There is now evidence that the relaxed pace of life in small towns promotes better health and greater longevity than does the hectic pace of life in big cities Businesses in the small town of Leeville report fewer days of sick leave taken by individual wo | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

There is now evidence that the relaxed pace of life in small towns promotes better health and greater longevity than does the hectic pace of life in big cities. Businesses in the small town of Leeville report fewer days of sick leave taken by individual workers than do businesses in the nearby large city of Masonton. Furthermore, Leeville has only one physician for its one thousand residents, but in Masonton the proportion of physicians to residents is five times as high. Finally, the average age of Leeville residents is significantly higher than that of Masonton residents. These findings suggest that the relaxed pace of life in Leeville allows residents to live longer, healthier lives.
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.

The author claims that residents live longer and healthier lives in a relaxed pace of life in small towns rather than a hectic pace of life in big cities. The author comes to the conclusion based on the premises of fewer sick days, less physicians, and a higher average age population in the small town of Leeville compared to the large town of Masonton. However, because causation does not necessitate correlation, a number of alternative explanations are to be considered in order to determine the validity of the argument. If other explanations prove otherwise, then the entire argument is unwarranted and completely falls apart.
One alternative explanation could be that the population of Leeville has less people working compared to Masonton City. The author provides the fact that fewer sick days were reported taken by individual workers compared to business. However, it could be that the reports were collected from an unequal number of workers. Perhaps, only five people from Leeville reported sick days compared to Masonton City where perhaps fifty or one hundred people reported sick days. Additionally, the reports coming from businesses in Leeville may be from businesses that do not have the same level of work or exposure to illness than businesses in Masonton. Therefore, if these explanations are true, then it would go against the argument. The author must eliminate these external factors. If not, the argument is faulty.
Another alternative explanation could be that physicians are most needed in Masonton due to other reasons than the population being sick. The author mentions that Leeville only has one physician for its one thousand residents, whereas Masonton has more physicians for a residential population that is five times as high. However, it could be that the population in Masonton are mainly composed of children and young adults who require physicians to do physicals and seek care. Children get sick easily, which is a natural thing to occur in their development; And young adults need yearly physicals in order to maintain and keep their health in check. Therefore, more physicians does not necessarily mean it is due to a high paced life that causes a large population to get sick, but rather it may be due to other needs that are vital for general health. Hence, if this explanation were to be true, then the argument is fallacious.
Lastly, the author mentions that Leeville has a higher average age population compared to Masonton due to a slow paced life. However, it could be that the population in Leeville have a higher average age because there are no children of younger adults in the population to offset the average. On the other hand, it could be that the average age population is lower in Masonton due to a higher population of young adults. The town of Masonton may be fairly new and a wave of young adults had just moved into the city. Therefore, there would not be enough data to determine that the average age is lower due to the fast paced lifestyle. Thus, if this explanation were to be true, then the argument holds no water.
For the aforementioned alternative reasons, the argument is completely flawed as there are a number of alternative explanations. The author assumes that Leeville has healthier and longer lives due to a few sick days, a low number of physicians, and a larger average age. However, more evidence is needed to counter the alternative explanations, such as more data on demographics and where residents work. If not, then other factors may contribute to the argument and thus would prove it unsubstantiated.

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Essay Categories

GMAT/GRE Argument Task

Comments

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 233, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun physicians is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...sed on the premises of fewer sick days, less physicians, and a higher average age po...
^^^^
Line 2, column 74, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun people is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
... be that the population of Leeville has less people working compared to Masonton Cit...
^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, hence, however, if, lastly, may, so, then, therefore, thus, whereas, such as, on the other hand

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 35.0 19.6327345309 178% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 13.6137724551 147% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 28.8173652695 108% => OK
Preposition: 68.0 55.5748502994 122% => OK
Nominalization: 27.0 16.3942115768 165% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3000.0 2260.96107784 133% => OK
No of words: 599.0 441.139720559 136% => OK
Chars per words: 5.00834724541 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.94716853372 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.81272990565 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 232.0 204.123752495 114% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.387312186978 0.468620217663 83% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 984.6 705.55239521 140% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.5953162846 57.8364921388 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.142857143 119.503703932 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.3928571429 23.324526521 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.57142857143 5.70786347227 63% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 15.0 6.88822355289 218% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.195060179282 0.218282227539 89% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0537564489848 0.0743258471296 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0780154408373 0.0701772020484 111% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.123088659612 0.128457276422 96% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0950926968076 0.0628817314937 151% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.9 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.78 12.5979740519 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.55 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 109.0 98.500998004 111% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.0 12.3882235529 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6
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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.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, hence, however, if, lastly, may, so, then, therefore, thus, whereas, such as, on the other hand

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