Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they respond to the specific points made in the reading passage.
The sea otter is a small mammal that lives in waters along the western coast of North America from California to Alaska. When some sea otter populations off the Alaskan coast started rapidly declining a few years ago, it caused much concern because sea otters play an important ecological role in the coastal ecosystem. Experts started investigating the cause of the decline and quickly realized that there were two possible explanations: environmental pollution or attacks by predators. Initially, the pollution hypothesis seemed the more likely of the two.
The first reason why pollution seemed the more likely cause was that there were known sources of it along the Alaskan coast, such as oil rigs and other sources of industrial chemical pollution. Water samples from the area revealed increased levels of chemicals that could decrease the otters' resistance to life-threatening infections and thus could indirectly cause their deaths.
Second, other sea mammals such as seals and sea lions along the Alaskan coast were also declining, indicating that whatever had endangered the otters was affecting other sea mammals as well. This fact again pointed to environmental pollution, since it usually affects the entire ecosystem rather than a single species. Only widely occurring predators, such as the orca (a large predatory whale), could have the same effect, but orcas prefer to hunt much larger prey, such as other whales.
Third, scientists believed that the pollution hypothesis could also explain the uneven pattern of otter decline: at some Alaskan locations the otter populations declined greatly, while at others they remained stable. Some experts explained these observations by suggesting that ocean currents or other environmental factors may have created uneven concentrations of pollutants along the coast.
The reading passage claims that among the two possible explanations of otter decline, environmental pollution is the most likely cause. However, the lecture suggests otherwise saying predation of sea otters by predators is the likely cause and explains with specific reasons as counter reasons to the ones presenated in the passage.
Firstly, the professor in the leacture refutes the claim of the passsage saying that due to the availability of oil rigs and other industrial chemical pollution, otter population has been affected by pollution. But, the professor in the leacture counters this position emphasizing on the point that if the otters are dying due to environmental pollution in Alaskan coastal area, why is there no dead otter washed up on shore. She also provides possible suggestions that it could be that predators are eating the otters and that is why dead bodies of otters are so scarce to find.
Secondly, the passage claiming that other sea mammals in the area are also declining due to environmental pollution was again argued by the lecturer addressing the predatory whale Orca. Orca's are known to prey on other whales, but the number of such whales have significantly decreased in recent years. She claims that as the Orca have lesser supply of their usual prey, they might be replacing those with other available sea mammals nearby such as sea otter, seals and sea lions, etc.
Thirdly, passage claims that pollution hypothesis perfectly describes the affects of environmental pollution on the decline of sea otter population. On the other hand, the professor goes against this hypothesis completely by explaining that this also could be linked to Orca. As Orcas are available in deep water, the otter poplulation could be decrased in this specific reigions in Alaska. She again provides evidence that the uneven otter population is dense in the area where water body is shallow or rockey emphasizing that Orca cannot enter those areas and as a result otter population remaind unscathed in that area.
With all this specific refutation of the passage, the leacture completely disagrees with the hypothesis of environemntal pollution affecting otter decline instead of predatory attacks.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-11-09 | Sadia Islam | 80 | view |
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, however, if, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, such as, as a result, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 10.4613686534 172% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 22.412803532 116% => OK
Preposition: 46.0 30.3222958057 152% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 5.01324503311 339% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1870.0 1373.03311258 136% => OK
No of words: 355.0 270.72406181 131% => OK
Chars per words: 5.2676056338 5.08290768461 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.34067318298 4.04702891845 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7457001424 2.5805825403 106% => OK
Unique words: 178.0 145.348785872 122% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.501408450704 0.540411800872 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 593.1 419.366225166 141% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 21.2450331126 127% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 37.6872838096 49.2860985944 76% => OK
Chars per sentence: 143.846153846 110.228320801 130% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.3076923077 21.698381199 126% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.0 7.06452816374 127% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
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: 0.151490107541 0.272083759551 56% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0608319095508 0.0996497079465 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.036842717275 0.0662205650399 56% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0878661729887 0.162205337803 54% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0177308874777 0.0443174109184 40% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.0 13.3589403974 127% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 35.61 53.8541721854 66% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 5.55761589404 202% => Smog_index is high.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.0 11.0289183223 136% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.58 12.2367328918 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.11 8.42419426049 108% => OK
difficult_words: 93.0 63.6247240618 146% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 10.7273730684 131% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 10.498013245 122% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => 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.