Reading Time: 3 minutes
In an effort to encourage ecologically sustainable forestry practices, an international organization started issuing certifications to wood companies that meet high ecological standards by conserving resources and recycling materials. Companies that receive this certification can attract customers by advertising their products as "ecocertified." Around the world, many wood companies have adopted new, ecologically friendly practices in order to receive ecocertification. However, it is unlikely that wood companies in the United States will do the same, for several reasons.
First, American consumers are exposed to so much advertising that they would not value or even pay attention to the ecocertification label. Because so many mediocre products are labeled "new" or "improved," American consumers do not place much trust in advertising claims in general.
Second, ecocertified wood will be more expensive than uncertified wood because in order to earn ecocertification, a wood company must pay to have its business examined by a certification agency. This additional cost gets passed on to consumers. American consumers tend to be strongly motivated by price, and therefore they are likely to choose cheaper uncertified wood products. Accordingly, American wood companies will prefer to keep their prices low rather than obtain ecocertification.
Third, although some people claim that it always makes good business sense for American companies to keep up with the developments in the rest of the world, this argument is not convincing. Pursuing certification would make sense for American wood companies only if they marketed most of their products abroad. But that is not the case—American wood businesses sell most of their products in the United States, catering to a very large customer base that is satisfied with the merchandise.
Directions: Read the transcript.
Narrator: Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.
Professor Well, despite what many people say, there's good reason to think that many American wood companies will eventually seek ecocertification for their wood products. First off, consumers in the United States don't treat all advertising the same. They distinguish between advertising claims that companies make about their own products and claims made by independent certification agencies. Americans have a lot of confidence in independent consumer agencies. Thus, ecologically minded Americans are likely to react very favorably to wood products ecologically certified by an independent organization with an international reputation for trustworthiness.
Second point—of course it's true that American consumers care a lot about price—who doesn't? But studies of how consumers make decisions show that price alone determines consumers' decisions only when the price of one competing product is much higher or lower than another. When the price difference between two products is small—say, less than five percent, as is the case with certified wood— Americans often do choose on factors other than price. And Americans are becoming increasingly convinced of the value of preserving and protecting the environment.
And third, U.S. wood companies should definitely pay attention to what's going on in the wood business internationally, not because of foreign consumers, but because of foreign competition. As I just told you, there's a good chance that many American consumers will be interested in ecocertified products. And guess what, if American companies are slow capturing those customers, you can be sure that foreign companies will soon start crowding into the American market, offering ecocertified wood that domestic companies don't.
Directions: Give yourself 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response is judged on the quality of the writing and on how well it presents the points in the lecture and their relationship to the reading passage. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words. You may view the reading passage while you respond.
Response time: 20 minutes
Question: Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on specific points made in the reading passage.
The reading and lecture are about whether the wood companies in the United States will encourage the ecological approach to receive ecocertification. The passage states that this possibility is unlikely for several reasons. The lecturer casts doubts on the claims made in the reading by giving counterpoints for each reason.
First of all, the author begins by stating that the American customers don't pay attention to ecocertification label because the brands continuously introduce their product as a "new" or an "improved" one to the extent that the customers distrust them. The lecturer, however, disagrees with this viewpoint. He states that consumers have the ability to distinguish between the claims made by the advertisement companies to those are made by independent trusted agencies. Additionally, he points that Americans have such confidence in independent companies that the reaction towards ecocertified products will be favorable. Therefore, they probably would choose ecocertified ones over the others.
According to the writer, the expenses of having wood certified are high, So the products will be expensive. Since the price of wood is a great concern for the American people, this increase in the cost of wood will cause them to buy cheaper and uncertified products. This argument is rebutted by the lecturer. He goes on to say that the small difference in the price of the certified wood, that is less than 5% compared with American wood, will not affect customer's decision. He also suggests that the consumers will consider other factors while choosing the product because it will help in protecting and preserving the environment.
Another reason why the author feels that American companies don't need to concentrate on the international wood market because American companies sell their products mainly in the U.S., they do not need to compete in the rest of the world where ecocertification is desired by consumers. In contrast, the lecturer's stance is that wood companies in the United States should be aware of foreign competition. He states that foreign companies will eventually start to promote their business into the country and many consumers will turn towards them in order to save the ecological system.
To sum up, both the author and lecturer hold conflicting views about the adaptation of ecocertified wood products in the U.S.
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 225, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...bility is unlikely for several reasons. The lecturer casts doubts on the claims mad...
^^^
Line 3, column 72, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
... by stating that the American customers dont pay attention to ecocertification label...
^^^^
Line 3, column 176, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...continuously introduce their product as a 'new' or an 'improved&ap...
^
Line 3, column 693, Rule ID: ONES[1]
Message: Did you mean 'one's'?
Suggestion: one's
...they probably would choose ecocertified ones over the others. According to the wr...
^^^^
Line 7, column 61, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...he author feels that American companies dont need to concentrate on the internationa...
^^^^
Line 7, column 304, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'lecturers'' or 'lecturer's'?
Suggestion: lecturers'; lecturer's
... desired by consumers. In contrast, the lecturers stance is that wood companies in the Un...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, so, therefore, while, in contrast, first of all, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 10.4613686534 115% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 5.04856512141 257% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 22.412803532 138% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 51.0 30.3222958057 168% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 5.01324503311 239% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2024.0 1373.03311258 147% => OK
No of words: 375.0 270.72406181 139% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.39733333333 5.08290768461 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.40055868397 4.04702891845 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.08191686383 2.5805825403 119% => OK
Unique words: 195.0 145.348785872 134% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.52 0.540411800872 96% => OK
syllable_count: 627.3 419.366225166 150% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 3.25607064018 307% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
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: 17.0 13.0662251656 130% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 21.2450331126 104% => OK
Sentence length SD: 64.7840169959 49.2860985944 131% => OK
Chars per sentence: 119.058823529 110.228320801 108% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0588235294 21.698381199 102% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.23529411765 7.06452816374 74% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 4.19205298013 143% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 4.33554083885 208% => Less positive sentences wanted.
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: 0.119534231534 0.272083759551 44% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.038427132827 0.0996497079465 39% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.042209136532 0.0662205650399 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0686573062493 0.162205337803 42% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0372342933449 0.0443174109184 84% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.0 13.3589403974 112% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 53.8541721854 76% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 11.0289183223 119% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.04 12.2367328918 115% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.52 8.42419426049 101% => OK
difficult_words: 90.0 63.6247240618 141% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 10.498013245 103% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 85.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25.5 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.