Sea otters are a small mammal that lives in the waters along North America's west coast from California to Alaska. A few years ago some of the sea otter populations off of the Alaskan coast started to decline rapidly and raised several concerns because of their important role in the coastal ecosystem. Experts began investigating and came up with two possible explanations. One explanation was environmental pollution and the second was attacks by predators.
At first it seemed as if the pollution was the most likely cause for the population decline. One reason pollution was more likely was because of the known pollution sources along the Alaskan coast such as oil rigs. Also water samples taken in the area showed increased levels of chemicals that could decrease the otters' immune systems and indirectly result in their deaths.
Another thing that pointed to pollution as the culprit was the decline of other sea mammals such as seals in the same areas. This indicated that whatever was affecting the otters was also affecting the other sea mammals. Environmental pollution usually affects an entire ecosystem instead of just one species. Only predators that occurred in a large area, such as orcas (a large predatory whale), could cause the same effect, but they usually hunt larger prey.
Finally, scientists believed the pollution hypothesis would also explain the uneven pattern of otter decline. In some Alaskan locations the otter population declined greatly while other populations remained stable. Some experts suggested this could be explained by ocean currents, or other environmental factor, might have created uneven concentrations of pollutants along the coast.
The reading and the lecture are both about the reasons of sea otters populations declining over the past years. The author of the reading article believes that it is the pollution that is the highly likely reason for this decrease in such species. The lecturer casts doubts on the claims made by the author. He thinks that predators are the most appropriate cause.
First of all, the author points out that pollution is the most applicable cause. it is mentioned in the article that well-recognized pollution trigger such as oil rigs along the Alaskan coast. This point was challenged by the lecturer. He says that predators are the more likely cause due to no deceased otters' bodies were found on sea shores. This means that they are eaten right away.
Secondly, the author contends that the other reason making the pollution as the main cause is the disappearance of other sea mammals such as seals. The article notes that what is affecting those creatures will also affect otters and it is not due to the predators like the big orcas because it needs larger prey. The lecturer rebuts this argument. He elaborates on this by mentioning that wales are being hunted by the humans so this leaves the smaller species such as otters as a food for predators.
Finally, the author states that the inequality of the otters declining is a asserting the pollution theory. It is established in the article that this could be explained by the environmental issues like the ocean currents. The lecturer, on the other hand, posits this uneven decrease definitely goes with hunting. He puts forth the idea that orcas can access to otters area.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 249, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...ason for this decrease in such species. The lecturer casts doubts on the claims mad...
^^^
Line 3, column 82, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...pollution is the most applicable cause. it is mentioned in the article that well-r...
^^
Line 5, column 480, Rule ID: A_UNCOUNTABLE[1]
Message: Uncountable nouns are usually not used with an indefinite article. Use simply 'food'.
Suggestion: food
...s the smaller species such as otters as a food for predators. Finally, the author s...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 75, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...e inequality of the otters declining is a asserting the pollution theory. It is e...
^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, second, secondly, so, well, such as, first of all, 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: 3.0 5.04856512141 59% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 7.30242825607 27% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 32.0 22.412803532 143% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 28.0 30.3222958057 92% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 5.01324503311 140% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1362.0 1373.03311258 99% => OK
No of words: 280.0 270.72406181 103% => OK
Chars per words: 4.86428571429 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.09062348924 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.49738638891 2.5805825403 97% => OK
Unique words: 146.0 145.348785872 100% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.521428571429 0.540411800872 96% => OK
syllable_count: 417.6 419.366225166 100% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 3.25607064018 246% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Interrogative: 0.0 0.116997792494 0% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 13.0662251656 130% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 21.2450331126 75% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 39.9301292875 49.2860985944 81% => OK
Chars per sentence: 80.1176470588 110.228320801 73% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.4705882353 21.698381199 76% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.58823529412 7.06452816374 79% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 4.19205298013 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.27373068433 234% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.129134609772 0.272083759551 47% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0395115191648 0.0996497079465 40% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0492415032817 0.0662205650399 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0837383992956 0.162205337803 52% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0129972289045 0.0443174109184 29% => 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: 9.7 13.3589403974 73% => 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: 10.61 12.2367328918 87% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.98 8.42419426049 95% => OK
difficult_words: 63.0 63.6247240618 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.5 10.7273730684 61% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 20.0 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.