Sea otters are a small mammal that lives in the waters along North America's west coast from California to Alaska. A few years ago some of the sea otter populations off of the Alaskan coast started to decline rapidly and raised several concerns because of their important role in the coastal ecosystem. Experts began investigating and came up with two possible explanations. One explanation was environmental pollution and the second was attacks by predators.
At first it seemed as if the pollution was the most likely cause for the population decline. One reason pollution was more likely was because of the known pollution sources along the Alaskan coast such as oil rigs. Also water samples taken in the area showed increased levels of chemicals that could decrease the otters' immune systems and indirectly result in their deaths.
Another thing that pointed to pollution as the culprit was the decline of other sea mammals such as seals in the same areas. This indicated that whatever was affecting the otters was also affecting the other sea mammals. Environmental pollution usually affects an entire ecosystem instead of just one species. Only predators that occurred in a large area, such as orcas (a large predatory whale), could cause the same effect, but they usually hunt larger prey.
Finally, scientists believed the pollution hypothesis would also explain the uneven pattern of otter decline. In some Alaskan locations the otter population declined greatly while other populations remained stable. Some experts suggested this could be explained by ocean currents, or other environmental factor, might have created uneven concentrations of pollutants along the coast.
Both the reading passage and the listening lecture discuss the declining population of Sea otters which are small mammal that lives along North America's west coast from California to Alaska. The former gives reasons for the declining and the latter challenges the reasoning of the reading passage.
First of all, the reading passage states that the major reason for the decline of the sea otter population near the Alaskan coast was due to pollution, claiming that pollution is due to the oil rigs which release chemical pollutants into the water. In contrast, the lecture claims that the decline of the population is most probably due to predation since there are no dead sea otters that are appearing on the coastline. Further stating if the cause was pollution there should be dead sea otters on the shore and since there is no such phenomenon the cause must be predation, where the predators eat the sea otters so that no dead sea otters are appearing on the coast of Alaska.
Second of all, the paragraph states that predation might not be a major reason for the decline of the sea otter population, since the orcas prefer to hunt larger prey. On the other hand, the professor claims that orcas are led to a change of their diet as even though they prefer whales since they are unavailable near the location of decline, the orcas had to commit to hunting sea otters as there are no whales to be hunted as these whales are being hunted by humans.
Finally, the summary given states that another reason for the decline could be ocean currents which lead to uneven concentrations of pollutants along the coast. However, the professor in the lecture states that the uneven pattern might be due to inaccesability to sea otters for the orcas in rocky locations and not due to the uneven concentration of pollutants along the cost
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| 2023-02-13 | zaid | 73 | view |
| 2022-12-06 | Naveena0 | 73 | view |
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| 2022-11-16 | rpinisetti8 | 80 | view |
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Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 209, Rule ID: AGREEMENT_SENT_START[2]
Message: You should probably use 'reason'.
Suggestion: reason
... California to Alaska. The former gives reasons for the declining and the latter challe...
^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 390, Rule ID: PROGRESSIVE_VERBS[1]
Message: This verb is normally not used in the progressive form. Try a simple form instead.
...since there are no dead sea otters that are appearing on the coastline. Further stating if th...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 422, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Further,
...rs that are appearing on the coastline. Further stating if the cause was pollution ther...
^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 643, Rule ID: PROGRESSIVE_VERBS[1]
Message: This verb is normally not used in the progressive form. Try a simple form instead.
...e sea otters so that no dead sea otters are appearing on the coast of Alaska. Second of all,...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, however, if, second, so, in contrast, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 10.4613686534 191% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 14.0 22.412803532 62% => OK
Preposition: 44.0 30.3222958057 145% => 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: 1515.0 1373.03311258 110% => OK
No of words: 317.0 270.72406181 117% => OK
Chars per words: 4.77917981073 5.08290768461 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.21953715646 4.04702891845 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.45449383772 2.5805825403 95% => OK
Unique words: 138.0 145.348785872 95% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.435331230284 0.540411800872 81% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 477.0 419.366225166 114% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 3.25607064018 0% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 9.0 13.0662251656 69% => 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: 35.0 21.2450331126 165% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 56.2443961543 49.2860985944 114% => OK
Chars per sentence: 168.333333333 110.228320801 153% => OK
Words per sentence: 35.2222222222 21.698381199 162% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.44444444444 7.06452816374 134% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 4.19205298013 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.299290481816 0.272083759551 110% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.150250651904 0.0996497079465 151% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.127660922493 0.0662205650399 193% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.201453329477 0.162205337803 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.110602937812 0.0443174109184 250% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.7 13.3589403974 140% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 44.41 53.8541721854 82% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.8 11.0289183223 143% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.04 12.2367328918 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.56 8.42419426049 102% => OK
difficult_words: 64.0 63.6247240618 101% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 10.7273730684 131% => OK
gunning_fog: 16.0 10.498013245 152% => OK
text_standard: 16.0 11.2008830022 143% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 209, Rule ID: AGREEMENT_SENT_START[2]
Message: You should probably use 'reason'.
Suggestion: reason
... California to Alaska. The former gives reasons for the declining and the latter challe...
^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 390, Rule ID: PROGRESSIVE_VERBS[1]
Message: This verb is normally not used in the progressive form. Try a simple form instead.
...since there are no dead sea otters that are appearing on the coastline. Further stating if th...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 422, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Further,
...rs that are appearing on the coastline. Further stating if the cause was pollution ther...
^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 643, Rule ID: PROGRESSIVE_VERBS[1]
Message: This verb is normally not used in the progressive form. Try a simple form instead.
...e sea otters so that no dead sea otters are appearing on the coast of Alaska. Second of all,...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, however, if, second, so, in contrast, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 10.4613686534 191% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 14.0 22.412803532 62% => OK
Preposition: 44.0 30.3222958057 145% => 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: 1515.0 1373.03311258 110% => OK
No of words: 317.0 270.72406181 117% => OK
Chars per words: 4.77917981073 5.08290768461 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.21953715646 4.04702891845 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.45449383772 2.5805825403 95% => OK
Unique words: 138.0 145.348785872 95% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.435331230284 0.540411800872 81% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 477.0 419.366225166 114% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 3.25607064018 0% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 9.0 13.0662251656 69% => 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: 35.0 21.2450331126 165% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 56.2443961543 49.2860985944 114% => OK
Chars per sentence: 168.333333333 110.228320801 153% => OK
Words per sentence: 35.2222222222 21.698381199 162% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.44444444444 7.06452816374 134% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 4.19205298013 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.299290481816 0.272083759551 110% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.150250651904 0.0996497079465 151% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.127660922493 0.0662205650399 193% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.201453329477 0.162205337803 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.110602937812 0.0443174109184 250% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.7 13.3589403974 140% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 44.41 53.8541721854 82% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.8 11.0289183223 143% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.04 12.2367328918 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.56 8.42419426049 102% => OK
difficult_words: 64.0 63.6247240618 101% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 10.7273730684 131% => OK
gunning_fog: 16.0 10.498013245 152% => OK
text_standard: 16.0 11.2008830022 143% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.