TOEFL T P O 14- integrated writing task
The reading and the lecture offer two opposing views on salvage logging in forests. Whereas the author of the reading provides three advantages of salvage logging, the lecturer refutes these advantages. She casts doubt on main points made in the reading by suggesting three reasons.
First of all, according to the reading, salvage logging is useful for providing spaces in forests after fire, for new trees to grow, even though, the lecturer believes that cleaning up the forests is not of necessitate. She argues that decomposition of remaining dead trees is important for reaching the soil and in this way, new trees could grow better.
Secondly, author of the reading states that dead trees are a habitat of spruce bark beetle, which is harmful for trees. However, the lecturer asserts that spruce bark beetle has lived for hundred years in Alaskan forest without any distortion, also she states that rotting trees are used by birds and other insects which is significant for the forest. Thus, she affirms that removing dead trees for the purpose of removing spruce bark beetles, will affect contradictorily on the forest.
Finally, the text mentions that salvage logging could be beneficial for economy by providing woods for industries and creating job opportunities, while, the lecturer suggests that the effect of salvage logging on economy, is not very noticeable and she says that expensive equipment such as helicopters are needed for maintaining lumbers which is not lucrative and about creating new jobs, she believes that these jobs are temporary and could not be helpful for local areas ,because experienced people should participate to salvage logging.
- The following appeared in a letter to the editor of Parson City s local newspaper In our region of Trillura the majority of money spent on the schools that most students attend the city run public schools comes from taxes that each city government collect 79
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement The opinions of celebrities such as famous entertainers and athletes are more important to younger people than they are to older people Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 86
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement Because modern life is very complex it is essential for young people to have the ability to plan and organize Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 71
- Summarise the points made in the lecture being sure to explain how they case doubt on specific points made in the reading passage 86
- The following appeared in a letter to the school board in the town of Centerville All students should be required to take the driver s education course at Centerville High School In the past two years several accidents in and around Centerville have invol 64
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 21 in 30
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 10 12
No. of Words: 268 250
No. of Characters: 1370 1200
No. of Different Words: 139 150
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.046 4.2
Average Word Length: 5.112 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.522 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 107 80
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 84 60
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 42 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 25 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.8 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 19.203 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.412 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.685 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.259 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 4