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.
The text states that altruism is an act of sacrificing something for the well being of others. The reading part provides information about meerkats – a mammal that lives in Africa. These animals have diverse roles in their “society”. While some of the meerkats are hunting or eating, there’s a sentinel who watches for threats. The text gives an example about humans as well. It states that an act of altruism among people is organ donating, because the donor gains nothing for himself.
However, the lecture provides a different point of view. The lecturer states that a recent study of meerkats has found interesting things about their eating habits. The meerkat that stands guard, while the others eat, has already eaten. Moreover, the sentinel is most likely to escape from a potential danger because it’s the first to see the threat. When alarming the guard actually draws attention on the other meerkats who start running. The lecturer casts doubt on altruism in human acts as well. The professor states that although kidney donation, for example, is a generous act, it’s not altruistic because the donor receives appreciation from the society and the recipient and gets a sense of self worth as well.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 13, column 373, 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.
...receive anything significant in return. She insists that the appreciation and sense...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, if, moreover, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 7.0 15.1003584229 46% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 9.8082437276 20% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 13.8261648746 94% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 11.0286738351 82% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 43.0788530466 63% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 52.1666666667 77% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 8.0752688172 50% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1410.0 1977.66487455 71% => OK
No of words: 276.0 407.700716846 68% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.10869565217 4.8611393121 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.07593519647 4.48103885553 91% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.59282612645 2.67179642975 97% => OK
Unique words: 160.0 212.727598566 75% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.579710144928 0.524837075471 110% => OK
syllable_count: 423.9 618.680645161 69% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.51630824373 99% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 9.59856630824 73% => OK
Article: 3.0 3.08781362007 97% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 3.51792114695 85% => OK
Conjunction: 8.0 1.86738351254 428% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.94265232975 81% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 20.6003584229 58% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 23.0 20.1344086022 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 30.8166621597 48.9658058833 63% => OK
Chars per sentence: 117.5 100.406767564 117% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.0 20.6045352989 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.16666666667 5.45110844103 131% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.53405017921 88% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.5376344086 18% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 11.8709677419 42% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 3.85842293907 104% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.88709677419 61% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.124355927087 0.236089414692 53% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0445841459464 0.076458572812 58% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0428076130817 0.0737576698707 58% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0769098814992 0.150856017488 51% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0364305912732 0.0645574589148 56% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 11.7677419355 120% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 58.1214874552 97% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 6.10430107527 51% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 10.1575268817 109% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.65 10.9000537634 116% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.13 8.01818996416 114% => OK
difficult_words: 76.0 86.8835125448 87% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 10.002688172 130% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 10.0537634409 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 10.247311828 127% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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We are expecting: No. of Words: 350 while No. of Different Words: 200
Better to have 5 paragraphs with 3 arguments. And try always support/against one side but compare two sides, like this:
para 1: introduction
para 2: reason 1. address both of the views presented for reason 1
para 3: reason 2. address both of the views presented for reason 2
para 4: reason 3. address both of the views presented for reason 3
para 5: conclusion.
So how to find out those reasons. There is a formula:
reasons == advantages or
reasons == disadvantages
for example, we can always apply 'save time', 'save/make money', 'find a job', 'make friends', 'get more information' as reasons to all essay/speaking topics.
or we can apply 'waste time', 'waste money', 'no job', 'make bad friends', 'get bad information' as reasons to all essay/speaking topics.
Rates: 76.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 23.0 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.