In 1995 a microscopic fungus called Phytophthora ramorum or P ramorum was first detected in the forests of the western United States P ramorum infects trees and causes particularly serious damage in oak trees in many infected oaks leaves wither rapidly la

Essay topics:

In 1995 a microscopic fungus called Phytophthora ramorum, or P. ramorum, was first detected in the forests of the western United States. P. ramorum infects trees and causes particularly serious damage in oak trees: in many infected oaks, leaves wither rapidly, large cracks appear in the bark, and the trees die. A spread of P. ramorum represents a serious threat to the forests in the western states. Several methods of protecting the forests have been proposed.
First, stopping P. ramorum spores from spreading would surely be an effective method. Spores are small particles through which all fungi, including P. ramorum, reproduce. Researchers have discovered that many P. ramorum spores can be found along hiking or biking trails, suggesting human-assisted spread by way of shoes and bicycle tires. A few measures to prevent such human-assisted spread—like encouraging hikers to wash their shoes and installing new bike scrubbers on bicycle trails—would be an effective and low-cost way to stop the spread of P. ramorum.
Second, there are a few fungicidal (fungus-fighting) chemicals that can be used to protect the oak trees. Some of these chemicals stimulate the oak trees’ natural defenses against the P. ramorum fungus and have been found in small-scale tryouts to significantly reduce the likelihood that the oaks will be infected.
A third way to fight P. ramorum is a practice called clear-cutting. This approach starts with cutting and burning the diseased oaks, but it also involves cutting and burning the seemingly healthy vegetation (bushes and other kinds of trees) surrounding the oaks. This is done because some of the surrounding plants and trees may be infected even though they do not show any symptoms of the disease. Clearing large areas of vegetation in places where diseased trees are found is often an efficient measure to stop the spread of infections.

The reading passage and the listening discuss about the methods of controlling Phytophthora ramorum. Despite that, the professor in the lecture thinks the proposed methods are ineffective and impractical. She casts doubt on every single points the reading makes and provides explanations to support her idea.

To begin with, the writer claims that humans can assist to control the spread of P. ramorum by taking actions such as washing their shoes and installing new bike scrubbers. However, the lecturer points out this solution only help little. Because the spread of P. ramorum is mainly resulted from the rain fall which brings the P. ramorum to long-distance and down to the stream. As a result, she can not give a nod to the author in terms of the first point.

In addition, the reading suggests the application of fungicidal chemicals can protect the oak trees. The professor, on the other hand, argues that, fungus-fighting chemicals have to be used every few months to make this method effectively. It is not practical to apply the chemicals in the forests that have thousands of oak trees. Not to mention the expensive cost it would take when using this practice. Apparently, she disproves its counterpart in the reading.

Over and above that, the author mentions cutting and burning the diseased oaks and the surrounding of the oaks to fight P. ramorum whereas the lecturer indicates that the healthy plants would be destroyed by this method. There are rare species of trees in the United States and it would not be recovered if they are damaged. In other words, this would harm the eco-system. Therefore, she does not support this argument.

It is obvious that the writer and the professor have conflicting views on this topic.

Votes
Average: 6.8 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 458, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...the author in terms of the first point. In addition, the reading suggests the ap...
^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
apparently, first, however, if, so, therefore, whereas, in addition, such as, as a result, in other words, to begin with, on the other hand

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 7.30242825607 137% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 12.0772626932 75% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 26.0 22.412803532 116% => OK
Preposition: 39.0 30.3222958057 129% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 5.01324503311 120% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1461.0 1373.03311258 106% => OK
No of words: 291.0 270.72406181 107% => OK
Chars per words: 5.0206185567 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.13022058845 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.66816304068 2.5805825403 103% => OK
Unique words: 163.0 145.348785872 112% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.560137457045 0.540411800872 104% => OK
syllable_count: 429.3 419.366225166 102% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 3.25607064018 215% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 2.5761589404 233% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 13.0662251656 161% => OK
Sentence length: 13.0 21.2450331126 61% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 27.1088341485 49.2860985944 55% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 69.5714285714 110.228320801 63% => OK
Words per sentence: 13.8571428571 21.698381199 64% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.61904761905 7.06452816374 94% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => 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: 0.149980657246 0.272083759551 55% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0414195825198 0.0996497079465 42% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0458916938317 0.0662205650399 69% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0702625942283 0.162205337803 43% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.044222958932 0.0443174109184 100% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 9.1 13.3589403974 68% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 66.74 53.8541721854 124% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 7.2 11.0289183223 65% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.24 12.2367328918 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.41 8.42419426049 100% => OK
difficult_words: 76.0 63.6247240618 119% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 5.5 10.7273730684 51% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 7.2 10.498013245 69% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 68.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 20.5 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.