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 a 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.
Listening Script:
You know, often in science, new findings force us to re-examine earlier beliefs and assumptions.
And a recent study of meerkats is having exactly this effect. The study examined the meerkat’s behavior quite closely, much more closely than had ever been done before. And some interesting things were found . . . like about eating habits . . . it showed that typically meerkats eat before they stand guard—so the ones standing guard had a full stomach! And the study also found that since the sentinel is the first to see a predator coming, it’s the most likely to escape . . . because it often stands guard near a burrow, so it can run immediately into the burrow after giving the alarm.
The other meerkats, the ones scattered about looking for food, are actually in greater danger. And in fact, other studies have suggested that when an animal creates an alarm, the alarm call might cause the other group members either to gather together or else to move about very quickly, behaviors that might actually draw the predator’s attention away from the caller, increasing that animal’s own chances of survival.
And what about people—what about some human acts that might be considered altruistic? Let’s take an extreme case, uh, suppose a person donates a kidney to a relative, or even to a complete stranger. A selfless act, right? But . . . doesn’t the donor receive appreciation and approval from the stranger and from society? Doesn’t the donor gain an increased sense of self-worth? Couldn’t such non-material rewards be considered very valuable to some people?
Que: Summarize the points made in the lecture you just heard, being sure to specifically explain how they cast doubt on points made in the reading.
The reading and the lecture are both discuss the altruism behavior in animal species. The reading believes that altruism is a type of behavior in which an animal sacrifice its own interest for the sake of other animals without gaining anything from it. The lecturer disputes this claim of not earning any personal gain. His position is that by act of altruism animals earn personal gain.
According to the reading humans do the unselfish act such as sharing food, even donating their own organs to family members and to stranger and in return gain nothing from it. The lecturer question this specific argument. He claims that by donating organs to family members and event to stranger, that human earns their respect and receive their approval that is considered valuable to some people.
Reading further tries to bolster its point of view by giving example of meerkats. It stats that sentinel meerkat acts as a guard to other groups from predator and is responsible for alerting other group if it sees the predator such as eagle. Sentinel meerkat guards other without eating any food and is last to run from predator if seen by it(predator). The lecturer rebukes this example by giving the result of new foundings in the assumption of sentinel meerkat that it claims the sentinel meerkat first eats food then guard others. Also when preys sees it, it will be first to run to burrows to save its life from predator. Sometimes its alerting can confuse whole group and will be dangerous for every meerkat in group.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 254, 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.
...imals without gaining anything from it. The lecturer disputes this claim of not ear...
^^^
Line 5, column 534, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
...rkat first eats food then guard others. Also when preys sees it, it will be first to...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, if, so, then, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 8.0 10.4613686534 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 5.04856512141 59% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 12.0772626932 75% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 26.0 22.412803532 116% => OK
Preposition: 37.0 30.3222958057 122% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1262.0 1373.03311258 92% => OK
No of words: 259.0 270.72406181 96% => OK
Chars per words: 4.87258687259 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.01166760082 4.04702891845 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.32593358778 2.5805825403 90% => OK
Unique words: 137.0 145.348785872 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.528957528958 0.540411800872 98% => OK
syllable_count: 380.7 419.366225166 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 3.25607064018 154% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.23620309051 61% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 21.2450331126 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.9999370514 49.2860985944 95% => OK
Chars per sentence: 97.0769230769 110.228320801 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.9230769231 21.698381199 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.61538461538 7.06452816374 37% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 3.0 4.09492273731 73% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 4.33554083885 208% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.291933920829 0.272083759551 107% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.111827904336 0.0996497079465 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.142384510644 0.0662205650399 215% => The coherence between sentences is low.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.207248278756 0.162205337803 128% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.192634508263 0.0443174109184 435% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.5 13.3589403974 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 60.65 53.8541721854 113% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 11.0289183223 86% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.97 12.2367328918 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.87 8.42419426049 93% => OK
difficult_words: 54.0 63.6247240618 85% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 10.7273730684 70% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 10.498013245 91% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => 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: 68.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 20.5 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.