Altruism is a type of behavior in which an animal sacrifices its 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.
Though the paragraph reflect the best quality a person or an animal can have, the lecture followed opposes it. There are reasons for it to do so based on studies that have been carried out.
Most of the points made are around the example stated in the paragraph. The first point being that the Meerkat that is acting as sentinel is believed to have satisfied its hunger before taking up the stand of gaurd. Whereas some other study states the second point that the sentinel is near the burrow at the time of gaurd and on sight of the predator, it can give out the alert call and go to the burrow to hide quickly. This also makes the Meerkats out there eating more vulnerable than the one gaurding. Also the sentinel sees the predator before everyone else so it can run to safety before others giving it a personal and a selfish advantage.
Another point stated in the lecture is the Meerkat on getting the alert call, could make movements so that it would distract the predator and giving the sentinel a chance to escape. After saying all this on the example in the paragraph, the lecturer talks about the same quality in humans.
Humans are also considered altrustic when they carry out a work that helps others selflessly like donating a body part to a relative or a complete stranger. But as stated by the lecturer, the doner gets the blessings and high regard in the eyes of the person on the other side of the donation also some self satisfaction. This non-materialistic thing could be the aim of the donor making the person little selfish rather than complete altruistic.
Thus the lecture states pretty good points about how the assumptions taken in the passage could be countered with a strong example.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 508, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
... more vulnerable than the one gaurding. Also the sentinel sees the predator before e...
^^^^
Line 9, column 1, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...ish rather than complete altruistic. Thus the lecture states pretty good points a...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, second, so, thus, whereas
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 10.4613686534 105% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 12.0772626932 58% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 17.0 22.412803532 76% => OK
Preposition: 42.0 30.3222958057 139% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1419.0 1373.03311258 103% => OK
No of words: 304.0 270.72406181 112% => OK
Chars per words: 4.66776315789 5.08290768461 92% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.17559525986 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.39515024989 2.5805825403 93% => OK
Unique words: 169.0 145.348785872 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.555921052632 0.540411800872 103% => OK
syllable_count: 447.3 419.366225166 107% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.23620309051 49% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 21.2450331126 108% => OK
Sentence length SD: 38.8218507374 49.2860985944 79% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.153846154 110.228320801 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.3846153846 21.698381199 108% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.30769230769 7.06452816374 47% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 4.33554083885 185% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.0493256686625 0.272083759551 18% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0207957513258 0.0996497079465 21% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0285256206592 0.0662205650399 43% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0322404968602 0.162205337803 20% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0396479295998 0.0443174109184 89% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 13.3589403974 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 53.8541721854 105% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.1 12.2367328918 83% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.05 8.42419426049 96% => OK
difficult_words: 63.0 63.6247240618 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 10.498013245 107% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.
Rates: 3.33333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 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.