The zebra mussel, a freshwater shellfish native to Eastern Europe, has long been spreading out from its original habitats and has now reached parts of North America. There are reasons to believe that this invasion cannot be stopped and that it poses a serious threat to freshwater fish populations in all of North America.
First, the history of the zebra mussel’s spread suggests that the invasion might be unstoppable. It is a prime example of an invasion made possible by human transportation. From the zebra mussel’s original habitats in Eastern Europe, ships helped spread it out along new canals built to connect Europe’s waterways. The mussel can attach itself to a ship’s bottom or can survive in the water—called “ballast water"—that the ship needs to take on to properly balance its cargo. By the early nineteenth century, the mussel had spread to the whole of Europe. It was later carried to the east coast of North America in the ballast water of ships traveling from Europe. The way ships have spread the zebra mussel in the past strongly suggests that the species will soon colonize all of North America.
Moreover, once zebra mussels are carried to a new habitat, they can dominate it. They are a hardy species that does well under a variety of conditions, and they have a high rate of reproduction. Most important, however, zebra mussels often have no predators in their new habitats, and species without natural predators are likely to dominate their habitats.
Finally, zebra mussels are likely to cause a decline in the overall fish population in habitats where they become dominant. The mussels are plankton eaters, which mean that they compete for food with many freshwater fish species.
The article discusses the nonstopable spread of zebra mussel, a freshwater shellfish, in north america and supports it with three reasons. However the professor does not beleive that to be true and refutes each of the author's reasons.
First the passage states that the history of these mussels teaches us that they are incontrolable and spread by attaching to moving ships and also by means of filling in the ship tanks as ballast water. Although the professor agrees with the history but he believes that nowadays this can be prevented by making the ships to empty the ballast water in near oceans instead of in the ports. The salt water in the ocean is considered as killer for them and so they would not increase in the area.
Second, the reading claims that these zebra mussels would spread very fast in their new habitats and dominate the area since they have no natural predators. However, the lecturer refutes this point by stating that the birds can be a potent predators for these species. He claims that after a while the birds would acknowledge that there are new sources of food, the mussels, and they would hunt them in large amounts. As a result, the birds would become their natural predators and control their population's increment.
Furthermore,the reading avers that the mussels would probably decrease the fish population in the habitats. The lecture opposes this point by saying that eventhough the zebra mussels eat planktons and they would compete with plankton-eating fishes but they would lead other bottom living fishes to increase.
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 86, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...of zebra mussel, a freshwater shellfish, in north america and supports it with th...
^^
Line 1, column 141, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
...ica and supports it with three reasons. However the professor does not beleive that to ...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 241, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[2]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'predator'?
Suggestion: predator
... stating that the birds can be a potent predators for these species. He claims that after...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 375, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...re are new sources of food, the mussels, and they would hunt them in large amount...
^^
Line 7, column 12, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma
Suggestion: , the
...eir populations increment. Furthermore,the reading avers that the mussels would pr...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, furthermore, however, second, so, while, as a result
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: 10.0 5.04856512141 198% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 7.30242825607 151% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 22.412803532 138% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 29.0 30.3222958057 96% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1304.0 1373.03311258 95% => OK
No of words: 261.0 270.72406181 96% => OK
Chars per words: 4.99616858238 5.08290768461 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.0193898071 4.04702891845 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.49874823699 2.5805825403 97% => OK
Unique words: 141.0 145.348785872 97% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.540229885057 0.540411800872 100% => OK
syllable_count: 382.5 419.366225166 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => 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: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 11.0 13.0662251656 84% => 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: 23.0 21.2450331126 108% => OK
Sentence length SD: 38.7703558904 49.2860985944 79% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.545454545 110.228320801 108% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.7272727273 21.698381199 109% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.36363636364 7.06452816374 90% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 4.19205298013 119% => 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: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.126420657117 0.272083759551 46% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0522349941514 0.0996497079465 52% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.058511948048 0.0662205650399 88% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0860433511165 0.162205337803 53% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0498910164136 0.0443174109184 113% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.0 13.3589403974 105% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 53.8541721854 105% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.02 12.2367328918 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.89 8.42419426049 106% => OK
difficult_words: 68.0 63.6247240618 107% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 10.7273730684 126% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 10.498013245 107% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.