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 both are about the behavior concerning altruism, which is sacrificing own interests for another person or animal. The author of the reading states that both humans and animals has altruistic nature which in turn benefits the other but not themselves. The lecturer casts doubts on the claims made in the passage. She claims that even if the humans or an animal sacrifices his own interest, they gain non materialistic rewards.
First of all, the author contends that many living things sacrifice their food and life for the sake of others. The article gives an example of meerkats. In a group of meerkats, few of them acts as guard looking for the predators, while others hunt for the food or eat their food. Those few guarding meerkats risks their life as they are the ones most in danger when the predators arrives, they also sacrifice their food while guarding. The lecturer rebuts this argument. She suggests that when being at guard, these few meerkats eat their food before standing sentinel. Moreover, she elaborates that when a predators comes, these are the first ones to encounter the danger and run away.
Secondly, the author points out an example of an individual donating a body organ to family member or stranger. It is mentioned that the donor does not get reward for doing the donation. This point is challenged by the lecturer. She says that when a donor donates their body part, they are well appreciated by the significant receiver and the society. Furthermore, she argues that these are non materialistic rewards which cannot be gained easily.
In conclusion, the lecturer effectively casts doubts on all the claims and the theories presented in the reading.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 280, 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.
... benefits the other but not themselves. The lecturer casts doubts on the claims mad...
^^^
Line 3, column 609, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'predators'' or 'predator's'?
Suggestion: predators'; predator's
...l. Moreover, she elaborates that when a predators comes, these are the first ones to enco...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, furthermore, if, look, moreover, second, secondly, so, well, while, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 7.30242825607 151% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 22.412803532 147% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 24.0 30.3222958057 79% => 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: 1429.0 1373.03311258 104% => OK
No of words: 287.0 270.72406181 106% => OK
Chars per words: 4.97909407666 5.08290768461 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.11595363751 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.5408653634 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 160.0 145.348785872 110% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.557491289199 0.540411800872 103% => 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: 13.0 3.25607064018 399% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 13.0662251656 130% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 21.2450331126 75% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 35.6544352686 49.2860985944 72% => OK
Chars per sentence: 84.0588235294 110.228320801 76% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.8823529412 21.698381199 78% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.64705882353 7.06452816374 94% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.223995304291 0.272083759551 82% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0634082211081 0.0996497079465 64% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0757354962094 0.0662205650399 114% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.118178133765 0.162205337803 73% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.112384959514 0.0443174109184 254% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.5 13.3589403974 79% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 63.7 53.8541721854 118% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.4 11.0289183223 76% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.31 12.2367328918 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.34 8.42419426049 99% => OK
difficult_words: 71.0 63.6247240618 112% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.