The Salton Sea in California is actually a salty inland lake. The level of salt in the lake's water—what scientists call its salinity—has been increasing steadily for years because the lake's water is evaporating faster than it is being replaced by rainfall or rivers. If the trend continues, the lake's water will soon become so salty that the lake will be unable to support fish and bird populations. The lake would then become essentially a dead zone. Fortunately, there are several ways to reverse the trend that is threatening the lake's health. One option is direct removal of salt from the lake's water in special desalination facilities. Water from the lake would be pumped into the facilities and heated. This would cause the water to evaporate into steam, while salt and other materials dissolved in the water would be left behind. The steam would then be cooled down and returned to the lake as salt-free water. Gradually, the high salt levels would be reduced and the lake’s overall health would be restored. Another possible solution is to dilute the salt level in the lake with water from the ocean. Since water in the Pacific Ocean is 20 percent less salty than water in the lake, bringing ocean water into the lake would decrease the lake’s salinity. The ocean water could be delivered through pipelines or canals. Yet another solution would be to control the lake's salinity by constructing walls to divide the lake into several sections. In the smaller sections, salinity would be allowed to increase. However, in the main and largest section, salinity would be reduced and controlled by, among other things, directing all the freshwater from small rivers in the area to flow into that main section of the lake..
The reading and the lecture are both about the Salton Sea, a lake with increasing salinity levels, which is threatening the health of the ecosystem. The author of the passage suggests that this situation can be reversed by mentioning three ways to reduce the lake salinity. However, the professor casts doubt on all the main points presented in the reading.
First of all, the professor states that the use of desalination facilities would cause health risk to humans. She claims that although the desalination process would, indeed, decrease the quantity of salt in the lake, salt is not the only material that would be left behind and accumulated. She illustrates this by mentioning that other chemicals such as selenium are dangerous for us. If selenium accumulates and then the wind blows, the chemical would reach a lot of areas, causing harm to many living beings.
Secondly, the lectures refutes that idea that transporting ocean water though pipelines or canals is a plausible solution. According to her, this option is not possible due to the large amount of monetary resources that would be needed to construct the canals. She elaborates on this by mentioning that the nearest sea is 100 kilometers away. This large distance would need a lot of funding from the local government, which might not have enough resources.
Finally, the professor oposes the text passage by explaining that the project of dividing the lake with walls would not work in the long-run. She refutes this idea by clarifying that the area is subject to intense geological activity, so a strong earthquake could easily destroy the walls at any time. This would cause the walls to collapse and the water sections to mix again. If that happens, the large investment needed to built the walls would be wasted. Furthermore, in the end the water with high concentration of salinity would end mixing up with the less saline water, contaminating it.
- Directions: You have 30 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response will be judged on the basis of the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the points in the lecture and their relationship to the reading passage. Typic 3
- In the United States, employees typically work five days a week for eight hours each day. However, many employees want to work a four-day week and are willing to accept less pay in order to do so. A mandatory policy requiring companies to offer their empl 80
- Some people suggest that it is wrong to give money to beggars asking for money on the street, while others think that it is the right thing to do. Which point of view do you think is correct, and why? 70
- People benefit more from traveling in their own country than from traveling to foreign countries. 80
- Some parents forbid young children from owning smart phones (cell phones with Internet access), while others disagree and believe that they are important tools for keeping in touch. Which point of view do you think is better, and why? 83
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, furthermore, however, if, second, secondly, so, then, such as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 10.4613686534 115% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 5.04856512141 277% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 22.412803532 116% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 30.3222958057 132% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 5.01324503311 160% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1617.0 1373.03311258 118% => OK
No of words: 321.0 270.72406181 119% => OK
Chars per words: 5.03738317757 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.23278547379 4.04702891845 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.66274058089 2.5805825403 103% => OK
Unique words: 181.0 145.348785872 125% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.563862928349 0.540411800872 104% => OK
syllable_count: 487.8 419.366225166 116% => 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: 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: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 29.8472674629 49.2860985944 61% => OK
Chars per sentence: 101.0625 110.228320801 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.0625 21.698381199 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.6875 7.06452816374 81% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.150594967442 0.272083759551 55% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0483432181718 0.0996497079465 49% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.05097591869 0.0662205650399 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0952047788077 0.162205337803 59% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.044811207599 0.0443174109184 101% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 13.3589403974 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 53.8541721854 111% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.95 12.2367328918 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.81 8.42419426049 105% => OK
difficult_words: 85.0 63.6247240618 134% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 83.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25.0 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.