Question Summarise the points made in the lecture being sure to explain how they case doubt on 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 Ala | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

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Question : Summarise the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they case doubt on 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 and the lecture are both about the decrease of sea otter. The author of the reading feels that there are three explanations for the pollution to be the main hypothesis of decline of sea otter. However, the lecture challenges the claims made by de author. She is of the opinion that these explanations are faulty.

To begin with, the author argues that pollution caused by oil rigs and other sources of industrial chemicals is causing sea otter deaths. The article mentions that water samples from the area revealed increased levels of chemicals that could decrease the otters' resistance to life-threatening infections. This specific argument is challenged by the lecture. She states that decline of sea otter is caused by predators. Additionally, she says that predators hunted these animals so fast that could not had time to these animals wash up on shore.

Secondly, the writer suggest that the pollution is declining not only sea otters, but also other sea mammals such as seals and sea lions along the Alaskan coast. In the article, it is said that pollution usually affects the entire ecosystem rather than a single species. The lecture, in the other hand, rebuts this by mentioning that Orcas is the cause of the decrease of these animals. She elaborates on this by bringing up the point that human hunters changes the diet of Orcas, as a result they start to hunting sea otters and others mammals.

Finally, the author posits that the pollution hypothesis could also explain the pattern of otter decline, because at some Alaskan locations the otter populations declined greatly, while at others they remained stable. Moreover, in the article it is stated that some experts explained these observations by suggesting that ocean currents or other environmental factors may have created uneven concentrations of pollutants along the coast. In contrast, the lecturer's position is that the Orca which is a predator of sea otter changed the manner of these animal to move. She notes that places that have shallows and rocks made a safe place to sea otter. For this reason, many locations still remained stable of sea otters.

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Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 256, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'otters'' or 'otter's'?
Suggestion: otters'; otter's
...ls of chemicals that could decrease the otters resistance to life-threatening infectio...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 205, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...n the article, it is said that pollution usually affects the entire ecosystem rat...
^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, however, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, still, while, in contrast, such as, as a result, to begin with

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 19.0 12.0772626932 157% => OK
Pronoun: 37.0 22.412803532 165% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 45.0 30.3222958057 148% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 5.01324503311 160% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1795.0 1373.03311258 131% => OK
No of words: 355.0 270.72406181 131% => OK
Chars per words: 5.05633802817 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.34067318298 4.04702891845 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.61194363524 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 187.0 145.348785872 129% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.52676056338 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 557.1 419.366225166 133% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 3.25607064018 215% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 13.0662251656 138% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 21.2450331126 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 51.3796388071 49.2860985944 104% => OK
Chars per sentence: 99.7222222222 110.228320801 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.7222222222 21.698381199 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.33333333333 7.06452816374 104% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.27373068433 187% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.195437957071 0.272083759551 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0643371556495 0.0996497079465 65% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0462156736969 0.0662205650399 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.126730071066 0.162205337803 78% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0322214359451 0.0443174109184 73% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 13.3589403974 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 53.8541721854 97% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 11.0289183223 97% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.07 12.2367328918 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.16 8.42419426049 109% => OK
difficult_words: 103.0 63.6247240618 162% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 10.498013245 91% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 76.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 23.0 Out of 30
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Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, however, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, still, while, in contrast, such as, as a result, to begin with

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments