Reading:
In recent years, many frog species around the world have declined in numbers or even gone extinct due to changes in their environment. These population declines and extinctions have serious consequences for the ecosystems in which frogs live; for example, frogs help play a role in protecting humans by eating disease-carrying insects. Several methods have been proposed to solve the problem of declining frog populations.
First, frogs are being harmed by pesticides, which are chemicals used to prevent insects from damaging farm crops such as corn and sugarcane. Pesticides often spread from farmland into neighboring frog habitats. Once pesticides enter a frog’s body, they attack the nervous system, leading to severe breathing problems. If laws prohibited the farmers from using harmful pesticides near sensitive frog populations, it would significantly reduce the harm pesticides cause to frogs.
A second major factor in frog population decline is a fungus that has spread around the world with deadly effect. The fungus causes thickening of the skin, and since frogs use their skin to absorb water, infected frogs die of dehydration. Recently, researchers have discovered several ways to treat or prevent infection, including antifungal medication and treatments that kill the fungus with heat. Those treatments, if applied on a large scale, would protect sensitive frog populations from infection.
Third, in a great many cases, frog populations are in decline simply because their natural habitats are threatened. Since most frog species lay their eggs in water, they are dependent on water and wetland habitats. Many such habitats are threatened by human activities, including excessive water use or the draining of wetlands to make them suitable for development. If key water habitats such as lakes and marshes were better protected from excessive water use and development, many frog species would recover.
Listening:
Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.
None of the methods proposed in the reading offers a practical solution for slowing down the decline in frog populations. There are problems with each of the methods you read about.
First, seriously reducing pesticides in agricultural areas with threatened frog populations is not economically practical or fair. Farmers rely on pesticides to decrease crop losses and stay competitive in the market. If farmers in areas that are close to endangered frog populations have to follow stricter regulations regarding pesticide use, then those farmers would be at a severe disadvantage compared to farmers in other areas. They would likely lose more crops and have a lower yield than competing farms.
Second, the new treatments against the skin fungus you read about. Let me explain a couple of problems with this plan. The treatments must be applied individually to each frog, and so using them on a large scale is extremely difficult: it requires capturing and treating each individual frog in a population. Moreover, the treatments do not prevent the frogs from passing the fungus on to their offspring, so the treatments would have to be applied again and again to each new generation of frogs. So applying these treatments would be incredibly complicated and expensive.
Third, while it’s a good idea to protect lakes and marshes from excessive water use and development, that will not save frog populations. You see, water use and development are not the biggest threats to water and wetland habitats. The real threat is global warming. In recent decades, global warming has contributed to the disappearance of many water and wetland habitats, causing entire species to go extinct. Prohibiting humans from using water or building near frog habitats is unlikely to prevent the ongoing habitat changes caused by global warming.
Question:
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on the specific methods proposed in the reading passage.
In this set of materials, the reading passage proposed some methods in order to cope with the decline of frog population. However, according to the lecturer, none of these methods are practical.
Firstly, the reading passage suggest that we should implement laws that banned farmers from using pesiticides that could cause damage to the frogs' breathing system. However, the lecturer points out that it is not ecnomical or fair to prevent farmers from using pesticides, because farmers need to use pesticides to ensure the yleid of their crops, which means farmers who do not use pesticides will lose their advantages in competing with others in market.
Secondly, the reading claims that some antifungal medication or treatments can protect frogs from the threaten of fungus that could negatively infect the frogs' ability in absorbing water. In contrast, the lecturer highlights the difficulties of using these anti-fungus methods by mentioning that these methods need to apply on each individual of frogs rather than the whole, and neither can their effects pass down to the frogs' offsprings, which means we need to apply on frogs again and again. Therefore, it is unconvenient and expensive to use these methods.
Lastly, the reading suggests that we can protect the frogs' habitats by reducing human activities that can cause excessive water use and draining of the wetlands. Conversely, the lecturer argues that prohibit human from using excessive water is unlikely to prevent the decline of frog population, for human activities is not the biggest threat to frogs' habitats. According to the lecturer, global warming that will dry out lakes and wetlands is in fact the main cause of losing habitat of the frogs.
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| 2024-01-11 | sanddy | 80 | view |
| 2023-07-18 | dxy40747 | 3 | view |
| 2023-07-11 | YasamanEsml | 88 | view |
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- Reading Many countries require cigarette smokers to pay particularly high taxes on their purchases of cigarettes similar taxes are being considered for unhealthy foods The policy of imposing high taxes on cigarettes and other unhealthy products has a numb 81
- Reading In recent years many frog species around the world have declined in numbers or even gone extinct due to changes in their environment These population declines and extinctions have serious consequences for the ecosystems in which frogs live for exa 80
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 99, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...on or treatments can protect frogs from the threaten of fungus that could negatively infect ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 155, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'frogs'' or 'frog's'?
Suggestion: frogs'; frog's
...fungus that could negatively infect the frogs ability in absorbing water. In contrast...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
conversely, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, second, secondly, so, therefore, in contrast, in fact
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 6.0 10.4613686534 57% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 5.04856512141 238% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 22.412803532 107% => OK
Preposition: 44.0 30.3222958057 145% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1447.0 1373.03311258 105% => OK
No of words: 277.0 270.72406181 102% => OK
Chars per words: 5.2238267148 5.08290768461 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.07962216107 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62793568299 2.5805825403 102% => OK
Unique words: 140.0 145.348785872 96% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.505415162455 0.540411800872 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 439.2 419.366225166 105% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => 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: 10.0 13.0662251656 77% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 27.0 21.2450331126 127% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 76.5307781223 49.2860985944 155% => OK
Chars per sentence: 144.7 110.228320801 131% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.7 21.698381199 128% => OK
Discourse Markers: 10.2 7.06452816374 144% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => 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: 0.164015853466 0.272083759551 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0684225151245 0.0996497079465 69% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0449321744997 0.0662205650399 68% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.103824760269 0.162205337803 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0318284078099 0.0443174109184 72% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.0 13.3589403974 127% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 44.07 53.8541721854 82% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 5.55761589404 202% => Smog_index is high.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.8 11.0289183223 125% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.29 12.2367328918 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.48 8.42419426049 113% => OK
difficult_words: 79.0 63.6247240618 124% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 10.7273730684 135% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 10.498013245 122% => 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.