Altruism is a type of behavior in which an animal sacrifices its own interest for that of another animal or group of animals. Altruism is the opposite of selfishness; individuals
performing altruistic acts gain nothing for themselves.
Examples of altruism abound, both among humans and among other mammals. Unselfish acts among humans range from the sharing of food with strangers to the
donation of body organs to family members, and even to strangers. Such acts are altruistic in that they benefit another, yet provide little reward to the one performing the act.
In fact, many species of animals appear willing to sacrifice food, or even their life, to assist other members of their group. The meerkat, which is a mammal that
dwells in burrows in grassland areas of Africa, is often cited as an example. In groups of meerkats, an individual acts as a sentinel, standing guard and looking out for
predators while the others hunt for food or eat food they have obtained. If the sentinel meerkat sees a predator such as a hawk approaching the group, it gives an
alarm cry alerting the other meerkats to run and seek shelter. By standing guard, the sentinel meerkat gains nothing—it goes without food while the others eat, and
it places itself in grave danger. After it issues an alarm, it has to flee alone, which might make it more at risk to a predator, since animals in groups are often able to work together
to fend off a predator. So the altruistic sentinel behavior helps ensure the survival of other members of the meerkat’s group.
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they oppose specific points made in the reading passage.
The article introduces the topic of altruism which is an act of unselfishness. More specifically, the author discusses that when a person performs altruism, he does not get anything in return for the act. On the contrary, the lecturer in the recording disagrees. She believes that there is no act without self-interest and that when a person does something for others, he always gets something in return.
In the reading, the author uses an example of meerkats, a species of mammal, which show altruism. There is a sentinel among meerkats which guards others from predators while searching food. The author claims that the sentinel sacrifices eating food to guard others. The lecturer, however, disagrees. She states that, according to a recent study, sentinel actually eats its meal before guarding others. So, the assumption of the author does not hold true.
Another reason why the author feels that sentinel performs altruism sacrificing its own interest is that, when predators come to attack the meerkats, the sentinel alerts all of them but, as a consequence, gets the least time to escape. Again, the lecturer believes that there are flaws in this assumption. According to her, as the sentinel notices the predator first, it gets the most amount of time to escape. Also, the predator attacks the large group of meerkats who were eating, so the sentinel is not usually noticed by the predator and hence, it can escape easily.
The author also claims that, when a person donates a kidney for others, he does not get anything in return. The professor in the listening passage is doubtful about that. She says that when a person sacrifices something for others, he gets appreciation from the society and feels a sense of self-worth. So according to her, the person donating organs actually gets something in return.
To conclude, both the writer and the professor hold conflicting views about altruism. The writer claims that altruism does not gain any benefit for the person who does it, whereas the professor believes that there is no act without self-interest. It is clear that they will have trouble finding common ground on this issue.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, hence, however, if, so, whereas, while, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 24.0 12.0772626932 199% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 22.412803532 147% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 36.0 30.3222958057 119% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1803.0 1373.03311258 131% => OK
No of words: 356.0 270.72406181 131% => OK
Chars per words: 5.06460674157 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.34372677135 4.04702891845 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.63240916661 2.5805825403 102% => OK
Unique words: 170.0 145.348785872 117% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.477528089888 0.540411800872 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 534.6 419.366225166 127% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 3.25607064018 307% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 15.0 8.23620309051 182% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 1.25165562914 320% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 13.0662251656 161% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 21.2450331126 75% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 44.7165423641 49.2860985944 91% => OK
Chars per sentence: 85.8571428571 110.228320801 78% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.9523809524 21.698381199 78% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.95238095238 7.06452816374 56% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 4.45695364238 179% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.27373068433 211% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.186164075736 0.272083759551 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.056732733293 0.0996497079465 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0678465764768 0.0662205650399 102% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.112780415107 0.162205337803 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0540260705066 0.0443174109184 122% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.9 13.3589403974 82% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 63.7 53.8541721854 118% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.4 11.0289183223 76% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.77 12.2367328918 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.85 8.42419426049 93% => OK
difficult_words: 77.0 63.6247240618 121% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.