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

The lecture and the reading provide two opposing views for the actions which are considered as altruism. According to the reading, altruism is an act of helping other people without expecting any personal benefit. However, the professor states that some acts which are seemingly considered as altruistic are not worthy to be called so. She claims that by examining the behavioral patterns of meerkats clearly, one can come to a conclusion that these animals do not possess the characteristics of altruism.

In the first place, the text provides an example of the meerkat, a mammal which guards its group against predators although there is a risk of being a meal to the predator. But, the lecture states that these animals are the ones which eat first, before taking up the responsibility as a guard.
Thus, the point in the lecture stands against the idea that meerkats stand as a guard without taking any food, according to the text.

Moreover, these animals could escape easily into the burrow after sending an alarm to its peers, as per the professor. As these are the first animals to see the predators, they have a better edge of running away which increases the chances of survival. This contradicts the notion that these animals do the selfless act, as per the reading.

What's more, while the reading provides an example of humans donating body organs to the strangers as an act of altruism, the professor claims that these acts do not increase the sense of one's self-worth. These non-material benefits are of no significant use according to the lecture. Hence, this idea of helping people takes two opposite stands in the eyes of the author of the text and the professor.

Votes
Average: 8 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 8, column 1, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: What's
...he selfless act, as per the reading. Whats more, while the reading provides an exa...
^^^^^
Line 8, column 188, Rule ID: ONES[1]
Message: Did you mean 'one's'?
Suggestion: one's
...these acts do not increase the sense of ones self-worth. These non-material benefits...
^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, hence, however, if, moreover, so, thus, while, in the first place

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 7.30242825607 27% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 22.412803532 89% => OK
Preposition: 36.0 30.3222958057 119% => OK
Nominalization: 0.0 5.01324503311 0% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1405.0 1373.03311258 102% => OK
No of words: 286.0 270.72406181 106% => OK
Chars per words: 4.91258741259 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.11236361783 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.60961228679 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 150.0 145.348785872 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.524475524476 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 432.9 419.366225166 103% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 3.25607064018 184% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 1.25165562914 399% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 21.2450331126 104% => OK
Sentence length SD: 33.6086069562 49.2860985944 68% => OK
Chars per sentence: 108.076923077 110.228320801 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0 21.698381199 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.92307692308 7.06452816374 84% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
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: 0.244518607228 0.272083759551 90% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0851186617954 0.0996497079465 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0528195092753 0.0662205650399 80% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.124061314211 0.162205337803 76% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0830115127425 0.0443174109184 187% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.7 13.3589403974 95% => OK
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: 11.2 12.2367328918 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.32 8.42419426049 99% => OK
difficult_words: 65.0 63.6247240618 102% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 10.498013245 103% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.