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 passage states a few behaviours among meerkats and humans as a sign of altruism. The author claims that the sentinel meerkats guarding the other meerkats without foraging for food, signaling when a predator is spotted putting its own life at risk and a human donating organs to a stranger in exchange for nothing are all examples of altruism. The professor expresses a different point of view.
Upon a quite closer study of meerkats, it was observed that the sentinel meerkat actually feeds itself before watching out for predators. This behaviour shows that the sentinel meerkat is not actually sacrificing food for the safety of others. In fact, it is the first among the folks to feed itself and then act as a sentinel.
Second, the sentinel meerkat is the one that has the least risk in the event of an attack by a predator. It watches out of the predators by standing very close to its burrow and since the sentinel meerkat is the first to spot a predator, it has higher chances of escaping the predator, Moreover, as the signal from the sentinel meerkat makes the other meerkats to disseminate or move in a group, they are at jeopardy by attracting the attention of the predator.
Third, the act of donation of an organ by a human being to a stranger or anyone does for that matter does not go unnoticed. The donor is applauded for his/her act by the receiver and the society as well. And though this appreciation is immaterial, it would still enhance the sense of self-growth.
Therefore, the claim in the passage that certain acts of meerkats and humans are altruistic in nature is spurious. The speaker, in fact, provide evidences that these acts of kindness are not actually atuistic.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 348, 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.
...r nothing are all examples of altruism. The professor expresses a different point o...
^^^
Line 7, column 18, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...on of the predator. Third, the act of donation of an organ by a human being to...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, first, if, moreover, second, so, still, then, therefore, third, well, in fact
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 12.0772626932 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 22.0 22.412803532 98% => OK
Preposition: 42.0 30.3222958057 139% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1417.0 1373.03311258 103% => OK
No of words: 296.0 270.72406181 109% => OK
Chars per words: 4.78716216216 5.08290768461 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.14784890444 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62062663969 2.5805825403 102% => OK
Unique words: 151.0 145.348785872 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.510135135135 0.540411800872 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 433.8 419.366225166 103% => 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: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 21.2450331126 104% => OK
Sentence length SD: 81.3072192694 49.2860985944 165% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.0 110.228320801 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.7692307692 21.698381199 105% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.69230769231 7.06452816374 95% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.141181905676 0.272083759551 52% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0508698951328 0.0996497079465 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0443585505407 0.0662205650399 67% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0800706086915 0.162205337803 49% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0490526595268 0.0443174109184 111% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.5 13.3589403974 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 53.8541721854 107% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 11.0289183223 97% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.8 12.2367328918 88% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.25 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 66.0 63.6247240618 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 10.498013245 103% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.