 2084.0 1373.03311258 152% => OK
No of words: 422.0 270.72406181 156% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.93838862559 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.53239876712 4.04702891845 112% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.52501245099 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 197.0 145.348785872 136% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.46682464455 0.540411800872 86% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 642.6 419.366225166 153% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 15.0 8.23620309051 182% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 8.0 2.5761589404 311% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 28.0 21.2450331126 132% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 79.4748317953 49.2860985944 161% => OK
Chars per sentence: 138.933333333 110.228320801 126% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.1333333333 21.698381199 130% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.33333333333 7.06452816374 104% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.188057880228 0.272083759551 69% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0703948243658 0.0996497079465 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0320255626262 0.0662205650399 48% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.103862701216 0.162205337803 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.040795098169 0.0443174109184 92% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.9 13.3589403974 119% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.52 53.8541721854 96% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 11.0289183223 118% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.67 12.2367328918 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.47 8.42419426049 101% => OK
difficult_words: 92.0 63.6247240618 145% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 10.7273730684 126% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 10.498013245 126% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.