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.
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they oppose
specific points made in the reading passage.
The article introduces the topic of altruism which is an act of sacrificing one's own interests for the well-being of others. More specifically, the writer discusses that altruism is opposite of selfishness and the person who becomes altruistic gains nothing for himself. On the other hand, the lecturer in the recording disagrees. She believes that altruism actually gains something for the person who performs that, that is, altruism is not entirely without self-interest.
In the reading, the author begins by stating that, when people do the act of altruism, they do so only for the well-being of others neglecting their own interests. The lecturer, however, disagrees. She states that by act of altruism, the person gains something like appreciation from others and feeling a sense of self-worth. She gives an example that, when a person donates kidney for other person, he gets appreciation from the society and he feels good for doing that. So he is getting something in return.
The author also claims that, in case of meerkat, a species of mammals, there is always a sentinel which guards other meerkats from predators. The author says that sentinel is performing altruism and gains nothing from the act. Again, the lecturer believes that there are flaws in writer's assumption. The speaker holds that, the sentinel actually gets advantage for guarding other meerkats, because when a sentinel sees a predator, it has the most amount of time to escape because others generally eat that time. Also, predator notices other meerkats easily, so it attacks them first. The professor also tells about the recent discovery that sentinel actually eats before guarding others, so the assumption of author that sentinel does not eat to protect others, is wrong.
To sum up, both the writer and professor hold conflicting views about altruism. It is clear that they will have trouble findig common ground on this issue.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 36, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
The article introduces the topic of altruism which is an act of sacrificing ...
^^
Line 1, column 171, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... specifically, the writer discusses that altruism is opposite of selfishness and ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, first, however, if, so, well, to sum up, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 10.4613686534 115% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 23.0 12.0772626932 190% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 22.412803532 138% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 35.0 30.3222958057 115% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1614.0 1373.03311258 118% => OK
No of words: 312.0 270.72406181 115% => OK
Chars per words: 5.17307692308 5.08290768461 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.20279927342 4.04702891845 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.63292259549 2.5805825403 102% => OK
Unique words: 163.0 145.348785872 112% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.522435897436 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 473.4 419.366225166 113% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 3.25607064018 246% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 13.0 8.23620309051 158% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 13.0662251656 130% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 50.6441551398 49.2860985944 103% => OK
Chars per sentence: 94.9411764706 110.228320801 86% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.3529411765 21.698381199 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.35294117647 7.06452816374 62% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => 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: 0.240070850902 0.272083759551 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.084525188398 0.0996497079465 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0982887239392 0.0662205650399 148% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.159655839159 0.162205337803 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.127147126729 0.0443174109184 287% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.1 13.3589403974 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 61.67 53.8541721854 115% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.1 11.0289183223 83% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.71 12.2367328918 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.27 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 74.0 63.6247240618 116% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => 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.