Passage:
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.
Listening Script:
You know, often in science, new findings force us to re-examine earlier beliefs and assumptions.
And a recent study of meerkats is having exactly this effect. The study examined the meerkat’s behavior quite closely, much more closely than had ever been done before. And some interesting things were found . . . like about eating habits . . . it showed that typically meerkats eat before they stand guard—so the ones standing guard had a full stomach! And the study also found that since the sentinel is the first to see a predator coming, it’s the most likely to escape . . . because it often stands guard near a burrow, so it can run immediately into the burrow after giving the alarm.
The other meerkats, the ones scattered about looking for food, are actually in greater danger. And in fact, other studies have suggested that when an animal creates an alarm, the alarm call might cause the other group members either to gather together or else to move about very quickly, behaviors that might actually draw the predator’s attention away from the caller, increasing that animal’s own chances of survival.
And what about people—what about some human acts that might be considered altruistic? Let’s take an extreme case, uh, suppose a person donates a kidney to a relative, or even to a complete stranger. A selfless act, right? But . . . doesn’t the donor receive appreciation and approval from the stranger and from society? Doesn’t the donor gain an increased sense of self-worth? Couldn’t such non-material rewards be considered very valuable to some people?
Que: Summarize the points made in the lecture you just heard, being sure to specifically explain how they cast doubt on points made in the reading.
Both the reading passage and the lecture discuss whether the altruism behavior is beneficial or not. The former argues that this practise have three significant benefits, but the latter contradicts each of these points.
First, the article claims that altruism is shown both in humans and mammals. It is a behavior in which an animal or humans sacrifices its own interest for other animals or humans. Furthermore, it is stated that the human share its food with stranger or donate body organs to family or friends. In contrast, the lecturer counters that if humans donate their kidney to someone than they will receive appreciation and gain high value from the society. Additionally, he mentions that altruism is not unselfish behavior as it helps the person to receive high value.
Second, the writer asserts that the animals appear to sacrifice food or even their life, to help other animals. On the top of that, author adds that the meerkat which is a mammal that dwells in burrows in grassland areas of Africa acts as a sentinel who stands as guard and look out if predators come or not and if the predator is seen then it gives alarm cry alter to other meerkats so that they can run and seek shelter. By standing out, the sentinel gains nothing and puts them in danger as well as without food. However the listening argues that meerkat are actually selfish as before they stand out they full their stomach and even when they put alarm sound it makes easy for predator to identify the group. Further, he remarks that the greater danger is not to sentinels as they are the first one to run when predators come.
As you can see from above, the author and lecturer hold very different view on the topic alturism.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 517, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
...them in danger as well as without food. However the listening argues that meerkat are a...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, first, furthermore, however, if, look, second, so, then, well, in contrast, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 5.04856512141 59% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 7.30242825607 233% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 17.0 12.0772626932 141% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 22.412803532 152% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 30.0 30.3222958057 99% => OK
Nominalization: 1.0 5.01324503311 20% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1424.0 1373.03311258 104% => OK
No of words: 301.0 270.72406181 111% => OK
Chars per words: 4.73089700997 5.08290768461 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.16525528304 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.32780150318 2.5805825403 90% => OK
Unique words: 175.0 145.348785872 120% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.581395348837 0.540411800872 108% => OK
syllable_count: 429.3 419.366225166 102% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.55342163355 90% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.23620309051 73% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 21.2450331126 108% => OK
Sentence length SD: 59.3030527967 49.2860985944 120% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.538461538 110.228320801 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.1538461538 21.698381199 107% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.76923076923 7.06452816374 110% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.213125570956 0.272083759551 78% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0772868879615 0.0996497079465 78% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.118294338674 0.0662205650399 179% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.100930412788 0.162205337803 62% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0893054150766 0.0443174109184 202% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 13.3589403974 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 65.05 53.8541721854 121% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.45 12.2367328918 85% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.29 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 67.0 63.6247240618 105% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 10.498013245 107% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 78.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 23.5 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.