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 lecture are about altruism, a behaviour in which animals sacrifice their own self-interest for other animal beings. The reading argues that altruism is an unselfish act in which animals would sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others. The lecturer, however, disagrees with the reading, stating that while altruism may be an unselfish act, it can also backfire. The reading states that humans would donate body organs to their family members and strangers. This benefits the receiving group, but offer little reward to the donors. The reading also states that sentinel meerkat would also sacrifice its own interest to keep on the lookout for predators to protect and alert the other meerkats that are hunting or eating food.
The lecturer disagrees with the reading, claiming that in the case of humans, the donors would donate organs to family members or strangers just to gain a sense of appreciation and self-worth from it. Which is contradicting to what the reading claim. She also states that researchers have found out that sentinel meerkats typically eat before standing guard, and that if a predator were to come in, the sentinel meerkats would sound off the alarm cry and be the first ones to escape into its burrow. While the other meerkats are at greater risk of being hunted by the predator as the alarm cry can cause them to act rashly and run into the predator without realizing.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 257, 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.
...e themselves for the benefit of others. The lecturer, however, disagrees with the r...
^^^
Line 1, column 383, 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.
...an unselfish act, it can also backfire. The reading states that humans would donate...
^^^
Line 5, column 202, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Which” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...of appreciation and self-worth from it. Which is contradicting to what the reading cl...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, look, may, so, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 5.04856512141 158% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 7.30242825607 137% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 22.412803532 85% => OK
Preposition: 31.0 30.3222958057 102% => OK
Nominalization: 1.0 5.01324503311 20% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1182.0 1373.03311258 86% => OK
No of words: 237.0 270.72406181 88% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.98734177215 5.08290768461 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.92362132708 4.04702891845 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.45349851637 2.5805825403 95% => OK
Unique words: 132.0 145.348785872 91% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.556962025316 0.540411800872 103% => OK
syllable_count: 356.4 419.366225166 85% => 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: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 2.5761589404 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 10.0 13.0662251656 77% => 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 21.2450331126 108% => OK
Sentence length SD: 58.5509180116 49.2860985944 119% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.2 110.228320801 107% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.7 21.698381199 109% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.1 7.06452816374 72% => OK
Paragraphs: 2.0 4.09492273731 49% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.22743996915 0.272083759551 84% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.103309131421 0.0996497079465 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.122073926843 0.0662205650399 184% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.176993484895 0.162205337803 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.135747747834 0.0443174109184 306% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.9 13.3589403974 104% => OK
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: 11.96 12.2367328918 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.38 8.42419426049 99% => OK
difficult_words: 54.0 63.6247240618 85% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 10.7273730684 70% => 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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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: 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.