The excerpt in the reading passage introduces the topic of altruism. Altruism is a behavior where an individual willingly perform sacrifices for the greater good of the society and its members without any ulterior selfish motive. The lecturer stands against the examples provided by the passage claiming that there might be selfish reasons behind an altruistic behavior of an individual which does not meet the eyes. The speaker opposes the points made by the passage in the following ways.
On the study of the life of the meerkats, the passage talks about the act of behaving as a sentinel guard so as to help other meerkats forage for food as an example of altruistic behavior among these wild rats. The lecturer puts forward data from recent behavioral studies on meerkats to make clear the altruistic behavior of the animal. The study says that the meerkats who acts as sentinels are safer than the ones who are scraping for food because they are closer to their burrows and can easily escape the predators. Another selfish reason behind the nature of meerkats which was observed that they can use the commotion generated by their cry (indicating presence of the predator) as a ruse for making their safe escape. Thus, according to the speaker the behavior expressed by the meerkats which seem to be altruistic has selfish motives behind it.
The passage also mentions about selfless organ donation which are performed by the humans for complete strangers without expecting any material reward for the same. The speaker opposes this by saying that the humans participating in the act of donation, although not doing it for the sake of materialistic rewards, might be looking for appreciation and increase in their self-worth in the society. This might hinder the notion being purely altruistic because the act is not completely selfless.
The study mentioned by the lecturer suggests that the meerkats are not as obliging in nature as they have been regarded in the passage. Humans too, while performing organ donations, might be seen as altruistic but can have non-tangible gains to achieve in their minds.
- The Reading:Altruism is a type of behavior in which an animal sacrifices its own interest for that of another animal or group of animals. Altruism is the opposite of selfishness; individuals performing altruistic acts gain nothing for themselves. Examples 80
- Professors are normally found in university classrooms, offices, and libraries doing research and lecturing to their students. More and more, however, they also appear as guests on television news programs, giving expert commentary on the latest events in 73
- TPO 18 Integrated 60
- TOEFL T P O 18 Integrated Writing Task 52
- TPO36 3
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 107, Rule ID: SO_AS_TO[1]
Message: Use simply 'to'
Suggestion: to
...the act of behaving as a sentinel guard so as to help other meerkats forage for food as ...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, if, look, so, thus, while, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 22.412803532 85% => OK
Preposition: 45.0 30.3222958057 148% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1770.0 1373.03311258 129% => OK
No of words: 350.0 270.72406181 129% => OK
Chars per words: 5.05714285714 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.32530772707 4.04702891845 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.57005677695 2.5805825403 100% => OK
Unique words: 181.0 145.348785872 125% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.517142857143 0.540411800872 96% => OK
syllable_count: 546.3 419.366225166 130% => 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: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 21.2450331126 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 48.4174028419 49.2860985944 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 126.428571429 110.228320801 115% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.0 21.698381199 115% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.07142857143 7.06452816374 43% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => 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: 0.252302455658 0.272083759551 93% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0876013071307 0.0996497079465 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.059468382614 0.0662205650399 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.147546243813 0.162205337803 91% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0627221620896 0.0443174109184 142% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.9 13.3589403974 112% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 53.8541721854 86% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 11.0289183223 118% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.36 12.2367328918 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.85 8.42419426049 105% => OK
difficult_words: 88.0 63.6247240618 138% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 10.498013245 114% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.