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 reading and the lecture are both about altruism which both human beings and animals have in common. The lecture contradicts the passage discussing altruism by example of meerkats.
First of all, the author of the reading illustrates altruism by providing example of meerkats. Sentinel meerkat which acts stand-guard with full stomach spectates while other members of group looking for food. It is mentioned that sentinel meerkats gives alarm to rest of the members which are obtaining food when some predators come and its hard to escape for the sentinel meerkats. The lecturer counters this idea by mentioning predator likely to attack in a direction away from cry of the sentinel so the statement in the passage that the sentinel is at greater risk is incorrect. The probability of the predator going after the group of meerkats which are hunt for food is at higher danger.
Secondly, narrator also covered altruisim in case of human beings. An example of donation of kidney has been considered. This example explains that it would not be correct to assert that the donor is an altruist and is not gaining anything out of the unselfishnes act he performs because he would not recieve appreciation from the society and experience the feeling of self-worth. Thus, in a way he recieves something non-material in exchange for a materialistic object.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 171, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...le explains that it would not be correct to assert that the donor is an altruist ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, look, second, secondly, so, thus, while, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 10.4613686534 105% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 12.0772626932 75% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 12.0 22.412803532 54% => OK
Preposition: 34.0 30.3222958057 112% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1131.0 1373.03311258 82% => OK
No of words: 223.0 270.72406181 82% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.07174887892 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.86434787811 4.04702891845 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.75237708929 2.5805825403 107% => OK
Unique words: 128.0 145.348785872 88% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.57399103139 0.540411800872 106% => OK
syllable_count: 346.5 419.366225166 83% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.23620309051 73% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 11.0 13.0662251656 84% => 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: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 60.1223270913 49.2860985944 122% => OK
Chars per sentence: 102.818181818 110.228320801 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.2727272727 21.698381199 93% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.0 7.06452816374 85% => OK
Paragraphs: 3.0 4.09492273731 73% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 0.0 4.33554083885 0% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.27373068433 140% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.239315267363 0.272083759551 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0846400686257 0.0996497079465 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0491020862596 0.0662205650399 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.150583804832 0.162205337803 93% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0349258357422 0.0443174109184 79% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 13.3589403974 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 53.8541721854 95% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.2367328918 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.81 8.42419426049 105% => OK
difficult_words: 59.0 63.6247240618 93% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 10.7273730684 70% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Minimum four paragraphs wanted. The correct pattern:
para 1: introduction
para 2: doubt 1
para 3: doubt 2
para 4: doubt 3
Less contents wanted from the reading passages(25%), more content wanted from the lecture (75%).
Don't need a conclusion paragraph.
Read sample essays from ETS:
http://www.testbig.com/users/toeflwritingmaster
Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.5 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.